by Falon Gold
“I won’t be here either, guys,” Astrid adds. “Have to go to work, so we probably need to find someone to be here with Blake when the Powers show up. We need to combat their shadiness as much as we can before he’s alone with them.”
I love when this woman tries to shelter me. Hauling her into my side, I kiss the top of her head. “Don’t worry about me, guys. Don’t go out of your way to babysit me. I need to learn to deal with the parents.”
Mama O wobbles her head. “You would say that. Never expecting extra from anyone for yourself, except food. You haven’t changed at all.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“It’s good, Son,” Pop says, with a huge grin.
Astrid starts petting my back. “Go get ready, baby. I need to get ready too. And there are quite a few Owens.”
“Okay, don’t leave yet, Mama O and Pops.” I reverse toward the bathroom.
“Never,” she says sadly.
After Astrid delivers my outfit, I encourage her to eat while I get my hygienic acts out of the way. I have no issues with performing them correctly. Something else to be grateful for. Unzipping the bag, I find a black suit and dress shirt with leather loafers, along with boxers and a tie. I’m not pleased, a tee-shirt and jeans kind of guy who needs briefs to prohibit his junk from swinging everywhere. Since it’ll be an imposition on someone to go get my own clothes and I need to play the part the parents want me to, I put on the damn suit. Highly inconvenienced, I enter the room where Astrid has just finished up scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast, and draining a plastic tumbler of water.
Approaching the bed, I wonder whether she ever had morning sickness. Astrid’s mouth drops open midchew. Mama O and Pops are seated in the single chair, as they normally are, her in his lap with their jaws on the ground too. I sit beside Astrid. “Did you ever have morning sickness?”
She swallows. “No, and I answered that because you wouldn’t know that at all.”
“You left right after you found out you were pregnant. I know.” And I’d love to forget it.
“You look beautiful, Blake,” she says bleakly.
My head drops to the side, as I palm her cheek. “You don’t sound too happy about that.”
“You just seem to fit right in with your parents, and I have to admit it’s heartbreaking, but I know you’ll come back to me.”
“Damn straight, and this thing is uncomfortable. I’d have someone go get my clothes for me, but I think I should leave the suit in place for a front for the parents. Since you’re going to be at work, I thought I tell them to come get me after the Owens are through visiting.”
She dusts her hands free of crumbs over the plate. “I get it, babe. You want to get this over with. If you want to cut out on them early, just call me. I’m in your contacts.”
“I know, love. I went through my phone last night, and guess what? I can still read.”
Astrid playfully slaps at my chest. “Silly.”
“Every day,” Pops groans, and lifts Mama O to her feet. “We’ll be going now. You guys need some time alone. Luke and Natalia have already called, wanting in here. Come by the house, you two, as soon as you have time. I’m usually at home by six. Lydia is there all day sometimes. We’ll get out your hair now so someone else can get in it.”
More hugging before they leave, Astrid communicating her goodbyes first before she gets ready for the day. My attention is pasted to the bathroom door, while I eat, as she does whatever women do in the morning before work.
Last night, after she dozed off as soon as her head hit the pillow, I imagined it would be her clinging to me before I left with the parents. Yeah, well, I think it’s going to be me doing the clinging in about half an hour. Do I want to talk her out of going to ASD? Hell yes! Am I going to? No.
She comes out in a purple maternity dress at the same time someone raps on the room’s entrance. A man with the similar build as Pops and much gruffer air about him answers my, “It’s open.”
He steps to the side, so an elf-sized Native American woman can walk in. She cuddles a toddler who’s a cross between his parents on her hip. They all say, “Hey, Blake.” Their faces emerge on the porch of a house that I took Astrid back to after chasing down her truck.
“Hey, Uncle Luke, Natalia, and Jr. Why haven’t I started calling you Aunt Natalia yet?” That seems to break the ice for her who charges me, limbs too short to reach completely around me.
“Because I wasn’t in the immediate family when you started calling everyone uncles and aunts. You were a teenager when I married Luke, and aunt just never got tacked on to my name. I don’t mind though,” she murmurs against my shoulder, with Uncle Luke hanging over hers. I’m not the only one who’s overprotective.
“Well, I mind, Aunt Natalia.” That’s enough to make her cry and Uncle Luke hug us both.
Each meeting with the Owens will go the same way. Two adults, their children if they have them, will totter in carefully, as if they’re walking on eggs. Then someone starts weeping. I’ll have at least one to five flashbacks for each new face. It’s not all my memory, but it’s something. Then Astrid looks down at her cellphone from her place on the bed, and announces that it’s time for her to leave. I plant my mouth on hers before she can say anything else. When Astrid flattens my willpower to let her go, she backs off.
“Shit, Blake.” She fans herself. “I’m seriously thinking about calling in on my first day after that.”
