“I did, at first. Then I fell in with some other boys who felt just as out-of-place as I did. A tight little group we called The Crew.” Aaron grinned as he thought back to his old friends. “I was an angry kid, always up to hijinks, and I think I could have really gone wrong if it weren’t for them. Shoot, I’d have gotten expelled if they hadn’t stepped up to defend me.”
“What happened?”
“It was actually one of the few times I wasn’t trying to start trouble. I was alone in the chemistry lab, trying to catch up on some classwork. Since I wasn’t a very attentive student, I mixed up the chemicals and got the wrong combination. All of a sudden an eye-watering, smelly cloud filled the room and the entire building had to be evacuated.
“Later, I was accused of purposely setting off a stink bomb. The administration was ready to expel me, until my friends went individually to the Board of Trustees and confessed to causing the trouble. Every one of them, even the guys on scholarship who could have lost everything. They did that for me.”
Marcus’ eyes shone with admiration. “Whoa. A real ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.”
“Absolutely. The Board decided that since they couldn’t prove it was me, they’d let the incident go with a stern warning for us all. I’ll never forget the friendship they showed me.”
“I’m glad something good came out of it.” Marcus shook his head sadly. “What your family did was terrible. Punishing you for telling the truth. More interested in protecting themselves than you. A child. It makes me so angry. And even now, they’re not sorry. You were right not to trust them.”
“I’m just sorry you and Andy didn’t have better grandparents.”
“At least we had Grandma Jo and Grandpa Mickey.” Marcus clicked his mug to Aaron’s. “And we have a fantastic mom and dad.”
Aaron smiled. It was good to know he’d done a few things right in his life. They soon finished their beers. As his son settled the tab, Aaron said “Are you sure there isn’t something else you’d like to ask me?”
“What’s that?”
“About that other article in the Snoop. The one about—”
“About Summer and the pregnancy test? Don’t worry, Dad.” His son shrugged the topic away, unconcerned. “I know that’s a lot of crap.”
A cool wave of relief hit Aaron. “You do?”
“Sure. I know she’s not your girlfriend or whatever. You’re not one of those pathetic middle-aged dudes who go trolling for young chicks. My grandparents may be losers, but I know you’re a decent guy. You wouldn’t take advantage of a girl who looks up to you like a father.”
“Thanks.” Aaron clapped his son on the shoulder, moved by Marcus’ faith in him. He only hoped that Claudia had the same kind of faith.
“I do have one question, though,” Marcus said as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. “What’s happening with you and Mom?”
The question put Aaron on his toes. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, you two were holding hands earlier. You seem to have gotten a lot closer.”
He searched his son’s face. “Would that bother you?”
“Bother me? No. I mean, when Andy and I were small we always wished you’d get back together…” he looked at Aaron sharply. “Is that what’s happening now?”
“We’ve…discussed it.”
“Uh-huh.” Marcus’ response might have sounded neutral, but Aaron knew his son. When it came to his feelings, Marc held his cards close to his vest.
“You say it doesn’t bother you, but you don’t sound happy about it, either.”
“It’s not that. It’s just…that guy she was seeing? Derek? He did a real number on her. Be careful, Dad. I don’t want either one of you to get hurt.”
“Nobody’s going to get hurt.” Aaron spoke quickly, perhaps too sharply. He and Claudia had never stopped loving each other. They were meant to be together. He wouldn’t listen to any naysayers, even if one of them was his own son.
Chapter 13
When Aaron and her son returned to the hospital, Claudia watched them both anxiously. “What happened?”
“It’s all settled,” Aaron answered, shrugging the question away. “How’s Andy?”
“Still the same. What do you mean, settled? Please, Aaron. Give me a straight answer.”
“Let’s step outside to discuss this. Marcus, stay with your brother.” On the way out she saw him glance at the crumpled tabloid she’d tossed into the wastebasket.
When they reached the hospital garden, he said “So. You wanted a straight answer. Well, I had a little discussion with my parents and they’ll soon be returning to Boca. They won’t be troubling us again.”
