Starting Over (Treading Water Trilogy)

by Force, Marie

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Still in denial? Most people usually are the first week or two.”

  Brandon shrugged. “I was never as bad off as those people in there. I get loaded every now and then, but I wasn’t like them.”

  “You’re sure of that?”

  Brandon watched a group of patients walk along a trail on the back end of the property.

  “Let me give you a little piece of advice I wish someone had given me when I was first here,” Frank said. “Give in to it, man. Let these people help you. It’ll save you a lot of time and your loved ones a lot of suffering. Both times I fell off the wagon harder than the time before. I left some serious carnage in my wake.”

  “I appreciate the advice, but I’m doing my thirty days and getting the hell out of here. And I won’t be back. You can be sure of that.”

  Frank shook his head. “Keep thinking you don’t belong here, and you’ll be back. Mark my words.” He ground out the cigarette and tossed it into the butt bucket. “See ya around.”

  “Yeah. See ya.”

  Chapter 2, Day 6

  Colin O’Malley drove his green company pickup truck through the picturesque town of Chatham, Massachusetts, on his way to his parents’ home on Shore Road. Once a poor fishing village, Chatham had become one of Cape Cod’s most affluent communities.

  As on all the trucks belonging to O’Malley & Sons Construction, the company name on the door of Colin’s truck was encircled by five gold shamrocks—one for each of the O’Malley siblings.

  While driving, Colin replied to several pages from crews in the field on his two-way phone. With his father recovering at home from a mild heart attack and his older brother Brandon in rehab, Colin and his younger brother Declan were running the family’s construction business with the help of their sister Erin’s husband, Tommy.

  Colin pulled into his parents’ driveway, and as always, he cringed at the fanciful pink-and-yellow paint job his mother had commissioned several years earlier. What she intended to be a gingerbread house looked more like a three-story cake, as Colin’s father often said when his wife wasn’t listening.

  The phone beeped again as he reached the front door, and Colin took care of two more crises before he went inside.

  “Mum?” He removed his Red Sox ball cap and ran a hand through his too-long strawberry blond hair. Like Declan and Erin, he resembled his mother, but the three of them had their father’s light blue eyes. With their wavy, dark brown hair, Aidan and Brandon favored their father in his younger years but with their mother’s dark green eyes.

  Wearing an apron over a wool sweater and jeans, Colleen O’Malley came from the kitchen to greet her third son. “Hello, love,” she said, planting a kiss on his cheek. Her thick Irish brogue seemed heavier than usual that day. “Have you had lunch? I made your Da some chicken soup, and there’s plenty.”

  “Sounds good, Mum,” Colin said, even though he couldn’t really afford the time. But she’d been so sad over everything with Brandon, including the awful fight he’d had with Aidan, and so worried about her husband that Colin wanted to spend some time with her. “Let me just go up and see Da first. He said he needed to see me right away. I don’t want him fretting about work when he’s supposed to be taking it easy.”

  “Neither do I, but I don’t want you running yourself ragged either, Col.” Her green eyes softened with concern. “I know you must be overwhelmed at work without Da and Brandon.”

  “We’re coping,” he said as he headed for the stairs. He didn’t think she needed to hear that it had been a long time since anyone relied on Brandon at work. “Don’t worry, Mum.” Colin had vague memories of the house before the second and third floors were added on. His father had worked nights, weekends, and holidays for more than two years to expand the former ranch house to fit his growing family.

  Colin knocked on the door to his parents’ bedroom.

  “Come in,” Dennis called in a voice that was already stronger than it had been the day before. He was propped up in bed, resting against a small mountain of pillows. The room was full of the flowers he had received from friends and business associates.

  “Hey, Da. How you feeling today?”

  “Cooped up and coddled,” Dennis grumbled as he ran a hand through his snow-white hair. “Your Mum’s making me nuts.”

  Colin chuckled. “I don’t doubt it.” He reached into the pocket of his green O’Malley & Sons coat, pulled out a Snicker’s bar, and slid it under his father’s pillow. “Don’t tell.”

  “Have I mentioned you’re my favorite kid?” Dennis asked with a big smile.

  Colin snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m your favorite kid at this moment.”

  “Why would you say that? Have I made you feel that way?”

  “What way?” Colin asked, surprised to find sincere concern on his father’s usually jovial face.

  “That you weren’t my favorite. I love you all the same. I hope you know that.”

  “Of course, I do. Even though I’m the one who never went to college. I’m not a doctor like Aidan was or an athlete like Brandon. I can’t sing like Aidan and Dec can, and, of course, Erin gave you five grandchildren. Nope, I’m just good old Colin.”

  “You’re the one I see myself in more than any of the others.”

