Chapter 2
Chapter Two
“I don’t think you’ve all met Isla.” Julian pointed to each Remington as he introduced her. “Isla, these are my siblings.”
“Nice to meet you all,” she said with a shy smile. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Hopefully, Jules had prepared her for a less-than-enthusiastic greeting from his jaded brothers and sisters.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Gillian said as the others murmured proper words they didn’t mean.
None of them approved of Jules losing his marbles over a recently widowed woman who’d survived a difficult marriage and was now a single parent with two young kids. That sentence alone was surreal. They hoped Julian would soon return to normal so they could exhale over a dodged bullet.
Carson wondered if this new round of drama with their parents would wake his brother up to reality sooner rather than later.
The only thing he’d need to be scared straight was another episode of the Corbin and Kate show.
Viewers had eaten up the drama depicted in the stupid reality TV show while their nine children had to contend with other kids at school as their personal business was made public.
He and Julian had been in high school then. Good times.
Carson’s cell rang with a call from Spence. “Hey, Gramps.”
“What’s everyone doing there?”
The one downside to being his grandfather’s caretaker was that Spence, an iPhone aficionado, loved monitoring what went on at home via the cameras he had positioned around the exterior of the property.
Most of the time, he complained about how lame Carson’s life was and urged him to do something exciting to keep an old man from dying of boredom.
“Did you see the news tonight?” Carson asked him.
“I’ve been playing cribbage. What’d I miss?”
“It’s kind of a bombshell.”
“Okay…”
“Mom and Dad are back together.”
“What the hell did you just say?”
“You heard me right.” Spence took great pride in being one of the few people at his facility who didn’t wear hearing aids.
“Put me on speaker.”
“It’s Gramps,” Carson said to the others. “He wants in on the conversation.”
“Catch me up,” Spencer said.
The Remington kids loved their paternal grandfather more than just about anyone, as he’d been the most reliable adult during their tumultuous childhood. He’d never wavered in his devotion to each of them, and there was nothing he wouldn’t do for them—and vice versa.
Julian gave him the highlights—or lowlights, such as they were.
“You gotta be freaking kidding me,” Spence said.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” Julian said.
“What were you even doing in Santa Barbara on a weekday?” Kaidan asked him.
“I drove Isla to her husband’s wake.”
The statement landed like a fart in church. He’d done what now?
Carson, who’d known about the Santa Barbara trip as well as the reason for it, looked at the floor while the others struggled to process that news.
Julian, who worked twelve hours and called it a “half day,” who never had time for anything other than work and his band, had driven Isla to her husband’s wake in Santa freaking Barbara.
“Let’s stay focused on Mom and Dad,” Julian said in a testy tone.
If he was displeased with their shocked reactions, he had only himself to blame.
“I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Jordan asked, matching his tone.
“That’s why we’re here,” Julian reminded her. “To figure out what we’re going to do about this.”
“Why do we have to do anything?” Griffin asked. “What if we act like we don’t care, which won’t be hard for me, because I do not care.”
The others exchanged glances as they contemplated Griffin’s suggestion.
“Guys, listen,” Spencer said. “I agree with Griff. I refuse to let anything they do cause a setback for any of you. You’ve all worked too hard to move on from the chaos of the past, and the last thing on earth I want for you is to be sucked into their madness again. You got me?”
“Yeah, Gramps,” Ethan said. “We hear you.”
“Remember why you guys went to law school? So you’d never again feel like you couldn’t control your own destinies. You’re in charge of how you deal with this. Not TMZ or anyone else.”
Carson wasn’t at all surprised that his grandfather had gotten the scoop online while he was on the phone. He could picture him with his iPad in one hand and the phone in the other.
“Thanks for the words of wisdom, Gramps,” Julian said. “They’re appreciated as always.”
“What they do has no bearing whatsoever on any of you,” Spence added forcefully.
“Um, they just texted to ask if they can talk to us,” Jordan said. “They’d like the opportunity to explain.”
“Say no, thank you,” Spence said. “Just no.”
There’d be hell to pay for Corbin when his father got ahold of him, Carson thought.
Good. Corbin walked through life like he was untouchable by the shit everyone else dealt with.
As senior partner at one of the most successful law firms in LA and a renowned expert on family law who was frequently on TV, he had life by the balls.
Carson hoped his father’s balls would be in a twist by the time Spencer finished with him.
