Chapter Five - Michaela
Chapter Five
MICHAELA
“I COME BEARING GIFTS,” I say walking into the kitchen with the cake for today’s party. Elizabeth clears a space on the counter and sets up the multi-colored polka dot cake stand. I open the lid when she finally turns to me, and the smell is heavenly — fresh vanilla and strawberry waft through the air. “Freshly baked this morning by the famous Ellen.”
“It smells so good.” She’s practically drooling as she removes it from the box. The layered strawberry shortcake from Ellen's Bake Shop is always a must at Davis family functions, now that Aunt Evie isn’t around to make her famous red velvet. Mom and Elizabeth have tried to recreate it, but unfortunately, no one makes it quite like her. The top is covered in a layer of cream frosting and fresh strawberries, each layer of cake separated by more frosting and berries, and fresh strawberry sauce drizzled on top. You must add Cool Whip, per Ellen, before serving, but not before. The whole thing looks magnificent sitting on its pedestal.
“I think we should skip lunch and go straight to dessert,” Kai says joining us with Ophelia on his hip.“What do you think, Leia?”
“Yes!” Ophelia rubs her hands together and licks her lips.
“You don’t want to spoil your appetite, do you?” Elizabeth boops her on the nose. “I made your favorite — dino nuggets!”
“Absolutely,” Kai laughs, but Ophelia struggles, her eyes trained on the cake. She loves dino nuggets but loves cake more, ultimately agreeing with her dad.
“We at least need to wait for your Uncle Nick, don’t we?”
Oh wow, Elizabeth is playing the Nick card. That’s dirty. She knows Ophelia wouldn’t dare leave her favorite Uncle out.
“Daddy, we have to wait,” Ophelia says crossing her arms with a pout.
“This is blasphemy,” Kai laughs, “you’re supposed to be on my side, kid.” He turns to Elizabeth,” I can’t believe you used Nick against me.” Elizabeth shrugs, a large smirk on her lips as she rearranges more food. Ophelia squirms out of her father’s arms and runs out of the kitchen towards the living room. When he is sure she’s gone, he asks the question we’re all wondering, “You sure he’s even coming?”
“Said he’d be here,” she says and leans back against the counter taking a sip of lemonade. “He was supposed to have landed last night, but Nin said he got held up at a dinner. His new flight should have landed about twenty minutes ago.”
“Anyone heard from him to confirm that's real?” I ask.
“His flight got delayed,” Nina says walking into the kitchen wearing high-waisted navy blue dress pants, a cream satin camisole, with a tan blazer and leopard print heels.
“You look like you just came from a board meeting,” Kai taunts her — at least I’m not the only one who thinks so. I feel undressed in my jean shorts and a dark green button-down.
“Nick isn’t going to make it,” she ignores her brother’s comment and doesn’t acknowledge me.
“How long until the others get here?” Elizabeth takes another sip of her lemonade.
“Alex said they were leaving as I pulled up," I add swiping one of the carrot sticks from the veggie platter. “And, Mom and Dad should be here any minute."
“Where’s Josh?” Kai pulls a beer from the fridge. “I haven’t seen him yet. I thought he was on burger duty.”
Elizabeth doesn’t answer, her attention turns back to the food spread. It’s quiet for a moment while we wait for her answer, but she never does. I look between the siblings who share a knowing glance, a private conversation I’m not privy to, before Nina motions toward me.
“Okay, well, I’m gonna go see if Mom and Dad are here yet,” I say, but no one acknowledges me. Only after I step outside do I feel like I can breathe again. The vibe quickly shifted to something much heavier when Kai brought up Josh. Now that I think about it, that’s the first time Nina hinted at knowing I was in the room — her eyes quickly shifting toward me before glaring back at her brother. I was missing a piece of the puzzle, something between the three Villa siblings that the rest of us weren’t aware of. I don’t know what that could have to do with my brother.
I take a quick step back when a black Escalade pulls into the circle parking in front of the steps. Tinted windows hide the driver from view. Who the hell is this?
Seconds later, a white Mercedes zips down the driveway pulling into the garage — found Josh.
“I didn’t know they were offering valet service.”
That voice. There’s no fucking way. They wouldn’t invite him. He’s not even family. Shouldn’t he be in Prague or Amsterdam or whatever the latest party city is in Europe right now.
