Coming Home: Family Bonds Four

by Aarsen, Carolyne

  She looked down, but he tipped her chin up with this thumb and answered his own question with a slow, lingering kiss.

  “I’d like to think we’re together,” he said. “Together again,” he amended.

  Her smile wavered a moment, as she focused her attention on her hand resting on his chest. “I just wish it hadn’t taken so long. I missed you.”

  Her words tore at his heart and he pulled her close, cradling her head in his hand, brushing a light kiss over the top of her head.

  “I missed you too,” he said, feeling an unexpected twist of anger at the years that had kept them apart. “I thought of you so often.”

  She lay quiet a moment then said, “That day you came to the house...all those years ago...I’m sorry...I was so confused—”

  Garret touched his finger to her lips, stopping her confession. He understood where she was coming from so much better now. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You didn’t know what had happened.” Even as he spoke, Garret found his anger growing at her father and the lies that had come between them. “I’ve never cared about anyone as much as I cared about you,” he said, keeping his voice even. She didn’t need to know how he felt about her father. He was fairly sure she still didn’t know what to think about the contrast in the stories he and her father had told.

  To his surprise that didn’t matter anymore. That misunderstanding belonged in a past where Larissa was young and impressionable. She was her own person now.

  And after all this time, they were together.

  He tilted her head up and kissed her again.

  A sound at the door caught his attention. Was Pete back?

  But when Larissa glanced over his shoulder, her smile shifted. Then she lowered her hand and stepped away from him.

  Garret turned to see who or what had caused the change.

  Jack Weir stood in the doorway, his dark eyes flitting from Garret to Larissa back to Garret again as if trying to determine what was going on. His tailored jacket lay in precise lines on his shoulders, framing the crisp blue shirt and perfectly knotted gray-and-blue striped silk tie. If Garret didn’t know that only yesterday Jack had been clear across the Pacific Ocean, he would have guessed Larissa’s father had just returned from a trip to his tailor.

  Garret’s heart slowed first, then began to race. The last time he saw Jack, he’d been standing in the imposing foyer of his home, Larissa between them, demanding that Garret leave. Demanding that Larissa come away from the door and come to him.

  Jack looked as formidable as he had been back then.

  In the silence that followed Jack’s appearance, Garret’s emotions veered from stunned shock to anger that surprised him in its ferocity.

  After all these years there stood the man who had taken so much away from him. His mother’s job, his own pride and, worst of all, the woman who now stood beside him, her face as pale as the white shirt she wore.

  And how would Larissa react to her father’s return?

  Twelve

  “Hello, Dad,” Larissa said, trying to get her head around the fact that her father was here, not Japan where he’d been the last time they spoke. “I thought you weren’t coming back for a couple of days?”

  “I completed my business early and thought I would surprise you. Clearly, I did.” Her father shot a sidelong glance at Garret, then looked away, as if dismissing him. He walked up to Larissa and bent over to kiss her lightly on the cheek. “Hello, dear.”

  “Welcome back,” she replied, happy to see him, yet unable to stifle a sense of guilt that he had caught her with Garret. “How was the trip? How did you get here from the airport? Why didn’t you call?” She thought for sure, after an absence of a month, that he would at least want her to meet him at the airport.

  “Baxter said you were busy, so he came and picked me up from the airport.” Her father straightened and frowned as he looked around the room. “I see what you’ve been busy with.”

  “We did some painting and got some new bedding,” Larissa said, trying not to feel defensive about the simple changes they made. “We needed to do a quick, inexpensive overhaul of the top floor. We’re getting ready for a conference that we just scored. The entire upper floor will be filled.” She stopped herself there aware of how apologetic she sounded. As if what she and Garret had just accomplished was substandard instead of pretty amazing considering their timeline.

  Jack looked around, his eyes taking it all in, his expression revealing nothing, but Larissa knew her father well enough to feel his disapproval. “Looks like a bed-and-breakfast. I wonder what your mother would think.”

  He spoke his words quietly, but they held a sardonic edge that hurt Larissa. Nothing about their achievement. Nothing about filling half of the inn—something that hadn’t happened in the last three years.

  “Thanks to Larissa’s ideas and organization, we got the rooms painted and refurbished very quickly,” Garret put in. “Because of that speedy turnaround, Pete Boonstra chose to have his conference here, which will be a huge boost in the arm for the inn’s bottom line.”

  Larissa was grateful for Garret’s support but at the same time disheartened at the terse note in his voice and at the narrowing of her father’s eyes in response.

  A sudden uptick of tension in the room caught her in its net. Why had her father decided to come back now when things were still so tentative between her and Garret?

  Jack looked around the room again, the frown on his face creating an answering flush of irritation in Larissa. “I guess what’s done is done,” he said. Then he motioned to Garret. “We need to talk. Meet me downstairs in the office.”

  Larissa saw Garret stiffen at the overbearing tone in her father’s voice. For a moment she wanted to remind her father that Garret was not his employee anymore. But years of obeying her father, letting him determine the course of her life, made her keep her comments to herself.

  Garret glanced over at Larissa and flashed her a crooked smile as if to show her he didn’t mind. Then he followed Jack out of the room.

