by Megan Bryce
Scott laughed, sloshing his drink and putting it down hastily.
Cornelia sighed. “I am so very glad both of you inherited your father’s sense of humor.”
James smiled at his wife. And then his son. And then his daughter.
And perhaps she had inherited his sense of humor because Nicole smiled back and said, “Me, too.”
Twenty-Three
Nicole waited until she got home to try Victoria again.
The phone rang and rang. Nicole’s chin wobbled with every ring and she needed a bracing pep talk from her best friend and why wouldn’t she answer the phone?
“Nicole?”
“Yes?”
“. . .I was going to tell you I’ll call you later. Why are you crying?”
“I’m not crying. I’m thinking about crying.”
“Keep thinking about it. I’ll call you back in five minutes.”
“Okay.”
So she thought about crying, and why she wanted to cry. She’d had a nice dinner. It had been very nice. It had been awkward, and then not awkward.
Certainly not family, not yet.
But they’d had a nice dinner together.
And it made her want to cry!
She’d been prepared for bad, been expecting bad. Bad wouldn’t have fazed her!
Nicole answered her phone on the first ring and Victoria said, “Okay, I’m in what constitutes an office in this madhouse run by a moron. Why are you crying?”
“I met my father.”
“Oh. Who is it?”
“James Geary.”
“James Geary? Wait, Scott Geary James Geary.
“Yes.”
Victoria barked out a laugh. And then another.
“I’m sorry. No wait, I need to do that a few more times.”
Nicole listened to Victoria laughing and stopped thinking about crying. She found a box of Kleenex and patted her cheeks dry.
Victoria came back on the phone. “Sometimes, I really do think there is a God and He’s just up there snacking on bonbons while watching this soap opera.”
“Scott says hello,” Nicole said and Victoria laughed again.
“No, he doesn’t.”
“No, he doesn’t. But I told him I’ve known you longer and I choose you.”
“Good. . . Scott Geary is your brother. That’s going to take a little while to sink in.”
“He wanted to marry you.”
“LOL,” Victoria said with no humor in her voice. “And HWACD.”
“I don’t. . .”
“He Was A Cheating Dickbag.”
Nicole nodded her head and looked out the window at nighttime city lights. And felt the first flutterings of loyalty toward her new family.
“But your father would say anything to stop you from doing something he thought was stupid. And you said that Scott never admitted it.”
Victoria’s father would say and do anything to get what he wanted. Or he would have. The Alzheimer’s was eating away all he had been more every day.
Victoria’s tone was a tad frosty when she asked, “Did you ask Scott about it when he didn’t say hello?”
“We steered the conversation to other subjects.”
“My side, remember?”
“Yes. And I am. But I sat across from Scott tonight and liked him.”
Victoria whispered, “I liked him, too.”
Nicole knew. Victoria would have married him. And Nicole knew that Victoria had been devastated after their as-far-from-amicable-as-you-can-possibly-get-without-anyone-actually-dying breakup.
Nicole said, “Okay, so this is going to be awkward. No getting around that.”
“No getting around it. Will our friendship survive?”
“Don’t even joke about that.”
Nicole could hear the beauty queen smile coming back into her friend’s voice as Victoria said, “I won’t joke about that, then. But if we’re still friends, we’ll need to talk about how you slept with Flynn.”
“So, you’ll give Gia non-crying minutes but not me?”
“She texted me the news. It said, ‘Nicole. Flynn. Slap-slap. Yay!’”
Nicole closed her eyes. “Don’t even joke about that.”
“Sadly, I am not. Is it still going well with him?”
“It was just this morning.”
“And? Is it still going well? Remember I’m on retainer if you need his balls ripped off.”
“O-kay. You said that more vehemently than I was expecting.”
Victoria chipped out, “A moron just stepped into my office. I was talking to the both of you.”
A deep male voice muttered in the background, sounding not at all scared of getting his balls ripped off.
Victoria pulled the phone away and all Nicole could hear was sarcasm dripping from her friend’s tongue like acid.
Then Victoria said more clearly, “I’ll wait.”
Nicole looked at the phone. “Are you talking to me?”
“No. Okay, now I’m talking to you. The moron has left the room.”
“I’m so glad you’re my friend,” Nicole said, because she’d have to move to a different continent if they were enemies.
“Me, too. Even if you’re related to Scott Geary.”
“Nope. Let’s not do that.”
Victoria blew out a breath. “Okay. I’m sorry. I won’t take my irritation out on you.”
“Do you want to talk about him?”
“I thought we were done talking about Scott Geary.”
Nicole smiled a little smile. “Not him.”
There was a long pause and then Victoria said incredulously, “Do I want to talk about the moron? No. He’s a moron. Quite possibly the dumbest person alive.”
“Working in a startup in San Francisco?”
“Yes, that kind of dumb. He wears low-tops like he’s in high school still. Sometimes, if it’s not raining, he switches it up with open-toed sandals. With socks.”
