Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
I t was five days after the Solstice Party. Reese was in the office alone. Joel’s desk was empty; his computer was black. He hadn’t been in once since their argument. The strange thing was that Joel kept working from home. He sent all of his codes in on time. He talked to their clients. He just refused to talk to Reese. Reese wasn’t sure how much longer he could stand it. He felt perpetually on the brink of falling apart.
Reese headed back home that afternoon to find Oriana in the living room surrounded by costly paintings. Alexis was curled up on a nearby chair with a mug of tea, and Benny was playing on the floor in the next room, making toy cars crash into toy trucks.
“This is a surprise,” Oriana said. “We didn’t think you’d be back till dinner.”
Reese was so tired of pretending everything was all right. He filled his lungs and said, “Can I talk to you for a second?”
Oriana followed him upstairs to his office. Her face was pale and pained. In as few words as possible, Reese explained that he’d seen Lauren talking to a strange man outside of their home, that Darcy had seen her with a man on a motorcycle, and that Reese had brought this up at the Solstice Party and Joel now refused to talk to him.
Oriana’s shoulders fell forward. She was quiet.
“Tell me what to do,” Reese begged her because he didn’t know what else to do, and Oriana had always been the voice of reason. “I feel so lost. And so angry with myself. I should have kept my mouth shut.”
“Can you go over there?” Oriana asked.
Reese felt a jolt of anxiety. Go over there? Knock on the door like a fool? But Oriana was probably right. He had to be vulnerable.
Oriana packed him a Tupperware container of freshly baked oatmeal peanut butter cookies. Maybe it was a manipulation tactic, but what better way to manipulate their son than through cookies and love? Reese took the box down the beach and felt his legs turn to jelly.
At Joel’s place, the driveway was empty. Just one car was in the garage, and it was the one Joel normally drove. Where was Lauren? Answers spilled through him. She left Joel. She’s with that guy. She’s abandoned her children.
Reese rang the doorbell and waited, listening for the sound of Peter or Tyler. They usually scampered through the house and greeted whoever was at the door first. Typically, their energy shook the floors and walls. But there was nothing on the other side of that door. They weren’t home. Maybe just Joel was there, working upstairs, doing everything he could to avoid Reese.
Maybe he still needs time to cool down.
Reese sighed and put the box of cookies on the porch. Joel would remember them as his mother’s recipe. There was no mistaking it.
Reese wandered along the beach for a while, at a loss and reeling. For the first time in eons, he allowed himself to remember the day Joel and Lauren left Martha’s Vineyard “for good” ten years ago. It was a violent memory and one he didn’t often return to because he knew just how painful it was for his psyche.
Reese was still in the hospital at the time. He was two months into what ended up being a ten-week stay. Oriana visited him every day. By that time, Alexis was out of the hospital, but she couldn’t bring herself to visit her father because just the smell of the hospital brought horrible memories back. “I want her to take it easy and try to be herself,” Oriana explained to Reese. “She’s just a kid. I don’t want this to mess her up too much.”
Reese didn’t want that either.
But that day that Joel left, Oriana’s eyes were different. They glinted as though they were pressed diamonds, then spilled tears. “I’m sorry.” She pressed her face into her hands, and her shoulders shook. “I’m just so sorry.”
Reese begged her to tell him what was wrong. He couldn’t get all the way up to wrap his arms around his beautiful wife. It was the only thing he wanted to do in the world.
“He’s gone,” Oriana breathed into her hands.
Reese knew immediately she was talking about Joel. But it didn’t fully compute. Where could Joel go ? He didn’t know anyone else. He didn’t have any other place.
“Lauren went with him,” Oriana went on, filling in the blanks. “I think they borrowed money from her father.”
“But where?” Reese rasped.
Oriana raised her shoulders. “He didn’t tell me anything. I only know because Marcia Bellows saw them at the ferry. The back of Lauren’s car was loaded with suitcases.”
Reese balled his hands into fists and smashed the mattress beneath him. He cursed the day Joel had first laid eyes on Lauren. It was that day he’d marched his way down a dark and harrowing path. It was that day he’d shifted the course of their lives.
From his hospital bed, Reese had called Joel’s cell phone over and over again. He’d called him after the nurse had given him his painkillers. He’d called him before lights out. He’d called him the following morning and the one after that. But Joel had closed the door between them.