  As the door closed behind them, Larissa felt suddenly deflated and spent. Why did the sight of her father make her feel as if she’d been sneaking around behind his back?

  She wasn’t a child anymore. But as her father’s eyes shot from her to Garret, she felt as if time had wheeled backward and again she was a young girl of eighteen and Garret the boyfriend her father didn’t approve of.

  She closed her eyes, trying to center herself. Please, Lord, she prayed, help me to try to please You more than my father. Help me to take care of Garret and myself first.

  She waited a moment, as if to get her bearings.

  Then she drew in a long, slow breath and strode out of the room and down the stairs. In spite of the tension of her father’s unexpected return, she had a conference to get ready for.

  * * *

  Garret closed the door of the office, wishing he didn’t feel so much like the teenager he used to be, sneaking around with the boss’s daughter.

  As Jack took his place behind the desk and Garret sat down across from him, Garret reminded himself that he had as much right to sit behind that desk as Larissa’s father had. He wasn’t Jack’s employee. He was his partner.

  He couldn’t help remembering, however, the last time he and Jack were together as employer and employee when Jack had all the power.

  Jack leaned back in the chair, unbuttoning his suit jacket, looking across the desk at Garret. “So. This is an interesting turn of events,” Jack was saying, his deep voice not even betraying the slightest hint of awkwardness.

  Garret just nodded, deciding to let Jack determine the direction of this conversation. There were too many things he wanted to say to Jack but none of them would fall under the category of “business.”

  “I have to say I was stunned when I found out that Baxter sold his shares in this inn to you,” Jack continued. “You were the last person I ever thought I would be partners with.”

  “I’m sure that was a
surprise,” Garret said, crossing his arms over his chest. Defensive body language, but it kept him from fidgeting.

  Jack said nothing to that, as if waiting for Garret to explain how this happened. Garret was tempted to make some smart comment about turning a thousand dollars into a couple of hundred thousand, but he knew that would lead to a conversation about what Jack had told Larissa and he wasn’t ready for that.

  Jack eased out a sigh and leaned forward. “I also know you originally wanted to buy Baxter’s share of the mill. I’m surprised you settled for this inn.”

  “Baxter changed his mind about selling,” Garret replied. “He offered me this and I thought it would be a good opportunity.”

  “Six years ago it might have been,” Jack said. “But a lot has changed since my wife’s death...” He let the sentence trail off. The sorrow in his eyes created an answering thrum of sympathy in Garret. All history with Jack aside, Garret knew that he loved his wife.

  “I was sorry for your loss,” he said.

  “Larissa told me you sent flowers.” Jack tapped his fingers on the desktop. “She really appreciated that.”

  Garret again chose not to reply to the comment.

  More finger tapping, then, “So what made you decide to come back? What made you decide to purchase this inn?”

  Garret held Jack’s intent gaze, taking his time to formulate his response. “I came back to keep a promise to my grandmother. Plus I wanted to settle in the community. Originally I thought I was buying Baxter’s shares in the mill as you mentioned, but when this opportunity came up I took it.”

  “What part does my daughter play in this?”

  He wanted to say that it was none of Jack’s business. But because Larissa was Jack’s daughter, that wasn’t true. However, Garret wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure where things were going with him and Larissa either. He knew he loved being with her. He knew that when he was with her his restlessness eased away. He also knew that in the past few weeks, as he spent time with her, he had been doing something he hadn’t done since he left Rockyview.

  He had started thinking about the future of his life instead of his bank account.

  “I care a lot about your daughter,” he said finally. “She’s important to me and I believe she feels the same way.” He stopped there, unwilling to expose too much of this fragile relationship too soon.

  And he was also afraid that if he said too much, he wouldn’t be able to contain his simmering anger.

  “You don’t like me, do you?” Jack threw the question down like a challenge, obviously picking up on what Garret had tried so hard to suppress.

  Garret waited a beat, unsure of how to respond to this direct question. “Is that important to you?” he asked instead.

  Jack curled his one hand into a fist, then uncurled it again. “If you and my daughter are getting involved again, then I guess it factors in.”

  Involved again. Those seemingly innocuous words quickly dredged up all the resentment that had built since Larissa told Garret about the money Jack had supposedly given him. Garret quashed the feeling, struggling to relegate it to the past where it belonged.

  But he knew that as long as his and Larissa’s relationship was going the way it was, he would have to have that conversation with Jack sometime.

  Then his cell phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket, glancing at the display. Benny Alpern.

  “I’m sorry, I should take this call.” He didn’t really have to, but he was thankful for the diversion. “Unless there’s something else you need to discuss?”

  Jack shook his head and sat back in the chair. “Take the call. We’ll need to go over a few things later on, though.”

  Garret nodded, as he got to his feet. He waited until he was outside the office to answer the muted call.

  “Benny, what can I do for you?” he asked as he closed the office door behind him.

  “The check you wrote me bounced.”

  Garret frowned at the blunt pronouncement. “What? How could that happen?” Though they were reaching the bottom end of the operating loan, there was still a few thousand left in it. He knew that.