“I won’t be mad with you if you do.” I receive a smack across the chest for doling out my approval.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t, but Councilman Alder is probably already on the way. It wouldn’t be good to stand him up. I need to prepare for your first day too, and I have no idea when that is going to be or what I should be doing. I do know it’s going to be torture being in your office when you’re not there. That’s going to be new for me, and I don’t like it, but it’s good I have somewhere else to be because I’ll probably try to strangle your mother.” There is that.
“What if I meet you at the station? I don’t want to go home without you, and you can show me around my own apartment.”
“Hmmph, I bet you’ll want to find the bedroom first too, huh?”
“Of course. What red-blooded man wouldn’t when they have a woman like you?”
“Typical.”
“You probably say that about me a lot, don’t you?”
“No. You’re one of the few good ones, and that’s why it is so easy to love you, but I have to go, baby.”
“Okay.” I move back, so she can approach the door. “You should let me walk you out now before I don’t let you go period. There is a bed behind me.”
She beats a path to the door. “And a chair,” she says smugly before entering the hallway.
“Woman, stop it.”
She smiles back at me, and I give it some serious thought to kiss her until she says to hell with ASD. I settle for placing my fingers on her spine until we reach her truck where the sun and soft breeze play in her curls.
“I love you, Blake.”
“I love you more, sweetheart.” I help her in, then watch the Denali’s brake lights until they disappear. Yep, I don’t like this at all. I should be with her. Instead, I must play the good son to the bad parents.
Inside the hospital, I stop at the nurses’ station and ask them to ring up Dr. Ellis. Sitting here waiting alone, when all my family have come and gone, just doesn’t appeal to me. I find it abnormal that none of my blood relatives have come by. I only demanded that the parents come back in the evening. What would I have done if I hadn’t had the Owens and Astrid? It’s a wonderful thing that I’ll never know.
Sasha replaces the phone on its base. “Dr. Ellis is on his way to you in twenty minutes, Mr. Powers.”
“Thank you.” I extract my phone from my front pocket and scroll through the missed calls list until I locate the mother’s number. From the double digits sitting by their individual numbers, it’s rare for me to pick up when they�
�re summoning.
Dragon Lady answers on the second ring. “Hello, Son. I do hope you feel better today.” Her well-wishes are warm, but icicles form on my arteries anyway.
“Hello, and I do. Dr. Ellis is about to discharge me. You can come get me now. Might as well get this over with.”
“Excellent, Blake. We have so much to talk about. Lacey, call the driver around.”
“What exactly do we need to talk about?”
“Why don’t we talk about it when we’re face to face?” What difference does it make?
“Well, I’m good with discussing it now.”
“I’m not, Blake. We should all be together like we used to be.”
I expect the sparking of moments of the time when a family gathering occurred. Nothing. She’s lying. How far will she go along with it? “When was that? Specifically, when I was an adult, if that makes it easier for you.”
“All the time.”
Inside my room, I plop down in the chair. “Like when?”
“Blake, this is not helping your condition. You’re supposed to remember stuff like this on your own. I’ll see you in twenty minutes. Goodbye.”
“Seriously, how did her teeth not fall out her mouth after the explosion of lies from her tongue?” I ask my screensaver of a grinning Astrid in uniform, then hustle the phone back into my pocket before I change my mind about looking into the Powers from the inside. I blow air toward the ceiling.
What have I gotten myself into?
I should be proposing to Astrid instead.
Chapter Fourteen
Blake
Dr. Ellis is much quicker at discharging me than he is at diagnosing. Yeah, that’s how it’s supposed to be. However, I’d rather be going to Astrid’s truck than the parents’ limousine illegally parked in front of the lobby doors. I swear I’d write them a ticket, if I knew how to. For someone that wants me in their lives badly, neither parent got out the car to hear what I can’t do until my injury is healed, which is just about everything.
An aging chauffeur exits the car and opens the back door. “Hope you feel better soon, Mr. Powers.” Nelson Thurman. His name is all I know about him; besides the fact that he’s been with the Powers since I was a child. That’s all I ever knew.
“Thank you, Nelson.” I climb inside to the stares of the parents beside me, smiling like they’ve been botoxed.
Are they even capable of real emotions?
Doubt it.
Nelson closes the door the second I notice the dark-haired man on the seat under the tinted divider. His white suit is tailored. The cost of it could feed a family for a year. He looks more like my father than I do. Well, how Martin would look if he was healthy, that is. I get an instant headache from a surge of pictures coming in fast and furious, my temper rising with each one.
“Camron,” I say blandly. I’ve known him for most of my life too, and he’s no better than the parents.
He grins. “Yep, it’s me, cousin.”
I don’t return the gesture. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard about the incident and came to make sure my favorite cousin was good.”
“Why?”
His smile slips. “Because we’re family, Blake.”
“Are we? We haven’t talked or been in the same room since we were twelve, on the last annual trip I took with the parents to Italy for a meeting at the parent company. You’ve lived in New York for eight years since you left Italy, graduated Stanford University, and opened an extension of the Powers’ empire in Candleton, New York. I’m relearning that this family doesn’t show up unless there’s something in it for them? So why are you really here?”