“Good.” She could have questioned him further, but decided she’d rather not know the particulars. It was enough to know her family had seen the last of them.
“Is that all you have to say?”
She gave him a sharp look. “Excuse me?”
He watched her intently. “You saw that front page, Claudia. Aren’t you going to ask me about Summer? The pregnancy test and all that?”
A chill passed through her and she went still. Was he testing her? This topic was a mine field. She mustn’t make a wrong step. “You’ve told me your relationship with Summer is innocent. And I believe you.”
“You said you believe me. But do you really?”
Her heart sank into a well of despair. “Aaron, please. We both know that rag prints any scrap of gossip it can dig up. They don’t care who they hurt. We don’t know if there’s a pregnancy at all. We don’t know anything. There’s no point to this discussion. If I question you about Summer now, you’ll say I don’t trust you.”
He gazed at her sadly. “And if you don’t question me, you’ll always wonder. Looks like we’re at an impasse. If you really trusted me—”
“I trusted you once,” she answered, anger flaring at him placing her in an impossible position. “With our sons. And you put them in danger. Remember that? Because I can’t forget it. You encouraged Andy in every wild, risky impulse he ever had and now he’s lying unconscious in a hospital bed.”
Aaron gaped at her, his face gone white. “And you think I put him there?”
“Well, you certainly didn’t help matters. Every rule I tried to enforce, you encouraged him to break—”
“If you’d had your way, you’d have kept him in a bubble his whole life. I wanted both our boys to be boys for goodness’ sakes. Not little robots. And maybe that’s why he’s in that hospital bed now. Because he had to break free of your apron strings.”
She gasped as his words pierced her, but she fought back. “At least I didn’t nearly get our boys killed.”
He went so still and gray, she almost felt ashamed for flinging the accusation. It was a low blow. But that didn’t make it a lie. “You’ve held on to that for a long time, haven’t you?” he asked, his voice rough.
Her face as stiff as a mask, she said nothing.
“I think I know what the real problem is, Claudia. You just can’t stand knowing that Andy’s like me.”
“Stop it, you two.” Marcus’ voice sliced the air, catching them up short. He’d appeared quietly, without them realizing. “What are you doing?” From the look of horror on his face, he’d clearly heard their argument. “I hate to break up this little love fest, but Dr. Suresh wants us all in Andy’s room. He’s showing signs of waking up.”
Upstairs, they gathered around Andy’s bed. Claudia and Marcus stood on one side, Dr. Suresh and Aaron on the other side. Andy stared at them blankly, as though he couldn’t make out who these strangers were.
Dr. Suresh grinned. “Hello, Andy. We’re so glad to see you open your eyes.” When Andy moved his lips, the doctor told him “Don’t try to speak. You’ve been asleep for a while and you’ve had a tube inserted to make sure you can breathe. That’s why you can’t talk. As soon as we know you can breathe on your own, we’ll remove the tube. And we’ll make sure you have everything you need. We’re going to take good care
of you. And look, your family’s here. They’ve been here every day since your accident, just praying for this moment.”
She stepped back while Aaron moved forward and took Andy’s hand. Claudia gripped his other hand as tears of gratitude and relief spilled down her cheeks. Marcus’ eyes were wet, too, and Aaron wept without shame as he gazed down at Andy and smiled. “Welcome back, son.”
Chapter 14
Andy had no memory of the accident. When his breathing tube was removed and he could finally speak, his first words were “What happened?” When he learned of the accident, his next words were “Was anyone else hurt?”
Even in his muddled state, he was concerned about others and relieved to hear he’d been the only casualty.
In the days that followed, Andy was often confused and impatient with the slowness of his recovery. He repeatedly had to be reminded of what put him in the hospital, responding with “Are you sure?”
A week or so after he awakened, Claudia found him patting down his chest, as though feeling for something. She hurried to his side. “What is it? Don’t you feel well? Are you in pain?”
“I want to make sure there are no sticky notes left on me,” he answered, his forehead crumpling in concentration.
“Sticky notes? What do you mean?”
