Sweet Reunion (18 page)

He turned to Coach, “What the hell is going on here?
My dad had another kid? Who thought that would be a good idea?”

Coach looked supremely uncomfortable to be put in the
middle of the situation, but to his credit, he managed to maintain a sense of
calm professionalism that was pretty much the only thing keeping Justin
anchored to reality in that moment. He hurriedly recited the relevant facts, in
order to complete them before Rick and Noah made it over to them. This was,
fortunately, helped by the fact that it looked like Rick was approaching Justin
with every bit as much trepidation as he himself was feeling.

“Not long after you left, your dad met and married
Noah's mom. She wasn't like his usual women, she was actually a nice lady,
upstanding even. She died giving birth to Noah, and your dad, knowing he was
the only person there to take care of Noah, really turned his life around. I
can't believe no one here in Hope Falls gave you a heads up about this.”

Justin shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “I haven't
stayed in touch with anyone here. I'm not surprised by that, actually. I'm more
surprised that he could string two sober days together.”

“Eight and a half years, actually.”  Rick Barnes
replied as he and Noah walked up. Justin had thought they were far enough away
that they couldn't hear him.

Embarrassed, he replied, “That's, um...wow. Good for
you.”  He felt like an idiot. He might have absolutely no respect in him for
his old man, but the little boy didn't deserve to hear people talk badly about
his father. Justin had never spent much time around children, and realized he
would need to watch what he said around the boy. He looked next to him, hoping
to get some assistance with this awkward conversation from Coach, but he saw
that the man had unobtrusively withdrawn when Rick had arrived. Great.

Rick looked equally uncomfortable and unsure of what
to say next. “So. I suppose you're in town for Parker Jacobs' funeral,” he
stated matter of factly.

“I'm not surprised I didn't see you there,” Justin
shot back, completely forgetting his admonition to himself of only moments
before not to let his rancor show through in front of Noah. He took a deep breath.
“It was a nice service.”

Rick nodded, “I heard.”

They both stood there, fidgeting in the awkward
silence, until finally Rick said, “Well, it was good seeing you,” and turned to
walk away, Noah's hand in his.

Noah pulled his hand out of Rick's grasp, disbelieving.
“Wait. We can't leave yet! We have to talk to my brother!”  he turned to
Justin, “Will you come over?”

His momentum built as he warmed to that idea, “Yeah!
Come over! And you could see my room!”

Justin and Rick were both shaking their respective
heads at that idea before Noah had even gotten the entire sentence out, but
Rick was the first to speak, “I'm sure your brother has a lot to do,” he said
carefully, watching Justin's face.

Justin was torn. He certainly didn't want to go over
to Rick Barnes house – hell, he didn't even know where Rick lived nowadays. The
same house he had grown up in? That would be even worse. To see that place, to
have to process all those old memories. And to have to do that in front of the
boy, who would surely be excitedly watching Justin's reaction to everything he
showed off to him. Justin knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not up to
the task, certainly not on such short notice. Were that encounter ever to
happen, he would need to have time to prepare himself first, to steel his
nerves.

By the same token, though, he found himself looking
into the little kid's eager, expectant face and not wanting to disappoint him.
It was strange. Ten minutes ago, the kid had been merely one of a crowd of
anonymous children to him, with no emotional significance whatsoever. Now,
merely by virtue of the fact that Justin had discovered that this small
stranger was his brother, he found himself loathe to cause the kid any
disappointment or pain. Emotional bonds were mysterious animals, and Justin was
finding out that you could run from them, but you could never outrun them. He
didn't want to add this small boy to the list of people who had lingering pain
in their hearts where Justin had wounded them.

“I tell you what,” he conceded to Noah, “I don't have
time to get together tonight. But how about you and me go have some fun on
Saturday. Just the two of us,” he concluded, looking pointedly at Rick.

Noah looked hopefully up at Rick, and Rick smiled down
at him. Justin was surprised to see on Rick's face the same thing that Justin
had just been feeling – attachment, and a desire not to disappoint the child.
Justin could never remember once in his own childhood seeing that look on
Rick's face, aimed toward him.

“I think that would be really great,” Rick said to
Noah. Noah pumped his fist in the air and whooped with delight. He rushed over
to Justin and threw his arms around his waist again. As he awkwardly patted the
kid's back, Justin wondered exactly what he had gotten himself into. How would
he manage to pass the day with this kid? What would they do? What would they
talk about? What did kids eat? He chided himself at that last worry. He's not
an exotic snake, he thought, he's a kid. Then mentally appended, my kid
brother, in fact. He shook his head. His world felt turned on its axis.

“We'll see you around ten on Saturday, then?” Rick
asked him.

Justin nodded, “Same place?”

Rick nodded, “Yep. Same place. You remember the way
home?”

Justin barked out a rueful laugh. “I remember the way to
your house. Let's just leave it at that,” he turned his attention to Noah, and
softened immediately, “OK, big guy, I'll see you on Saturday. We'll have some
fun, OK?”

Justin stood on the field and watched the two of them
make their way back to the car, a contrast in attitudes – his father somberly
trudging, and his brother joyfully frolicking. His father and his brother, he
thought to himself wonderingly. Will wonders never cease.