  “I brought it to the bank. I got it back. Insufficient funds. That’s how it happened,” Benny snapped.

  “Okay. I’ll look into this right away,” Garret said. “Sorry about that. You’ll get your money.”

  “I better. I got bills to pay too, you know.”

  “Of course you do.”

  Garret managed to placate Benny, then hung up just as Larissa came down the stairs. As soon as she saw him, she hurried over, glancing at the office doors behind him.

  “So, what did my dad want?” Concern edged her voice and pulled her brows together in a frown.

  “Just to touch base.”

  Larissa’s frown deepened, as if Garret’s answer didn’t satisfy her. “You look upset. What did he say to make you angry?”

  Garret shook his head and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze of assurance. “I’m upset because Benny Alpern just told me his check bounced.”

  “What? We had enough money to cover that.” Larissa bit her lip, then shot Garret a horrified look. “If Benny’s check bounced, that means we won’t have enough to cover the credit card bill.”

  “I’ll look into it,” Garret said, not wanting to bring up what he’d been pushing for lately. Online access to the bank accounts for himself and Larissa. Everyone agreed it should happen but with Larissa’s father gone and Orest stalling it hadn’t happened yet. It didn’t seem a big deal.

  Until now.

  Larissa looked back at the office door. “So are you and my dad okay?”

  “We’re okay,” he said with forced cheer. But behind his smile, thoughts and concerns festered.

  Now that her dad was back, how would that affect their relationship?

  * * *

  “Don’t drop that plate now.”

  Shannon’s quiet voice broke into Garret’s wandering thoughts.

  “Sorry, I was just thinking,” he said, giving his cousin a quick smile.

  “Surprised you can above this noise,” Shannon said, setting another dripping plate on the drainboard between them.

  Olivia and Natasha were playing an overly loud game of Go Fish in the dining room to the left of the kitchen and from the living room around the corner, boisterous conversation punctuated with the occasional laugh from Hailey floated back to them.

  Shannon and Hailey’s sister Naomi had returned to Rockyview yesterday and the family was circling the wagons around her, determined to make her transition back into family life and town life as easy as possible. Hence the dinner at Nana Bond’s.

  Larissa had asked if Garret wanted to come with her for a walk up Hartley Pass, but he had to beg off, because of Naomi. Larissa understood and for a moment he’d been tempted to ask her to come here.

  But at the last moment, he stalled out. Taking her to a Bond family get-together just seemed to be pushing things too quickly. Too public a declaration.

  Besides, Hailey and Shannon would be all over him with questions and ideas and advice. Not what he needed right now.

  Garret gave the plate he still held on to a quick wipe with his tea towel just in case he’d missed something, thankful he hadn’t given in to the impulse.

  “The inn still going strong?” Shannon asked.

  “Stumbling along,” he said, pulling his attention back to his cousin. “But we have Pete Boonstra’s conference this week and that will help. The dining room is starting to turn a real profit so, yeah, we’re moving toward strong. I hope.” He tried not to think about Benny Alpern’s bounced check. They would deal with that the next time they met with Orest.

  “You sound doubtful.”

  Garret wiped a mug, wishing he knew exactly what to say and how to say it. He’d been on his own so long, he had forgotten how to share what he was thinking.

  Thankfully Shannon just kept working, letting the rhythm of something as simple as doing the dinner dishes ea
se the awkwardness of the moment.

  “I’m starting to think about my future,” Garret finally said as he wiped the last of the glasses.

  “I thought that was the reason you came back here. To settle down and build your future here.” Shannon lifted her shoulder and wiped away a few errant bubbles that had landed on her cheek as she drained the water from the sink.

  “It was. Still is. But I came with different ideas and plans.” Garret set the last glass into the cupboard above the counter, tossed the tea towel over his shoulder and leaned back against the counter. “I wanted to show Rockyview what I was made of. To come back a man of substance.”

  Shannon brushed her wavy hair back from her face and leaned against the counter as well, unconsciously mimicking Garret’s stance.

  “You’re part owner of an inn. I think that gives you some substance.”

  Garret laughed. “It does I guess. Though I wouldn’t enjoy it near as much if it weren’t for Larissa.”

  “You sound doubtful.”

  Garret sighed, wishing he knew exactly how to articulate the reshaping of his emotions, plans and priorities.

  “I’ve always been the kind of guy who makes a plan and sticks with it,” he said, shoving his hands into the pockets of his pants. “I’ve never had second thoughts. But lately...” He let his voice trail off. “Lately all I can think about is creating the kind of life I can be proud of. A life that will allow me to take care of...” He hesitated, his feelings for Larissa, though changing and growing, still almost too sacred and special to articulate.

  “To take care of Larissa in the manner to which she is accustomed?” Shannon finished for him.

  Garret chuckled at the old-fashioned phrasing. “Yeah. I guess that’s it. You know what her parents’ house looks like. It’s a mansion.”

  “So. Do you think that matters to her?”

  Garret thought of the differences of opinion they had on the renovations at the inn. How she wanted to do things right. The money she was willing to spend. He was still surprised she had been willing to settle for bargain linens from a small-time store.