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“What exactly did he say?”
Leo’s insistence succeeded in drawing Grae from the tousled covers. “He said drama in our family has been around since he was a kid. He could recall a time when it wasn’t like that. Said he was old enough to remember the love we used to have for each other. That verbatim enough for you?”
“Keep me posted, all right?” Leo urged.
Grae didn’t seem to notice the hollow element in his uncle’s voice. “There’s some kind of group session with the retreat’s therapists tonight,” he went on, relaying the events on tap. “Won’t that be loads of fun…”
Grae’s obvious sense of foreboding seemed to ease a bit of Leo’s dread. “Remember the best part is that you’re getting to see more of Tielle than you have in a year.”
“Yeah…” Grae settled onto one of the two armchairs in the bedroom alcove. There, he bowed his head and conjured the image of Tielle from the night before. The missed beauty of her breasts and arousing curves…the way she felt next to him, how she sounded in his ear as he pleasured her…it definitely wouldn’t be difficult to recall the best parts about being there.
“Keep me posted, all right?” Leo repeated the instruction and ended the conversation seconds later.
Grae set his mobile on the windowsill before propping his bare feet on the accompanying armchair. He massaged his eyes and then directed his gaze toward the ceiling. He thought of what he’d said to Tielle about being in his assigned room while she was just there above him and within walking distance.
It would all have to wait, he knew, until Faro showed his colors and they could get to the bottom of what the weekend was supposed to be about. Obviously, the man was one for drawing out the suspense. That wouldn’t help much in terms of getting to what he was most interested in.
Perhaps it’d be a little helpful to give his brother a slight nudge toward revealing his hand earlier. He’d done it before, Grae recalled. Of course, it was always easiest before an audience. A smile defined the curve of his smile as an idea took hold.
* * *
“Des!” Faro greeted his aunt warmly as they both entered the dining room for breakfast that morning. He gestured for her to precede him into the lovely room. The place was utterly inviting, heated comfortably by the healthy blaze churning in the hearth.
“Thank you,” Desree said. “Wonderful location.” She hooked the strap of a lavender tote over a chair at the table she’d selected. “I can’t think of a lovelier place for an event like this.”
Faro seemed taken aback. “I thought you’d be a little ticked at me for dragging Tielle into our family drama.”
A little smile crossed her face as she prepared her coffee at the buffet. “You’ve got as much unfinished business with her as anyone, and she’s very well aware of our family drama. We should be able to depend on her for discretion at the very least.”
“That’s true,” Faro agreed, as if Desree’s reason was one he had not considered. “Well, I hope the rest of the family will follow my lead and own up to whatever issues they need to get off their chests.”
Desree tested her coffee and decided a touch more sugar was needed. “Are you so sure they will?”
Faro had approached the buffet to fill a plate with bacon and potatoes. “Nothing will ever get back to normal if they don’t.”
Des observed him. “What do you mean ‘back to normal’? What exactly constitutes normal in your mind?”
Faro added a few more spoonfuls of the breakfast potatoes to his plate and followed up with chunks of cantaloupe and grapes. “There’s a tension that’s slowly weaved its way through the family. It’s been destroying us little by little ever since.”
Desree had finished doctoring her coffee and gaped at her nephew. “What is this tension, Faro? You say you’ve been aware of it since you were a child?”
Still preparing his plate, Faro smirked. “I thought that’d get the attention of certain folks.”
“Why was that important?” Desree’s expressive brown eyes narrowed.
