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He jerks his chin at his bag. He looks frazzled.
“Okay. Is there anything I can do?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No. I’ll just grab a cab out front and…” he thrusts his fingers through his hair with an expression of exasperation.
I grab his hand and squeeze. “I’ll say a prayer for your dad,” I say. “What about a phone charger. You got one in your laptop bag?”
He looks surprised. “No. Good call.”
He pulls me close and kisses me. He kisses me hard, but also passionately. “I’m sorry our night is getting cut short,” he softly says into my ear.
“Me, too, but family first. Can you let me know how he’s doing when you get a chance?”
He nods and I follow him to his bedroom. He changes into fresh clothes, grabs his phone charger cord and block, then shrugs his jacket on.
“Oh. This is for you.” He pulls an envelope out of his bag after stuffing the cord and block in. “Company card for you.”
He sets it on the counter and I follow him to the door where he grabs his laptop bag from the coat hook and kisses me one more time.
“Call you later.”
“Safe travels,” I say, reaching up and rubbing my fingertips along his jaw.
He gives me a look of regret, but I see the worry on his face.
He goes.
28
Austin
I get to the hospital to the good news that Dad is out of surgery and that it went well.
It’s late, but the waiting room is still filled with Carmichaels, with Alice, and Roger Greer who is unabashedly sitting there with his arm around my mother’s chair.
I walk in to my mother shooting daggers at Alice Roberts despite that Mom is sitting there with her boyfriend. Hypocrite.
Yeah. She must be shocked. Dad having a heart attack while having sex with his secretary in a supply closet would shock her since the two of them haven’t had sex in eons and Dad has said he’s been impotent for a decade.
Alice has been Dad’s assistant for years. Many of them. I’ve got no idea yet what the deal is with them, but the fact that she’s here with the rest of the family probably means it was more than just a romp in the supply closet.
And Dad told her about my situation, which usually wouldn’t be his style – to discuss family drama with an outsider. Maybe he and Alice are serious.
I greet her with a smile. “You okay?”
She nods, not looking okay.
Roger eyed me warily when I got in and got updated by my sister who sat between Alice and Carly. Dad is still in recovery and someone will be out shortly with another update.
And despite Roger Greer’s eying me when I walk in, it takes a minute before I remember about Sienna. It feels like a long time ago that I got the call she’d been arrested. A lot of things have happened since then. It feels like days rather than hours since then.
“Come with me for a coffee run?” Aiden says.
“We don’t need coffee,” my mother says, speaking for her and Roger.
“I need a muffin or something sweet,” Carly says. “And a little caffeine jolt.”
“Alice?” Aid asks.
“Maybe a tea. Hot. Weak. Extra milk, no sugar. Thank you, Aiden.”
I just got here so I wouldn’t mind sitting for a second, but I decide to go with my brother instead. Clearly he wants to chat.
“Fucking his secretary in the supply closet?” I mutter once I know we’re out of earshot.
“Quite a day,” Aiden remarks.
I scoff. “I’d say. You don’t know the half of it.”
“Yeah? The Sienna shit?”
I’m not about to talk about my thing with Jada.
“Yeah. What’s Audra been like?”
“Fuck,” Aiden’s shoulders jiggle with laughter as we get to the lobby of the hospital. There’s a lineup at the coffee shop so we hang back.
“She started calling and asking questions as soon as she heard he was rushed to the hospital. Don’t even know how she heard. She probably has spies at CC, but yeah, she gets to the hospital and starts firing more questions and tryin’ to get Alice to go get coffee for the family and that makes Adele snap at her that Alice isn’t there in an assistant capacity, she’s there as Dad’s significant other. I think Adele knows this has been goin’ on and just didn’t tell us. And then Audra starts firing questions about where Dad was when it all happened, and I finally threw in when Alice went to the ladies’ room that Dad and Alice were bumpin’ uglies. Ally told Carly what she walked in on. Apparently Ally walked in while Dad was already keeling over. Audra nearly keeled over when she heard, and it shut her up. She’s been quiet as a mouse since.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah, make you hate bein’ in New York even more, missin’ out on that.”
