Soaring (69 page)

“She did but his name isn’t Kellan,” I replied.

She looked back to me.

There was a knock on the door but before I could call out, Mickey came in and closed it behind him.

He looked to me then his eyes went to his daughter and stayed there. “You okay?”

I let her go as she answered, “Yeah, Dad.”

“You wanna go home?” he asked.

She flipped a hand out to me. “We were just deciding that.”

Mickey looked to me and I felt the weight of all that had happened start crushing me. “Should take my kids home, babe.”

I nodded. “Of course,” I mumbled.

Without hesitation, he turned to Aisling. “Let’s go, baby.”

Ash glanced at me and back to her dad. “Maybe we should—”

“Amy’s family needs to sort themselves out without an audience.”

She did a mini-shrug that was not cute before looking to the floor and muttering, “Okay, Dad.”

Mickey turned his eyes to me. “Call you later.”

“Right,” I whispered.

He moved to Ash, threw an arm around her shoulders and guided her out of the room.

Feeling leaden, I followed them.

“We don’t need it from you too!”

This was shouted angrily from Auden and even still heavy with the weight of the day, I went faster and so did Mickey and Aisling.

When we got out to the great room, I saw my son facing off against his father inside my closed door.

Lawr moved right to me.

Mickey, however, did not.

And more weight crushed me.

“Don’t buy yourself more than your mother dished out, Auden. You’re already grounded for two weeks. You keep going, I’ll make it three,” Conrad returned.

“We sorted things with Mom.” My son looked to me. “Tell him, Mom.”

“We need to let Mickey and the kids—” I started.

“You cursing at your mother, her friend, and your sister bullying kids at school?” Conrad asked over me. “I hardly think you can sort that out in ten minutes.”

“We did,” Auden snapped.

“Auden—” I began again.

“That’s three weeks, son. Keep going,” Conrad retorted.

It was then my beautiful boy leaned into his father and his face twisted in such pain and rage, every nerve end I had zapped painfully and it took herculean effort not to go running to him.

“Like I give a crap what you do to me,” he snarled. “Like I give a crap about you at all. You’re a fu…loser
cheat
.”

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“Jesus Christ,” Lawr muttered.

“I think—” Mickey started.

“No,” Auden bit out, his eyes going to Mickey. “You should know. You should know what you saved my mom from.”

“Auden.” I moved forward. “Honey, let Mickey and his kids—”

“He’s moving again, Mom,” Auden announced and I stopped dead. “He’s got custody of us and he’s taking us with him.
He thinks
. He wanted us
with him
yesterday,” his face twisted further, this time in disgust on the “with him,” “because Martine moved out yesterday because they’re getting a divorce because he’s a loser
cheat
.” Auden looked to his father. “You know I was there when that woman came to our house.”

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“Jesus Christ,” Lawr ground out.

“I explained that,” Conrad snapped.

“Yeah, and you
lied
.” Auden retorted. “Do you think Pip and I can’t hear you two fighting all the time? And Martine isn’t the only one who’s loud. You
shouted
at your
wife
. Is that what I should do to my wife when I get one, Dad? Is that what Pippa should take from her husband? What you did to Mom? What you did to Martine?”

“We should discuss this elsewhere, Auden,” Conrad said coldly.

Auden leaned back and crossed his arms on his chest. “Why? Pippa got laid out in front of everyone to learn her lesson about going with the wrong crowd. How are you going to learn your lesson when you go your own way, having a blast, and you drag us along with you,
not
having a blast? Hunh, Dad? Who’s going to teach,” he uncrossed his arms to jab an angry finger at his father, “
you
?”

Conrad was losing control, I could see it in his face getting red and the way he leaned toward his son. “I’m an adult and
your father
and I’ll not have you speak to me that way
ever,
but absolutely not
in company
.”

Pippa was edging around them and I lifted my arms her way.

She ran into them.

I wrapped her close to me.

Lawrie got closer to us both.

“I’m not going with you,” Auden announced. “Pippa’s not going with you. And when I mean that, I mean
now
and I also mean to Texas. We talked in the car on the way here and we decided in like
two seconds
we’re staying here with Mom. So you go to Texas and be with whatever woman you’re gonna cheat on later there. We’re staying home with Mom.”

