Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
R eese was on yet another beach run. The morning ritual had once invigorated him, but now, it just involved trying and failing not to go past Joel’s place to snoop. He just couldn’t help himself. Picking up into a sprint, he shot toward Joel’s place as the sunlight burned an orange glow over the foggy morning. By the time he reached Joel’s, he staggered and was out of breath. But today, there was no sign of Lauren or the mystery man. Tyler’s and Peter’s toys were strewn across the porch and the kitchen window open, the curtains flowing out with the morning wind.
Reese still had no explanation for what he’d seen that morning. He and Oriana had had Lauren, Joel, Peter, and Tyler over for dinner last weekend, and Reese had studied Lauren and Joel’s dynamic and labeled it “chilly.” Lauren didn’t once speak to Joel directly. She hardly looked Reese or Oriana in the eye.
Of this, Oriana said, “I think she’s having a hard time starting over. Who can blame her? Moving is hard.”
Reese ran back home slower than he’d come and found Oriana at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and a bowl of yogurt with blueberries. She was reading the newspaper. He gave her a sweaty kiss and filled a mug of coffee for himself.
“Beautiful morning,” he said, as though he hadn’t just been attempting to spy on their daughter-in-law again.
“Gorgeous.”
Reese filled his mouth with coffee and considered the day ahead. It was June twentieth, a Thursday and the final day of the week because he, Joel, and the rest of the Coleman Vineyarders were headed to Nantucket tomorrow for Samantha’s Solstice Party. Joel planned to finish his portion of Carlotta’s app that afternoon, and Reese had a call with a few potential clients. Things were flowing, sort of. Save for the few spats he and Joel had had.
Reese hadn’t mentioned these spats to Oriana. They were misunderstandings, proof that Joel thought Reese was out to get him; proof that the past always lurked underneath everything they said, like a monster threatening to break out and swallow them up.
Reese assumed Joel’s moments of unhappiness were also proof of what was going on at home. He’d more or less convinced himself Lauren was cheating on Joel. But he didn’t want Joel to think he was meddling in his business. He didn’t want the gap between them to open wider when he was finally taking steps to close it.
Reese showered, ate a banana, kissed Oriana goodbye, and drove downtown to get to work. It had grown into a deliriously sunny morning, and tourists milled around the old carousel and drank coffee and floated as though they were in dreamland. Just before he forced himself inside to the prison of his computer, Reese ran into Susan.
Susan Sheridan Frampton had an office right downtown. She worked as a criminal justice lawyer alongside her daughter Amanda and her business partner Bruce Holland. Her sister was Lola, Tommy Gasbarro’s wife.
“I just ran into your sister a couple of weeks back,” Reese said after their greeting. “How are things going with your family? The inn?”
Susan chatted briefly about the Underground Railroad room at the Sunrise Cove Inn and the legal difficulties therein. And then she said, “I understand you’re working closely with Carlotta Gionnocaro?”
“I am! Have for years,” Reese said. “Do you know her?”
“I’m representing her boyfriend, Bobby Ringmaker. I haven’t met her personally, but she’s causing quite a stir in my case. She’s not the kind of woman who can sit still and keep quiet.”
Reese laughed nervously. “No, she’s not.”
“I can’t say that I blame her. I just hope she doesn’t cause too much stress in my case.” Susan sighed. “But that’s the nature of my work. So many people with so many different personalities. It’s part of the reason I love it.”
“But it’s also a headache,” Reese finished. “I get it.”
Joel wasn’t yet in the office at nine. This was peculiar but not against any rules Reese had set. They’d specifically said they could make their own hours. Maybe Tyler or Peter was sick. Maybe Lauren needed help with something.
Or maybe he found out about Lauren.
Maybe something is really wrong.
Reese fought the urge to text or call Joel to see what was up. He dropped himself into work mode and coded all morning long until his hunger pangs were too violent to ignore. With his lunchbox, he waded back into the splendorous sun and sat on a bench by the harbor to watch the boats. In ten years—after he retired—he promised himself he could spend all day, every day aboard his sailboat. Tyler, Benny, and Peter would be old enough to learn by then. They could have fantastical adventures on the sea. They could make memories that would last forever.