He couldn’t wait to go to work tomorrow and have to deal with the mess up close and personal since he and his brothers all worked for Corbin, while their sisters worked with Kate.
Maybe the lovebirds would do their children a favor and keep their distance for the time being, although, based on the text they’d already received, that was wishful thinking.
“Should I answer for all of us?” Julian asked.
“Yeah, go ahead,” Ethan said. “Tell them we’re good and to keep it far away from us.”
With everyone in agreement, Julian responded to the text their mother had sent on behalf of them both.
Please, Kate replied. Give us a chance to explain. We owe you that much.
Carson read his mother’s text to Spencer.
“I’ll respond to that one,” Spence said. “The rest of you should ignore it.”
He’d love to know what his grandfather would have to say, but he wouldn’t mince words when it came to protecting his adored grandchildren.
Julian had once commented that he suspected Spencer would take a bullet for any of them, and Carson had agreed without hesitation. Their grandfather had proven time and again that they could count on him to have their backs. They all lived in fear of the day his time ran out.
He reassured them that, despite recent physical challenges, he was fine and not going anywhere any time soon. “I’ll keep you posted on any developments that concern you. Otherwise, don’t give it another thought.”
If only that were possible.
“Thanks, Gramps,” Carson said for all of them. “We love you.”
“I love you more.”
“Well, as fun as this has been,” Jackson said, “I’m going home to get some sleep. See most of you in the morning. Ladies,” he said to his sisters, “I’ll see you soon at dinner in town.”
“See you then, Jack,” Jordan said as she hugged him and Roman, who’d been staying with Jackson while he was home for the holiday break.
“Romy, kick some ass and finish strong,” Kaidan said as she hugged him.
Roman was headed back for his final semester of law school at Stanford.
“That’s the plan,” Roman said as left with Jack.
The others soon departed, leaving only Julian, Isla and Cresley.
“Could I say something that may or may not be welcome?” Isla asked.
Julian, who now had an arm around her, said, “Of course you can, love.”
Love. It was all Carson could do not to snort or puke. For fuck’s sake.
“As someone who recently ended a marriage, I just wanted to say that no one knows what goes on between a married couple except the two people in the marriage. I understand they’ve put you guys through hell, but it might give you some closure to hear what they have to say.”
“While I appreciate the insight into marriage,” Carson said, “that chapter has been closed for us for years, and I, for one, have zero desire to reopen that book.”
“Of course,” Isla said. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous.”
“You’re not,” Julian said with an annoyed look for Carson. “It’s a valid point.”
“Is it, Jules? Do you want to know what went on inside that marriage? Because I sure as hell don’t, and up until a week or two ago, you wouldn’t have wanted to know either.”
Julian stood and reached out a hand to Isla. “Let’s get back to our night out already in progress, sweetheart.”
“It was nice to meet you both,” Isla said. To Cresley, she added, “I’ve been such a fan for years.”
“That’s so nice of you to say. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry you had to hear all the dirty laundry,” Carson said to Cresley when they were alone.
He fixed himself a glass of ice water when he’d much rather have some of Spence’s whiskey, but that wasn’t an option for him.
He’d be damned if he’d allow his parents’ chaos to endanger his hard-won recovery.
“It wasn’t that bad. I’ve heard worse, and what I saw were nine siblings, which is amazing in and of itself, coming together in solidarity to deal with something that affects you all. I admire the way you worked together to figure out how you wanted to proceed.”
“We have a lot of experience with that, unfortunately.” He brought her a refill of the wine he’d poured for her earlier and sat next to her on the sofa.
“I can’t believe you have eight siblings, and every one of you is more gorgeous than the next.”
“Coming from you, that’s quite the compliment.”
“The Remingtons are quite the family. I need to look up your parents to see where you all get your looks.”
“Please don’t look them up. You don’t need to read about their sordid tale.”
“You know that what they do doesn’t reflect on you or the others, right?”
“Ah, if only that were true. You can’t believe what it was like to be a teenager during the worst of it.
The other kids were ruthless. What’s funny is we’ve seen a few of those kids through their own divorces while taking a bit of perverse pleasure out of watching them be put through the same meat grinder they thought was so hilarious for us back in the day. ”
She chuckled. “That’s petty of you, Carson.”
“Guilty as charged,” he said with a laugh.