“The nurses and everyone…they put sticky notes all over me. When I was unconscious. All over my chest and arms.”
Sticky notes? “No, sweetheart. Maybe you’re thinking of the adhesives they used to connect you to the monitors. No one put any sticky notes on you.”
Andy peered at her, suspicion in his eyes. “Are you sure? Because the notes had all kinds of private information about me. For the CIA. They were going to take me to their secret island and turn me into a spy. Like James Bond.”
The doctors had explained that coming out of sedation often created confusion in a patient, but Claudia hadn’t anticipated anything like this. “No. You were just having a bad dream. Nobody’s going to turn you into a spy.”
“Huh.” He sank back against his pillow and yawned. “Too bad. That would have been pretty cool.” A moment later he was asleep.
Claudia had to smile. Even in his condition, Andy hadn’t lost his sense of humor.
At first, he was too weak to do more than lift his head and couldn’t even carry a spoon to his mouth. He hated needing to be fed “like a baby” and as he grew strong enough to get out of bed, felt embarrassed that staff had to help him to the bathroom. The nurses and aides, professionals all, took his grumbling in stride. When Claudia apologized for him, a nurse told her “Don’t worry. His complaining is just a sign he’s getting better. He’s angry and he’s going to fight to get back to where he was before he got hurt.”
As time passed and Andy steadily improved, she tried not to dwell on the one bleak spot in the midst of it—that she couldn’t share her happiness with Aaron. Since their argument in the hospital garden, they’d barely spoken, both of them still raw from the bitter accusations they’d flung. They couldn’t recover the closeness they’d achieved so tentatively.
Sitting in her son’s room one afternoon while he napped, Claudia kept going over her ex-husband’s words: “You’d have kept Andy in a bubble his whole life. Maybe that’s why he’s in that hospital bed now. Because he had to break free of your apron strings.”
Had she really tried to keep the boys tied to her? She’d only wanted to instill values in them. Have them grow into thoughtful, responsible men. Her insistence on rules and routine was only because she wanted to give them the sense of safety she’d missed in her youth. Aaron had made her sound like a drill sergeant.
She thought back to one of the many arguments she and Aaron had had when the boys were small…
“Okay, boys. Bedtime. Tell Dad goodnight.” Claudia ushered the boys, freshly bathed and in their pjs, into the den where Aaron sat watching TV.
Marcus and Andy rushed in for a bedtime hug. “G’night, Dad.”
“Hey, what’s the rush?” Aaron asked, hoisting a son in each arm and swinging them around. “It’s only nine o’clock. What say we get some big bowls of ice cream and watch a movie tonight. That sound like fun?”
The boys hooted with excitement. “Yeah!”
Claudia’s mouth flattened as a hot coin of irritation burned in the middle of her chest. Here she was, all sweaty and exhausted from wrangling two groaning, complaining boys into their pajamas, and now Mr. Fun Dad wanted to get them all worked up again. “Another night. We’ve already brushed our teeth and we’re ready for bed. And we’re half an hour past bedtime anyway.”
Andy and Marcus rounded on her with groans of disappointment. “Aw, come on, Mom.”
“We want to stay up with Dad.”
“Yeah.”
Aaron rolled his eyes at her. “Lighten up, Mom. It’s Friday night. What’s it going to hurt if they stay up a little later tonight?
Lighten up. As usual, that phrase set her teeth on edge. She was always the bad guy, the big old meanie spoiling everyone’s fun. Claudia sent him a searing look that should have burnt him to ash. “Because they have their Tae Kwon Do class tomorrow at nine and I don’t want them going in tired and grouchy.”
“Aw—” he blew a juicy raspberry “—to Tae Kwon Do.” The boys convulsed with laughter at the rude sound and the coin in Claudia’s chest expanded to the size of a dinner plate, sizzling even hotter.
“It won’t kill them to skip one Saturday.” Aaron spoke to their sons. “Go on guys, get the ice cream. And bring me some, too.”
“What flavor, Dad?” Marcus asked.
“Come on, you know Rocky Road’s my favorite.”
