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“Just the usual day at a high-priced security firm. Trying to send people to help prevent the destruction of innocent civilian populations in faraway countries. Finding bodyguards for overpaid actors. Stocking understaffed militaries with equipment they can’t afford otherwise at massive discounts. You know. Those old chestnuts.”
I raise my eyebrow at the last thing but suspect he’s messing with me. “Do you ever have to go overseas yourself?”
Pierce sneaks up behind Chloe and pulls her into his lap, tickling her as she squirms to get away with a smile. “Occasionally, but never anywhere dangerous. I mostly just train people here, organize units, and sign new clients when I can. It’s nothing like what I used to do.”
I see a hint of sadness in his eyes. “Do you miss it?”
“Well, that’s a complicated question for another time. Speaking of complicated questions, Chloe and I are supposed to go to my parents’ house for dinner tonight. Do you want to join us?”
I flinch and he catches it, and he laughs. “You don’t have to!”
The last time I saw James and Carol Cochran was on the night of Pierce’s graduation party, and it remains the most humiliating night of my life. I hadn’t even considered the prospect of having to face them again when I agreed to this insanity, and now that it’s on the table, I feel panic setting in. But there’s also no way I can possibly avoid them for however long this goes on. If for some reason the Cannizzo family agrees to my payment plan, I may be able to stay in Chloe’s life forever. That means telling the Cochrans the truth. Better they know I’m here now if that’s even a possibility.
“No, I’ll go. I guess I owe them an apology, huh?”
Pierce turns back to me, his face deadly serious. “Arie, you don’t owe them anything. Not a goddamned thing. If anything, I owe you an apology. For how I treated you, for the horrible way I behaved that night, for not standing up for you to my family… The list could go on and on. You deserved so much better, and I was the asshole that didn’t realize it until it was too late. Don’t ever apologize. To my parents, to me, to anyone.”
I tilt my head away so Pierce can’t see the tears forming in my eyes, and I nod. “I guess I should change for dinner,” I say trying to change the subject. “I don’t think your parents would appreciate me showing up in a Van Halen t-shirt and jeans.” I look down at the outfit I changed into after Pierce left and remember when he gave me the shirt a million years ago. It’s a lot baggier now than it was when we were kids. Pierce just laughs.
“If you change, I’ll leave you here. Besides, Logan will get a kick out of knowing you still have that shirt. I think I stole it from him first.”
Pierce gets up from the floor with a chuckle and heads for his bedroom to get out of his work clothes, leaving me to imagine what it will be like to have dinner with the Cochrans for the first time in years.
Pierce
“What in God’s name is the matter with you, son?” my father whisper-shouts at me from behind the desk in his study.
We’d been in my parents’ brownstone for approximately five minutes when my dad informed me there was urgent company business we needed to attend to in the other room. As soon as he shut the door, he was on me like a giant grizzly all over its prey.
“I know you have a lingering… affection for Arie. Hell, we all do. But damn it all to hell, Pierce. The girl has a pretty negative history with our family. Did it ever occur to you that she might be back for some sort of revenge for the way you treated her when you were kids?”
I have to bite back a snotty comment, and a snort laugh, both of which would sent my father into a rage. “It wasn’t that long ago. I was pretty horrible to her as an adult. Let’s not blame it on us being kids. Besides, Arie isn’t like that, dad. She would never do that. I think she’s just fallen on some hard times, and she knew I’d never turn her away.”
“We both know that’s not true. You absolutely would have turned her away five years ago.”
I am unable to stifle an eye roll, and dad gives me a look that
makes it clear I get only one of them before he’ll have me on my ass. “You’re right, of course. But here we are. And I want to help her now if I can.”
“You just don’t think the timing is a little suspicious? I mean, this is part of your job, Pierce. To question everything, to assume everyone is hiding something.” I can tell my father has probably already started running background checks on her, which is his second favorite pastime after playing golf. But I wave him off.
“You can be suspicious of whoever you want. But not Arie. Anyway, Chloe loves her, and right now, that’s all that matters. I can focus on work, Chloe will have someone with her during the day to help her adjust to a normal schedule. It’s time.”
Dad can tell the conversation is over, at least as far as I’m concerned, so he hands me a glass of single-malt scotch and opens the door to the study, allowing me to leave. When we get to the living room, we find Logan playing on the floor with Chloe, and Arie sitting on the couch with my mother. They are both crying, and Logan is just shaking his head.
“It’s like some sort of maudlin women’s meeting in here. Please save me,” Logan says as he hits himself in the head with Chloe’s toy hammer. Our mother throws a needlepoint pillow him.
“We aren’t maudlin! We just haven’t seen in each other in years, and there was a lot to catch up on. And isn’t her haircut beautiful? Have you told her how beautiful her hair looks yet, Pierce?”
Arie’s cheeks turn red and she gently pats my mom on the leg. “You’re too sweet to me, Carol. You always were.”
My dad gives a gruff cough, indicating that he is done with the sentimentality. “Shall we adjourn to the dining room for supper? It’s getting late and we don’t want to keep our precious Chloe up past her bedtime, now do we?”
Dinner goes fast, and consists mostly of Logan talking about his next deployment, as much as he’s able to anyway. Chloe plays with her food, my mom plays with Chloe, and my father watches Arie like a hawk, as if she’s going to give away some sort of secret if he stares at her hard enough. For a moment, I regret bringing her, thinking that it was a mistake to reintroduce her to my family so soon after she reappeared in my life. But from the look on Arie’s face, you’d never know anything was wrong.
She looks absolutely elated.
She is watching, and listening, to everything, like she hasn’t been around a family in a very long time. She eats her roast chicken in complete silence, barely seeming aware of anything happening around her, yet simultaneously taking everything in. There is a small smile on Arie’s face through the whole meal, even when my dad is grumbling about work, or Logan and my mother are bickering about whether or not he’s going to be home for Thanksgiving. When my mom turns, and addresses her, she doesn’t even seem to hear.