“This will be discussed later between your mother and me,” Conrad declared.

Auden looked at me. “Straight up, I want to live with you because I like your house, you and Mickey actually like each other and aren’t screaming all the time. Mickey’s decent and you love us enough to come to us, not jerk us around all over the effing
country
.”

“I wanna stay with you too, Mom,” Pippa whispered.

Conrad looked to his little girl, his little baby, his daughter who was always at his side, and the anger vanished.

His look was now beaten.

“All right, this is done,” Lawrie announced. “Con, the kids are staying with Amelia. You and she can sit down and have a talk when cooler heads can prevail. Right now, we’ve had a lot of drama and we need to calm things down and I’m afraid your presence here is not helping.”

“I—” Conrad started.

“Con, please. Go,” Lawr said low. “I can understand you don’t want to leave it as it is but quite honestly, it’s the kindest thing you can do at this juncture.”

My ex-husband stared at my brother and he wasn’t angry or nasty. He seemed dazed.

Then he looked to me. “We’ll talk?”

I nodded. “We will, Con,” I said quietly.

His eyes went to Olympia and came back to me.

“I fucked things up again, MeeMee,” he whispered.

Conrad calling me MeeMee?

Yes, completely dazed.

I pressed my lips together.

“Dad, Uncle Lawrie asked you to go,” Auden declared, moving to the door and opening it.

Conrad jerked and looked to his son. It took him a moment but he nodded and moved to the door. He gave Auden another look but Auden just scowled up at him.

He turned to us all and mumbled, “Enjoy your Thanksgiving.”

Then he walked out the door.

Auden slammed it behind him.

And I was shaking. Shaking uncontrollably.

Finally, I couldn’t hold it back anymore and I burst out laughing.

It was hysterical.

I didn’t care.

“En-en-en-enjoy your…” I gulped then cried out, “
Thanksgiving!
” and I kept holding on to my girl and giggling.

“Yeah, right,” my daughter said, her voice shaking too. “Maybe next the bird will have salmonella and we’ll all get food poisoning.”

I held her tighter and laughed harder and
louder
.

“It really sucks what my sister did to you, Ash,” Auden said tersely, and I tried to control my laughter as Pippa and I turned eyes to him. “And it sucks more your mom has a problem. But as you can see, our dad’s a real peach.”

“Our dad would
so
never cheat,” Cillian declared. “I was with him when he was playing poker with his crew. A jack had fallen on the floor in a suit he could
totally
use and he saw it and he
totally
coulda scooped that up but he didn’t. He called for a re-deal.”

At Cillian’s words, I kept laughing.

“I think, Cill, they mean—” Ash started.

“Same thing, Ash, just a different game, baby,” Mickey said gently to his daughter.

At his voice, I sobered and looked to my guy.

I wiped under my eyes and kept hold of my girl, starting to announce, “Okay, Mickey, Ash and—”

“Are freaking hungry,” Cillian interrupted me. “You got any of those horse do-overs?”

I blinked at Mickey’s son.

Mickey started chuckling.

I swung my gaze his way and blinked at him.

“Can I…Ash, would you come to my bedroom with me so we can talk?” Pippa asked.

I tensed.

Ash regarded her and then she nodded.

Pip gave me a squeeze and whispered, “I’m good, Mom.”

I looked to my girl. “You sure?”

She nodded. “Yeah.”

“Fix that.” I kept whispering, referring to Aisling.

She knew what I meant and nodded again.

I let her go.

“This way,” she said to Ash and she moved.

Ash followed.

“Right, kid, you like cheeseballs?” Lawr asked Cillian.

“The puffy kind or the crunchy kind?” Cillian asked Lawr.

“The stick a knife and spread it on a cracker kind,” Lawr told Cillian.

Cillian’s eyes got big. “With the nuts on the outside? Like, on Christmas?”

“Christmas has come early this year,” Lawr replied.

“Right on!” Cillian cried.

“Let’s go lay it out,” Lawr suggested. “Kitchen.”

They moved.

I looked to Mickey.

He was watching his son and my brother.