“Why the long face, Shortcake? Not happy to see me?”
Finnley Sheffield.
God, I wish I could smack that smug look off his face.
“I thought that was you!” My brother clamps down on Finn’s shoulder disrupting our stare-off. “Glad you could make it.”
“You know I wouldn’t miss a chance to hang with the fam.”
“What is he doing here?” I hiss at Josh.
“Oh, c’mon, Shortcake, don’t be like that. I know you missed me.” Finn outstretches his hand toward me like he’s going to ruffle my hair, but I swat him away.
“Don’t call me that.” I despise the nickname. Shortcake . He has always called me that and I cringe every time. Where did it come from? I have no idea, probably because I’ve always been the shortest person around. I can’t help it if I was the only one in the family not to inherit the Davis height genes. I turn back to my brother, “What is he doing here?”
“We ran into each other in town yesterday, so I invited him over,” Josh shrugs like it’s no big deal. “Mom and Dad will want to see him before he jets off again.”
“I’m going to be sticking around for a while,” Finn says. He opens the back of his Cadillac and pulls out a decent-sized box covered in wrapping paper with the poop emoji on it. So glad to know we’ve all grown up.
“What did Mommy and Daddy cut off your allowance?” I roll my eyes when Josh shoots me a glare.
“From those split ends and your outfit, I’d say Nina did too.”
“Alright, you two, enough,” Josh laughs. “Can’t we agree to get along for one day?”
“Easier said than done, Joshy-boy,” Finn says walking past me up the steps.
Josh rolls his eyes but turns to me with a pleading look. “For Dad and Uncle Jim, can you please not start any shit today?”
“I’m not the one who started it!”
“Just behave for one day; that’s all I ask.”
Is Josh telling me to behave? He invited the devil himself to our family party. You can’t invite Jabba the Hut to the party and expect me to be okay with it.
Behind us, I hear two cars pull up; they park behind Finn’s Cadillac in the circle. Josh wastes no time turning away from our conversation to greet them.
“The party has arrived!” Dad says before rushing to the passenger side to help Mom out of the car. One of the small things he’s always done for her — opening the door whenever she’s getting in or out of the car, absolutely refusing to let her do it herself, even if it means getting soaking wet in the rain or sweating his ass off a few second longer in the summer heat.
“We were starting to think you got lost,” Josh jokes, hugging our parents and then Uncle Jim.
“Your father decided this morning was a good time to trim the trees around the house,” Mom remarks shooting him a glare.
Dad shrugs, “Needed to be done.”
“Well, c’mon. Everyone else is here and food should be about done. I just have to throw the burgers on the grill.” Josh ushers them up the steps and into the house, shooting me another warning glare on his way.
So much for today being relaxing.
“Is it just me, or does everyone seem a little on edge?” Alex asks, plopping down on the couch next to me.
“Definitely not just you.” I follow Finn’s movements as he plays some imaginary game with Ophelia in the corner. She screams with delight as he swoops her off her feet, spinning in a circle, and crashing into the large pillow fort she had built with Dad earlier. Ophelia lands on top of him when they fall, and she uses her body to cover his chest, giggling the whole time. Uncle Jimmy appears from the kitchen and counts to three declaring Ophelia the winner.
“I beat you, Uncle Finn!”
Since when is he Uncle Finn?
Alex pokes me in the arm pulling my attention away from the duo. “Hello, earth to Michaela.”
“Huh? Sorry, what’d you say?”
“I asked if David was in D.C. this weekend?”
“Probably.”
“Probably? You mean, you don’t know?”
“I think he said they were traveling this weekend. He doesn’t tell me everything, you know. He was home for a day last week, that’s the most I’ve seen of him.”
Good Michaela, really good, keep digging the hole deeper.
“That’s why you’re so on edge — haven’t gotten any action lately?”
I roll my eyes. “For your information, the only thing bothering me right now is the fact my brother invited that asshole to the party.”
“Who, Finn? Oh, you’ve got to be kidding, Mic. Are you still hating on him? It’s been like ten years.”
“Your point?”
“Grow up,” he laughs.
“You should stop staring, might give someone the wrong idea,” Finn interrupts before I have a chance to tell Alex to fuck off. Looking around, the room had cleared out leaving only the three of us.
“I was making sure you weren’t being inappropriate with my niece.”
“Michaela,” Alex hisses.