  Taken aback, Colin said, “You do?”

  Dennis nodded. “From the time you were old enough to walk, all you ever wanted was to come to work with me. You loved everything about the trucks, the yard, the men, the gravel, all of it.”

  “But you were mad I didn’t go to college,” Colin reminded him.

  “I wanted more for you—for all my kids—than I’d had. I wanted you to go to school before you came into the business so you’d have something to fall back on if you ever needed it.”

  “You’ve worked seven days a week for forty years to make sure I’d never need it.”

  “I’m proud of the business, but nothing makes me prouder than having my sons and son-in-law working with me.”

  “You’re awfully sentimental today, Da. What’s gotten into you?”

  “The fear of God in the form of a heart attack,” Dennis confessed. “Listen, Col…”

  Colin sat on the edge of the bed and took his father’s work-roughened hand in his. “What is it?”

  “I’m not coming back,” Dennis said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Mum wants me to retire, and I’m going to do it. She’s been waiting for me to slow down for a long time, and there’re things she wants to do. I owe her some of my time before I’m too old and sick to be any good to her.”

  Astounded, Colin had no idea what to say. “I figured you’d put up a fight when she was ranting in the hospital about you retiring.”

  “I’m tired. I think I’m ready.”

  “I can’t imagine you not being at work with us.”

  “Oh, you don’t need me. You all have been running the show for years now. I was just there to keep you guys from bickering.”

  “You do a lot more than that, and you know it.”

  “I want you to take over for me, Col.”

  Shocked, Colin stared at him.

  “Someone has to be in charge, and I’ve decided it should be you.”

  “But what about Brandon? He’ll blow a gasket over this when he gets back.”

  “He won’t be in any shape to take on this kind of responsibility for some time, and even if he was, he’s not the one I want. I want you, son.”

  Colin released a ragged deep breath. He hadn’t seen this coming. “I don’t know, Da.”

  “It was Aidan’s idea, actually.”

  “You asked him first, didn’t you?” Colin made no attempt to hide his disappointment.

  “I only asked him first for one reason—all you boys respect him so much. I knew no one would fight him as the authority figure. You’ll have a tougher time with that than he would’ve had as the oldest.”

 
; “Why did he say no?”

  “He’s getting his life together in Vermont. His restoration business is going well, and he’s finally got a new woman in his life. Coming back here wouldn’t be good for him after everything he’s been through. It was wrong of me to even ask him—for all those reasons and because the most obvious choice was the one who’s been here all along.”

  “Good old Colin.”

  “Just because you flew under the radar doesn’t mean I didn’t notice you, son. You’ve never given me an ounce of grief. And when a man has five high-spirited children, you’d better believe he notices the one who never gives him any trouble.”

  Colin smiled. “I should’ve raised some more hell.”

  “Your brothers and sister did plenty of hell-raising, believe me. So will you do it, Col? Will you take over my business and make it your own with the help of your brothers and Tommy?”

  “You really think I can do it?”

  “I have no doubt and neither did your brother. ‘Take another look at Colin,’ Aidan said. ‘He’s the best of all of us. Sarah always said so.’”

  Colin’s eyes burned at the unexpected reminder of the beloved sister-in-law he’d lost to cancer ten years earlier. Aidan’s wife had died two days after giving birth to the stillborn son they named Colin, after him. “That was nice of him to say.”

  “He’s right and Sarah was, too. You’re everything that’s good about the O’Malleys, and you’ve earned the respect of the men. It might take a while to bring your brothers around, but you can do it.”

  “I’m honored that you have such faith in me. If it’ll give you some peace of mind, I’ll give it a shot.”

  The relief showed on his father’s face. “Thank you, Col. We’ll do this right. I’ll talk to Dec and Tommy myself, and then we’ll have a meeting with all the guys so they know there’s been a changing of the guard. I think it’ll be important for them to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”

  “What about Brandon?” Colin asked.

  “When he gets home, we need to ease him back in slowly. In fact, I have an idea I wanted to run by you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You know that apartment building I bought on Old Queen Anne Road?”

  “Sure. You’re just going to flip it, right?”

  “I was planning to, but I’m thinking if we put some work into the place, it might make for some nice extra income for Mum and me in our retirement.”

  “You don’t need money, do you, Da?” Colin asked with concern.

  “No, no, but the apartment building might be a good project for Brandon, to get him back into things without the responsibility of leading a crew. After what happened that day with the loader, it’ll be a while before the men trust him, anyway.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  Brandon had narrowly missed dropping a load of gravel on two of the men a week before the blowup with Aidan sent him to rehab. Colin knew the workers suspected Brandon was drunk at the time.

