Chapter 17 – Meggie
Meggie missed Christopher terribly. Her annoyance over his idiocy regarding her birth control pills floated away sometime during cruise level.
When she called Mort and asked him to talk to Q for her, he offered his house instead.
Meggie was more than grateful to Mortician because she hadn’t wanted to stay in one of the LA chapter bungalows.
However, before Mortician came to the rescue it was either the clubhouse in LA or cancelling the trip altogether.
Because of a big festival going on, she hadn’t been able to find rooms for the four of them.
After the mad rush to make the travel arrangements, talk to her husband and children, and get to the airport she was exhausted. Except her longing for her husband left her a little lost and very much awake.
The household staff had a delicious meal of spicy buffalo cauliflower, grilled scallops, and Mexican corn, waiting for them, even though they arrived at the estate near midnight.
Now the kitchen was clean and the house silent.
Bailey’s staff ran like a well-oiled machine.
The cook loved to discuss her food and preparation technique.
The four house cleaners were efficient and thorough.
And the house manager ran interference. He was the only one who lived on premises but had respected her wishes during her last visit that all staff stay away.
There were also several groundskeepers and a pool guy.
As much as Meggie liked the staff, most of whom had been on Mortician’s payroll for years, there was still a dividing line between the family and the workers. Somehow, it still felt impersonal.
Maybe that way was best. If they screwed up, it was easy to fire them. Sipping her chamomile tea as she sat at the breakfast bar, Meggie thought of Christopher again. She’d called him every step of the way. Hopefully, he finally believed she’d left for Rebel, not to hurt him.
Sighing, Meggie pursed her lips and sat the cup onto its matching saucer. Maybe she’d been a little peeved at her husband, which made it easier to leave. But it wasn’t until the boys kept interrupting her that she even came up with the idea.
Unfortunately, she’d also expressed her lack of enjoyment at the club. In hindsight, she should’ve kept her mouth shut. Between that and her sudden departure, Christopher was probably thinking about patching out.
Again.
Perhaps, it was time. Maybe it would even benefit CJ.
If he joined under new leadership and ended up as president, he couldn’t be accused of ascending to the top position through fraud and nepotism.
Which could get Christopher, CJ, and Diesel out bad and killed.
What their daddy cooked up, those two willingly jumped into the pot.
Meggie rolled her eyes. This was all speculation on her part. Neither one of them would tell her they’d rig the elections. Except she knew her husband and she knew her eldest son.
They allowed nothing to stand in the way of what they wanted.
She walked a fine line, trying to allow her daughter to have a “normal” life while also appeasing her daddy and her brothers.
Unless they had some control, they’d find a way to undermine all Meggie’s attempts to honor Rebel’s wishes.
That was why she’d gotten on board with Kaia.
It was the path of least resistance. In theory, it should’ve made everyone happy.
CJ had vetted him, Christopher grudgingly approved, Diesel Dieseled, and Rebel liked Kaia.
What should’ve been a win-win turned into a disaster.
The best laid plans had a tendency to blow up and disintegrate into a pile of lost hope and unattainable dreams. Besides, normalcy was relative. Volumes had been written about raising normal children while leading a normal life be it in a suburban home or a camper in the wilderness.
“Mrs. Caldwell? Uh, M-Meggie?”
At the sound of Kaia’s voice, she stiffened and turned her seat toward the doorway that led into the hallway. He stood just outside the kitchen. “What?”
She’d barely spoken two words to him. Fortunately, Rebel didn’t notice.
“Are you…are you angry with me?”
She glowered at him. This fiasco was her fault. One, she’d gone along with the plan the Three Musketeers and their followers cooked up by putting Kaia in Rebel’s path. Two, she’d hired him to work at the house. At the time, it seemed like a good idea. She just couldn’t remember her reasoning now.
“D-did I do something wrong?”
“Other than sleep with Fia?” she asked sweetly. “Nope. Nothing at all.”
“I said I didn’t. Remember?”
He could’ve said whatever he wanted to. That didn’t mean she believed him. Meggie narrowed her eyes.
He paled. “I can explain.”
“Nope. I don’t think you can. Furthermore, I don’t want the details.”
“Meggie…Mrs. Caldwell…”
“I didn’t want your death on my conscience,” she said evenly. “I’m certain Diesel would’ve killed you even though he knew what you did.”
“I-I…I’m sorry—”
“I doubt that. You wouldn’t have had sex with that girl again.”
