Redeeming the Stepbrother

by Andrew Grey

  “Then why’d you take the phone?” he snapped.

  “Because she was crying.” Who knows, a little guilt might do the trick.

  He paused for a few seconds, and I hoped he was thinking things over. “I know what you’re doing,” he said, and then the line went dead. There was little else I could do. Ella handed me my phone.

  “Did you get the phone number of where he was calling?” I asked.

  “Yes.” It was Officer Harding’s deep voice. “Thank you for calling us right away. You did a good job of keeping him on the line. We believe we know the area he was calling from. We’ll call as soon as we have news.” He hung up.

  “You did great, Ella.” I smiled, and she went back into her room to finish dressing.

  I found Mom in her chair, looking despondent.

  “Is he okay?”

  “For now. I think the police are getting impatient.” I sat down to wait with her, turning on the television to have something to pass the time. She was going to become more and more worried and would probably retreat deeply into herself. I tried to understand how Mom was feeling and wondered what I could do for her, but I came up with nothing.

  Eventually Ella came down and joined us, watching the television without saying a word.

  A knock made me jump, and I half expected it to be the police, but Dieter stood outside the door, and I let him in, then locked it once again. “Jeremy called.” I explained basically what he’d said. “I think he’s delusional at this point.”

  “Probably getting desperate and more scared by the second. There’s no one to help him, and he’s learning that.” Dieter said hello to Mom and Ella before sitting down as well. He took my hand once I sat beside him and scooted until he was right next to me.

  My phone rang half an hour later. It was the police number, and I answered it, speaking quietly. “Any progress?” I was getting pretty tired of niceties at this point.

  “We aren’t sure,” Officer Harding answered. “I think we just missed him. Be on the lookout, though. He was sighted by one of your neighbors, so he’s in the neighborhood there. I have someone on their way over now. Just sit tight until they get there and don’t go outside.”

  “We won’t.” My heart rate increased as I set my phone on the coffee table and explained what had been said. Dieter held me tighter, and I tried not to shake like a leaf.

  I heard what I thought was the lock on the back door, then a crash, and I jumped to my feet as Jeremy burst into the room with a baseball bat.

  “Florian,” he growled, eyes wide and panicky.

  I stilled, waiting to see what he’d do.

  Dieter stepped in front of me, standing between us. “That’s enough, Jeremy. The police will be here any second. You need to put the bat down and turn yourself in.” His voice held such strength that Jeremy actually seemed to be considering what Dieter said.

  “Bullshit! He’s the cause of all this. Not me.” Jeremy stepped forward, bat held high.

  “I’m the one who got you fired. I saw your work, or the lack of it, when I toured the plant. I saw how shoddy and lazy you were. It wasn’t Florian. I suggested to Dante that he let you go and replace you with someone who could do a better job. So leave Florian alone and put down the bat. This is over and you need to let it end.”

  Dieter didn’t move an inch when Jeremy let out a yell that damn near shattered the windows. Mom started crying again, and Ella clutched me, both of us behind Dieter. Jesus, Jeremy really had lost touch with reality.

  “It will never end! He’ll always be better than me! I was supposed to be the smart one, the talented one. I’m the oldest and I was supposed to be successful. But it was always him. Dad liked him best, and even her father”—he pointed the bat at Ella—“liked Florian best too. No one ever gave a damn about me.”

  “Your mother loves you,” Dieter countered.

  “You were my baby,” Mom said, leaning forward in her chair. “You were my first baby. I remember when I held you in my arms in the hospital. You were so small and precious, and I loved you from the minute I saw those blue eyes of yours.” Tears ran down her cheeks, and Jeremy hesitated, his face relaxing a little. Hopefully some of this was sinking in.

  “Just let this go, Jeremy. Let it all go. There are people who can help you, but you need to drop the bat and let them.”

  I held my breath as Jeremy’s fingers slackened and the bat fell to the carpet. Dieter picked it up, and Mom held out her arms. Jeremy knelt and sank into them, Mom holding him.

  “It will be all right,” she crooned, over and over.

  I heard the police outside and went to open the door for them.

  Now that the drama was over, my legs nearly collapsed from under me. Dieter grabbed me, hugging me tightly, and I returned it. I needed him, his affection and strength. “Don’t do that again.”

  “What?”

  “Dammit. The way you stood in front of us to protect me and Ella was sexy as hell.” My body still thrummed from the care in Dieter’s gesture. “But don’t do that again. You scared the shit out of me.” I held him tighter, wishing I could be like this always. “I don’t want you to go.” I closed my eyes and tried not to let the disappointment of him leaving get wrapped up in all the emotional drama of the last day or so. But I couldn’t help it. Everything was a huge jumble of change and loss in my head.

  “Don’t worry about that. I’ll be here for a few days, and when you’re ready, we can talk.” Leave it to Dieter to understand what I needed. There hadn’t been many people in my life who’d done that, and I felt myself falling a little more for him, even knowing that was going to make the pain of him leaving that much more intense.

  The police officers had a lot of questions, and we answered them as best as we could. Many we had no idea about, and some answers only Jeremy was going to provide. Once they took him away and the house was quiet again, Ella went up to her room, and I sat downstairs with Dieter and my very clearly shaken-up mother.

