19.
R IN
Without looking up from the tattoo I was working on, I asked Dad, “What time are we supposed to be at your house tonight?”
“Usual time. I’m going to tell you six thirty, but that’s just so your brother will be there by seven when we’re ready to eat.”
“What do you want me to bring?” I asked.
“Stan’s already got it covered. She’s bringing dessert. Avi volunteered to bring an appetizer too.”
“You’re adjusting well to Rin bringing in an entire family full of adults rather than just a girlfriend,” Natty mused.
“It’s not like he had much say in the matter,” Dad explained. “Besides, I like Sho and Avi. Ciro and I have become pretty good friends too. He’s actually golfing with Derek right now.”
“When’s the wedding?”
“We’re not dating him, goofball. They’re just . . .”
Natty burst out laughing before she interrupted, “I was talking to Rin, Uncle Loki!”
“We’ve only been together a month, Nat.”
“But you’re thinking about it already, aren’t you?” my cousin asked.
“I’m going to talk to her dad about it when I meet him.”
“He’ll be here this weekend, won’t he?”
“Yes. He’s bringing his family, and her aunt and uncle will be coming in from Texas.”
“That’s going to be crazy,” Natty said with a wince. “That’s an awful lot of people.”
“Says the woman who comes from a family of three thousand,” Natty’s client teased.
“I am kind of nervous. Apparently, her stepmom has some mind-reading skills or something. She can tell you almost everything about a person just by watching how they act.”
“That would be a cool talent to have,” Natty admitted.
“What’s her dad like?” my client asked.
I winced before I said, “He’s a very astute businessman who takes no shit.”
Natty and my dad both cackled with laughter, and my client asked, “What am I missing?”
I shook my head, not willing to put Stan’s family business out there, especially since she was worried that people would soon start putting two and two together and figure out she was here in Colorado.
There were rumblings in the tabloid outlets that covered her family as if they were royalty, and there had already been a few articles speculating about where she had disappeared to.
Stan handled their guesswork much better than I did.
It pissed me off that they made such outrageous assumptions as to why she wasn’t appearing around New York City anymore.
Her favorite theory they’d had so far was that her father had arranged a marriage and shipped her off to Italy, but the one that really irritated her was that her father had killed her for going against the family and then hidden her body in the foundation of a construction project that his company had underway.
“Nothing, really. I love her, so I’m willing to deal with whatever I have to just to keep her in my life.”
“That’s good, Rin. I’m sure she’s happy to have you,” my client said cheerfully.
“What’s new with the guys?” Dad asked. “When we took Park out for dinner the other night, he said that Sully was making progress in leaps and bounds but didn’t seem willing to share much more than that.”
“They’re doing so much better now that the hospital has them in the same room,” I explained.
“How did Stan swing that?” Natty asked. “She said that the hospital was adamant that it would never happen.”
“She can be very persuasive.”
“I bet she can,” Dad said before he started laughing. “I bet she gets it from her dad.”
◆◆◆
“Do we have everything we need?” I asked as I looked around the room.
Park blew out a long breath before he nodded and said, “I think so.”
“If we don’t, that’s fine. It’s not like we’re taking him across the country or something. The hospital is just a short drive away, right?”
“Right.”
“You’re nervous.”
“Terrified,” Park admitted. “What if something goes wrong? What if . . .”
“What if we have a great dinner at my parents’ and then slide in here two minutes before curfew, out of breath with full stomachs and ready to fall into a food coma?”
“I can’t believe grown men have a fucking curfew,” Park grumbled as he handed me the bag he’d packed for Sully.
Park’s gait was still unsteady and made it a little unsafe for him to carry things, so I always made sure I was available to do that.
And since I carried stuff, Park could wheel Sully around and use his wheelchair to keep himself stable too. “That’s bullshit.”
“They just want Sully back before shift change,” I explained for at least the tenth time.
One thing I’d noticed about Park was his habit of hyperfocusing on one thing until he got so worked up that he finally exploded.
Stan said that had developed after his head injury.
Since I didn’t know him before, it was easy for me to overlook, but it upset Stan to see him get so agitated about simple things that wouldn’t have bothered him before.
For instance, he ranted and raved for days about the “new and improved formula” that his preferred brand of deodorant had come out with.