His shoulders slumped. Good. His stupid head should’ve slumped, too, since he had the sense of a flea. “Are you firing me?”
“Maybe.”
“Please let me explain.”
“My patience is thin, Kaia,” she warned. “I’m so over morons that I could scream.”
“Your daughter’s gorgeous. Just like you.”
He’d hit on her months ago.
“I don’t mean that way,” he said, probably going over in his head what he’d said and realized how it sounded. He crossed the sill. “She’s truly my Chi. I never expected to like her so much and care about her.”
“You can’t care that much if you’re sleeping with someone else behind her back, especially a club girl. Fia, in particular.” Whose head Meggie wanted.
“Would it be better if I’d slept with her?”
“Her?” Meggie considered the bowl of fruit. She only saw mangos and bananas, so she’d have to empty the bowl and through it at his head. “Rebel?”
“She isn’t ready for that. I didn’t know what to do.”
The words pulled her away from her contemplation and she turned toward him again. “Breaking up with her is the thing to do.”
He flinched. “Please don’t make me do that. Please? I won’t tell Reb what I did. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her?”
Did Kaia have any survival instincts?
“I won’t sleep with Fia again. I’ll find another girl until Rebel’s ready.”
Nope, none at all.
The heat of anger swept through Meggie and she swore she’d burst into flames.
“I can only jerk off so many times,” he said.
Meggie frowned.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” he muttered.
“You think?”
Rocking on his heels, he clenched his jaw, a little lost and very despondent.
Gritting her teeth, Meggie pointed to the stool next to her. “Sit down.”
“Are you going to stab me?” He looked over her shoulder to the block of knives not far away.
She jabbed her finger at the chair again. “Sit.”
He contemplated her for a second, then walked over and sat in the stool next to her.
“This was an awful idea from the beginning,” she said. “I regret going along with it. My daughter’s emotional state is quite fragile right now.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt her.”
“I’m already complicit in the original scheme. This is even more detrimental and earth-shattering. If I cover for you, I’m betraying her.”
“I’m sorry.”
Meggie folded her arms so she wouldn’t slap him.
“I don’t want to break up with Rebel. I might lose her. She’s so strong-willed and she hasn’t gotten over her suspicions about how, why, we met. But I’ve never had a girl like her—”
“My daughter isn’t a possession.”
“But she is a prize. A dream. I don’t have a lot going for me and that doesn’t matter to her.
My poetry. My art. And the money I earn from you.
Yeah, I like Fia. For sex. She’s good in bed.
Other than that, I don’t know much about her.
What we share is more akin to the girls who paid all my expenses and bought everything I had. ”
“Do you feel as if I bought you for Rebel?”
He flushed. “Not really, but if it wasn’t for her, I doubt you would’ve given me the job.”
“Let’s say that’s true. Which it isn’t. Not completely. You risked your job, my money, and my wrath to cheat. With Fia.”
“Cheat is a strong word.”
“I’m not playing a word game with you. You know why I say you’re a cheat.”
“Because she’s my Chi and I’m her Huahua.
” He hung his head again. “I’m sorry. I know the first time Fia slept with me was because of Diesel, but this time, it was for me.
There was no money involved. A lot of alcohol and lust but that’s it.
I wasn’t someone to be bought and controlled.
I was just a guy to hook up with. Rebel looks at me like I’m everything.
She doesn’t see my lost potential and dreams. She doesn’t see the boy whose family blames him for his cousin’s death.
She doesn’t see a guy from the wrong side of the tracks and who couldn’t even afford to pay for her fucking dinner. ”
Meggie absorbed his words. Admittedly, her heart went out to him, so she asked, “If you’d kept your football scholarship, what would you have majored in?”
“My dad said to get a business degree.”
“Is that what you wanted?”
“I would’ve loved to study art and design. I don’t need training to write my poetry. That comes naturally.”
“Umkay.” What else could she say? “And now?”
“A pipe dream. I wanted to study in London. Big Ben has always fascinated me. I wanted to take a boat ride down the Thames. My mom said I was reaching and my dad said to focus on my good fortune of getting into Ridge Moore.”
“Meaning focus on football?”
Kaia nodded.
“If you had a way to study art, would you?”
“You mean, now?”
“Yes.”
“What about Rebel? I would be gone for at least three years.”
“If you start in the fall, she’d be nineteen by the time you graduated.”
“Legal.”
Meggie remained silent.
“You’re offering to fund that?”
“Yep.”
A pained expression crossed his face. “To get me away from Rebel?”