Ten years later, Reese felt no closer to understanding his son. He’d thought he’d forgiven him, but another wave of anger and resentment crashed over him, and he staggered to a halt on the beach and touched the scars around his neck. Sometimes he still heard Alexis’s terrified screams at night. Sometimes he dreamed that she hadn’t gotten out.
Guilt was a poisonous thing. Blame was just as bad.
Maybe his family was doomed with both.
And it seemed to him that Lauren was laughing about it. She was doing everything in her power to have a great time while the rest of them fell apart.
Reese didn’t go to the office anymore after that. He reasoned that if nothing changed by the end of the summer, he would end the contract and continue his work from home. He anticipated Joel finding another job, sending him an email to say he quit, and quietly moving off the island. It was all a matter of time.
Carlotta requested a meeting in early July. It was a surprise to Reese. They were finished with the coding for her client, and she’d told them she wouldn’t require anything else till autumn or early spring of next year. She suggested they meet on her yacht. Reese leaped at the chance to see it. He’d spotted it floating near the private harbor and knew Darcy was a frequent guest. At least seeing it for himself would invigorate his otherwise dismal summer.
Oriana helped him pick out an outfit to suit the occasion. “You’ve been wearing the same T-shirt and shorts all week,” she teased him. “But you have such a great wardrobe.”
“That exists because of you. I’m a programmer. I’d be lost without you.”
Oriana giggled and pulled out a pair of Levi’s jeans and a button-down shirt made of what she called “Egyptian cotton.”
“Jeans?” he asked.
“You have to seem casual, cool, and stylish,” Oriana said. “I’ve seen what her boyfriend wears around the island. It’s similar to this.”
“Bobby Ringmaker,” Reese said his name with a smile. “That guy is such a slimeball.”
“True. But you have to admit he looks dang good for a slimeball,” Oriana said.
Reese drove over to Carlotta’s yacht with his heart in his throat. He left his car in the lot and walked along the dock, where a staff member in all white awaited him. The man led him to the top deck, where Carlotta sat in a red-orange dress and a pair of large Italian sunglasses. She’d already opened a bottle of champagne.
“Darling,” she said as she approached him for her traditional European two-kiss greeting. “You look wonderful. I didn’t know you had it in you.”
Thanks to Oriana.
“Sit, sit,” she insisted. “It’s been ages. I want to hear everything. Absolutely everything. How is your summer?”
Reese blinked at her. He and Carlotta didn’t have the kind of friendship where you talked about your life and what had happened in it. He didn’t allow himself to pretend for a second that that was what she wanted now. She was a businesswoman. She was up to something.
“It’s been wonderful,” he lied. “And for you?”
“Busy as ever, darling. My little Darcy has been a dream. I’ve hung all my hopes upon her. She’s the daughter I never had.”
Reese tried to laugh, but his throat closed up. “You’re off to Rome soon.”
“The girl is ready,” Carlotta affirmed. “Save for her wardrobe. We’re going shopping as soon as we get there so she’ll fit into some of the major parties we must attend with investors. It’s important to see and be seen at these things. Based on what happens at these parties, money is exchanged all year.”
Reese smiled politely. He still couldn’t gauge why he was there.
“Bobby will be there, of course,” Carlotta said, speaking of her boyfriend. “As well as several clients I’ve worked with in Geneva, Paris, and Rome. But I got to thinking about you, darling. About the wonderful service you offer here in Martha’s Vineyard. You have a rare talent for speed and keeping your head down and not demanding anything else. We had that little flub a couple of weeks back; that day your son sent me a code and you sent me a slightly different one a few hours later. But your son says that was entirely his fault since you’re still new at working together. That you’re working out the kinks.”
Joel had said that? Joel didn’t throw you under the bus?
“I would really love to introduce you to who’s who in this business,” Carlotta said. “Which is why I’m inviting you to Rome. You and your son.”
Reese’s lips parted with surprise. But before he could answer, he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. He spun to see the same staff member from earlier guiding Joel up the stairs and onto the top deck. Joel wore a pair of slacks and a white button-down. His hair was combed to one side. He looked handsome but slightly over-dressed. Reese was grateful for Oriana all over again.
Joel’s steps hiccuped as he approached. It was clear he hadn’t been told Reese would be there, just as Reese hadn’t been told Joel would be there. Carlotta had arranged this. It was as though she were playing with them. As though they were toys. Her smile widened.
“So good of you to join us,” she said to Joel, whom she greeted with two cheek kisses.
“Thank you for the invitation. This is a marvelous yacht.” Joel sat down where instructed and did not glance Reese’s way.