It irritated him so much that he mentioned it in almost every conversation even though he knew there wasn’t anything to be done.
The week before, it was that the barista misspelled his name on the paper cup, calling him Parker rather than Park.
Luckily, we fixed that the next time we went to the cafe where I explained the problem.
The barista complimented him by saying she liked his name much better anyway.
“What did your therapist say?” I asked.
“To get the fuck over myself and focus on something else.”
“She said that?”
“Not exactly, but that’s what she meant,” Park grumbled. When I grinned at him, he smiled.
“We better get going. I’m sure Stan’s wondering where we are by now, and we’ve still got to get Sully from the therapy room.”
“He’s gonna be walking by this time next month.”
“Think so?”
“Sully may not remember everything or be able to do all the things he could before, but he didn’t lose the part of himself that hates to be told he can’t do something.”
“I guess we’ve all got a little bit of that, don’t we?”
“I think so, but most people don’t have to depend on it unless something horrible happens,” Park said sadly.
“Tell me about the Sully you remember,” I suggested.
I’d been slowly getting to know Park over the last month and found that, even though he could come off as gruff and unapproachable, he was a great guy deep down - someone I was happy to call my friend.
The one surefire way to make him smile was to talk about Sully and all of the time they’d had together.
Sometimes, you could even get Park to daydream about their future.
I’d gotten to know Sully a little, too, although that was in a very different way, considering the hurdles he still had to navigate with communication, but I liked him, too, and also considered him a good friend.
Getting to know these men, even though they were obviously different people than they were before, helped me to see exactly why Stan loved them so much.
It was easy to imagine being friends with them for the rest of our lives, and luckily, it was also easy to imagine having them as part of our inner circle since they’d be living with Stan and I hoped to be sharing a house with them too.
“One time, we were in Wildwoods, walking on the boardwalk, and Sully insisted that he wanted to go to a palm reader.”
“What’s Wildwoods?”
“It’s a boardwalk in Jersey like you see on movies and television.”
“Cool. And they’ve got a palm reader?”
“Yeah. The last time we went, he almost talked me and Stan into it, but Stan gave him a kiss and took his . . .” Park’s voice trailed off, and I looked over to see that he’d gone pale.
“What’s wrong?”
“Stan kissed him,” Park whispered. “I remembered something new.”
“They said that may happen now and then,” I reminded him.
“That doesn’t bother you?” Park asked.
“No. We’ve all got a history, Park, and I’m well aware of the relationship you had with Stan. As long as you don’t try to rekindle that and take my place, I think we’ll get along just fine.”
Park laughed, just like I hoped he would, before he said, “No chance in that, my friend. You two were made for each other.”
“I’d like to think so.”
“I guess you’ve probably got some skeletons in your closet, too, although they’re not walking next to you on the way to dinner with your girlfriend, are they?”
I made a show of looking around before I said, “Let me tell you about my history with women named Lindsay.”
“More than one?”
“Four, actually.”
“You dated four different women named Lindsay?” Park asked as he reached out to push the button to call the elevator. “How did that happen?”
“Bad luck, and even worse decisions.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Well, you mentioned that my skeletons aren’t rattling around, but you may be wrong. For the last few years, I’ve had a restraining order against two of the Lindsays, but they still pop up now and then.”
“Restraining orders?”
“Yep. My dating choices haven’t always been stellar. That’s why I know I’ve won the lottery with Constance.”
“You have. Even if I don’t remember our time together, I do remember that she’s a great woman who any man would be lucky to have.”
“Lucky for us, even though she’s falling in love with me, she’ll always love you and Sully, so you won’t lose her.”
“You’re right. We’re all luckier than we deserve to be.”
“Damn right we are.”
◆◆◆
“What is it with men playing poker? I don’t get it,” Cecily said after we heard the men inside laughing and cutting up.
“You don’t like poker?” I asked.
“Hell no,” Dilly answered for her.
“Only because she sucks at it,” Aravin, Cecily’s sister, tattled. “Every thought and emotion she has flashes across her face like a blinking neon sign no one can ignore, so she can never get anything past her opponents.”
“She does have a very expressive face,” Dilly agreed with a laugh.
“Like right now, the sign says, ‘I hate all of you, and I hope you choke on your spit.’”