Finn looks unimpressed with my comeback, and honestly, so am I. It was lame, but what else am I supposed to say? I was staring.
“Finn, she didn’t mean that.”
“I know she didn’t.” The smirk that spreads across his lips infuriates me. “She can’t admit to staring at me, now can she? Like I said, might give someone the wrong idea.”
“In your dreams, Sheffield,” I scoff.
“You have no idea, Shortcake.” Finn’s voice drops lower than I’ve ever heard before, and it sends a shock straight to my core. He winks and holds my gaze for a second too long before turning back to Alex. “Josh still in the kitchen?”
“He and Dad went to his office before I came in here,” Alex says skeptically. When Finn is out of earshot Alex turns to me with a wide look. “Did really he just say that?”
“Don’t take it to heart. He’s always saying shit to get under my skin.”
“But he—”
“Wouldn’t be the first time, probably won’t be the last.” I finish the rest of my sangria before leaving him to get a refill.
“Oh good,” Elizabeth says when I walk into the kitchen. “Can you grab Nina?” She swipes crumbs from the counter into the palm of her hand before washing it down with a sanitary wipe. “She was on the phone out front, we’re about to do cake.”
“You got it, boss.” I offer her a small salute before heading towards the front door.
At first, I don’t see her, but after a second, I hear her boots pacing the asphalt up and down the circle. She doesn’t say much to whoever is on the phone, but from the look on her face, the conversation is not going well. She pauses at the far end of the circle and ends the call, but she doesn’t turn to come back inside. She lets her shoulders fall and releases the breath she has been holding. I’m torn between interrupting her and leaving her alone. She needs a moment to decompress, but with how things have been going today… I don’t know if I want to come back empty-handed.
Nina straightens herself and prepares to walk back inside, to put up the mask once again, but freezes. Something catches her eye from the driveway I can’t see. And the first real smile I’ve seen all day tugs on her lips before a dark-haired blur rushes towards her — Nick. He lifts her off her feet and kisses her. I don’t know how they do it. Spend so much time apart. It used to kill me being away from David for a week, I can’t imagine going two, three, or more at a time.
“Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick!” Ophelia? When did she get here? She barges out the door towards them tackling Nick's legs.
He laughs and kneels to her level, “Oh my goodness, is that Ophelia Jade? I swear you’ve gotten ten inches taller since I saw you.”
“Nu-uh!”
“You sure? You’re almost as tall as me.” Nick moves his hand from the top of his to hers.
“Because you’re on the ground,” Ophelia giggles.
“Sorry, she slipped past me,” I say joining them.
“I’m always happy to see my OJ,” Nick says. He ruffles Ophelia’s hair much to her dismay. “C’mon, let’s go see everyone.”
Ophelia jumps at the opportunity, taking his hand and babbling the whole way leaving me and Nina alone. I think about saying something to her, apologizing for the last time we saw each other now that we’re not around everyone else, but Ophelia’s words stop me, “Uncle Nick, is Aunt Nina okay?”
Oh no.
The world stops. I told Nina that kid was listening that day in the park. There’s a questioning look on Nick’s face as he glances down at her and back at his wife. He bends down to her level again. “Of course she is, Leia. Why would you ask that?”
Ophelia looks at Nina before beckoning him closer. Using her hand, she cups her mouth to his ear and whispers something. His gaze narrows on Nina, but she doesn’t react. Damn, I wish I had as good a poker face as her. Then, his gaze meets mine, and I know we’re screwed.
“You’re too smart for your own good.” Nick kisses Ophelia’s forehead. “Go inside, Leia. I’m right behind you. Tell Grandpa Jim it’s time for cake, okay?”
“And then I can help with presents?”
“And then you can help with presents.”
Ophelia wastes no time running back inside. Before the door even closes, Nick turns to face both of us.
“Nick—”
“We’ll talk later, Michaela,” he stops me. “Go inside.”
I share a look with Nina, who nods, but I don’t want to leave her. “Michaela, go,” she insists. After a moment, I finally give in. “Nick, let me—”
“Doctor, Nina?” His voice a low hiss. “What in the hell is going on?”
“I’m okay,” she says as I reach the door. “I will explain everything at home, I promise. Can we please go enjoy the party? For your dad and Patrick, Nick… Please.”
Alex stands in the doorway. “Everything good?”
“Nick knows.”