Chapter 22 Harrison
HARRISON
“Well, damn,” I exhaled as Gwen floated into the room, ready for the party. “Do I have your sister to thank for that dress as well?”
She shook her head. “Believe it or not, I totally forgot I had this thing. I bought it to go to a premier for—” She broke off abruptly.
“Ah,” I nodded. “No wonder you forgot about it. Mr. Detective School?”
“It wasn’t like a date or anything,” she said quickly, brushing her hands down the front of the light blue cocktail dress.
“A couple of my colleagues and I were going to the event in an official capacity, but then his girlfriend decided to show up, and Ben told me I wasn’t needed. It was awkward and obvious.”
She frowned briefly at the memory.
“Well, he really missed out,” I said, taking her hand and drawing her close. “You’re a goddess.”
I kissed her on top of the head.
She beamed up at me. “Thank you. You look incredible too.”
My brothers and I had opted to make the dress code cocktail instead of black tie, so I was in a light gray linen suit, open collar, and loafers. And I was very glad to see that Gwen enjoyed the view.
Although the blissed-out expression could be due to the multiple orgasms I’d just given her.
“What do I need to know?” Gwen asked. “Conversational pitfalls to watch out for, handsy uncles to avoid…fill me in before we get down there. Because honestly, I’m a little nervous.”
“Oh come on, as if you need any help navigating uncomfortable situations,” I squeezed her before letting her go. “I’m not worried about your performance tonight. Although you might want to watch out for Uncle Larry…”
“Uncle Larry,” she made a check mark in the air. “Got it.”
“I’m kidding, all of my uncles are decent people. And you’ve already met the main players, so you should be good to go.”
“How are you holding up?” Gwen asked, sliding her arms around my body and resting her cheek against my chest.
It was like she knew exactly what I needed in the moment, because despite my typically placid outward appearance, I was about to navigate a minefield. The hug was my reminder that I wasn’t going it alone.
The Ashfords were family, but blood wasn’t a guarantee of people actually getting along.
It wasn’t always tense between us. Our childhood had been pretty damn idyllic, but we had our mom to thank for it. Without her stabilizing, bonding presence, it was like we were magnets that had all flipped to push each other away instead of pulling together.
Work remained the one thing we had in common. All of us working for the parent company with Dad at the head. He was a good boss, and our conversations about work pretty much always went smoothly. Now if we could just manage to cobble together a conversation about something other than work.
“With you at my side, I couldn’t be better,” I answered Gwen. “Now let’s get down there before they give me shit for being late.”
“Oh, if they try that, I’m going to say you were busy performing cunnilingus on me,” she wiggled her eyebrows. “How do you think that’ll go over?”
“Woman, you’re too much.” I chuckled and took her hand. “But now that you’ve given me that idea, that’s definitely in the plans for after the party, when we come back to the room.”
A few hours into the party, I paused to admit to myself that I was having a surprisingly good time.
Drew had gone all out, of course, from the decor to the food and music to the special touches like the cinematic “life rewind” video that played while we ate an incredible meal. The ballroom was transformed into a twinkly, over-the-top celebration, but what I was feeling was bigger than the party.
For the first time in forever, it seemed like the old days. Or at least as close of a version of the old days we could have with the heart of our family missing. My brothers and I shared plenty of laughs over dinner, reminiscing about when life was simple.
It was no surprise that Gwen fit in perfectly. She was my emotional support human, giving me secret nods and check-ins throughout the night and squeezing my hand when the conversation turned dicey. But overall, it was a much more pleasant evening than I’d anticipated.
A win all around.
The night shifted into overdrive once my father gave his surprisingly emotional toast and the fireworks kicked off. The open bar and DJ had everyone on the dance floor, which was my cue to head to the bar for refills.
“More champagne?” I asked Gwen, nodding toward her empty flute.
“Are you trying to get me drunk, Mr. Ashford?”
“Never,” I whispered in her ear. “I want you fully coherent for all of the wicked things I’m going to do to you once I get you back to our room.”
Her giggle warmed my heart.
Was it supposed to be this easy? Even in the early days with Miranda when we were rushing to the altar, I couldn’t ever remember it feeling this natural. It was hard for me to believe that being close to someone could be so…right.
I was more than a little buzzed as I made my way to one of the many bars spread around the ballroom and patio, but I couldn’t blame the alcohol.
“Well, hello, stranger,” a voice rang out from behind me.
I turned to find Uncle Hank, my mom’s younger brother, grinning at me.
We’d been close with her side of the family growing up, vacationing together pretty much every year, but time and distance had made it harder for us to make time to see one another.
Still, he was a happy reminder of my mother.
They had the same warmth, which served him well in his oncology practice.
We embraced and slapped backs. “What a night, huh?” Uncle Hank said. “But your father deserves it after everything he’s been through lately. We were all so worried.”
I swallowed my confusion, because I had a feeling my uncle had just revealed something to me that I wasn’t supposed to know. As far as I was aware, the only thing Oliver Ashford had “been through lately” was golf and vacations. Nothing to worry about at all, so what could he possibly mean?
“Right.” I pulled back to stare at his face. I didn’t want to let on that I had no idea what he was talking about. “What are your thoughts?”
The vague, open-ended question would hopefully draw him out.
“About the test results? Such a relief.”
I forced a neutral expression despite the worry boiling inside of me. “Of course, agreed. Tell me more. What’s your take?”
I didn’t want him to realize that he’d just accidentally spilled a family secret and pull some bogus doctor-patient confidentiality bullshit with me.
My hunch had been right; something was up with my father, and I wasn’t going to let this chance to get some answers slip through my fingers.
I swallowed down my anger, my frustration.
I could deal with them later. For now, I needed to keep my cool.