Ten years wasn’t so long, he guessed. It would fly by.
Then again, it had been ten years since everything had happened with Joel and Lauren.
Ten years since Joel had run away.
Joel still hadn’t called or texted by one. Reese decided to break protocol and look at the shared code to make sure Joel was on schedule for Carlotta’s client’s app. They’d told her explicitly they’d have this portion of the app done by the end of today. She expected it. And when Carlotta Gionnocaro expected something, you had to deliver.
Reese’s heart thudded with fear. What he saw was disastrous. Joel wasn’t anywhere near being done with today’s code. What was left to do would require at least nine hours of coding, maybe ten.
Reese felt his hopes and dreams for his relationship with his son disintegrate through his fingers. He dropped his head.
Just call him. Maybe he hasn’t updated the system yet. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding.
Yet another misunderstanding.
Joel’s phone rang and rang. Reese paced the office. His breathing was ragged. Joel didn’t answer, so Reese called again and three more times after that. By the time he hung up that fifth time, his eyes were filled with tears.
That was when he got the idea to call Lauren.
It was a normal thing , he thought. Call your daughter-in-law to make sure your son is okay. It was what any normal father would have done. It wasn’t loaded. It didn’t have to have anything to do with the past.
Reese braced himself and called Lauren. He couldn’t even remember when he’d gotten her number. Things had always been so strained between them. Perhaps Oriana had given it to him, just in case. She always had the benefit of forethought. She always had her head screwed on right.
Lauren answered on the third ring. “Reese?” Her tone was stiff.
“Lauren, hello.” Reese’s voice shook. “Wondered if you knew where Joel was?”
“I’m not home right now?”
Reese snapped his fingers nervously. “Sure. Of course. So I can assume Joel’s just at home with the kids?”
“He’s their father,” Lauren said. “And I’m not there. So, yes.”
Reese wanted to say something flippant; something to instill in Lauren the fact that Reese had been the one to ensure Joel still had a job. But that was Joel’s secret, and nothing Reese had the right to spread.
No matter what happened between Reese and Joel, Reese had to respect Joel’s wishes. It was proof of their father-son love. Maybe the last thing they had.
From somewhere in the background came the sound of a voice. It was male. Reese’s throat filled. She’s with her affair partner. She’s with that man.
“Where are you, Lauren?” Reese asked.
“I’m sorry?”
“I asked where you are.”
“I’m running errands.”
Reese flared his nostrils. He didn’t believe her for a second. He never had. Not since that day he’d watched Joel completely lose his head over her at the docks. She’d had too much power over him from the start. According to Reese, it was Lauren who’d split his family apart. It was Lauren who’d done irreparable damage.
“If there’s nothing else, I have to go,” Lauren spat.
Reese melted slightly at her vitriol. It was true that although he didn’t like Lauren, he wanted everyone to like him. It was one of his greatest flaws.
“Can you tell Joel to call me?” Reese offered. “When you see him.”
“Um. Sure.”
“And I’ll see you at the party tomorrow?”
“I have to go,” Lauren said. “Have a good day.”
The line went dead. Reese thrummed with confusion and fought the urge to throw his phone across the room, reminding himself of how much it cost. You’re not a rash or violent person. Instinctually, he touched the scars that pulled up from his shirt collar and lined his neck. They felt cold and foreign and not like his skin at all.
You won’t look like yourself, the doctor had said, but we’re going to do the best we can to make sure you’re safe and healthy. That’s all we can hope for with an injury like this.
The pain had been searing. It had been the only thing Reese had known for weeks. Oriana had watched him helplessly. Nobody had known what to do, least of all Reese.
Enraged and out of his mind with confusion, Reese forced himself into the code for Carlotta’s app and began to work. For hours and hours, he worked. He didn’t take a break when five o’clock came around; he didn’t check his phone. If they didn’t get the code to Carlotta in time, it was possible she’d drop them and go with somebody else. Carlotta was one of the best in the business for a reason. She was cutthroat.
Reese had thought Joel understood that.
