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Octavia taps her nose. “That was my question as well. Stella, dear, while you’re back there would you mind fixing me a Manhattan?”
“Not at all, Grandma.”
“Crap, why do I have to drive and be responsible for children tonight?” Amelia bemoans.
“I can send one of the staff to pick up the girls and take them back to the compound,” Octavia offers. “They can swim and play and have dinner there.”
Amelia looks like she’s about to weep in gratitude. “You’re my favorite mother-in-law. Have I mentioned that before? Yes, please have him do that and I’ll be eternally grateful.”
Octavia taps something into her phone. “Done. Now that that’s settled, please continue, Layla, so we can help you sort this out. Are you telling us this as in it’s a done deal or are you still contemplating it?”
Stella sets a Manhattan in front of Octavia and an apple martini in front of my sister and then attacks her shot with gusto.
“To answer your questions,” I start. “No, it’s not a done deal. This was him asking me if I would consider doing this for both him and Katy. Anyway, Callan asked me before I came here, and yes, before you ask, he knows what he’s asking of me. He knows the implications of it. I think he’s stuck and doesn’t know what else to do because he truly wants to help his niece through this while gaining guardianship of her.”
Amelia stands and walks away for a moment and all three of us watch her as she does. With her back to us she puts her hands on her hips and Octavia, Stella, and I all exchange puzzled looks.
“Meils?” I question.
“I might not be the person you should speak to about this.”
“Really?” I scrunch my nose in bewilderment. “I figured you were the perfect person.”
She spins back around, her gray eyes glassy. “Layla, after Mom and Dad died, I would have done anything including lying, stealing, and cheating if someone told me I had to in order to be your guardian and help you. You may not remember, but you cried every day for six months after Mom and Dad died. I was broken too, and didn’t know how to help. I can’t imagine the fear and helplessness Callan is feeling right now at the prospect of not only losing his niece after he just lost his brother and sister-in-law but of her struggling so much and not being able to help.”
“Oh,” Stella mumbles.
“What she said,” I utter as I impersonate a goldfish.
Amelia frowns. “I want to be impartial and help you figure this out, but I’m unfairly biased.”
“So, you think I should do it?”
Amelia throws her hand up in the air. “That’s what I’m saying. I shouldn’t be the one to give you advice either way. This is a big thing, Layla. A huge thing. It requires a lot of lying and hiding things. He’s your professor and you work with him at the hospital, and that, too, has far-reaching implications for you. Not to mention, you’ve vowed to put yourself, your life, and your work ahead of everything else, which I applaud because I’m not sure how much you did that when you were with Patrick. But for me, I’m afraid to sway your opinion on this when I already have very strong feelings about it.”
I spin around on the bar, bringing my knees up and planting my feet on the top, so I can lie down. I already have to sanitize the thing. What difference does it make now?
I close my eyes. “I think that’s why I wanted to say yes,” I acknowledge and then just start spewing everything that’s in my head. “Like, I was sitting in his house, looking at this man, and thinking, okay, sure, yeah. I mean, that was after I freaked out and hyperventilated to the point where I nearly passed out.”
I blow out a breath and pinch my eyes tighter.
“I was Katy once. I was that little girl, but I had you, Amelia, and I was okay because of that. I want this little girl to be okay and she has Callan, and he wants to be her hero because he’s a good man. Like, areallygood man. Like Superman style, he’d be the first one you’d call if you were ever stranded because you know he’d always show up to help, good man. He wants to help her through it, but Katy sees herself when she looks at me just as I see myself when I look at her. We get each other and that’s no small thing.”
“But?” Octavia asks.
“But I tried to talk myself out of that because what he’s asking me to do is crazy and wild and a little dangerous and it’s as you said. I am trying to focus on myself and my life and my work and I wasn’t always so great at that with Patrick. The last thing I want is for another man to come in and mess with that. Plus, there is the risk that comes with the fact that he is my boss and my professor.”
“You’re afraid of getting your heart broken again.”
I point in Stella’s general direction. “It’s a consideration. I won’t even lie about that. It’s a real fear. He’s hot, sweet, deadpan funny, and sorry, Octavia but the best sex I’ve ever had. We have a thing between us and there is no denying it. But it’s more than that. It’s everything.”
“How long would you need to live with him and keep up this ruse?” Octavia questions gently, ignoringthe best sex I’ve ever hadcomment, which is very gracious of her.
I sit up and polish off my second martini. I wish I had eaten more of the sushi, but drama waits for no woman. “I’m not sure. My guess is a few months.”
“What would you ask for in return?” Stella challenges.
I set the glass down. “That’s another thing, I don’t know. There’s nothing I need in this world that I don’t already have, and I don’t like the quid pro quo of it. It’s not like what you and Oliver did when you got fake engaged. That was a very different situation. This is about the little girl and if I do this, I’m doing it for her and not for me.”