I licked my lips and pressed them together, so deep in watching him watching his boy with Lawrie, I jumped when, from close, Auden said, “Mom.”

I looked to him.

“Need to take a walk.”

I turned fully to him. “Auden—”

“Just to blow off some steam. Get my head straight. I know we haven’t helped at all but—”

“Go. Walk,” I said. “But don’t be long, kiddo.” I lifted my hand and cupped his jaw. “And we’ll talk more later about all that’s been happening. Okay?”

Something I didn’t like but couldn’t quite read flashed through his eyes before he asked, “I gotta know now, you’ll let us stay with you?”

I told him the straight up truth that would never change from that day until eternity.

“My home is your home until the day I die, honey. You don’t even have to ask.”

He looked like his face was about to crumble before his jaw went hard, he nodded, looked beyond me then he turned and walked toward the hall, probably to get his coat.

“Amy.”

I jumped again and turned the other way.

Mickey was there.

He was staring down at me.

And again, I could get no read.

“I’m so sorry that—”

“Baby.” He grinned and my heart leaped. Then he gathered me in his arms and my heart melted. “You give good date. You give fuckin’
awesome
holiday.”

And again, I burst out laughing.

* * * * *

My phone on my nightstand rang.

Sitting in bed, staring into space, I jumped, turned my head to it then grabbed it immediately.

I took the call and put it to my ear.

“Hey,” I greeted.

“Hey back.”

The weight had come back even though we’d managed to have a semi-decent meal (all because of Cillian, Lawrie, Mickey and, I was proud to say, me). The food was delicious and by the time the drama was all done and we ate, it was nearly time for Mickey and his kids to meet Rhiannon.

They left half an hour early.

That was when the weight settled hard on me.

“You hit Dove House?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered. “It was a good diversion. Hard to be in a bad mood around folks who were left behind on a holiday and were delighted with any company.” I paused, “And cupcakes.”

He didn’t chuckle or give me anything to lift the weight.

He queried, “You chat with your kids?”

“Yeah,” I repeated. “Before Dove House. Not much more there than what you already heard. Martine is gone. She’s filing for divorce. Conrad has been offered a position in Austin that he’s considering taking, Auden says to get away from Martine, but there’s also another reason. Auden shared that they came to Maine because Conrad followed this woman who came to the house. This he learned during Conrad and Martine’s fights. She’s a neurologist and she’s moving to Texas. Conrad wishes to leave behind the mess he made of his marriage with Martine and follow her.”

“Jesus,” Mickey muttered.

“They both want to stay behind with me because they’re pretty ticked at their dad but also because they’re in school and they already had to move once, get the lay of the land, make friends. They’re not excited about another move.”

“I’ll bet,” he said.

“That’s it,” I told him. “Obviously, I’ve told them I want them with me. I phoned Conrad and we made a date to have lunch tomorrow.”

“You want me there?”

Oh God.

God.

The weight started shifting.

I closed my eyes.

“Thanks, Mickey,” I whispered and opened my eyes. “I think I should do this just him and me.”

“I’m on call, you need me.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“Fuck yeah,” he answered. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Ash and Pippa,” I told him hesitantly.

“Baby, I can’t say I don’t got an issue with your girl. But the way you laid her out, thinkin’ things are gonna change at school on Monday. Ash shared. Whatever went down in your girl’s room, she’s actually more worried about your daughter than she’s pissed or fucked up about what she did. She says this Polly kid is a fuckin’ mess, a freshman and she rules the school, within months of it starting, through sheer venom, which was apparently the way in junior high too. She’s gonna strike at Olympia and it isn’t gonna be pretty.”

“Wonderful,” I mumbled.

“Girl like that needs a lesson more extreme than the one you delivered to your daughter, babe,” he told me. “She hands it out, you go to the administrators. This shit needs to be stopped. I talked with Ash about that too. She said that would not be good in the way of the high school world, but I don’t give a fuck. Kids don’t dictate the way it is. This isn’t
Lord of the Flies
. Shit goes down that’s unacceptable, adults step in. This little bitch doesn’t back off Ash and steer clear of Olympia, she can’t continue her bullshit. She doesn’t do both those things, her rule is over.”