Olivia continued up the front steps, and Shane followed her into the house. Inside she dropped his hand, her warmth lingering on his palm.
He took in the interior as he followed Olivia, and it was exactly how he pictured it. Olivia might have dressed in designer clothes and carried herself regally, but he knew, in the short time they’d known each other that wasn’t who she really was. From the worn sofa to the years of scratches on the wood floors beneath them… This house was Olivia. The entire house could probably fit in the foyer of Bayview Estate, but it was quaint and cozy, and with the family pictures on the walls and the extra chairs around the small kitchen table, it was a place full of values and love.
“It’s not Bayview Estate,” Olivia said. “But it’s home.”
He hated the look of disappointment in her eyes. “I would have killed to live in a place like this growing up. A place to call my home. A familiar place filled with memories I’d always be able to return to.”
Olivia’s lips parted, but Mr. Green walked in before she could say anything. He wondered what she would have said, but he’d think about that later. Right now, it was time to find out about his dad.
Mr. Green stepped into the living room, and Olivia motioned between them. “Shane, this is my dad. Dad, this is Shane.”
Shane held his hand out, and Mr. Green took it and yanked him into a hug. Mr. Green held him tight. It was as if by joining together they were erecting a bridge to connect the gap between past and present.
Mr. Green stood back and held Shane’s shoulders. “It’s uncanny,” he said. “You look just like him.”
“That’s what my mom used to say. She only had one picture of him, so I never had much to go off of. Sometimes I wondered if she said it to make me feel better.”
“Not at all. You’re his spitting image. I probably have some pictures packed in some boxes in the attic. I’ll look for them.”
“You don’t have to go to the trouble…”
“It would be my pleasure. I’ve avoided the past for so long and I feel like it’s time I finally take a stroll back and remember the good times.” Mr. Green walked to the living room, and Shane went to follow, but noticed Olivia turning away.
“Liv,” he said, and she spun toward him. “Will you…?” He didn’t know how to ask her to be there with him, to give him the strength he needed to get through this conversation. But it was as if she understood him just fine.
She joined his side, and they walked into the living room together. “Please sit,” he said to Shane. Shane took a spot on the loveseat, and Olivia sat beside him.
Her thigh pressed against his, and he relished in the comfort of her presence.
A little hairball ran into the room, planting his paws apart in a menacing stance. The dog couldn’t weigh more than six pounds. He barked with the viciousness of a teddy bear, and Olivia scooped him up. “This is John Andre.” John Andre licked her cheek then focused his dark brown gaze on Shane. “He doesn’t bite.”
Shane reached out to pet the little guy, and John Andre dodged his hand, staring at him with reservations.
“Don’t be a brat,” Olivia said to the pup, placing a kiss on the top of his head.
Shane tried again, and once his hand made contact, John Andre leapt from Olivia’s arms right into Shane’s. John Andre jumped up over and over, tongue flapping, trying to get in as many licks as he could.
A giggle came from Olivia. “He likes you.”
“He’s a good judge of character,” Mr. Green said.
A noise outside caught John Andres’s attention, and he jumped from the couch and ran full speed for the door, a string of barks following.
Olivia got up and opened the door. “Go get em!” she said as John Andre took off into the gated yard. Olivia returned to the loveseat, her thigh going right back against his. He resisted the urge to rest his hand on her knee and brought his focus to Mr. Green.
“Can you tell me what my dad was like?” Shane asked.
Mr. Green ran a palm over his mustache, and when his hand fell away, a smile spread wide on his face. Relief spread through Shane at the pure joy that radiated off of Mr. Green.
“Your dad was a real charmer. Could talk his way out of any situation, and though he was raised with unlimited wealth, he was the most down to earth person I’d ever met.”
“Where’d you meet? School?”
“Oh no. Shane’s parents would never put him in public school with the rest of us town folk. We met when we were thirteen. I was walking home from school, and these kids were picking on me. Shane rode up on his bike and got the kids to leave. He rode alongside me as I walked home, and we discovered our mutual love of Dungeons and Dragons.”
“My dad was a fantasy nerd?” Shane laughed.
“We weren’t nerds.”
“Dad,” Olivia said. “Yes, you were.”
“Maybe a little. Anyway, we started meeting up after school to play, and those kids never messed with me again. As we got older, our love for the game was overtaken by responsibilities and girls, but our friendship remained.”
“Olivia said you didn’t know why my dad finally left.”
Mr. Green shifted in his seat, eyes lowering beneath his wired frames. “I may have stretched the truth a bit.”
He didn’t look like the kind of man who lied; there was a soft innocence about him, and when Shane glanced at Olivia and saw the confused look cross her eyes, he knew that his original assessment was right.
“Can you tell me?” Shane asked. Mr. Green was his only hope at this point. He came to Morgan’s Bay wanting answers, and now that he was so close, he didn’t want to leave until he had them.
Mr. Green ran his hands over his knees “I don’t think it’s my place.”
“Please, you are the only person who is willing to speak with me about my dad without brushing my questions off. I just want to know why he left.”
