Chapter 36 Better than Ice Cream
BETTER THAN ICE CREAM
Simone
THWACK.
The kitchen was filled with bread. Muffins. Three kinds of cookies and two pans of coffee cake. Now I was working on a batch of sourdough croissants, and the puff pastry was taking the brunt of my frustrations via the wooden rolling pin used to beat the butter into the dough.
It wasn’t working.
I’d been stress-baking since Brendan had left the apartment just past six. My nerves were as wired as ever.
No one had slept last night. Well, no one except my sister, and I didn’t want to think about what that meant. Brendan had been up all night making phone calls, issuing threats, and basically doing everything he could to coordinate the exchange set up for this morning.
I’d sat with Selena while she drank enough vodka to fell a horse, then spent the remainder of the night calling friends in Woodstock, acquaintances from high school, basically anyone I could think of who might be in touch with the Huntingtons.
I’d had no luck, but Brendan had a bit more. Enough to arrange a meeting this morning.
But that was hours ago, and I hadn’t heard anything since.
And so…I’d baked.
“This is bullshit,” Selena muttered as she tore apart one of the lemon zucchini muffins. “How long does a meeting take? How do we know he’s even doing anything?”
I took a deep breath and shoved the rolling pin harder into the dough covering the frozen slab of butter. “Because he said he would.”
Brendan had been tight-lipped about his plans when he left me with a kiss and two words: “plausible deniability.” In other words, the less I knew, the better.
I wasn’t sure what to think about that. But my conscience wanted Kylie back more than it cared about right from wrong.
“And you believe him? Just like that?” Selena scoffed. “You barely know him, Simmy.”
“I know him well enough to marry him.” I focused on pounding frozen butter into a pat rather than meeting my sister’s accusatory gaze—or be called out in my lie. “I know him well enough to trust him.”
That, at least, was the truth.
For the first time in my life, I was starting to understand what people meant by found family.
Since my mother died, I’d just assumed my family was over. Dad fell apart. Selena went off the deep end. I’d been functionally alone in this world for years, forced to clean up others’ messes despite never having the freedom to make my own mistakes.
Until I’d met him.
In a few short months, Brendan had turned out to be more reliable, even in a crisis, than the people who shared my blood.
He wasn’t my fiancé. He was barely even my boyfriend.
But my heart wanted to call him family just the same.
“Do you really think he’ll get her back?” Selena asked, her voice unexpectedly small as she continued to make a mess of her muffin.
“I do.” I started folding the dough around the now-flattened butter. “Brendan keeps his promises.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I paused, considering. How could I explain something I felt so deeply but had no logical reason to believe? “I just…know him. I trust him.”
Selena studied me. “You really are in love with him, aren’t you? I thought you might be when you wore Mom’s dress, but then I saw the pictures and figured it was for the money. Now, though…”
I frowned as I studied the dough. My instinct was to say yes. She was expecting me to say yes.
But just days ago, Brendan had all but said that wasn’t what we were.
So, I didn’t know where I stood other than the fact that I believed he would bring back my niece.
Selena, however, had already moved on to another thought. “You know, if you’d never gotten involved with the guy in the first place, none of this would have happened.” She started flicking crumbs across the counter.
My hands stopped mid-roll. “You’re kidding, right? You came to me in debt up to your neck, and he is the only reason you were going to get out of it.”
“I could have gone to Dad. You wouldn’t let me.” She shrugged. “Or maybe you should have asked your man to be a little more generous. Fifty grand was never going to cut it with the Huntingtons. That’s pocket change to people like them.”
There were times when, if I didn’t see my own face on my twin, I wouldn’t have believed we were related at all.
I went back to rolling out the dough a little more roughly than necessary.
The lamination probably wouldn’t flake correctly, but at least I wouldn’t throw the pin at my sister.
“Right now, Brendan is out there literally saving your daughter’s life, and you have the gall to blame him for your mistakes?
You borrowed money from a crook to be a crook yourself.
What did you think was going to happen? What were you even thinking? ”
“I was thinking I needed to do something with my life,” Selena shot back. “Not all of us can get by on tips and volunteer work. I have a child to support.”
