Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
As usual, Corbin was immaculately dressed in one of his many custom-made suits, with every silver hair perfectly combed into submission. Today, the suit was a light gray with a navy tie.
“Hey,” Carson said. “How’s it going?”
“Good. You?”
“Another day in paradise.”
“Can we talk?”
Carson shook his head. “I’ve got a client meeting in ten minutes.”
“Do you really?”
“Even if I didn’t, I don’t want to talk about the thing you want to talk about. Not now or ever.”
“I wish you could just give me a few minutes—”
“I’m just coming from an NA meeting.”
Corbin’s expression registered surprise. “Oh. You still go to those?”
“Whenever I need one, and with all this coming up again, I needed it. While I was there, I was thinking about how I owe you and Mom everything. You saved my life once upon a time, and I’ll never forget that.”
“We did what parents do when a child is in crisis.”
“You know as well as I do that not all parents can or would do the things you did for me. I was one of the lucky ones, and I know it. That said… I want nothing to do with whatever’s going on with you and Mom.
I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings, but that’s all I want to say about it.
I’m fairly confident the others feel the same way, but I don’t speak for them. ”
Corbin nodded, seeming resigned. “All right, then. Have a good day, son.”
“You, too.”
Carson stepped aside to let his father pass before he got into the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor, where the partner offices were located.
“Your father was looking for you,” Hector Cordeiro, their receptionist, said.
“He found me downstairs.”
“Oh.” Hector gave him a questioning look. “Everything okay?”
“Never been better,” he said with a hint of sarcasm that Hector would appreciate. “How about with you?”
“All good, boss.” He called all the Remingtons that, even though he reported only to Corbin’s team, which oversaw the administrative staff.
“Glad to hear it. Is Julian here?”
“In his office last I knew.”
“Thanks, Hector.”
“Hey, Carson… I hope you know. People are worried about you guys today.”
“Don’t be. We’re all good. But thanks for caring.”
“Of course.”
The office was quieter than usual. Corbin and Kate’s news would’ve landed like a bomb among their employees, too, which was just another reason to be annoyed by it.
With so many people depending on them, they ought to be more circumspect about their personal lives.
Not that either of them had ever been known for circumspection when it came to their divorce and custody battle.
Julian’s fabulous assistant, Matilda “Mattie” Jones, greeted him with a warm smile. “How’re you doing, love?”
“That’s the question of the day from everyone I know.”
“I imagine so.” She looked concerned when she added, “You’re holding up okay?” Mattie knew better than most of the current employees how bad his addiction battle had gotten and how lucky he was to be alive and functioning at such a high level.
“I’m fine, but thanks for asking. Is Julian free?”
“He is. Go on in.”
“Thanks, Mattie.”
Carson knocked and walked into Julian’s office, where he was seated behind his desk, cell phone pressed to his ear, smiling like a loon.
Gee, wonder who he was talking to? Didn’t he just leave her after spending the night together?
“I’ve got to run, babe. Carson’s here to see me. I will. Love you, too.”
Carson was stunned to hear him say that last part.
“What?” Julian asked after he put down the phone.
“You’re already at the ‘I love you’ stage?”
“Have been for a while. If you feel it, why wouldn’t you say it?”
“Why, indeed.”
“What’s up?”
“Just ran into Dad in the garage. That was fun.”
“He’s ‘disappointed’ with us,” Julian said, making air quotes around the word disappointed.
Carson took a seat in front of Julian’s desk. “Well, he has that in common with us, right?”
“That’s what I said. I told him he can’t force this down our throats and he needs to leave us out of it.”
“What’d he say to that?”
“That they were simply asking for a chance to explain.”
“It’s the word ‘simply’ I find the most offensive about that statement.”
“I said the same thing. There’s nothing simple about this. I hate how it’s had me on edge since the second I saw them together at the beach.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about that?”
“I think I was in shock, even though Kaidan had warned us.” Their mother had been living with Kaidan during the week since Kate’s home in the Palisades was lost to the wildfire last year.
Kaidan had picked up on a vibe that’d reminded her of when their parents had been together and happy.
She’d mentioned that at their last group dinner, shocking her siblings with the unimaginable news.
“I didn’t want to believe it when she said it, and I sure as hell didn’t want to believe it when I saw it with my own eyes. ”
“What did you see, exactly?”
“I’d driven Isla to her ex-husband’s wake.
She decided to go in by herself, so I went to Hendry’s to chill for a bit.
