“Oh, Harrison. I’m so sorry,” Emma said. She paused in putting in her earrings. Wesley came up behind her and kissed her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. Then he noticed the phone and a cool mask slipped over his features.
“It’s just the guys,” Emma explained, and he instantly relaxed. “Do you need us to fly out?”
Emma and Wesley had recently announced their retirement and were in the thick of legal battles to free Wesley from the tyranny of his father. The good news was his awful father was set to be arrested without bail within the next week. Their life was stressful enough without me adding to it.
Wesley leaned down to speak to me. “We have access to the jet any time you need it.”
Damn, if that man hadn’t grown on me. I used to think he was a proper arse, but he had spent his entire life protecting Emma from his family, unbeknownst to all of us.
“No, thank you.” I scrubbed my face. “Things are just hectic here. Really complicated,” I explained.
The others nodded back.
I heard Kate whisper to Charlie, “Should we get Agata for this?”
Charlie tilted his head to consider.
“No,” I said quickly. I wasn’t ready for their sturdy Polish housekeeper to put me in my place, which made me realize just as quickly that I had a guilty conscience. I supposed it was why I called them in the first place. “I feel bad being here. Adding to the stress. I just—I think I’m making things worse. I should probably go, right?” I asked.
“Does George want you to leave?” Charlie asked.
“No, uh, he didn’t say that.” I thought about the recognition in his eyes when I entered his office earlier. The release of tension as I sat next to him. The nagging guilt intensified.
“What do you want to do?” Emma asked, presumably to me.
“I want to help him,” I said with a sigh.
“And you think leaving would do that?” Emma asked.
“I-I don’t know,” I admitted. I wanted to tell them I wasn’t the crisis person people called in these situations. I wanted to explain that things were even more complicated than they knew, that a little girl was here too with no sign of her mother returning, and Frankie wouldn’t elaborate.
Frankie. Frankie was drowning in all this. Her stress was evident in the tight lines of her mouth and her constant worried frown when she thought nobody was looking. But I was always looking at her.
I couldn’t find the words to express any of that.
“From what it sounds like, George isn’t getting any better, Harrison,” Emma said. “I know your heart, and while you might be scared, you don’t want to have any regrets.”
“Regrets are far worse than being there when things get hard,” Charlie said, jaw clenching. Kate’s hand moved to his shoulder to rub.
“Yeah,” I said, my throat too tight to elaborate.
I sighed. I wanted to be better. I wanted to be more than the lowest expectation of me.
“I can’t imagine leaving him alone,” I said.Any of them.
There was a sharp rapping on the door before light spilled into the room, causing us all to jump. “Why do adults hide in closets to cry?” Collette asked as she swung open the door.
“It’s a larder,” everybody on the phone yelled out.
“I’m not crying,” I said.
“Hmm.” She narrowed her eyes and leaned forward where I sat on the box that was making my bum numb. Her nose pressed against mine as she looked between my eyes. “You only have one eye. I’m done with my snack, and Frankie said she needs to start dinner, and you’re blocking the pasta.” She straightened and noticed the phone and saw the other faces there. “Hello.” She waved. “I remember you!”
They all smiled and waved back.
“I’ll, uh, talk to you all later,” I said. I’d been about to hang up when Wesley spoke.