  “What am I going to do?” she kept asking. “He’s gone and I’ll rarely see him after this.” Mom wrung her hands. “I’m going to have to visit my son in prison.” She looked up from where she’d been studying her hands. “I still have you, Florian.”

  With those few words, an invisible metal collar closed around my neck. My mother was latching on to me, trapping me like an animal. What the hell was I going to tell her? That I was going to leave? Blast and hell.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Dieter said gently. “You’ll get over this. Jeremy is still your son. He’s made some mistakes, but he’ll always be your little boy, and now he’ll be able to get the help he needs.”

  I leaned on Dieter and let him talk to my mother. I couldn’t deal with that right now. I had my own fears and pending loss to process.

  “Why don’t we go outside and sit in the shade?” Dieter offered. “Some fresh air might do us all good.”

  I couldn’t argue with him, as it sounded like a great idea to me. The house felt gloomy and closed up even with the curtains open. I stood, nodding slowly, and waited for my mother, who moved halfheartedly into the backyard. “You know, this is going way above and beyond.” Dieter was so damned kind and considerate, helpful in the extreme, and each gesture made my heart fall just a little more. I should be pulling away, putting some distance between the two of us just so I could survive what I knew was to come. But I couldn’t.

  “Let me help.” Dieter got Mom settled in the swinging bench under the tree, and we each pulled up a chair, sitting in the shade of a large oak, the breeze from the water taking off the worst of the building heat. If it hadn’t been for all the drama and hurt of the past few days, this would be perfect, especially when Dieter pulled his chair right next to mine.

  “You know that love doesn’t last,” Mom said as she looked at our clasped hands. “Something always happens to take it away.” She sniffed and turned from us. “I had it two times in my life, and now it’s gone. Jeremy is gone….” She turned to me, look
ing at me as though she were drowning and I was a life preserver.

  “We all have tough times,” Dieter said. “As the saying goes, ‘Ain’t nobody leading no dream life.’” Dieter squeezed my fingers. “I like to think that love doesn’t die. It lives on in the people left behind.” He turned to me. “And sometimes love requires separation and sacrifice, but it will find a way back.”

  I leaned against his shoulder, certainly hoping against hope that he was right. Because I needed that desperately.

  My phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket. “Hello?”

  “Florian, it’s Dante and Beau. We heard about your brother and wanted to make sure you were all okay.”

  I swallowed as tears welled in my eyes for a second. I wiped them away. “Yes. He came here, and the police have him in custody. Dieter and I are sitting with my mother, trying to help keep her calm. There’s going to be a lot of hurt coming down the road.” There was no way any of us could avoid that.

  “They are going through the studio, but I’m sure we’ll have answers soon, and with the person who set the fire in custody, we’ll be able to expedite reopening the studio.”

  “Geez. This isn’t all about business,” Beau said. “Florian, what my lug of a husband is getting at is that we’d like you to help us design the new studio to fully meet our needs. The old one was us making do with what we had, but now we have a chance to start new. So he and I want to send you to Europe with Dieter to look at other studios and see how they work and are designed.”

  “You do?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Dante added. “I know you’re going to need some family time, so take what you need, and in a few days, we’ll talk over the details. Dieter has also agreed to help us with this project. He has a lot of contacts and expertise in this area.”

  I turned to him, unsure if I was hearing things correctly. Then I turned to my mother, and the excitement that had begun to build flew right out the window. “My mom… I have to….” I couldn’t see it working out.

  Dante humphed, and Beau’s voice came through the line. “We don’t need an answer right away, and my husband is being his usual pushy self. We just wanted you to know that there are good things in the works for you and that you don’t need to worry about a job or your future. Things will all work out in that area. So take care of the family and we’ll talk through the details soon.” Beau said goodbye and ended the call.

  I felt a little shell-shocked. I definitely needed a chance to process all this. “Did you have anything to do with this?”

  “With what?” Dieter asked, doing his best to look all innocent but failing. “Just think about it.”

  “So you did know?” I pressed.

  “Dante moves fast when he wants something. When I went to get fresh clothes and change, he told me that he’d been planning to remodel the studio in the next few years. The fire hastened his plans, and now since he can start from scratch, he wants things to be right.” Dieter sounded so reasonable, and what Dante had said actually seemed like a really good idea.

  I wasn’t sure how I could do it, though.

  THE REST of the day passed in a haze. The police came and went to gather evidence at the house, and by the end of the day, Jeremy was officially charged with arson. He had also been assigned a lawyer. He was in jail for now, and it seemed to me that was where he was going to stay. I wasn’t going to allow him to stay under the same roof as me if he got out on bail, so unless he could arrange somewhere else to stay, he was going to remain locked up as far as I was concerned.

  Mom, on the other hand, kept talking about how she hoped Jeremy came home, and by the time dinner was done, I had to set her straight. He wasn’t coming here. His obsession was with me, and no judge was going to allow him to stay under the same roof. Mom was devastated, but maybe what she’d needed was a dose of reality. I didn’t know.

