Parker had blocked me. Fuck.
I shoved my phone back in my pocket. A long-suffering sigh drifted over from my mother. "I am sorry, Nash. I know you're in the middle of important business. I truly wouldn't have asked you to come if it wasn't important."
I echoed her sigh and sank into the delicate armchair facing the settee, careful to land easily. These chairs looked barely substantial enough to hold my mother, much less a full grown man. This entire drawing room was packed full of delicate, ornate frippery, as my father had liked to call it.
The old-fashioned word fit. From the abundance of china figurines, to paintings and other objet d'art, the room was intensely feminine and jam-packed with stuff right down to the marble fireplace, which held an elaborate arrangement of flowers on this summer day, instead of cold logs. I shifted one of the fringed pillows behind me and accepted the china tea cup my mother handed me, resisting the urge to send her a sullen sneer.
She was sometimes silly and over-dramatic, but she was my mother and, clearly, whatever this was, it was important to her. I could behave like an adult for at least one more hour before I lost my patience and left. Maybe two hours. I loved my mother, even when she was driving me nuts.
I understood the reason for the meeting a few minutes later when the double doors of the drawing room slammed open and Tyler strode into the room. His face was fixed in a bland, genial expression aimed at our mother, until his eyes fell on me. In an instant his face twisted into a mask of rage, before unwinding back into something close to the Tyler he wanted our mother to see.
It wouldn't work. Claudia could be flighty and dramatic, but she was not a fool. Tyler had made that mistake far too many times. He also mistook her love and subsequent indulgence for weakness. Another error on Tyler's part. He'd made far too many of them in the past few years. I was trying not to take too much satisfaction in his mistakes coming home to roost. It was a lot more entertaining now that Parker wasn't at his side, suffering from his stupidity along with him.
Knowing it would only annoy him, I nodded in his direction, but didn't acknowledge him otherwise. This was Claudia's show, after all. Given all I had to hide from both of them, I was going to say as little as possible. A good plan, since Claudia's words left me speechless.
"Tyler, please take a seat. I have some business to discuss with both of you."
Tyler dropped into a spindly arm chair, crossing one ankle over his knee, affecting nonchalance. The chair creaked ominously, and I waited to see if it would collapse beneath him. No such luck. Tyler's jaw flexed with poorly hidden irritation as we waited.
My mother set her empty teacup on the tray and folded her hands in her lap, taking a moment to look at both of us in turn. Clearing her throat, she began, "I've been doing a lot of thinking in the past few weeks. About your father, and what he would want if he were still with us. About what he left me, and what my responsibility is to his memory."
She sniffed delicately, dabbing a linen napkin beneath her eyes.
"I know you miss him, Mom," I said.
"I do, darling. I miss him every day. And it's very important to me to honor what he would have wanted."
"Which is?" Tyler prompted, a sneer ghosting across his face before he hid it with a smile. "I'm sure Nash has more important things to do than hang around here. Let's get on with it."
A chill ran up my spine when Claudia ignored Tyler's rudeness and turned to me. "I do know that you have important priorities, Nash, and I appreciate you coming at my request, as inconvenient as it must have been. I promise you'll understand shortly."
"It's okay, Mom," I said. It wasn't, but it was. She's my mom. She's allowed to be inconvenient.
"It's not," she disagreed, "but it is necessary."
"What about my important business?" Tyler pushed in, the sneer back in full force. "You're not sorry for inconveniencing me?"
Again, Claudia ignored him. This was not like her. Usually she bent over backwards to appease Tyler, believing that if she just gave him enough of everything–attention, love, money–it would fix what was wrong inside him.
"In thinking about your father and what he would have wanted," she said, "I've come to some conclusions. The first relates to Tyler." She shifted in her seat and met Tyler's eyes, her back straight, hands folded sternly on her knees.
"Tyler, I'm cutting you off. You'll still have access to the trust your grandmother left you. There should be enough there to keep a roof over your head while you get settled. I will not be funding your life any longer. Your credit cards have been cancelled, and the locks have been changed on the family homes. In addition, I've removed you from my will. If you can find suitable employment and maintain it, I'll consider reinstating your place in my will."
"What! You can't do that!" Tyler surged to his feet, toppling the chair behind him. It landed with a sharp crack. I braced, considering the delicate breakables surrounding us.
"I can and I have," Claudia said, reminding me suddenly of my father, immovable and resolute.
I'd been cut off a few times. After the sting of the first, I'd stopped caring. I was my own man. My father hadn't been my provider. He'd always been my dad, whether I was in the will or out.
Tyler's jaw worked as he fought for a response. He tried begging first.
"Mom, why are you doing this?" A heated glance at me. "Did he talk you into this? I don't understand. You want me to find a job? It's absurd."
"No Tyler," Claudia said, a slight waver in her voice, "what's absurd is you expecting me to finance an extravagant lifestyle while you do nothing with yourself. It was one thing when you had a wife to look after, but you don't have that excuse anymore. Your credit card bill was thirty-two thousand dollars last month! You don't have rent, a mortgage, or a car payment. You don't even pay for your own phone! As your father would have said, the gravy train is over. Whatever you have left in your grandmother's trust, I suggest you make it last. You won't be getting another penny from me."
Tyler stood there, shoulders slumped, his eyes flashing from me to our mother, desperately trying to calculate his next move. I almost felt sorry for him. If it hadn't been for Parker, I would have. Remembering everything he'd put her through, I was all out of compassion.
"Can I at least go stay in the Hamptons until I figure out what to do next?" he asked, looking at her through lowered lashes, his most pitiful expression on full display. To my surprise, she didn't fall for it.