  “I’ll talk to him if he gives you any trouble,” Dennis said.

  “No, I’ll deal with him at work. If I’m going to do this, I have to do it myself. I can’t be bringing you in every five minutes to bail me out.”

  Dennis smiled.

  “What?”

  “I knew you could do it, but now I’m sure.”

  “How do you think he’s doing?”

  Dennis shook his head. “Hard telling. I’m sure he’s fighting with everyone.”

  “No doubt. That’s what he does best. I sure hope it works, though. I don’t know what we’ll do if it doesn’t.”

  “Mum and I are going for the first visiting day next week. We’ll see then how he’s doing.”

  “We did the right thing, didn’t we?”

  “We did, son. We absolutely did, and we should’ve done it a long time ago. I can’t believe what he did to Clare,” Dennis said, referring to Aidan’s girlfriend.

  “Did you write your letter?”

  Dennis nodded. “How about you?”

  “Yeah. Not the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but the truth hurts. I wonder if he’ll ever speak to any of us again after he reads them.”

  “Hopefully, he’ll hear what we have to say and take the treatment seriously.”

  “I hope so. Well, Mum said there’s soup downstairs, and I’m starving. Call me if you need anything?”

  “I will. You, too.”

  Colin grinned. “Oh, you’ll be hearing from me, don’t worry.”

  “I’m counting on it. I love you, son. I’m proud of you, and I know you’re going to do a terrific job.”

  Overwhelmed, Colin leaned in to kiss his father’s cheek. “Take care, Da.”

  “Wow, that was good, Mum,” Colin said as he finished his soup and reached across the table for her hand. “Are you doing all right?”

  Colleen shrugged. “I guess. I haven’t been sleeping too well. I just wish we knew how Brandon is coping. I picture him all alone in that place…” She looked away from him as she struggled for composure.

  Colin moved to sit closer to her. “We had to do something.” He put his arm around her. “We’re lucky Aidan didn’t kill him.”

  “I know.” Colleen wiped her face on her apron and leaned into her son’s embrace. “I just can’t figure out how this happened. I go over it and over it in my mind. I know he always drank, but how did it get this bad? How did it get to the point where he’d do what he did to a woman in this house and then not even remember it?”

  “It’s been this bad for a long time. We just covered for him and tried to keep him out of trouble.”

  “What else were we supposed to do?”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t have tried so hard. Maybe then he would’ve reached this point sooner, without practically attacking Clare.”

  “But he could’ve done something even worse.”

  “I’ve been doing some reading about it. Alcoholism is considered a disease—like diabetes or cancer. They say it’s not just a disease of the body but a relationship disease, too. What we’ve been doing by cleaning up his messes has enabled him to continue drinking without worrying about the consequences. We can’t do that anymore.”

  Colleen sighed. “No, we can’t.”

  “I’ve been thinking about going to an Al-Anon meeting. They help people like us who have someone in their family struggling with alcohol. Why don’t you come with me?”

  “Oh, Col, I can’t imagine talking about our family’s troubles in public.”

  “You don’t have to say anything, and if you do, it’s completely anonymous. No one would ever talk about what happens there. It might help us to help him, and to feel better ourselves, too.”

  “I don’t know…”

  Colin kissed her cheek and stood up. “Think about it. You don’t have to decide anything now. Do you mind if I go to a meeting? I feel like I need to do something.”

  “Of course I don’t mind. I appreciate all you’ve done to help your brother. I know you’ve probably had it with him, yet you still help him.”

  “He’s my brother,” Colin said with a shrug.

  “You’re a good boy.”

  Colin laughed. “I’m thirty-six years old, Mum.”

  “And you’re still my boy,” she said with a spark of feistiness that was much more like her than the sadness.

  “I’ve got to get back to work. Thanks for lunch.”

  “Thank you for what you’re doing for your Da.”

  “You know about that, huh?”

  She held his coat for him. “There’s not much that goes on around here that I don’t know about. You’ll be just fine, Col.” She zipped his coat for him like she had when he was five. “Follow your heart, be fair, and do the right thing. The rest will fall into place.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I’m always right.”

  He smiled. Truer words were never spoken. “Call me if you need anything.”

  “I will.”

&nbs
p; “Think about coming to Al-Anon with me.”

  “I’ll do that, too.”

  Chapter 3, Day 8

  Brandon sat across from his counselor, Dr. Sondra Walker-Smith, and waited for her to say something. This was his third session with her in as many days, and the other times she’d led him through a basic discussion of his life, his family, and his work. This time, though, she seemed to be waiting for him, and he squirmed in his seat under the heat of her scrutiny. Her office was the nicest room he’d seen yet at the austere facility.