“Any time we see a shadow on a scan, it’s a cause for concern,” Uncle Hank said. “And the fact that your father’s was on his lung was especially worrying given his history with smoking. Add in the inconclusive test results, and it felt like the writing was on the wall.”
An unexpected bombshell. Worry spiked before I shoved it back down again, reminding myself that the final result was okay.
“You assumed it was cancer,” I said flatly.
“Of course we did. It wasn’t a stretch to prematurely diagnose him. I suggested he go to Sloan Kettering for additional tests, and thankfully, that gave us the clarity we needed. Not cancer.”
Everything was sliding into place. That was why he’d been in Manhattan when he’d announced out of the blue that he needed to hitch a ride home with us.
“What are you drinking?” Uncle Hank asked as the crowd parted and he moved up to the bar.
“Oh, I’m good for now,” I said, backing away. “I’ll catch up with you in a bit, I need to take care of something.”
More specifically, someone.
I walked through the party absolutely fuming inside but with a pleasant expression plastered on my face.
We needed a family meeting, immediately.
I found Logan discussing the merits of brown alcohol with a group of our father’s old colleagues and Drew trying to pretend that he wasn’t working the event where he was supposed to be a guest.
“Get Dad,” I growled at Drew. “Then meet me outside.”
My tone suggested there was no room for argument, and a few minutes later the four Ashfords were gathered on a private patio away from the party noise.
“He just had a cancer scare,” I said without any sort of preamble.
I jabbed my finger toward my father, and my brothers’ mouths dropped open in unison.
“Uncle Hank told me he was in New York for testing. A spot on his lung. And he didn’t tell us.
” I paused. “Or he didn’t tell me. Did you guys know? ”
“Cancer?” Drew shouted incredulously, which answered my question.
“Now just hold on,” Oliver said. “There’s nothing to worry about—it was just old scar tissue. A false alarm and nothing more. I didn’t want to needlessly worry you after what we went through with your mother.”
“Dad, you did testing alone? A biopsy?” Logan asked incredulously. “Why would you do that?”
“You’re all so busy,” Oliver answered. “It was fine. I’m fine.”
I watched my father and realized that age was catching up with him. He now looked more like an old man than the superhuman force we had always known him to be. It made the cancer scare that much more poignant.
He wasn’t going to be around forever. And yeah, we’d gotten a reprieve this time, but what if something like this happened again? Would he still choose to shut us out? Would we only find out when he was too far gone to hide it from us anymore?
“Stop it, nothing is more important than your health,” Drew insisted. “You should’ve let us be there for you.”
Oliver looked at the three of us. “Well, we’re all here now, and that’s what matters most. I’ve got my boys beside me.” He paused as he took us in, one by one. “I love you all so much. We need to say it more.”
I could’ve sworn his eyes filled as he reached out to draw us into a group hug.
We’d never been a touchy-feely family, with the exception of my mother. Being wrapped in an embrace again was a reminder of how much we’d lost, how long it had been since we’d felt this close.
I pulled away reluctantly, because it felt damn good to share the moment.
“What’s with the glum faces?” Oliver asked. He flicked his fist toward Logan’s gut, but he flinched away before the punch landed. “This is a party, let’s celebrate!”
I exchanged looks with my brothers. We were clearly on the same page, upset that he’d kept us in the dark but relieved that he was okay.
“Hey, before we go, I want you to listen to me,” I said, pulling rank as the oldest son. “If you ever have another health concern, tell us. We want to be there for you, got it?”
“Yessir,” he saluted us. “Now let’s get back in there and have some fun.”
We followed behind him, grumbling.
“So fucking mad at him,” Drew said under his voice.
“I heard that,” my dad sang out.
I came to a stop, my brothers falling back with me. “Listen, we need to stay on top of him from now on. Let’s make a pledge to keep each other in the loop. Our very own ‘see something, say something’ program. Okay?”
“Of course,” Drew replied. “We need to be better about keeping in touch.”
“Hey, I’m always right here,” Logan pulled his phone from his pocket. “You know that.”
Of the three of us, Logan was the best about texting and calling. That was about to change.
I strode back into the party and scanned the room for Gwen, only to find her on the dance floor with a couple of my cousins.
It was like she could feel me watching her, because within a few seconds of spotting her she was locked onto me, her wide smile fading ever so slightly at whatever she saw on my face.
She said something to her dance partners and headed over to me.
The woman was a human lightning rod.
“Hey,” she hugged me. “What’s going on? You look stressed out.”
“I’m good,” I gave her a brief squeeze. “Having fun?”
“Well, I was worried about where you’d gone off to, and now your grumpy expression is confirming that something’s up. So tell me.”
“It’s fine. I handled it.”
I only realized that the words had come out unintentionally brusque when her face fell, and she stepped away from me. “Okay. Whatever.”
I huffed out a sigh. On the one hand, opening up about my hurt and confusion while we were in a crowded party surrounded by people sounded like a special kind of hell. But on the other hand, it didn’t feel right to leave Gwen in the dark.
Maybe there was a middle ground, where I could update her on the facts but keep my feelings to myself for now? And definitely get away from all these damn people. I grabbed her hand.
“C’mere.” I pulled her to a quiet area of the party and explained what we’d just learned.
“Harrison, how scary,” she clutched her hand to her chest at the reveal. “I’m so sorry. You must be feeling all the feelings.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, I’ll admit, I’m not feeling great.” Understatement of the century.
“What are you going to do?” Gwen asked.
I narrowed my eyes as I scanned the room. “Not sure, but things are going to change.”
Despite the positive outcome, I was still on a precipice and about to fall. How had I missed the signs? And just how close had I come to almost losing my father?
I didn’t want to focus on it. Luckily, I had a raucous party and a beautiful woman to keep me occupied for the night.
I’d eventually have to sort through my baggage. Just not tonight.