I’d been there awhile when I saw a dog that reminded me of Snowball, and then I realized it was Snowball, with Mom and Dad following her, holding hands.
They walked up the path to the parking lot, so caught up in each other they never knew I was there. ”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, it was surreal, to say the least.”
Carson stretched to alleviate the tension in his neck. “I wonder how TMZ found out about it. I wouldn’t put it past either of them to have leaked it, hoping to force us to deal with them.”
“They wouldn’t do that,” Julian said.
“You don’t think so?”
“Nah, someone must’ve seen them and cashed in on the scoop. It’s not like they were being coy about it, holding hands in public.”
“I’m so fucking pissed about the whole thing,” Carson said, “and I don’t want to be. I want to go back to thinking they only speak to each other when they have to.”
“Same. I liked it better when they were keeping their distance. How do you go from the shit they used to say about each other to holding hands on a beach and laughing like they haven’t a care in the world?”
“That doesn’t just happen. It’s probably been going on for a while now.”
“Yeah.” Julian dangled a pen between his fingers.
“It’s weird to hear you telling Isla you love her.”
“Not to me it isn’t.”
“I don’t understand anything lately.”
“I’m sorry if I’m upsetting you. It’s not intentional.”
“I don’t want you to think I’m not happy for you, because I am. It’s just…”
“I know. I get it. I’d feel the same way if it’d been you.”
“And now Griffin has a kid, and that’s all he wants to talk about, and Mom and Dad are back together, and what the fuck is happening?”
Julian laughed at the face Carson made. “I believe life is happening, and it’s upsetting the natural order of things for you, which has you thinking we’ve all lost our minds.”
“That about sums it up.”
“I wish I could say something that would make it make sense for you, but you need to experience it to understand why someone like me would do a complete one-eighty on all my life rules to spend as much time with her as I possibly can.”
“I suppose so. Suffice to say it makes zero sense to me.”
“Maybe someday it will.”
“I sure as fuck hope not.”
Julian laughed at Carson’s emphatic statement. “Tell me the truth about Cresley. What’s up with you two?”
Carson rolled his eyes. “We’ve already covered this. Nothing is up! I gave her a ride.”
“You went out of your way to give her a ride, and she told me you’re personally watching things at her house and her son’s school.”
“That’s my job, Julian, to keep an eye on our clients when they’re being harassed by an unstable ex.”
“It’s not your job to personally protect her and her son or to give her a ride to a Hollywood premiere.”
“Please don’t do this.”
“What am I doing?”
“Projecting your Disney princess life onto me because you want everyone to be as happy as you are. That kind of happy isn’t in the cards for me.”
“You were losing it over her when you heard she was my client. As I recall, you wanted her phone number so you could tend to her personally.”
“I had the same reaction any red-blooded man has to hearing her name. Cresley is a client and a kinda friend. That’s all she’ll ever be.”
“If you say so.”
“I say so. What’re you hearing from Marlon? I’ve got people watching her and Ty, but that’s getting really expensive for her, and we haven’t seen him in more than a week.”
“He’s not returning my calls. The judge told him to stay the hell away from them until the custody matter is resolved. Maybe he took that to heart.”
“Do you really think he’d go away that easily? Cresley said she’s asked around, and he’s hard up for money. She says that’s when he’s most interested in his son.”
“What do you want to do about it?”
“I’d like to track him down and pay him a visit to get this situation resolved for her. How do you feel about that?”
“As her lawyer or as your brother?”
“Both.”
“As her lawyer, I’d be all for finding him and backing him into a legal corner to get this settled for her and Ty.
As your brother, I’d say be careful. He’s proven to be unstable, and who knows how he’ll react when he’s cornered?
He’s got dirt on her that she’s desperate to keep under wraps because of her new contract with D&G, which has a rigid morality clause. We’ve got to play this carefully.”
“What kind of dirt?” Carson asked, instantly intrigued by her having dirt that might impact a morality clause. She didn’t seem the type to have skeletons in her closet, but people never ceased to surprise him.
“That’s privileged info.”
He knew Julian couldn’t tell him anything he didn’t need to know to complete his work, but he still wanted to know her big secret. “I’ll try to find him and let him know I’ve got enough evidence from surveillance to file a police report for stalking. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Let’s coordinate the approach. I want to make sure we don’t do anything to hurt her custody case.”
“Obviously.”
“The band is playing at The Roxy Theater tonight if you want to come by.”