Page 24

Chapter 24

Liam

Brodie’s family swooped in and proved to be an excellent distraction from whatever was suddenly plaguing him. A rainstorm rolling in dampened Patricia’s enthusiasm for sitting outside, but her kitchen was big enough to accommodate everyone. Especially since Clay had seemed to take up permanent residence on Kieran’s lap.

Brodie had told me about what happened between Archer and Clay, so it wasn’t a huge shock when Archer and Clay’s interactions seemed stilted and awkward. Everyone seemed to ignore it, preferring to let the men sort it out themselves. I had a feeling that they’d be friends again before long. Maybe not best friends, but some relationships couldn’t be put back together the same way once they were destroyed.

Patricia, however, was in her element. The more people she had to dote on, the more she lit up. She practically glowed, buzzing around her kitchen getting lunch for seven sorted out like it was nothing out of the ordinary.

My own mother hadn’t been half as happy around her children. At least not with me. She and Carol had been closer, but my memories of the two of them together were shaky at best. It had been a long time since I thought about it, but even before Mom and Dad passed away, Carol had been a sort of parent to me. The difference in our ages was far more profound when we were younger. Ten years now was a drop in the bucket.

I pulled my phone out and shot off a quick text to let her know that I’d be coming for a visit soon. As I tucked my phone away, I caught Brodie’s gaze. His eyes were dark and troubled, and I could almost see the storm brewing behind them.

Leaning close, I lowered my voice. “You okay?”

He’d seemed distracted for the past little while, but I figured it was the events of the morning that were keeping his attention.

“I’m fine.” He gave my leg a squeeze, but turned to Clay. “How’s the app coming?”

Clay let out a sigh. “It’s not. At least not yet. I’m still solidifying the idea and working on art for it, though. But it’s going to be a long time before it’s up and running. If ever.”

“What app?” I asked out of equal parts curiosity and politeness. This was the first I’d heard of an app. Mind you, Brodie and I had spent most of our time talking about our own futures. Our focus had been singular and I was glad now for this reprieve. It was good to not be so isolated.

Clayton fidgeted with a coaster as he talked. “I want it to be sort of like an art therapy app, but free. I have a lot of ideas for it, but I don’t know how to build an app, and I’d like to connect with actual art therapists to help me make it something beneficial for people. But there’s like a million things I don’t know how to do, so mostly I’ve just been drawing and messing around making vision boards.”

“It’s all he does when he’s not working.” Kieran took the coaster from Clay and tangled their hands together, keeping him from fidgeting. Grounding him.

Up until now, I hadn’t thought I’d done much of anything of use at the family company. I didn’t really want to be there, but it had been expected. Business degree. Family company. Married with two point four kids. My whole life had been mapped out for me once upon a time, and I’d willingly gone along with it. But Piper’s death blew everything up. In some ways, I felt like I’d been given a second chance.

Especially now when it occurred to me that I did have some skills that I could put to use.

“Back when I worked at the family company, part of my job was bringing different parts of the company into the twenty-first century. I may not have built any apps myself, but I spearheaded the projects. If you’d like some help, I could talk to my sister and see if she could loan us a couple of people.”

It felt good to be able to offer a potential solution to Clay’s problem. Clay shot me a beaming smile, making me feel like I’d won the lottery. Or at the very least, the approval of Patricia and Kieran, whose stares I was aware of. But I kept my focus on Clay.

“I would say that you don’t have to,” Clay’s hands shook. “And you don’t, but I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t excited about getting someone to help me who knows what they’re doing. My therapist says I need to accept help more often, and I think she’ll be impressed when I tell her about this.” Clay’s excitement made him look like a golden retriever, all happy, bouncy excitement and nowhere for it to go.

“I’ll talk to Carol about it.” Even if I had to hire someone myself, I was going to get Clay help with his app. More than anything, I wanted to be someone Brodie could be proud to be with. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but helping Clay with his app seemed like a good place to start.

I motioned for Clay’s phone. “I’d like to give you my information so you can send me your plans for the app. Send me everything you have so far.” Clay handed me his phone and I put in my email and my phone number. “I’ll reach out to my friend Oren, he’s a lawyer, to get some legal protection in place for you. Not that I intend to steal your app, but I want you to trust me.”

“If you want me to trust you, why would you get me a lawyer?”

“Because trust is earned.” I knew that better than ever because I wondered if I’d earned any of Brodie’s trust back. Something was clearly bothering him, but he obviously didn’t want to discuss it surrounded by his family. Not that I blamed him. I blamed myself for being such a mess of a man when we met that I’d let myself hurt him.

The conversation moved on around Clay and me. He was content to spout off all his ideas to me while Shane and Kieran held one conversation, and Brodie and Archer another. The chatter made me feel like I was part of something, like I belonged instead of being a casual observer.

Movement caught my eye and I saw Patricia pointing an iPhone at us. She shot me a smile. “I couldn’t resist getting a few pictures. All my boys and their boys under one roof for the first time. It deserved to be immortalized.”

“You should be in the picture too,” I told her.

“Yeah, Mom.” Shane got to his feet and took the phone from her. “Take my chair. I’ll get a tripod from the office and set a timer.”

Patricia took his seat and fussed with her hair, smoothing down a couple flyaways. Her apron had handprints made of flour on it, bright white against the red fabric. Her smile had etched joy into her face over the years. Surrounded by her people, she looked like the happiest person on the planet. The difference between her and my parents was night and day. I had few memories of my parents laughing. They weren’t cold, they were just … unhappy. Deeply so.

Shane got the camera set up and started the timer. He slid into the frame and stood behind his mom. One of his hands came to rest on her shoulder and she reached up, putting her hand over his. I moved closer to Brodie and put my arm around him.

“Everyone look at the camera and say cheese,” Patricia said.

The sound of all of us together, slightly out of sync, was horrendous, but yet still the best sound I’d heard in a long time. It sounded like belonging.

After the timer went off and we were all blinded with the flash, Shane checked the picture. He showed it to Patricia, who signed off on it with a happy smile, and we were all free to go back to what we were doing.

“Can you send me that?” Brodie asked Shane. It only took a few seconds before it arrived on Brodie’s phone. He forwarded it to me and I opened it to have a look. Brodie had been increasingly quiet as time dragged on. I wanted to get him alone and make him talk to me, but for the foreseeable future, we were going to be surrounded by his family.

A funny feeling tugged at my chest when I saw the picture. It had been years since I’d been part of a family portrait. Piper and I hadn’t gotten around to it, her not being one to love having her photo taken. I had a few candid shots of her and some wedding photos, of course. And before her, I’d been a little kid, still knee-high, in a suit and tie with my hair slicked back. I still thought I looked like a miserable little vampire child, all pale and scowling.

I’d almost expected to look like an outsider, this being my first time meeting Brodie’s mom. But with my arm around him, and the stress from earlier temporarily forgotten, I didn’t look out of place at all. In fact, I sort of looked like I belonged somewhere. I hadn’t expected to find that feeling again, but now that I had, I knew I’d do anything to hold on to it.