Chapter 9 #2
“I had to. The man I was in love with wanted me to. It was either him or the law firm. I was twenty-six years old and madly in love with him. I thought it was the right decision. My mother didn’t.
She was right, I guess. But things look different at thirty-six than they do at twenty-six.
I’m trying to make up for it now, putting my toe in the water with my mother’s contracts.
I love being back at Columbia, it’s fun going to school and challenging my brain again. ”
“It’s a very good legal brain,” he complimented her.
“You should hang onto it.” Scott wanted to see more of her, but there was no way he could.
The contract he had shown her was a very thin excuse.
He had the feeling that her boyfriend or lover or whatever he was had a death grip on her, and she followed the rules he set for her, out of either respect or fear.
Giving up her career for him had been a major sacrifice and he could easily understand why Felicia had been upset. He would have been too.
Veronica was wonderful to be with but he could sense the walls she had around her, and Scott wasn’t sure if they had been built by love or a desire to control her, or maybe both.
The lunch ended too quickly and with it his excuse to see her. She called an Uber at the end of lunch and left a few minutes later, and he felt bereft after she was gone. He had never been as intrigued by any woman as he was by her.
Anson hadn’t called her while she was with him, and there was no sign of him at the apartment, and she was relieved.
She had been worried about it at lunch, but Scott was so much fun and so easy to talk to that she had stopped worrying about Anson, and just enjoyed Scott.
She would have liked to see more of him, and even be friends, but she knew that there was no way she could.
He was another sacrifice she had to make for Anson.
She wasn’t going to jeopardize her relationship with Anson and the life he provided her for a man she barely knew, no matter how attractive he was.
There was something fascinating and exciting about Scott.
She loved his enthusiasm and his energy.
Anson was much more serious, more intense, and demanded her full attention.
Scott was so much more lighthearted about everything.
He made it fun to be with him. She wondered if it was because he was younger than Anson, or if it was just his personality.
There was a dark side to Anson, while Scott was all light and kindness.
She had homework to do after that, and spent the rest of the day studying, into the evening. Anson didn’t show up, and she got her assignment done for school.
She dreamt of both men that night. They were fighting over her, and fought a duel with pistols.
She heard a shot ring out in her dream, and she couldn’t tell who had won, and she woke up before she found out.
It was an interesting symbolism, and she lay awake for a long time afterward thinking about Scott, and knowing she shouldn’t.
It was the first time in ten years that she had been attracted to another man, and she wasn’t going to give into it.
She felt that same electric current every time she saw him, but that was all it was, a current, a spark, and nothing more.
There was nothing she could do about it.
Sooner or later she would have to see him again.
He had mentioned that he was helping Quinne set up her production house, and he had been their mother’s attorney and Veronica would have to go over new contracts with him.
She felt as though she was being pulled toward him by forces beyond her control that she didn’t understand.
—
Andy and Charlotte’s relationship was deepening steadily, and they were both enjoying it.
He came to the city to see her and take her to dinner.
They went to another hockey game. And she took him to an opening at a gallery she’d been invited to.
He had met Julia several times, and they got along, which was unusual for Julia since she usually hated her mother’s dates, but Julia was his biggest fan, and put in a good word for him whenever she could.
Charlotte didn’t need any encouragement, she genuinely liked him.
And Julia reported his appearances to Sean, who was intrigued too.
Charlotte hadn’t had a serious boyfriend as long as they could remember, so Andy seemed significant.
Charlotte’s sisters were wondering about it too, but didn’t want to ask, and spoil anything.
She seemed much more lighthearted these days.
She wasn’t taking things as seriously, and never said anything bad about Andy, a first for her in the last decade.
Charlotte and Andy had dinner with Quinne and Cooper one night, and Olivia asked Quinne about it afterward.
“Do you think she’s in love with him?” Olivia asked her, intrigued.
“For normal people, I’d say yes, but you never know with Charlotte.
She’s avoided serious relationships for a long time.
But they seem to enjoy each other.” Charlotte was busy with work and her daughter.
She had a full life, and she had stopped mentioning Andy to her sisters.
She didn’t want to encourage them or feed the rumor mill.
She wasn’t sure herself what was happening, where the relationship was going, or what she wanted.
Andy sensed that about her, and didn’t want to rush her, or spoil anything, so they found fun things to do when he came to the city, going to the movies and to the theater to a play they both loved, and they went ice skating.
They couldn’t seem to stay away from each other.
He stayed in the city for a weekend when it snowed and they had a snowball fight.
They were like two kids together, fun and lighthearted, and he let her read the manuscript of the book he had just finished, and she loved it.
And she was reading her mother’s books on the list Quinne had given her.
They were beautifully written, challenging and intricate, and she could never guess the endings.
She was in awe of her mother’s skill and couldn’t tell her now.
“She was a brilliant writer,” Andy confirmed when Charlotte mentioned her books to him.
“I never read them because I thought she only edited them. I wish she had told us about the books when she was alive,” Charlotte said wistfully over dinner.
“I don’t think she ever told anyone except my father,” he said seriously. “They had something very special together, and it just seemed to get better with time.”
“We never really knew her,” Charlotte said.
It was her greatest regret. “We know more about her now than we did when she was alive.” She could hear her mother’s voice in the cadence of the books, and she loved that.
It was like hearing her mother read the books to her, as when she read to them as children.
Charlotte hadn’t been back to the farm since her mother’s birthday, and neither had the others.
They were busy with their own lives. Isabelle was trying to take care of her children, still pretending that Ian was away.
They hadn’t seen each other since he moved out, and didn’t want to get together.
They communicated by text, which Charlotte thought was pathetic when Isabelle told her.
She assumed that he hadn’t given up the girl yet, or he’d be pursuing Isabelle.
He was buying time, and Isabelle was adjusting and looking better.
She had a healthy glow to her cheeks again, and her eyes were bright and alive when Charlotte saw her.
Veronica was engaged with school and none of them had seen her since they emptied their mother’s apartment after the birthday weekend.
They all had lives and problems to deal with and were trying to adjust to the windfall they’d inherited.
Quinne was working on the series, attending preproduction meetings, and trying to start her production company.
Olivia was teaching her classes, and the others wondered if she had made any decision about a baby, but she hadn’t said anything about it again and they didn’t want to ask.
The weather had been harsh, so none of them had gone to the farm.
They knew it was there if they wanted to go, but none of them had time.