“Sandals with socks. Is that a thing in San Francisco?”
Victoria sighed. “He is apparently originally from Oregon. And refuses to evolve, even to San Francisco levels. Like I said, moron.”
“Working in a startup in San Francisco.”
“He’s a dumb, brilliant moron.”
“You’ll fix him right up, I have no doubt.”
“Oh, he can’t be fixed. His business on the other hand. . .is still a maybe. And that means I need to get back. You done crying?”
Bracing. It’s what Nicole had needed.
She’d confessed her familial sins. Could, perhaps, enjoy that she’d liked her new family.
Wanted to like her new family.
Didn’t mean she was betraying her other families.
Either of them.
But it sure was getting complicated.
Twenty-Four
Three hours later, Nicole was woken by the buzzing of her phone and a very up close and personal picture of one evil eye.
An Italian grandmother’s version of I love you and I will always have your back.
Twenty-Five
Flynn made it to work early the next day. Rage pumping through his veins, he’d practically run the entire way, paper fisted in his hand.
Nicole smiled when she saw him rush into her office and it made him pause, just a slight check, before he blurted, “I’m sorry I made you cry.”
She cocked her head. “When?”
“Yesterday at lunch.”
“You mean when you made me laugh so hard I cried?”
“Yes.”
“Um, apology not accepted. I had a good time.”
“It doesn’t look like it in the pictures.”
He threw the rumpled paper on her desk. Not at her, just away from himself, and she said, “Ah. Flynn don’t read what they write. It’s just a story. I myself have recommitted to not looking at what others write about me.”
“They make it sound like I was yelling at you, making you cry.” He’d been there, knew that wasn’t wha
t happened, and the pictures still made his stomach turn.
She watched him trying, and failing, to come to terms with it and said, “This is my life.”
“It sucks,” he said, and she surprised him by laughing.
“Yes.”
“My mom is going to call me any minute, asking about it.” He closed his eyes, thinking about it. “I could use a bag of Tootsie Rolls.”
Nicole touched his arm. “No. I don’t recommend going down that road.”
He looked at her and whispered, “I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. I had a really good time yesterday. At least before my father showed up.”
“At least that didn’t make it in the paper.”
“It will, eventually. But I think it will be okay.”
“Was it okay?”
She nodded. “I know them already. It’s just strange now, suddenly having this connection. Having a father and a brother.”
“A stepmother?”
She laughed. “Kind of. She’s a real political wife, though. I’m sure she has some idea of how to leak this story to her benefit.”
“Is that what you want?”
“What I want, I can’t have. A mother and a father, together. Kids who were raised like. . . kids, I guess. I’d like to have known my brother when he was younger.”
“I wish I hadn’t known my brother when he was younger; he’s better, a little, now. My sister was great growing up. But they still treat me like the baby of the family. They never let you forget.”
Nicole said, “I know a little bit about no one letting you forget.”
Flynn remembered, and knew he’d be forced to remember every time he saw the pictures. He deflated.
And now he knew why she always looked so unhappy. It was her mask, her costume.
But she was smiling at him right then so he just said, “Want to come to dinner tonight at my folks? You can meet the dream. My parents were high school sweethearts and they’re still together, way too many years later.”
Nicole paused, stepping away from him to put her already immaculate desk in order. Her eyebrows crinkled and she met his eyes.
“You just want me to tell your mom you didn’t make me cry, don’t you?”
Flynn threw his pride to the winds and begged. “Please.”
She laughed again.
She opened her mouth and then just stood there, thinking.
He said, “I know.”
She focused on him and he waved his hands between them.
“I know that this is just some crazy. . . craziness. You’ve just, obviously, lost your mind from the stress of your runway and new store, and I’m taking advantage of that. I’m taking advantage of you.”
Nicole tried not to laugh.
“And I’m not inviting you home with me to meet meet my parents. Because, first of all, my mom is crazy and she’s way too old to be squeeing but she will. Be prepared for that. And my dad will be completely unimpressed with you. You might need to be prepared for that too, I don’t know.”
Nicole realized she was smiling stupidly at him. Hadn’t even realized when her lips had migrated northward.
He bobbed on one foot. “But I just want to show you that it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be when your parents are still together. Because there’s kissing and lap-sitting and comments that make you want to shoot bleach into your veins.”
Nicole chuckled and Flynn shot her a look. “It’s not cute, trust me.”
“I do kind of want to see that.”
“And I kind of want to show you it.”
She nodded but said, “Flynn, you can’t tell anyone about us. It won’t end well.”
He looked down at his suit. “No one would believe it anyway. I don’t believe it.”
“And your parents, don’t tell them I’m coming. They’ll tell someone. And someone will tell someone else and then they’ll be cameras and a different kind of crazy craziness.”
He stopped bouncing on one foot, and looked at her, and Nicole understood what he’d been saying about her and her looking because she had no clue what he was thinking.
He said, “Your world sucks, doesn’t it?”
“Sometimes.”