“And how’s that going?” The words came out harsher than I intended, but I couldn’t stop. “You depleted Dad’s savings. Abandoned your daughter with me for days at a time. You even pawned Mom’s jewelry. Is that your version of doing something with your life? Of ensuring your kid’s safety?”
Selena had the decency to look ashamed for a moment, but it quickly morphed back into defensiveness.
“I was desperate. And it’s not like you don’t have other ways to make money now.
” She gestured around Brendan’s luxurious penthouse.
“Look at where you are, who you’re with.
You hit the jackpot, and you’re not even willing to share. ”
“Not willing to share? I just gave you fifty thousand dollars, and you still stole from me!” I screeched. “I’m paying for Kylie’s new nanny. Preschool. Private school if she needs.”
“Which is basically like giving pennies to a homeless dude when you have hundreds in your back pocket!” she yelled right back. “What, am I supposed to be grateful for the bare minimum of your charity when I know you could do so much more for us? All you had to do was ask him!”
“It’s not like that! I don’t care how much money Brendan has. It was never going to be like that with him, and I’m certainly not with him so you can use him as a personal piggybank.”
“Oh, please.” Selena rolled her eyes. “The man would cut off his own foot if it made you happy. You have no idea what kind of prize you’ve stumbled onto, Simmy, and you’re too stupid and na?ve to know what’s going to happen next. Eventually, he’s going to lose interest.”
“Brendan isn’t like that.” Suddenly, I couldn’t smack the dough as forcefully as I wanted. If I had, I would have broken the rolling pin.
“If you say so.” She leaned against the counter. “But when this is all over, just remember who’s been there for you your whole life.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed, with curt bitterness that surprised me. “Been there for me? You’ve got to be kidding. I have spent my entire adult life cleaning up after you and Dad.”
“That’s not fair—”
“Isn’t it?” My voice rose again despite my efforts to stay calm.
“I’ve given you money whenever you asked.
I let you stay at my apartment for weeks, sometimes months at a time.
Taken Kylie when you’ve disappeared. And now I’m asking my fiancé to risk his safety dealing with criminals because you couldn’t make responsible choices. ”
“I see how it is.” Selena’s face flushed with anger.
“Poor, irresponsible Selena who can’t get her life together?
At least I’ve lived, Simmy. When was the last time you did anything that wasn’t safe and predictable before meeting him?
” She jabbed a finger toward the door as if Brendan were standing just outside.
“You think running away from responsibility is living?” I countered. “I stayed because someone had to make sure your kid eats every now and then. Or make sure Dad pays at least some of his bills. Someone had to be the freaking adult!”
“This is why no one likes you. Do you know that? No one wants to be around a saint all the time. This is why you’ve been alone for years, why you’re going to be alone after this so-called ‘relationship’ crashes and burns. Because it will, you know. Maybe after you get married. Maybe before.”
“Stop,” I said, though I couldn’t keep my voice from shaking. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But Selena didn’t listen. She never listened.
“One day, the jackpot you somehow got lucky enough to nab will meet a hot secretary or a pageant winner or whatever, and he’s going to stop banging you and start banging her.
Men like him have three or four wives in their lifetime, not just one.
So, wake up and make the most of it while you can.
Not just for yourself, for all of us. Stop doling out breadcrumbs when you could just give us the whole bakery for life, especially since you clearly want to be rid of us anyway. ”
We stared at each other as reality sank in. Selena didn’t think of me as her sister. She thought of me as her golden ticket, especially now that she saw a new flush of dollar signs.
She had no idea how much of the new money I was getting would be going into saving our family’s farm.
She had no clue how I’d already set up a trust for Kylie that would pay for college, activities, or anything else she would need as she grew up.
She didn’t see it because she didn’t ask.
Because she only saw the potential to relieve her of responsibility.
Abandoning my half-finished dough, I turned to the sink to wash my hands, if only so she wouldn’t see how deeply her words cut.
Because as hard as it was to accept that my sister was a terrible person, it was even harder to acknowledge the kernel of truth in what she said: that Brendan probably would give me up one day.
