Chapter 4 #4
“Liam is going to be designing gardens. They had some beautiful garden books.”
“You’ll have to come and visit my barn,” she included them both in the invitation.
“Liam is leaving tomorrow, but I’d love to see it,” Charlie said warmly, and Liam thought his father looked nervous when he spoke to her, and almost boyish.
He had noticed how beautiful she was, in a totally natural way, with her red hair and no makeup, a pink T-shirt and paint-splattered jeans, and sandals.
She fit right in to the local scene. Liam guessed her to be about thirty, which was what she looked like.
Charlie promised to call her and they left, while he tried to look less excited to see her than he was.
“Who is she, Dad?” Liam asked as they walked back to the car, with Liam still on his crutches. Charlie tried to look casual about it.
“She’s a famous artist. Devon Darcy. She’s a portrait painter, and paints mostly famous people. The bank wants me to have a portrait done for the boardroom. She’s going to start a portrait of me in January, if I have time.” He tried to sound offhanded as they got into the car.
“Wow, that doesn’t sound like you,” Liam commented. “Like the one of Granddad?” he asked, and Charlie laughed.
“I hope not. Her style is more contemporary. Her portraits are really beautiful. I went to a gallery show of hers in New York. She does very impressive work.”
“She’s beautiful,” Liam said, as though his father might not have noticed.
Charlie’s insides had turned to mush again when he saw her, which Liam didn’t have any way of knowing, and didn’t suspect.
Charlie was always so sensible, and wasn’t a flirt with women.
He was very straightforward and direct, and treated men and women the same.
“Yes, she is,” Charlie agreed noncommittally, and they drove back to the house where Liam pored over the books they had bought before putting them in his suitcase.
Charlie was sending him to Aspen on his plane, so he wouldn’t have to struggle in an airport with his crutches, and he was sad to see him go.
They had their last lobster dinner together that night, and played a video game, which Charlie lost as usual, much to Liam’s delight.
They lay on the deck chairs afterward under a starry sky.
Liam’s stay there had been the best part of the summer, for both of them, in spite of Liam’s broken ankle, which had slowly become less painful, and he was becoming more mobile.
He was sorry to leave. He and his father had never been closer, with no other distractions around them.
He was grateful for all the advice Charlie had given him, and for the explanations about his parents’ marriage, which shed some light on the past for him.
When he was younger, he had thought that he was a disappointment to them, so they paid little attention to him and often ignored him.
He realized now that it had nothing to do with him.
They were just intent on pursuing their own lives and ignoring each other.
It was a relief to have some acknowledgment of it.
He had gotten trapped in the arctic freeze of their unfortunate marriage.
He was grateful for his father’s honesty about it.
He was old enough to understand it now, and felt sorry for him.
—
Liam left the house at six a.m. to get to Teterboro in time for an early departure on his father’s plane.
Charlie got up at five to make him breakfast and help him gather up his things, and get organized with his crutches.
He carried everything to the car for him, while the driver carried Liam’s small bag he had brought from Europe, along with several shopping bags he’d added, with things Charlie had bought him in the Hamptons, including a pair of cowboy boots he loved that he could wear when he got rid of the orthopedic boot.
“I’m going to miss you, Dad,” Liam said softly. He’d never said that to him before, and he meant it.
“I’ll miss you too. I’ll try to get back to San Francisco before you leave, and if you leave before that, I’ll come to see you in Paris.
” Liam smiled when he said it. “And don’t let your mom shake you up about your plans.
It’s a big stretch for her, but she’ll get used to it.
” Liam was anxious about the conversation he wanted to have with her.
“I’ll talk her down after you tell her.” They had agreed that the announcement of his change of direction should come from Liam, not his father.
He was an adult, and he wanted to act like one, but he had no illusions that she would greet the news with delight or even approval.
He just had to work his way through it. She could be daunting, and very cold.
“I had a wonderful time,” he told his father again, as he stood next to the car, leaning on his crutches.
He was tempted to stay but he still wanted some time at home to see his friends before they all left again at the end of the summer.
Some of them were starting jobs in other cities, or going on to graduate school, since they had all graduated from college in May and June.
A few of them were staying in San Francisco, but not many.
The only good jobs available to them were at the tech companies.
For those interested in other fields, San Francisco had little to offer so they had to go to other, bigger cities to find jobs.
Charlie hugged him one last time and helped him into the car.
Liam opened the window and waved as they headed down the driveway, and Charlie waved until the car turned onto the road.
Liam couldn’t see it, but there were tears rolling down his father’s cheeks.
The weeks with him were everything Charlie had hoped to share with him, and more.
He was so glad he had gone to Paris to rescue his son and bring him back.
It was the beginning of the solid foundation of their relationship as two men who loved and admired each other.
Charlie couldn’t wish for more, as he walked slowly back into the house and put their breakfast dishes into the dishwasher.
He glanced at the kitchen wall clock. It was six-thirty.
After running into Devon the day before, he had promised himself he was going to call her at ten, which seemed a respectable hour to call.
She had invited him to come and see her at her barn, and he wanted to do that.
He assumed that her cell phone would reach her.
It had bowled him over to see her, and he wanted to see her again.
He hadn’t called her the night before, on Liam’s last night.
Seeing her made him feel like an awkward boy again, as na?ve and inexperienced as his son.
It was amazing how you could feel awkward and off balance at any age, no matter how old and experienced you were.
Seeing Devon made him feel young again, like starting all the way back at the beginning with a clean slate.