  Dieter stood from where he’d been sitting on the sofa. “I need to go.” It was the last day before Dieter was set to go home. One more day before I had to face all this crap alone.

  “Yes, and then you and I need to talk. There are a lot of things on the table right now, and you need to think them through.” He hugged me, then pulled back and kissed me until my toes curled.

  For a few minutes, all this insanity drifted away and it was only Dieter and me. God, how I wished things could stay that way. I didn’t want to let him go, but he needed rest, the same as I did. The trip to Ocean City just a few days earlier seemed like a lifetime ago, and I wanted to go back there and wish all this other stuff away.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told Dieter, standing next to his car as he got inside.

  “Get some rest, and you and I can talk.” He closed the door, and I stepped back and watched as he left until I couldn’t see his lights any longer. Then I went back inside.

  Mom had gone up to bed, but Ella sat on the sofa, glaring at me like I’d pissed her off something awful. “He wants you to go with him, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes. Dante wants me to research studios and help him design the one that will be rebuilt.” I sat in the chair across from her, sighing softly. “But I can’t go.”

  “Why the hell not?” she demanded. Ella almost never swore, and I gaped at her. It was so surprising. “You deserve a life, the same as everyone else. Do you think I’m going to stay here with… that woman any longer than I have to?”

  “I know you passed your class,” I prompted.

  “And I’ll get my diploma in the mail, and then I’ll go look for a job of my own. Betty needs a server at the café and said she’d hire me. I’ll start there for now.” Her building confidence was good to see.

  I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she’d never make enough money to live on her own. But I loved her initiative and I wasn’t going to say anything to dampen it.

  “I wanna go to a dance school so I can teach, like you said.”

  “Good.”

  “But you can’t stay here and take care of your mom and give up your chance at happiness. You love Dieter, I know you do. You smile whenever you look at him, and he loves you too.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes you boys are so clueless.”

  “Okay.” I couldn’t make an argument against her. There were plenty of times when I felt clueless when it came to others. “But what about Mom?”

  “She’s an adult who will take everything from you for as long as she lives. There’s nothing in her but me, me, me. You need to get out, just like I do.” Ella leaned forward. “Don’t let her stop you from doing anything you want with your life. She made her decisions, and now you need to make yours.”

  Damn, she made so much sense. But could things be that easy? “How’d you get so smart?”

  She shrugged. “I’ve always been this way. You just never saw it.”

  She was right… again. I had never really seen her until recently, and Ella was much more interesting and had a deep well of common sense, something I seemed to lack most of the time.

  “Talk to the people you need to and find out about what they’re offering you. If it’s as good as you think it is, then go. You can’t stay here for me or Mom. You’ll resent us, and you know it.”

  “I probably would.”

  Ella stood. “Then go, and don’t let your mother whine and play the ‘helpless’ card. She needs to take care of herself. You and I don’t owe her the rest of our lives.” Ella didn’t owe my mother a damn thing, that was for certain.

  “Okay. I’ll think about it,” I said, and felt somewhat lighter and less worried. This was my life, and I did have a right to live it. I was a little scared of going to Europe with Dieter, but the idea excited me too. Maybe it was time for an adventure… one of my own.

  “Do more than think about it.” She stood and walked to the stairs, head held high as though she were some princess who had made a pronouncement to be obeyed.

  Chapter 10

  THE NEXT few days were hella
cious for all of us, but especially my mother. Jeremy was arraigned and bail was set so extraordinarily high that no one was willing to front the money, so he sat in jail. In addition, as I’d suspected, Jeremy would have to stay somewhere other than home, so that wasn’t going to work either. Mom went to visit him each day and came home more and more depressed.

  The one good thing was that Dieter had delayed his departure for a few more days and had been with me almost nonstop the entire time.

  “She’s going to need to work through it,” Ella said once Mom had left for her visit to the jail.

  Dieter nodded his agreement. “It is hard for her, but she will be okay. Your mother is stronger than you think she is.” He took my hand and squeezed my fingers. “She’s also stronger than she wants to admit because I think she’d rather have others do things for her than do them herself.” Dieter had certainly hit that mark dead center.

  “Probably.”

  “Florian…,” Ella warned. “You can’t use Mom as an excuse to keep from leading your life.” She shook her head. “Let your mom sink or swim. What are you going to do, stay here with her until she’s eighty and you’re a grumpy old man?” She rolled her eyes and then turned to Dieter. “I think you two need to talk.” She stood, getting ready to leave.

  “Please stay. I want to talk to you as well,” Dieter said, and Ella slowly sat back down, somewhat surprised. “Okay. I’ve spoken to Dante and we’ve developed a plan. First thing, you would need to get a passport, and that’s going to take a few weeks. I’m going to take you into the office in Baltimore tomorrow so you can apply for it. We just need to get pictures taken, and Dante found a place to have that done.”

  “Okay.” I wasn’t sure how I liked having things planned for me.

  “You know that Dante wants you to visit other studios to see how they work.” Dieter met my gaze. “But there’s more. The Royal Bavarian Works would like to bring you in as a guest artist. They want you to work with them for a year or so.”