That men like him didn’t end up with poor farmers’ daughters.
If they married at all, it was for convenience or wealth.
But that didn’t mean I should take advantage of him either.
And so, by the time I turned back around, I knew exactly what I wanted to say.
“You’re right.”
Selena looked up. “I am?”
I nodded. “You are. I could give more, but I purposefully chose not to share it with you because you’re a narcissist. Your daughter, though, isn’t.”
My sister looked like she’d been slapped upside the head. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means I’m using the money for something else.
One of the first things I did when Brendan and I got engaged was look up custody lawyers.
I put it on hold over the last few months since you seemed to be doing better, but now, I’m going to do what I should have ages ago.
As soon as Kylie is back, I’ll be seeking guardianship immediately, along with a restraining order.
She deserves more than you. She deserves real safety. ”
By the time I was finished speaking, my voice had dropped to a deadly quiet level I didn’t even know I was capable of.
I didn’t sound like myself.
Actually, I sounded like Brendan.
“You bitch,” Selena spat. “You’ll take my daughter over my dead body.”
But I was done fighting as I turned back to the sink. “Considering how many times you’ve left her with me, I’m surprised you even care.”
Before she could answer, the distinct chime of the elevator echoed through the penthouse. We both froze, then rushed toward the entryway, our argument momentarily forgotten.
The doors slid open to reveal Brendan, his usually perfect appearance disheveled—tie loosened, a few strands of hair falling across his forehead, and a dark spot that looked suspiciously like blood darkening the cuff of his shirt.
But it was the small figure beside him that caused my heart to leap.
“Mommy!” Kylie cried, breaking free from Brendan’s hand and racing toward us. “Aunt Simone! I’m back!”
“Kylie! Baby!” Selena dropped to her knees and gathered her daughter into her arms, although my niece looked a little surprised by the sudden affection. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?”
“I’m okay,” Kylie assured her, trying and failing to push Selena away. “Brendan got me ice cream! Look!”
She held up a sticky hand that still bore traces of chocolate. At that, Selena did release her, clearly wanting to get away from the stickiness.
“Ice cream at eight a.m.?” I looked at Brendan in disbelief, but filled with gratitude. He’d done it. He’d actually gotten her back safely.
“This is for you,” he said, handing me a green pint container with Van Leeuwen printed on the side. “We got them to open early.”
“How did you—” I started to ask, but he shook his head slightly, indicating we’d talk about it later. The tightness around his eyes and corded tension around his jaw told me the story wasn’t as simple as it appeared.
“Mommy, can I watch some cartoons? The bad men wouldn’t let me watch anything but baseball.” Kylie’s lip stuck out.
“Yeah, sure.” Selena was already looking bored by the idea.
“Maybe a bath first?” I suggested. “We don’t know where she’s been.”
Granted, it looked like she’d been treated well, but still…
Selena glared. “I know that. Come on, Kylie, you’re taking a shower.”
“But, Mommy, I want a bath time.”
“Fine,” Selena snapped. “Come on. After that, you can watch TV as long as you don’t whine, all right?”
It took everything I had not to tell her not to snap at Kylie, but Brendan’s hand pulled my attention back to him.
“She’s safe,” he reminded me. “She’ll be all right.”
Suddenly, I couldn’t do anything but throw myself into Brendan’s arms. He smelled like the city—like salty dew from the harbor, concrete, and his indelible musk.
“Thank you,” I whispered against his chest. “Thank you for bringing her back.”
One hand cradled the back of my head, the other wrapped firmly around my waist. “There wasn’t an alternative.”
I leaned back to look at him, to ask him why it was so urgent, how he managed it, what he had to do, exactly, to make these people cooperate in such a short time.
But all my questions melted away as I saw the raw vulnerability in those onyx eyes.
“Simone.” That deep voice shook with need that echoed in my soul.
This time, it wasn’t just him who bent down, and I wasn’t the only one looking for a kiss. Our joint desire was thick enough to slice with a knife. There was only one thing to do.
We lunged.