It wasn’t till ten that evening that Reese finished the coding. He was breathless, his stomach hurt, and he had a raging headache. But it was finished. He double-checked and triple-checked everything with strained eyes, then prepared an email to Carlotta and CC’d Joel.
Carlotta,
Thank you for your patience as we worked through the code. Find it attached.
Look forward to the feedback from your client. Thank you again.
Reese and Joel
Reese sent the formidably large email, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and slumped back in his chair. His thoughts were meaningless and lost. He checked his phone to find a few messages from Oriana. He’d already told her he had to work late.
ORIANA: I put your dinner in the fridge. You can heat it when you get home.
ORIANA: Love you.
Suddenly, the phone lit up with a call from Joel. Reese’s heart hammered. There was no way to know how this conversation would go. I’m so sorry, Dad. Thank you for taking over the coding for me. I know it sounds crazy, but I think Lauren is cheating on me. And I don’t know what to do. And then Reese would say: We can get through this together, son. This time, we won’t let her get in our way.
Joel had to understand that Reese thought of Joel first and foremost. He pulled for him and for his happiness and wanted their new business relationship to work.
He wanted to leave the business to his son after he retired. He wanted Joel to be safe and secure.
In real life, their conversation went like this...
“Dad?” Joel’s voice shimmered with anger. “What did you just do?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I already sent the code to Carlotta,” Joel shot. “Didn’t you see the email I sent her hours ago?”
Reese’s heart slammed to a halt. He scrambled into his inbox to see that Joel had sent the code at 4:36 p.m.—six hours ago.
It was CC’d to him. It was right there in his inbox, underneath three other emails from other clients.
Now Reese had sent a completely different email with a code that was probably marginally different from Joel’s. It was unprofessional. It looked weak and stupid. Reese’s soul curled up in defeat.
Reese rasped, “Where were you all day? I was trying to get ahold of you.”
“This isn’t my fault,” Joel said. “I told you I would finish the code by this afternoon. I always planned to do that.”
“But I didn’t hear from you! I looked at the code earlier today and panicked.” Reese’s eyes filled with tears, and he suddenly hated himself. He hated himself for not trusting his son and for trying so hard but failing in literally every capacity.
“You should have trusted me,” Joel said. His tone was ominous.
Already Carlotta had written them both back. Reese couldn’t breathe as he clicked it open.
Darlings,
Please let me know which code to use. I can’t imagine why you wasted your time to write two different ones. It isn’t in your job description to confuse me. Don’t let it happen again.
C.
Reese winced and pressed his forehead on the cool expanse of his desk. He felt stupid and small. But Carlotta had the code. This was just a hiccup. They could move on.
“I’m sorry, Joel,” Reese offered. “I really am.”
“It just feels like proof you don’t know how to trust me,” Joel said. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. It’s not like this was going that well anyway.”
Reese’s heart seized. “It’s been going so well. I’ve been so happy.”
The happiest you’ve been in years. Make him understand that.
Do not tell him you talked to Lauren. Do not tell him she might be having an affair.
“I just wish you would have told me you weren’t coming in today,” Reese stuttered.
Joel sniffed with disgust. “We make our own hours. You told me that.”
Reese was startled by his fear that it would all fall apart after this. That their fledgling relationship would splinter because of coding. How stupid.
“Can we just start over?” Reese begged.
Joel coughed. From the background came the sound of Peter, asking his father for something. Reese’s heart seized. He wanted to jump in his car and drive over there. He wanted to read Peter and Tyler a story. He wanted to share a beer with his son.
Joel didn’t answer.
“You’re still coming to the party tomorrow?” Reese went on.
Joel sighed. “I think so.”
“Maybe we can talk beforehand,” Reese said. “I want to explain myself. I want to make it up to you.”
Joel sounded exhausted. “Maybe.”
Reese couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Is Lauren coming?”
“Yes. Why?” There was a sharpness to his words. An anger Reese couldn’t ignore.
“Just curious. It’s always nice to see all four of you,” Reese lied. “I love you. And I’m so sorry. Again.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Joel paused, and Reese could only pray he’d say I love you, too. But instead, he hung up and left Reese in his silence in the office he’d rented for himself and his boy.