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I nod approvingly. “Congratulations, kid. You did good.”
He puts the picture down, his smile falling and his eyes growing serious.
“We have a lot to talk about, Remi.”
“I know. I’m sorry I ghosted on you like that. I know you were probably reeling, too.”
He sighs, and steeples his fingers under his chin. “I was. But… I’d known for a couple weeks by the time she told you. I’m sorry for that. She wasn’t sure that you didn’t know. She said she’d come to your family to tell them she was pregnant with me and that your dad was missing and they turned her away.”
He drops this last bit of news and it lands like a two-ton bomb.
“You didn’t know that?” he deduces from my silence and expression.
“Clearly, I don’t really know anything. They told us that our father died in a boating accident when I was two. That’s all. I was too young to remember anything. They had a memorial service for him and everything. I’ve seen the pictures. What a crock of shit,” I spit.
“Why is a memorial service a crock of shit? They thought he was dead, right? I mean Gigi did. She said he wouldn’t have left her and not come back if he could have.”
“He left us, anything was possible,” I say woodenly, a hollow spot in my chest opening wider as I come to terms with that again.
“I know. I’m sorry,” Hayes says.
“You have nothing to be sorry for. Our parents are fuckups. And we’re left holding all of the rubble from their mess.”
His shoulders fall a little and he sighs. “Thank fuck you feel that way, Remi.”
“Thank fuck you do, too,” I say sincerely. “We’re going to need to keep our wits about us.” I take a breath and tell him the rest. “Gigi didn’t just give me a letter in the hospital room. She gave me keys to the house where she and my -- our dad lived. She said she had papers drawn up a long time ago, deeding it to me and Regan and Tyson. That she thought it’s what he would have wanted.”
“So that’s where you’ve been? I have to say, your organization is a well-oiled machine. They ran seamlessly without you for months before the first real snafu happened.”
“My business manager is an expert in crisis management. And I’ve got ironclad NDAs for every single member of my staff. And, they’re loyal. We forgot that one event. If not, no one would have noticed.”
Hayes leans back in his chair. “Well, if your shit is so tight, why are you back?”
“A couple of reasons. First one’s a woman,” I say simply
“You look like the cat who caught the canary. Is she the one who got away?”
I give him a sideways glance. “Man, shut up. I have never mentioned anybody getting away.”
“You told me once, I should make up with Confidence before she got a taste of the world without me. I got the distinct impression you were speaking from experience.”
“That’s some damn good advice,” I say.
“Just fucking tell me, Remi.”
“Yes. She’s the one. She got away once, but I’ll be damned if she does again.”
“Do I know her?”
“She grew up in Houston, but she left the same year I went to college, so I doubt it. She lives in New York. She’s got a kid.”
His eyebrows shoot up. “So, the motherfucker got his MILF.”
I’m annoyed that he delivered that line better than I did. “Shut up, man. And as much as I’d love to talk about her all night, she’s not why I’m here.”
“Tell me, then.”
“When I went out to the house, I had hoped I would get some answers. Find out what happened to him.”
