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Four Stories
Fingers interlocked with mine, Archie headed toward the garden gate. It really had turned into a nice night. The rain had cooled everything down. The breeze was chilly, but not terrible.
“You know Andover,” Archie explained, “was a boarding school. Kind of exclusive, though not like some of the European schools where you live there for the whole term, and only go home on breaks. If you had family local, you could leave on the weekends. Edward and Muriel traveled, a lot, but Nana and Grandpa lived pretty close, just one town over, and they were always willing to scoop me up after my last Friday class, and I’d stay with them until late Sunday evening.”
The affection in his voice made me smile. After meeting his grandfather, I got it. He seemed a genuinely nice guy.
“They’re wealthy, don’t get me wrong. The house…their house was huge. Bigger than this one.” He nodded to the place overshadowing the garden as we wandered through the greenery. “But it was warm and always full of life. I told you that Nana took me places all over the world, right?”
It was hard not to smile at the depth of warmth radiating off of him. “Yep. You had all your adventures.”
“Exactly,” he said with a low sigh. “The house was always full of items from their adventures. Nana collected all kinds of crap. But every room was stuffed to the gills with memories and stories. Every weekend, she’d tell me a new one. When I was little, she promised we’d add our own stories to the house, and we did.”
Squeezing his hand, I rested my head against his shoulder as we walked, and he freed his fingers to slide his arm around me.
“The best part of it was when we would trade stories with Grandpa. He had stories, too. It was just our thing. When she got sick and couldn’t travel as much, we still had the stories to tell, and when she died…the house was so empty. All the stories seemed to go with her.”
My heart twisted for him.
“I had friends at Andover,” he continued, sliding a playful if self-deprecating look in my direction. “Not quite the poor little rich boy you might be imagining. But I didn’t have friends like you or the guys. Not really. We were more friends of opportunity. If I was there, I hung out with them, when I wasn’t, never really thought about them or vice versa.”
“That sounds pretty shitty.”
“Eh.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t horrible. Everyone had their own lives. So, when Nana died and Grandpa didn’t want to keep the house…I got it. He offered to hold onto it for me, but…”
“It wasn’t the place.” I mean, I kind of got that. “You missed her, and without her… I’m sorry, Arch.”
“Thanks, babe,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to my temple as we paused next to one of the taller shrubs. With care, I wrapped my arms around him and just hugged him. “I miss her. It’s weird, I can still smile and laugh about her, and then like tonight…it hits me all over again that I can’t just call her up and tell her about you. She would have loved you.”
The thickness in his voice tugged at me, and I tightened my arms, even when it pulled uncomfortably on my wrist. Archie pressed his cheek against my hair, even as he tangled his fingers up in it.
“The worst part of it all though,” he said, a distinct catch in his voice. Combing his fingers through my hair and keeping me close, he cleared his throat. “The worst part…was Edward sued Grandpa over Nana’s will and estate.”
I opened my mouth, but no words came out.
“I keep mentioning my trust, I told you that comes from them, right?”
“You’ve said that. Once, I think. That your grandfather set up the trust for you when you were born, and they added to it over the years, invested in it, but your parents can’t touch it.”
“Correct.” His exhale seemed to shudder through him, and I pressed my nose to his throat. Just wanting to be closer to him. “They never seemed to care, until Nana’s estate added to the trust. She didn’t leave anything to Edward or Muriel. Apparently…apparently, Nana thought that the trust they’d given Edward when he was twenty-one was sufficient. The rest would go to me, and I have a feeling that he saw the slight as something that would then play out with Grandpa.”
“So they sued him?” What the hell?
“I don’t know,” Archie admitted. “At the time, I didn’t get it, and then they informed me I wouldn’t be seeing him again. They were making a total break. While I have talked to Grandpa a few times since then, usually on my birthday, he’s kept his distance until I told him I needed his help.”
“All this right before you started at school?”
“Well, that summer,” he said. “I know the differences between them aren’t my fault and have nothing to do with me. Grandpa cut them off as much as they cut him off. Losing contact with me was retaliation for him cutting them off.”
Ugh.
“That’s such a mess.”
Leaning away from me, Archie glanced down. “That’s kind of my whole family. Still think you corner the market on having the bad parent?”
I couldn’t help my smile. “Well, we’ve kind of always had that in common, haven’t we?”
“Yeah,” he said, then brushed hair away from my face. His fingers lingered over the remnants of that bruise on my face. “I never realized how much until the last few weeks. Just always knew you were the girl who gave me a place to be that first day. You became my anchor. Probably not sexy to admit that.”