Reese wanted to scream at him look at me!
But they were in the presence of a very rich client who paid them a lot of money and was prepared to take them to Rome so that they could promote their business and take on even more clients. If they played their cards right, they could afford to bring on a few more employees. Reese imagined retiring in ten years and leaving that kind of capital in the hands of his son. It would relieve him to know that Joel had so much. It would help him sleep easier at night.
He and Oriana had already saved enough to retire comfortably. It meant every decision he made before retirement now had Joel, Alexis, and the grandkids in mind.
“I was just telling your father my plan,” Carlotta went on.
Joel’s eyes flickered, but it was clear he already knew the plan. His being here meant he agreed with it.
This was a development Reese hadn’t anticipated. His pulse rocketed.
“If your father agrees, everything can be arranged this evening,” Carlotta went on.
“I’d prefer it if my family could come along,” Joel said.
“Your wife is a stay-at-home mother, correct?” Carlotta asked Joel.
“She is.” Joel didn’t betray any emotion at the mention of Lauren.
Carlotta’s expression was slightly snide. “Provided she can watch the children while we gallivant, I have no qualms. Reese? Your wife is a prominent art dealer. She would be welcome in my circles. I know several interested buyers.”
“Oriana would be grateful,” Reese said.
Carlotta clasped her beautiful hands and said, “It’s settled! I’m looking so forward. It isn’t every day I bring my American world and my European world together. Let the games begin.”
Carlotta made a toast to their “burgeoning business relationship.” Joel, Reese, and Carlotta clinked glasses, and appetizers were brought out: olives, cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, and little slices of very expensive and spicy sausages. She urged them to eat to their hearts’ desires.
“Tell me, Joel. How did you meet your wife?” Carlotta’s eyes flickered, and she rested her chin on her hand.
Joel took the question in stride. “I met her when I was a teenager. Her father started a sort of resort and moved his family to the Vineyard for a little while before it failed.”
“A high school romance,” Carlotta said. “Was she your first love?”
“I guess so,” Joel said. “The only one I can really remember. We’ve been through so much together.” There was a slight hiccup to his voice.
What about the kind girlfriend that came before Lauren? What about the girlfriend who dumped Joel when he was thirteen?
“And did she always want to be a stay-at-home mother?” Carlotta asked.
Joel looked momentarily stricken. “She wasn’t always. She’s very talented at a wide variety of things. She just, you know, loves our children. She wants to be there for the little and intimate moments.”
Reese had had enough of Carlotta grilling his son about Lauren. He didn’t like Lauren, but there was nothing bad about staying at home to raise the children you’d given birth to. He raised his chin and said, “I was a stay-at-home father.”
Carlotta burst with laughter. “Don’t kid me.”
“It’s true,” Reese said. “They were the best years of my life.”
Carlotta continued to giggle. “I don’t believe you.”
Reese stole a glance at Joel, who seemed to try to laugh in service of Carlotta. It was essential that they didn’t make her mad. Reese knew that.
But somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought why are we pretending so much in front of this woman?
After drinks and dinner, Joel and Reese were released from the luxurious glories of Carlotta’s world. They walked down the dock together wordlessly. Bobby pulled a Lamborghini into the parking lot and waved as they walked past to their vehicles.
“The lady told me she’s bringing you both to Rome,” Bobby said.
Reese’s spine tingled with distaste at this man. He couldn’t say what bothered him so much about him. He was seedy.
“We’re looking forward to it,” Joel said.
“As you should. Carlotta always shows you a good time,” Bobby said.
Joel and Reese stood by their cars and watched as Bobby ducked down the dock to meet with Carlotta. Reese’s chest frothed with anxiety.
Tell Joel you’re sorry again. Tell him you want to make things right.
“Joel,” Reese began.
Joel stiffened.
“Joel, I just want to tell you how sorry I am. I never should have meddled in your marriage.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’m not perfect. Not by a long shot. But the past month of having you back has been one of the best of my life.”
Joel flared his nostrils and removed his keys from his pocket. He looked on the brink of tears. “Let’s just get through this trip to Rome. Maybe we can talk after we get back.”
“Why can’t we talk now?” Reese demanded, feeling pitiful.
Joel shot him a look. “There’s too much going on right now. I can’t handle it.”
Joel slipped into the front seat of his car, cranked the engine, and sped off before Reese had a chance to ask what he meant.
Still, he clung to that single hope. Maybe we can talk after we get back.
Maybe all wasn’t lost.