Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ASLAN
W e make our way toward the resort where Lysander sits on a large golf cart. Was he supposed to pick us up by the jet? I wouldn’t doubt that he made us walk because he forgot we arrived at eight.
Before I can say something, Fern is the one who speaks, “Are you the welcome committee? What happened to my welcome flower lei?”
He takes off his sunglasses, giving her a lazy smile. “I don’t know anything about flowers. You should count yourself lucky that I came to give you the maps and the keys to your rooms. Next time, I’ll let Huxley do it. Good luck finding your way through this maze.”
I look around the golf cart before asking, “Where are they?”
“What?”
Is he serious? “The maps and the keys?”
Keaton shakes her head discreetly, the way she does when I’m snapping at someone. “You should’ve slept,” she whispers.
Sorry, I mouth.
“Jump in. We’re driving to the cabana first.”
Lex and Savannah get into the back. Keaton and Fern sit in the middle, and I take the seat next to Lysander who says, “Please, remain seated with your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the vehicle at all times,” before driving away.
Is he serious? “Are you having fun? This isn’t some recreational park ride.”
“Don’t take away the little that I have. Do you know what sucks about this family vacation?”
“You?”
He groans. “Let me tell you. You were the smart one of the eight of us. You brought someone to entertain you. The resort is closed for tourists. The only guests staying for the next week are members of our family. Unless I want to pull a Troy and fuck someone’s fiancée, girlfriend, or wife, there’s nothing to do.
” He eyes Savannah, who sits at the back.
“Well, and then there’s that little treat. ”
“She’s Keaton’s sister—and only eighteen.”
He flinches. “Oops, sorry. I wouldn’t rob the cradle.”
“You’re an idiot.”
“How are things with Keaton?”
“Can we not talk about that right now?”
“Of course, let’s discuss that when you’re crying in a corner because you didn’t do shit and lost the girl.”
My sister leans close to us. “What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing, Ferny. He’s upset because I’m making you go to my cabana instead of bringing the keys. You know how he can be moody.”
She chuckles. “You’re worse than Aslan on any other given day.”
He rubs his arm as if someone had struck him. “Ouch, that hurts.”
When we arrive at the cabana, Huxley and Gatsby lie on lounge chairs.
Fern looks at them. “Where are Caspian and Cory?”
“They arrive tomorrow with Hannah’s family”—Lysander pauses and gives me an ominous look— “all of them.”
I don’t know what that means. Is it just her parents and her four siblings?
Does she include her former bandmates too?
They travel like a tribe. Where one goes, the other three follow—along with spouses and children.
When Keaton asked me how big my family was and I said that my father had seven more brothers, she almost fainted.
I didn’t mention those who have become Spearmans because we like to welcome everyone who needs a place to belong too.
Lysander gets down from the cart, picks up a manila envelope, and gives it to me. “Here’s everything. Your map, keys, and welcome letter should be there.”
Then, he gives a smaller envelope to Fern. “This is for you.”
I open the envelope. Two of the keys belong to Savannah and Lex. I give them their maps too.
“Your luggage should be in your room,” Lysander informs us. “The rooms are within walking distance. You don’t need me to drive you. We reserved those two cabanas for today, but tomorrow is first come, first served. I’m not babysitting you.”
“Sure, you’ll never do it again.”
“I won’t,” he argues.
I shake my head. He likes to know where everyone is when we’re on vacation. Dad gave us jobs to keep the eight of us safe. I doubt any of us will ever stop looking after each other.
“Ready to go, babe?” I ask Keaton, who is staring at the ocean.
She nods.
Our suite has an incredible ocean view. It’s pretty enough that Keaton doesn’t realize there’s only one bed in the suite. We never discussed our sleeping accommodations, but with all her PDA requirements, I do not doubt that she’s going to send me to the floor.
I’m not surprised when she turns around and says, “Since the celebrations won’t start until tomorrow, why don’t we start knocking off things from our to-do list.”
“If you check your app, you’ll see that it’s almost done. There are a few things we need to get through together, but since I already worked today, I refuse to continue until Monday.”
She checks her phone and then glares at me.
“What? You worked without me.” The way she says it, anyone would think I was partying without her. She’s too fucking adorable.
“Well, you went to Arizona without me, and you don’t see me complaining.”
“I had to.”
“So you said.”
Her eyes narrow. “You don’t want Monti anymore, do you?”
I don’t know, but this isn’t a good time to tell her that, is it?
“Why is it so important to you? I can get you the same position and salary in any other subdivision if that’s what you need. You wouldn’t have to move to Arizona.”
She shakes her head. “You wouldn’t understand.”
I challenge her. “Try me.”
This is what Keaton and I do most of the time when planning a new project, merger, or sale. We have to convince the other that it matters. One of the things I like the most about her is that she challenges me, puts me in my place when I’m being obtuse, and motivates me to be a better person.
“I might be able to start a new life.” She almost deflates as she sits on the bed.
That sentence doesn’t settle well in my chest.
“New from what?”
She shakes her head.
“Please, Keat, I just want to understand you. We’re friends, remember?”
“I don’t regret living in San Francisco. I did it for Savannah. Since I learned about her existence, I knew that I had to stick around. In my experience, life with Mom wasn’t easy. Now that she’s older, I can go somewhere different and find something different, just like I did when I was thirteen.”
She’s not making any sense. “What happened when you were thirteen?”
Keaton gives me a look.
“Trust me, please.”
“Mom ran away from home when she was sixteen. She liked to party, and my grandparents were very conservative. I don’t know what happened between then and the age of twenty, when she and my father got together.
I came along a year later. Mom’s mood swings were unpredictable.
Sometimes she was happy, and others, she was crying. When I was six, my dad left her.”
She goes silent.
“Did he take you with him?”
She shakes her head and continues telling me about her mom’s boyfriends, her addictions, and how at the age of thirteen, her mom’s boyfriend realized that Keaton had been caring for her mother since she was six.
She knew how to cook, pay the bills over the phone, and even sign documents with her mother’s name.
Social services sent her to her father, who didn’t want her.
“He didn’t let me enter his house. Once the social service lady dropped me off, he drove me to his mother’s house.
He didn’t want me close to his perfect new family.
I had too much baggage with me, and what if I corrupted his children?
He had four boys. I stole a picture of his family when I left my grandmother’s house.
It was for the best. The woman never liked me, and my father never cared to check on me. ”
“Where did you go?”
“Mom always talked about her aunt. She was nice and accepted her even when her parents didn’t. She lived in Mayfield, not too far away from San Francisco. She was a teacher at Stanford.”
“That’s why you studied at Stanford?”
She nods and tells me about how her aunt was like a mother to her. She was in her senior year of college when her aunt died, and she met her mother’s new family.
“After graduation I had several job offers. Most of them in other states. I took the job at Spearman LP because it kept me close to my sister.”
“You knew that the story would repeat. Her father would leave your mother and she’d become your mother’s guardian.”
She nods. “He didn’t leave willingly. He died.” She exhales harshly. “Cancer.”
Though she tried to keep a close eye on her mother, there were times that she was too busy to realize she was consuming drugs and drinking a lot. It wasn’t until Savannah called her that she began to take care of everything.
“It was too late,” she says. “If I had done things differently…but it was hard to tell when she was high or drunk.”
Arizona isn’t a place to start, but it might be a place where she can belong. Do I understand her? No. She belongs in San Francisco, doesn’t she? I can show her that. It’s my mission to make her realize that there’s a place for her in the Spearman family.