Not Quite Over You

by Susan Mallery

  Autumn’s mouth dropped open. “It’s huge. It’s way bigger than your house and I thought that was really big. Are you rich? Is your family rich?” She thought for a second. “You don’t work in a bank, do you? You own a bank.”

  “My grandfather owns a bank. I’m just an employee. As for being rich, I’m not.” He winked. “But Grandpa Frank is.”

  She laughed. “I wish I was seven. I could ask him for a pony.”

  “You still can.”

  “No way. What if he said yes? Mom would kill me. I’d like a kitten maybe. Or a rabbit. I really liked Mr. Whiskers. He was so soft.”

  They got out of the car and walked up to the front door. Before he knocked, Drew glanced at Autumn.

  “Just a heads-up. There are servants.”

  Her eyes widened. “No way.”

  “Amelia runs the house. She’s been with my grandfather for a long time and she’s very kind and patient. She has a staff working under her. A couple of maids, two gardeners and a handyman.”

  Her mouth made a perfect O. “This is better than TV.”

  “I’m glad you think so.”

  He rang the doorbell. It only took a second for Amelia to answer, which had Drew wondering if she’d been hovering in the foyer.

  “Mr. Drew,” she said, her gaze on Autumn, her smile broad and welcoming. “How nice to see you. Come in, come in.”

  “Amelia, this is Autumn.” He hesitated, not sure how to claim the relationship.

  “Miss Autumn, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Hi.” Autumn grinned at her. “Drew said you were really nice and I can see you are. It’s in your eyes.” She looked at Drew. “Does she know? Am I allowed to say?”

  “I’m not sure and yes.”

  Autumn turned back to Amelia. “I’m Drew’s daughter with Silver. They gave me up for adoption when I was born. I live in Los Angeles with my mom, who was just here to get married to Denton. He’s going to be my stepdad. My real dad remarried, too.” She sighed. “It’s a California thing.”

  Amelia laughed. “It sounds like it. If you’ll come this way, your great-grandfather is very excited to meet you.”

  Autumn stepped close and lowered her voice. “He’s not sick, is he?”

  “No. Mr. Frank is very healthy. His new favorite sport is to go down a zip line.” Amelia murmured something in Spanish and made the sign of the cross. “I worry Mr. Frank will hurt himself on his adventures, but he insists and I cannot stop him.”

  They went into Grandpa Frank’s study. He was sitting behind his desk, but stood as they entered. Drew tried to see him as a stranger would and not as someone he’d known his entire life.

  Grandpa Frank was a couple of inches shy of six feet, with tanned skin and blue eyes. He stood tall and had broad shoulders and a trim waist. He didn’t look anywhere near his eighty-nine years and there was nothing the least bit feeble about his mental capacity. Drew was starting to think Grandpa Frank was going to outlive them all.

  “You must be Autumn,” he said, walking around his desk and smiling at his great-granddaughter. “You’re a pretty one, aren’t you? I can see a lot of Drew in you, and a fair amount of Silver.” He grinned at Autumn. “Drew’s handsome enough but if I were a girl, I’d rather look like Silver.”

  Autumn laughed. “That’s true. She’s beautiful. I love her hair.” She glared at Drew. “I did not inherit her blond hair, which I would have really liked.”

  He raised both hands. “I had nothing to do with that.”

  “You actually did. Your dark hair DNA overwhelmed hers. It’s very sad.” She turned back to Grandpa Frank. “Am I your only great-grandchild?”

  “You are. I have one on the way, but not for a few more months. So you’re the first.”

  “And the best,” Autumn told him.

  “Very much the best.” He held out his hand. “Let’s go to the kitchen and get something to eat. Then we’ll take a tour of the house. There are some interesting things to see that I think you’ll like, including a secret passage that leads to the attic.”

  “Really? That is so cool. A real secret passage? Our new house in LA is being built. I saw it when it was just framed and let me tell you, there are no secret passages.”

  Grandpa Frank chuckled. “Then you’ll have to come back and use ours as often as you want.”

  Amelia went with them, no doubt to tempt Autumn with all kinds of treats. Drew would have to remember to warn Silver that Autumn was unlikely to be hungry for much dinner. He thought about joining them but instead decided to deal with what was likely to be an unpleasant conversation with his mother. While Grandpa Frank had been excited at the thought of an eleven-year-old great-granddaughter, he doubted his mother would be anything but annoyed to learn of her existence. She would see Autumn as standing in the way of what she thought of as his destiny.

  For a second he toyed with the idea of not telling her about his daughter at all, but knew she would find out eventually. Better to learn the truth from him—in a situation where he could protect his daughter.

  He went upstairs to the guest suite and knocked on the closed door. His mother opened it and stared at him.

  “Drew. Did I know you were going to stop by?”

  “No, and I hope that’s all right.”

  “Of course it is,” she said as she opened the door and let him in. “I always enjoy your company.”

  The three-room guest suite was large and open, with lots of windows and high ceilings. There was a bedroom, a bathroom and a sitting room. Irene led him into the latter and motioned for him to take one of the chairs.