“I won’t tell them even though it probably would go better if I warned them and you didn’t see their initial reaction at meeting you.”
Nicole stepped closer. “I think it’s cute that you’re trying to warn me about your mother. Your father.”
He cocked his head. “Different kind of crazy is still crazy.”
“Yes. We’ll have to compare the crazy sometime, see which is worse.” She smoothed his lapel with one hand thinking how he’d looked so sure of himself telling her he was taking advantage of her. “And I have to say it doesn’t feel like I’ve lost my mind.”
“You have. Trust me.”
Nicole had been taken advantage of before, she could recognize it.
And she had good friends watching out for her who would recognize it.
But Gia had high hopes for Flynn, and Victoria was unconcerned.
Maybe it was Nicole who was taking advantage of Flynn– and she knew suddenly that was right.
She was using him.
He was normal, when all Nicole had ever wanted was normal.
He was sweet, like Gia. Like during his formative years he’d only ever known good and would never really believe there was anything not good out there.
He was dependable and steady, here whenever she needed him. To fix whatever she needed fixing.
And she knew it wouldn’t, couldn’t, last.
She said, “What if it was me taking advantage of you?”
“I’d say, ‘Oookkkaaaayyy,’ like you’d lost your mind and I was just going along with you in case that meant you’d take advantage of me again.”
She went to her tiptoes and his hands went to her waist. She said, “Oookkkaaaayyy.”
And then when he didn’t get it, whispered, “That was me just going along with you, hoping you’d take advantage of me again.”
“See, I thought that was what you meant. And then I thought nah. And then you whispered to me and I stopped thinking.”
Nicole kissed him, still smiling. Not caring at all that one of them must be taking advantage of the other.
Flynn stared at the ceiling, hiding behind Nicole’s desk and missing the close walls of his closet.
“I can’t believe I’m going to say this but my office is better for this.”
She turned her head to smile at him and he said, “Less people need me than need you.” He’d had a few heart-stopping minutes of wondering whether the locked door really was locked. “And, it’s cozier.”
She nodded. “Cloistered.”
Flynn closed his eyes and held out his arms and opera-ed, “Sanctuary!”
She wouldn’t sing it but she said, “Yes.”
“We might be just a little bit messed up.”
She laughed and said softly, “It’s nice to be messed up with someone else for once.”
“What about your sister?”
“We weren’t together. It was me trying to protect her, and her trying to have fun. I don’t know why I was afraid and she was excited.”
Flynn reached for her hand. “Big sisters have to try and take care of their siblings. Little sisters, and brothers, have to try and have fun. It’s the sibling code.”
Nicole seemed to think about it. “Do you think so? That the reason she loved the chaos is because I didn’t want her to?”
“Maybe.”
“I don’t understand her at all.”
“It’s probably mutual. That’s the sibling code, too.”
Nicole flipped to her side, propping her head on her hand, and Flynn tried to pay attention to the words coming out of her mouth and not her perfect naked body.
“You don’t know my sister. She is everything ugly and horrifying and destructive about wealth and fame. One day, I’m going to get a call that she’s OD’d and I can’t do
anything to stop it.”
Flynn blinked a few times. “Wow. I don’t even want to know what my sister thinks about me now.”
Nicole’s lips twitched. “She probably doesn’t think that about you. Unless you like to party harder than I know about.”
“How old is your sister?”
“Seventeen.”
Flynn sniffed and went back to looking at the ceiling. It was less distracting.
“My sister may have thought that about me when I was seventeen.”
Nicole shook her head and lay back down next to him. “No. I bet when you were seventeen, your parties consisted of dwarves and elves and RPG all-nighters.”
Tingle.
“Say dwarves and elves and RPG again.”
Her shoulders shook with contained laughter and she said, “WOW. MMPG.”
Tingle.
“Whose turn is it to take advantage? Yours?”
Nicole let the laughter out and rolled on top of him. “Thank you for making me laugh about my sister.”
“You’re welcome. And I really do think it will be okay. Big sisters are always going to think their siblings are hopeless at seventeen. You probably don’t want to know what your seventeen-year-old sibling thinks of you.”
“She thinks I’m a stick in the mud.”
“Probably. I still think that about mine. But I love her.”
Nicole stopped smiling and Flynn hurriedly changed the subject. “I’m really glad you decided to take advantage of me one last time before meeting my parents. You may feel free to completely ignore me tomorrow.”
“It’s not going to be that bad.”
“Oh, it will be.”
“I don’t know. You’re still standing after meeting Nikita. Maybe your parents will surprise you as well.”
Flynn had blocked meeting Nikita from memory so he just grunted as he stared into her eyes, tingling all over and telling himself he would be happy with whatever time he got with Nicole. Even if it ended tonight.
‘Cause he was pretty sure it was going to.
Twenty-Six
Flynn pushed a hand through his hair and muttered, “This was a bad idea.”
“It’ll be okay.”
“No. I don’t know what I was thinking. Thank you for the ride out here, I’ll take the train back.”