The boys ran off to the kitchen, leaving their parents behind.
“Thanks a lot,” she said, pushing the words through clenched teeth.
“Oh, chill out, babe. What’s wrong with a little spontaneity?” His mouth twisted in exasperation. “Why do you have to take everything so seriously?”
“Because somebody has to be the grown up here. You’re an adult, Aaron. A parent. Your problem is you’d rather be our sons’ buddy.”
“Sure, I’m their buddy,” he sputtered. “I’m their dad, too. Yeah, we horse around and have fun, but they know there’s a limit. When I say no, I mean no.”
“When do you ever say no? They know they can twist you around their fingers. If I tell them one thing, they’ll go to you so they can get around mean old mom. We should be a united front. I’m tired of being the only one to enforce the rules.”
He threw up his arms. “Rules. Why are there so many rules? They’re kids, for goodness’ sake! Let them play. Have fun. There’s plenty of time for them to grow up down the road.”
“If they don’t learn a little self-control now, it will be that much harder for them ‘down the road.’ Don’t you see that? All I want to do is see they eat proper meals, say please and thank you, and go to bed at a reasonable hour. If you had your way, they’d eat pizza every meal and stay up ‘til midnight every night.”
He made a scoffing sound. “You’re exaggerating.”
“I’m not so sure about that. You know, I can’t tell you how tired I am of always being the bad guy,” she answered. “I wish you’d have my back once in a while.”
“I’ve got your back. But you need to loosen up. It’s not going to hurt the boys to relax the rules once in a while. Hang out with their old dad and eat ice cream and watch movies. You worry too much, babe.” He grinned, clearly trying to jolly her out of their argument.
But she was in no mood to be jollied. “You don’t worry enough.” Turning away, she said “They’re not missing class tomorrow. And you can be the one to get them up, get them dressed, and drive them there.”
At the time, she’d been so convinced Aaron was in the wrong that she couldn’t even consider his point of view. But what if he was right? What if she’d been too strict, too rigid with the boys? Was it really so terrible for them to sometimes skirt the rules, stay up late eating ice cream an
d watching animated films with their dad? Instead of steaming and going to bed alone, maybe she should have grabbed a bowl of Rocky Road and joined her guys in their movie marathon.
Instead of encouraging her sons to spread their wings, had she only kept them tethered to the ground? Was Andy’s need to break free so strong that he had to rebel by risking his life? Was she responsible for the accident that landed him here?
Her troubled thoughts were interrupted by Marcus entering the room, carrying a large to-go cup. “Hey, Mom.” He glanced over at Andy. “Is he asleep?"
Andy’s eyes opened. “Nope.” He brightened as he spotted the cup in his brother’s hand. “Hey, you brought it.”
“What is it?” Claudia asked suspiciously as Marcus gave the cup to Andy. “That better not be anything alcoholic.”
“Almost as good,” Andy said as he slid a straw into the cup’s plastic lid. “It’s a double-thick vanilla shake from the Dairy Princess. Hospital food’s the pits. Hey, Marc, next time you come, smuggle in some Pad Thai.”
As he slurped his milkshake, he gestured to the notebook on his bedside table. “Hand me that, huh?”
Andy began leafing through the diary Claudia had kept for him while he’d been in the coma. “I can’t believe they knocked me out for almost a week. You guys sure had a lot of fun while I was under. Ate the cookies Mom made for me, hung around joking and laughing—”
“We included you in the conversation,” she answered. “Talked about all the good times we had together, all the cute and funny things you did when you were small—”
“What a spoiled brat you were.” That was Marcus, playing his role of obnoxious big brother.
Andy scowled. “I wasn’t a brat. I was adorable.”
“Yes, you were. Adorable,” Claudia added quickly. “Both of you were good boys,” she went on, ever the loyal mom.
Turning the page, Andy read on. “What’s this? Did I really start tearing my tubes and stuff? I don’t remember that at all. And I thought the CIA was going to turn me into another James Bond?
The Billionaire's Big Risk Page 11
