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“What the…”
“I’m okay,” I hiss.
I’m not. I’m far from okay. But I need Mimi not to fuss. Fussing equals movement and moving will hurt. I just need it to pass. I need to breathe through it and relax. Deep breath in... calming thoughts... flowing waters... and breathe out... tranquil rain forest... sounds of the ocean... I lower myself back to the sofa, gently sit back against the cushions for support.
“Is that why you fainted on Wednesday?” I ask, keeping the subject on Mimi.
Tears fill Mimi’s eyes. “You’re not okay, are you?”
For the first time since I’ve returned to LA, I don’t feel like the result of a freak accident that needs to be looked after. I feel needed. Mimi looks at me like she used to, like I can fix everything in the world. But for whatever reason, Mimi’s holding back.
“Tell me what’s wrong,” I all but beg her.
“You looked like crap when you arrived on Wednesday. But then, so does everyone else after a long flight,” Mimi whispers. “And you waltzed in and you issued your list of demands. It was your way or no way like always. I thought you were being a typical drama queen by hiring Soraya. But you’re not, are you? You really are only just well enough to come home.”
“I’m fine.” I shrug it off. I’m a plastic plate. You can’t break me. “Your overzealous boyfriend threatened one too many lawsuits to the head of neurosurgery and Soraya was the only way I could satisfy him to let me come home for the wedding.” I roll my eyes “I swear, they’d have wrapped me in bubble wrap if they could have. And I’ll admit since the apron strings were cut, I’ve run a little wild and probably should slow down. But I’m fine.”
Two big fat tears spill down Mimi’s cheeks. I instantly open my arms and Mimi buries her face in my shoulder. “Tell me and I promise I’ll fix it.”
“He has her.” Mimi sobs. “Justin has Macaulay, and he won't answer the phone.”
“Oh, Mimi.” I sink my tender muscles into the back of the sofa. “Surely, you know better than that.” I hold my little sister, stroke her hair gently. Forty-five minutes really did make a huge difference at a time like this. “Big sisters can fix anything.”
Now I really am going to murder Justin Ramirez!
CHAPTER 12
SEAN
Most of the family have arrived in the last couple of hours. I’ve busied Stephanie with occupying her baby cousin while I play host and organize the last-minute details.
I take on anything Darryl or Julia needs to keep my mind off the very hot, very quick fuck with Ashleigh. It was incredible. But it doesn’t stop me thinking about why Ryder grilled me about Ashleigh’s episode like a CIA agent.
Jeez, overprotective much? There was a moment where I thought I’d need to duck and dive a few blows when I mentioned we’d taken the stairs. Ashleigh preferred the stairs. She gets claustrophobic. But not since Darryl had helped her through those issues.
The guy will be ducking and diving some blows of mine if he’s not careful. The nerve! Seriously! He barely acknowledged her existence for the first seven years of their parents’ marriage, and now he thinks he can tell me—someone who’s known Ashleigh for sixteen years—that he knows best because he’s been hanging around for the last twelve months!
Yeah, right! If he’s been hanging around for the last twelve months, then why haven’t I seen him?
Stephi hasn't exactly made my afternoon any easier. She keeps asking me why Ryder and Mimi came looking for me and Ashleigh. Why her Uncle Darryl was laughing at him when Ashleigh walked into the function room—because that was a little insensitive and not like Darryl at all. And why, if I’ve nothing to do with Ashleigh anymore, did Stephi feel like I was lying.
I tried to explain about Ashleigh’s episode. Tried to tell her that she couldn’t tell Julia because it would upset her. But then we had a heated argument because Ashleigh is still Julia’s friend. I still have some involvement with her, even though I don’t want to. Which led us into an argument about Krystal Valentina and the fact I was always talking about her on social media. She doesn’t understand why, seeing as I’ve told her my world doesn’t revolve around her anymore.
She’s not buying it. She stood in the living area and said, “For someone whose world doesn’t revolve around her, it's done nothing but revolve around her since I got here.”
Then, she shrugged and tossed over her shoulder that she was going to have a shower. She dismissed me. No, it’s worse. My daughter called me a liar to my face!
You’re doing a fabulous job of reconnecting with Stephi, Anderson!
The humorless thought is lost as I finish up shaving and splash aftershave on my face. The woodsy scent fills my lungs. The memory of tender feminine fingers splashing the fragrance on my cheeks the morning she left me to go to Switzerland lingers. I was the happiest man on earth. She’d just agreed to marry me. I hadn’t meant to ask. Sure, I was thinking about it. Even though we’d been fighting with our feelings for years, we’d only been in an actual relationship for two weeks.
We were lying in bed, and it just slipped out. I didn’t even have a ring. I just knew—I mean, I’d dreamt of it for years. Even back when I was married to Anna and denying I had feelings for Ashleigh. I’d dreamt of a future where Ash was my wife, not Anna. I was trapped in a loveless marriage—for Stephi’s sake—and I knew one day that wouldn’t be the case anymore. In that moment, though, with her in my arms talking about moving back to New York to be with Stephi, my life couldn’t get much more perfect.
It hurts. It fucking hurts to remember that she ran off with someone else. And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to expel that memory and stop using the aftershave she picked out for me.
“Dad?”
I snap out of the reverie and focus on the mirror. In the reflection, Stephi is hovering in the bathroom doorway. “What’s up kiddo?”