  “Should I ring for coffee or tea?” she asked. “Although I should warn you, it will take hours. Honestly, I don’t know why Dad keeps Amelia around. She does a terrible job.”

  “So you mentioned last time I was here. I’ve never found her anything but helpful.”

  “You only lived here as a teenager. I doubt your standards were much of a challenge for the staff.”

  Drew wanted to point out that the problem might be a lot more with his mother than with Amelia, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything. More important, he needed to tell his mother about Autumn.

  “I hope you appreciate what I’m doing for you,” his mother continued as she took her seat. “Libby is still the biggest bitch on the planet. I can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. She’s going to be trouble about the bank. You have to be prepared for that. Oh, and I’ve talked to a few friends and your father and I already have invitations to the party for the king and queen of El Bahar.”

  “I think the party is technically for Cade and Bethany,” he said drily. “They are the ones getting married.”

  She waved her hand. “You know what I mean. Now we just need that private audience.”

  Drew told himself not to be distracted. “Mom, that’s not why I wanted to talk to you. I have something important to tell you.”

  His mother’s gaze flickered and he wondered if she already knew. Libby might have heard and she would have been delighted to spread the word.

  “You remember Silver, Mom. You met her the other day.”

  His mother’s look sharpened. “What does she have to do with anything?”

  “We dated the summer before college. Silver got pregnant and we decided to give up the baby for adoption. Autumn is eleven now. Silver’s stayed in touch with her and her family.” He told himself that whatever his mother’s issues were, she couldn’t possibly turn her back on her grandchild.

  “Mom, Autumn is here. In Happily Inc. In the house, actually. She’s with Grandpa Frank. I know you won’t want to meet her, but I thought you should know about her.”

  His mother’s expression hardened. “Fine. And now you’ve told me.” She pressed her lips together. “No wonder Libby’s been in such a good mood the past few days. She must already know.�
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  He waited, thinking she would want to say something else. Finally he asked, “Is that it? You don’t want to know anything about her?”

  “Why would I? She’s not going to help you get ahead. You made a mistake when you were young. It happens.” Her gaze turned speculative. “Actually it makes you seem very relatable, which we can use to our advantage. I assume you’re covered legally.”

  “You mean did I sign all the right paperwork so Silver and our daughter can’t come back and sue me or do something else to get in the way of my future?”

  He’d been speaking sarcastically, but his mother didn’t seem to notice that. “Exactly.”

  “It’s taken care of.”

  “Excellent. Then we’ll weather this storm and keep moving forward with our plan.”

  “She’s not a storm. She’s your granddaughter,” he said. “Don’t you have any curiosity about her?”

  Irene’s eyebrows drew together. “Why would I? She’s nothing to me.”

  He and his mother had never been close, but he genuinely didn’t understand her attitude.

  “I couldn’t disagree more,” he said quietly. “She’s rapidly becoming everything to me.”

  “It’s that Silver person, isn’t it? You’re back together.”

  “We are, Mom, and it’s worse than you think. You know what? I wasn’t kidding before. We’re working together and it’s great. I like helping out with her business, improving processes and hiring people. It’s different from banking. More personal. I’ve talked to Grandpa Frank about starting a venture capital company.”

  His mother went pale. “You mean him starting one. Not you. Oh, Drew, you couldn’t. A venture capitalist? How does that make anything better? How does that get us where we want to go?”

  “Where you want to go,” he corrected. “Not me. Helping entrepreneurs is important work. Business drives our economy. Just think—we could fund the next Bill Gates.”

  “Tell me you’re joking.”

  He had been messing with her, but the more he talked, the more he realized the idea appealed to him. Direct involvement was always preferable to being at a distance.

  “I’m thinking about it,” he said, realizing he wasn’t actually lying.

  “I don’t want to hear about this,” she told him. “I don’t know why you’re torturing me. Honestly, I work so hard for you.”

  He thought about his beautiful daughter, his mother’s beautiful granddaughter, and all the time that had been lost. He thought about Silver and how she understood what was important.

  He’d always known his parents were different, especially his mother. As he’d gotten older, he’d wondered if maybe he’d exaggerated their ruthlessness and their ambition, if the memories had been distorted. Now he understood the truth was the opposite—he hadn’t remembered his mother as awful as she had been.

  “I’m going to go,” he told her. “I don’t want to waste a minute of my time with Autumn. I wish...” He shook his head. “Never mind. You’re right. She couldn’t possibly help so why would you be interested in meeting her? If nothing else, Mom, you’re exactly who you claim to be.”

  * * *

  JASPER TOOK THE back way down the mountain. It was longer than the highway, which was what he wanted—time to clear his head. He’d been writing, putting in fourteen-hour days. Transitioning from his book to the real world was sometimes challenging and the drive helped.

  He turned into a residential neighborhood relatively close to where Wynn lived. A quick glance at his car’s clock told him it was late afternoon and Hunter would be out of school, so no quickie for him or Wynn.

  He was still smiling at the thought of her when he saw Hunter riding his bike a little farther down the block. There was a girl about his age with him. Jasper didn’t recognize her, but then he didn’t know Hunter’s friends.

  He was about to drive by when he saw Hunter and the girl stop in front of a house with a For Sale sign. The kids got off their bikes and approached the sign. Without considering his actions, Jasper pulled over to watch.