For a moment, he thought Mr. Green would get up and walk out, but to Shane’s relief, the man stayed put. “Shane was in his father’s office when he stumbled across adoption papers. His adoption papers.”
A million scenarios had swirled through Shane’s mind about why his dad had left his family and an entire life behind. Never once did that scenario cross his mind.
“What?” Olivia gasped then slapped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry. Go on Dad.”
Beneath the wired frames, Mr. Green’s eyes leveled his gaze with Shane. “Your grandmother isn’t your biological grandmother.”
“He cheated on Mimi, didn’t he? And the woman got pregnant?” It was the only thing that made sense. Shane looked like Connor, and there was no way he could have any of the McConnell traits without their blood running through his veins.
Mr. Green exhaled slowly. “Your grandfather and grandmother were married after eight months of dating. Your grandfather had an affair very early into the relationship. The woman got pregnant. From what I know, your biological grandmother gave up her parental rights, and Mimi adopted him. They kept the truth to themselves, and Mimi treated Shane as her son. Anyway, he confronted your grandfather. It didn’t go well. Both said things that couldn’t be taken back.
“I’m sure my grandfather told him he was a mistake and an ungrateful brat.” After their meeting, Shane knew in all the years since his father took off, those feelings still simmered.
“Something like that,” Mr. Green confirmed. “He called me, telling me he was moving to California to get as far away from his family as possible. He asked me to go with him, but I had just met Celia, and I wanted to see it through.”
“Good decision, Dad. Mom turned out to be a keeper,” Olivia said, her loving tone helping to alleviate the tension in the room.
“I planned on taking a trip and meeting this new girl he told me about. But it never worked out. The last time we spoke, he said he had something to tell me, but I was home with Cindy, and she was a colicky baby. I could barely hear him over her crying, so he said he’d call me later. I never hea
rd from him again.” His voice quivered, and his eyes swelled with moisture. He swiped his eyes and stood, looking as if he wanted to run away from the conversation. “The next morning, he went out on his surfboard and never returned. The only solace I’ve ever been able to find in the whole awful tragedy is that he died doing what he loved.”
Even though there was never an upside to death, Shane recognized the comfort in the way his dad left the world. “My mom said he could stay in the water from sunbreak to sunset.”
“She wasn’t kidding. Our games of Dungeon and Dragons had to be put on hold in the summer months because your dad was always down at the beach. He tried to teach me one summer when we were sixteen.”
“Tried to teach you what? To surf?” Olivia barked out a laugh. “I would have paid money to see you try.”
“Obviously, it didn’t take.” He took his glasses off and studied them before sliding them back in place. “Sometimes I wonder, if I was out there in California, if he would have been in the water that day…”
Shane understood regrets better than anyone, and he also understood falling down the rabbit hole of what ifs. “You can’t think like that.”
“Took me along time not to. Even now I have a hard time ignoring all the different scenarios. Anyway, is there anything else you want to know?”
Shane didn’t even know where to begin. He had twenty-six years to think about it, and now that he had the chance, he couldn’t pluck a single question from the pile. Olivia’s finger brushed his, and the chaos in his mind settled down. A question pushed to the surface and Shane figured it was a good place to start. “What was his favorite kind of pie?”
Chapter 12
Bright rays of sun filtered in through the drawn curtains, and Shane slipped into his sneakers. He opened the blinds, basking the room in light. It was nice out, with no overcast and a promise of sunshine for the entire day. It would be a perfect time to head down to the beach, but he had a more pressing issue he needed to take care of.
He’d finally gotten an answer, but once again that answer came with so many more questions, and there were only two people who could answer them. Unfortunately, Mimi didn’t want to talk about the past unless they were discussing Shane’s history, and the other person, was an insufferable ass.
Grandfather was out of the question. If Shane never had to see him again, it would still be too soon. And whether or not Mimi would answer his questions was still to be determined, but he had to at least try. Milo’s car pulled up to the curb, and he honked once just as a text came through, notifying him Milo was there. Shane tugged a baseball cap on his head and shut the door behind him.
He got in the passenger side and gave Milo a fist bump. “One of these days I’ll get a car,” he said as Milo put the car in drive.
“No worries. I’m making burger money off of you.”
Shane barked out a laugh. “I’m happy to support your eating habits.”
They drove in silence. Shane had a million thoughts running through his mind. Why did Mimi stay with his grandfather? Why didn’t they tell his dad the truth? Why keep it from him? Mimi had said she’d had no idea Shane existed until he contacted her, so did that mean the rift between her and his father was never mended?
Milo came to a stop at the gates of Bayview Estate. He threw the car in park and ran a hand through his unruly hair. “Everything okay?”
Shane should have made more of an effort to strike up a conversation, but his head was stuck on a one-way track. “Lot of shit on my mind.”
“If you need to blow steam off later, give me a call. I’ll treat you to a burger.”
“With my fare.”
“Pretty much. I think of it as paying it forward from one friend to the next.”
Shane didn’t have friends. After experiencing the pain of loss, he decided it was better to go through life without forming relationships. He couldn’t get hurt when he wasn’t attached to anyone, but the people in Morgan’s Bay were making it hard for him to keep thinking that way.