“Blake!” Dragon lady rumbles. I ignore her, didn’t sign up for making nice with anyone, just find out what they’re up to, and advise them to get lost afterwards.
Camron glances at the parents. “Because Ashley and Martin called me and asked me to be here. I’m truly concerned about you, Blake, and the Power’s empire belongs to you too.”
“No, it doesn’t. I explicitly said I never wanted to work for the empire, and yet, the first thing the parents do is try to immerse me in it after I damn near get my block knocked off on the job.”
“That’s because you shouldn’t be working that job anyway,” the mother says patronizingly. “It’s beneath you. It’s time to step up to take your place at the head of your family. We’ve let you have your time as Sheriff. It’s time you give up on that little job and come back where you belong.”
“Let me? Being Sheriff is what I love to do,” I counter. “It’s where I belong, not going to change.”
“You’re not helping with the insults, Ashley,” Camron snipes. “Blake, will you at least let me show you the new business before you just write us off again?”
“That’s why I’m here.” Among other things. They haven’t presented me with the real reason for this ride yet. I should’ve suspected they’d find someone to do their dirty work though.
“Good. Let’s enjoy the scenery or you can tell me about your girl on the way to the resort that your parents are building and need to check on. They need our input on a few things, and I’d like to meet the new additions to the family while I’m here.”
“Our input? I don’t think so, Camron.”
If this is the family gathering that the mother convened, to convince me we’re tight-knit, she’ll have to do better, if that’s possible. “How many businesses are we going to visit? I have to get back to Astrid and my son. The farther I get away from them the sicker I feel.” I’m not lying—nausea is active in my esophagus and promising to make my breakfast reappear.
“We’re going to only one, Blake. Why can’t I meet them?”
“I don’t want them any more tainted with the dynamic of this family than they already are. I hate to contaminate the high and mighty Powers with Astrid’s brown skin, her middle-class upbringing, and job. She’s someone this family isn’t willing to acknowledge as human with feelings. You’re a Powers too, Camron.”
He winces. I think I hurt his feelings.
“That’s enough disrespect, Blake,” the father speaks up. Now, where was his spine when I was growing up?
“Is it really, father? I’m failing to see why I should listen to anything you say when you tried to alienate the woman I love last night before she could give the impression she wanted anything to do with you, denied my child before he’s even born, and didn’t bother to come inside while Dr. Ellis was releasing me. But the mother was pretty vocal about getting me placed in her care like I’m two years old, for easy contact to fool me into believing things that this family isn’t capable of. You’re always all in for whatever your wife wants. This isn’t a family. This is a circus, and she’s the ringleader. Am I wrong?”
“I didn’t deny or alienate anyone, Blake,” he defends.
“That’s right. You stood behind her and let her do all the ranting and name-calling. You’re just guilty by association. That sounds so much better. I should’ve never gotten in this car.”
Animosity wafts off the mother, as she crosses her legs beneath a black, calf-length skirt. “I will apologize to your little girlfriend if you at least go with us to the site.”
“The little girlfriend has a name. Astrid, and she doesn’t need you to apologize, especially since you’ll only be doing it to placate me. She’s not rich, but she’s not stupid either.”
“Still, I’ll apologize.”
“Why?”
“Because the further I push her away, the further you run. The Owens have already stolen your loyalty from us. The least you could do is let us work on getting it back before running back to her.”
“The least I can do is forgive you two for throwing parties and raising money for my sister that isn’t here while ignoring your son his whole life. That’s how you lost my loyalty. And now that I’m grown, I’m of some use to you. I won’t let you use me like that. Stuff your business in—”
“Blake!” Camron yells.
>
Yeah, I may have been about to take it too far, but my shoulders feel lighter. I understand why I offered to see them today; needed to purge my system of the baggage I’ve been carrying around since I was a little boy that loved his parents even when they were oblivious to what he needed.
“Camron, I didn’t ask them to make me live in the shadow of my sister, and I wished she had lived. Maybe, I would’ve had someone to love me back in their household. I don’t regret the parties they threw in her honor though because they brought me parents that loved me like their own, and the sister I didn’t have would become Malisa. I got what I needed, and it didn’t come at a cost.”
The father grimaces. “You have your memories back then?”
I almost mistake his question as true interest.
“Yes, I do.” I want to call Astrid badly, just not with the company I’m in. They’re so toxic they could pollute her mood over the phone and dilute the good news.
His crossed hands in his lap become captivating. “When?”
“Do you care?”
He looks me directly in the eyes for the first time in years. “Yes.” Damn, I believe him this time, but the mother will annihilate his concern quickly. He’ll let her.
“They came back just in time. That’s all you need to know.”
“Blake, we can’t repair our broken relationship if you don’t let us in.”
He opens a door that I’m tempted to put my foot in. The father isn’t as much the bad guy as the mother is.
“Does repairing include running your businesses?”
“Not for me, Prince, no.” So, he hasn’t forgotten the nickname he used to call me before the mother shut it down when he was getting too close to his own son.
