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“She must have said something to get you to reply,” he said.
“Yeah, she texted that you scared her and because I wasn’t replying she was having rapid heartbeats and Erica is out of town on business and she was afraid I was in some ditch. As much as she annoys me I didn’t want to be responsible for a heart attack.”
He snorted. That was typical of his mother to lay guilt on like that too.
“She means well in her own way,” he said.
“Her overbearing way. I’m sure I didn’t get the full story out of her so tell me what happened.”
He told his sister about the events of the day before, even including the gas, smoke and car on fire. Harmony wouldn’t say anything to his mother.
“Dang,” Harmony said. “I knew Mom wouldn’t have had the full story, but that would have surely sent her into cardiac arrest. Poor Jerry would have to resuscitate her and he’s not used to doing much more than giving toddlers shots.”
His stepfather was a pediatrician. Someone much more good-natured than his neurosurgeon father who his mother said was too serious by half and had no personality.
He’d been compared to his father enough in his life and didn’t care for it.
He didn’t like being compared to anyone.
Though he and his father got along well, his dad didn’t have that great of a personality.
Theo liked to think he was a bit more outgoing even if he was slightly nerdy with it.
Or he used to be. He’d been working on trying to not come off that way as much but wasn’t sure he was succeeding. Since he didn’t date a lot and had been single for a while, he was thinking that was a big fat failure.
Which sucked for a guy that didn’t fail at much.
Well, not true. He sort of failed at anything social wise, just not career wise.
“Jerry is a good guy,” he said. “You know it. He keeps Mom happy.”
“Glad someone can because it’s not her kids. Which sucks when you mess up because you’re the perfect one.”
Harmony was about the only one that could say that to him and he wouldn’t get annoyed.
At six years her senior, he’d enjoyed watching and entertaining her. She’d given him a much-needed break when his mother was pushing him to read and study rather than go hang out with his friends.
He didn’t like being as smart as he was when the pressure was added to perform above normal kids.
Not a lot of sports for him, even if he was athletic. He’d like to think he was but had never been given the chance.
There were times he wished his father had been around more to stick up for him, but that didn’t happen either.
“Not the perfect kid this week. And we know you’re far from it, so maybe it’s Erica’s turn. What’s going on with her that she’s out of town?”
“Please,” Harmony said. “Erica is miserable right now. She and Mom snap at each other so much.”
He sighed. He was so out of his sisters’ lives and that wasn’t like him. Even when he was at Yale all those years, he kept in close contact with his siblings.
Being sixteen in college with kids that were of legal age to drink and he didn’t even have his driver’s license hadn’t been fun.
He didn’t have a lot of friends until he was closer to graduating, as he’d grown into his body some, had facial hair and didn’t bother to shave so that he could look older.
By then he’d been in his own world and able to survive independently, even though every weekend he went home. Just being an hour away, he was surprised his mother didn’t want to drive him back and forth to school daily.
Actually she’d tried that. It was the one thing his father put his foot down on, and since his parents were divorced at that point and his father was paying for the education, the elder Dr. James got his way.
“What’s going on with Erica?”