After everything he’d been through, having a friend didn’t sound half bad. “I’ll think about it. Thanks.”
Shane got out of the car and marched up the long driveway to Bayview Estate. He’d given Mimi a heads up, so she knew he was coming; she just had no idea why.
He knocked on the door and waited. After a few minutes, he knocked again.
Mimi’s face appeared first, her blonde hair perfectly brushed and fluffed into place. “Shane, darling, come in. Come in!” She flung the door fully open and danced away. She had a martini glass in her hand and a smile on her face. “I’m having a cocktail,” she called over her shoulder. “Join me.”
Shane followed Mimi into the living room. Floor to ceiling windows gave panoramic views of the bay. Did his Dad play by the window when he was kid? What was his favorite toy? Did he appreciate the view when he was a teen? The larger than life house he got to live in?
Shane never cared about money or material things, but it would have been nice not see Mom struggle. He’d felt guilty when he’d gotten sick because he saw how much more of a burden Mom was handed.
Mimi stopped at a bar cart and held up a glass. “Cocktail?” she asked.
The grandfather clock in the far corner showed it was barely past noon. He enjoyed a beer or a cocktail every now and again, but he was also very aware of what he put into his body. “I’m good.”
Mimi shrugged. “Suit yourself.” She picked up a shaker and filled her glass, dropping an olive in to finish it off. She brought the drink to the couch with her and motioned for Shane to sit.
She took a sip of her martini then fished out the olive. She plopped the olive in her mouth and spoke around it. “What brings you here today?”
He had no idea how to broach the subject. Did he ease into it? Find a segue? “I know you’re not my grandmother,” he blurted. Mimi choked on the sip of martini she just took. She coughed and reached for a napkin. Shane grabbed the napkin and handed it to her. “At least not my biological grandmother,” he added.
She recovered and sat back on the couch. Her face paled, the tight set of her forehead drooped slightly, and her blue eyes darted toward the window, staring out to the bay. She cleared her throat. “Who told you?” her voice was faint, strangled by what Shane could only decipher as hurt.
“Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters,” she snapped. “It is no one’s business. This damn town and their big mouths. They just can’t help themselves. They love to knock me down because I live in the big house on the bay.”
Shane had no idea where this train of thought was coming from, and he wasn’t about to try and figure it out. He needed to stay on topic. “Nobody told me out of spite. They told me because I asked. I tried talking to you about my father, and you kept derailing the conversation. What else was I supposed to do? I just want to know where I came from. Is that too hard to understand?”
“No. No it’s not.”
“Then why did you want to keep this from me? Don’t you think I have the right to know?”
She put her martini glass on the coffee table that looked like it belonged in a modern art museum. She angled her body to face him.
“I didn’t say anything because I don’t care what a DNA test says. I am your grandmother, just as I was your father’s mother. I raised him. I woke up with him in the middle of the night for feedings. I stayed up with him when he had nightmares. I caught him sneaking into the house past curfew. I went to all of his basketball games and his debate meets. I devoted my life to him. So, I could give two shits what anyone says. He was my son, and I loved him with every breath in my body. When he…when he died, it broke me.”
She downed the rest of her martini, and a tear slipped down her cheek. Shane held his hand out to the martini glass. It was as good as time as any to put his bartending skills to use. She blinked up, tears coating the mascara on her lashes. “Thank you.”
He went through the motions of making a martini and
handed Mimi the finished product, along with a tissue to wipe her eyes. “Thank you,” she said again. “You’re very thoughtful. Just like your father.”
Sadness and longing consumed him. There were so many things he should have known but didn’t. He sat down and waited for Mimi to look his way.
“Can you tell me about him?”
Mimi smiled, her entire face lighting up and revealing the true beauty she was beneath the years of plastic surgery. “I’d love to.”
Chapter 13
There were still a few weeks until the official start of summer, but the weather was as impatient as the beach goers. Olivia, Harper, Isla, and Milo sprawled out on a sheet they’d draped across the sand and soaked up as much of the late morning sun as they could.
This was one thing Olivia missed. Living in a concrete jungle, there weren’t many opportunities to escape to the sandy shores of either the bay or the ocean, unlike at home where she was practically surrounded by both. Nothing could replace the feeling of her toes in the sand, not even an afternoon picnic in Central Park.
Milo lifted his foot onto the sheet, and Harper growled. “I swear it’s impossible for you to keep sand off the sheet.”
“You’re at the beach. What do you expect?” Milo asked, brushing the sand off the corner of the sheet.
“I think I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Olivia said on a sigh, placing her arms behind her head.
Isla turned to her side, facing them. The large hat she wore to protect her alabaster skin from the sun flopped forward, and she pushed it back into place. “Do you think this is what heaven is really like?”
Harper glanced at Olivia, silently asking who should take the question on. Isla’s grandmother had been receiving treatment for pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, they didn’t detect it early, and she was already in the final stages.
Olivia pushed her sunglasses up on top of her head. “I think heaven is whatever you want it to be.”
“Me too,” Isla said, a slight lilt in her tone.
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