  Hunter pulled a small garden spade out of his back pocket and dug out the sign. Together he and the girl carried it across the street and down two houses before putting it in place there. Even from nearly a block away, Jasper could tell they were laughing. They got on the bikes and headed off.

  “Damn,” Jasper muttered as he picked up his phone.

  Wynn answered on the first ring. “Hi, what’s up?”

  “There’s a problem. Can you meet me?”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  SILVER STILL COULDN’T believe what Wynn and Jasper had told her. Even knowing the kids had come clean as soon as they’d been confronted wasn’t much of a comfort. Autumn had been involved in something that was, if not technically illegal, really wrong. Worse, she’d admitted it had been her idea!

  “You have to say something,” Autumn announced from the passenger seat. “Just yell at me and you’ll feel better.”

  Silver waited until they were at a stoplight to turn to her. “Do you think this is funny?”

  “No, but it’s not like it’s really bad. We didn’t steal anything or break anything. It was just a joke on five or six houses.”

  Silver drove through the intersection, then turned on her street. After pulling into her parking space in the alley, she shut off the engine and faced Autumn.

  “You think it’s that simple? What about the signs, Autumn? You don’t remember where they go. Right this second, Jasper and Wynn are taking Hunter door to door, trying to figure out who had their house for sale.”

  Silver had wanted to stay and have Autumn help, but Wynn had insisted Hunter explain to the people what he’d done by himself. Silver had been so stunned by the events that she’d agreed without thinking.

  “You should be helping them,” she said. “You should have to explain to these people why you thought messing with their property was a good idea.”

  Autumn sighed.

  “You don’t get it, do you?” Silver told her. “What if some family is desperate to sell because they need the money, or their mom or dad got transferred for work, but because of you they miss the one person who would have bought their house? What about the person who’s going to have strangers knocking on their door and not know why? What if someone’s home sick and they have to deal with all that? This isn’t about you. This is about other people. I can’t believe you were so thoughtless and selfish. I can’t believe you came up with this idea.”

  Autumn’s face paled and her lower lip trembled. “Some kids did it back home. I thought it was funny.”

  “Maybe to you, but not to anyone else. I have to tell you, I’m shocked that you’re capable of acting like this. You knew it was wrong and you did it anyway. I never thought you were like that. I guess your mom doesn’t tell me everything.”

  Autumn’s eyes filled with tears. She scrambled out of the truck. “Silver, no! Don’t say that. I didn’t think it was a big deal. I was wrong. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Don’t be mad at me. Please. I’ll do anything.”

  “It’s not being mad,” Silver told her quietly. “It’s being disappointed by your behavior.”

  Autumn started to cry harder. Silver ignored her and got the bike out of the back of her truck. She took it into the downstairs storage room, then headed upstairs. Still sobbing, Autumn followed.

  When they were in the loft, Silver turned to her. “You won’t be riding your bike anymore with Hunter and I’m taking your phone away for forty-eight hours. You can talk to your mom on my phone.”

  “That’s too much! You’re not being fair. You can’t do that.”

  Autumn raced to the bathroom and slammed the door. Silver shook her head, then opened Autumn’s backpack and took out the phone. She went downstairs and put it in the small safe in her office, t
hen called Leigh.

  “Hi, you,” her friend said. “I’m on a beach in Hawaii. What are you doing?”

  “Questioning my parenting skills.”

  Leigh sighed. “Tell me what she did.”

  Silver explained what had happened. “I put her phone in my work safe. Is that all right? Is forty-eight hours too long?”

  “No. You did the right thing. I can’t believe she did that. It’s horrible and thoughtless.”

  “I shouldn’t have let her go bike riding with Hunter.”

  “Don’t blame yourself. I love that she had the chance to do that. Our neighborhood at home is safe, but we’re so close to some busy streets, I never let her go by herself. She got a taste of freedom, and then totally messed up. It happens. Now she’ll deal with the consequences. Silver, you were right to do what you did. She’s going to pout for a while, and then she’ll be fine. Autumn is a pretty reasonable kid.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  Leigh chuckled. “I nearly always am. Now, how is everything else?”

  “Good. Autumn met her great-grandfather yesterday. That was fun for her.”

  “Any Drew news?”

  “No. It’s not like that.”

  “Too bad, because you two make beautiful babies. Anything else?”

  “That’s it. Thanks for listening and have a good rest of your honeymoon.”

  “Will do and I’ll call Autumn on your phone tonight. Bye.”

  Silver ended the call, then went upstairs. About five minutes later, Autumn came out of the bathroom. She’d washed her face, but was still a little weepy-looking.

  “Did you call my mom?” she asked.

  “I did.”

  “Is she mad?”

  “She’s sorry you were so disrespectful of your privileges here and hopes you’ve learned your lesson.”

  Autumn drew in a breath. “Okay. I finished all my homework already.”

  “Good. Then you can help me with dinner. We have our movies for tonight.” Drew wouldn’t be by. He was giving them a girls’ night together, which she appreciated. He would have Autumn to himself the evening she had her first bachelorette party in the space downstairs.