--- ~ ---

As Justin made his way back to Amanda's property, to
the bunkhouse where he was staying, he found himself glad that he didn't have a
car. The walk, combined with the fresh mountain air, was doing a good job of
serving to clear his head. He looked forward to a long evening alone in the
bunkhouse, where his plans were to do nothing more complicated than lay on his
cot and stare at the ceiling. No reading, no music – nothing to distract from
the utter silence as he strove to completely zone out and erase all thoughts
from his mind. Ah, yes. A completely blank mind. What a relief that would be,
in the midst of all the chaos of the past couple of days.

If he could actually achieve it, of course. That was
the big “if.”  No matter. He planned to spend the entire evening trying.

Those plans, though, were destined to be thwarted, he
realized. As he walked up to the bunkhouse, he saw the unlikely pair of Lauren
and Henry waiting for him.

It was odd to have Henry, Amanda's godfather and one
of Justin's biggest fans in Hope Falls, standing in front of him with Lauren,
Amanda's close friend and one of Justin's biggest detractors in Hope Falls. He
wondered what fresh calamity would bring such unlikely allies to Justin's
doorstep.

Without saying anything, Justin stepped past them to
the door, unlocked it, and gestured them into his small domain ahead of him.

He followed them into the room, pulled out the lone
chair in the room from under makeshift card table desk it sat pushed into,
turned it to face the cot, and sat down in it. He moved his arm to indicate
that they should sit on the cot, the only other available seating there.

Henry plopped right down without hesitation. Lauren
lowered herself delicately, perching on the very edge of the cot, and looking
supremely uncomfortable, both physically and otherwise.

Justin sighed, “Well, I suppose this isn't just a
housewarming call.”

Lauren and Henry looked at each other, tense. Lauren
said reluctantly, “Justin, here's the thing. We, um....need your help.”  She
rushed through the latter half of the sentence, and couldn't meet his eye as
she spoke.

Justin looked puzzled. “Need my help? For what?”

 Lauren gazed around the unadorned walls of the room,
which itself contained only the cot and card table. “Decorating advice,” she
intoned sardonically.

Justin smirked. He'd always liked Amanda's friends,
Lauren included. He couldn't blame her for her less-than-stellar view of his
character. He didn't have such a hot view of it himself.

“Look, Lauren,”  he said, conciliatory. “I understand
you don't like me. I get it. But I do know, even if you don't believe it, that
we both have Amanda's best interests at heart. With your views about me, I know
you wouldn't darken my doorway if it weren't for Amanda's benefit. So why don't
you tell me how I can help? Of course, I'll do anything I can.”

Lauren nodded and visibly relaxed. “You're right,” she
said, “This isn't about you, or me. It's about Amanda.”

Henry patted Lauren's shoulder encouragingly. “Tell
the boy what you came to say, Lauren.”

“Well, to start with, I want to clarify how I feel
about you, Justin. I don't trust you, that's true, but I know you care for
Amanda. I don't for one second believe that you have anything but the best of
intentions where she is concerned. Now, whether you have the strength to follow
through on those intentions, that's where my belief in you falls apart. But I
do know that you want only the best for Amanda.”

Justin nodded. She had touched on the exact same fears
about himself that he struggled with every moment of the day. She wasn't
telling him anything he didn't already know.

“Lauren, thanks for being honest,” he said, “I admire
how you want to protect Amanda. And I do appreciate that you can see how much I
care for her, and only want the best for her. That's the God's honest truth.”

Henry chuckled, “See? We're not so far apart after
all. We all want what's best for Manda.”

“Agreed,” Lauren said, “Now, as to what we require
your assistance for, Justin. I need your permission to, along with Henry, do a
thorough going over of the Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures books – all of the
financial records, every scrap of paper and line in a spreadsheet contained in
that office or on those computers. I think something's not right.”

“What?” Justin asked, “What could be wrong? I could
never imagine Parker leaving Amanda in some kind of mess.”

Henry interjected, “No, no, Parker would never have
intentionally done that, it's true. But every man has a shortcoming or two,
especially when it comes to business. Parker's was that, one, he was too much
of a big-picture thinker. He had the vision for the place. He hired people to
take care of the details. Which brings me to his second shortcoming – he was
too trusting of people in general, but especially of the people who worked for
him. He let them have free reign to do their jobs, and never got too specific
with managing them. If one of them wanted to pull the wool over Parker's eyes,
he or she wouldn't have had to try too hard to be able to do it.”

“Then there's this little thing,” Lauren finished up,
her eyes hardening, “I do not like or trust Geoffrey.”

Justin's eyebrows raised, “Well, I'm not going to
argue with you there.”

Lauren grimaced, “I have no confidence whatsoever that
he
has Amanda's best interests at heart, in fact, I suspect the exact
opposite. I think he has nobody's interests at heart, ever, aside from his own,
and that he would not hesitate to trample over Amanda or anyone else who got in
the way of him getting what he wanted. Moreover, I am beginning to wonder if
his entire relationship with Amanda has not been an elaborate ruse to get into
a position to get his hands on either Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures or the
land it sits on – he's just too, too interested in the property, the will, and
in pressuring Amanda to sell as soon as possible. He's up to something.”

“Agreed,” Henry put in, “I don't trust that weasel any
further than I could toss him, and I don't mean in my younger days, either.”

Justin still looked puzzled, “I understand all of
that,” he said, “but what I don't understand is why you are coming to me. It's
Amanda's business. I've got nothing to do with it.”

Henry looked at him strangely, “Well, son, that's not
strictly true,” he said slowly, “you own 20% of the resort, remember.”

Justin shook his head back and forth, as if to clear
out the cobwebs, “God, yes, I do know that. It just feels so strange.
Emotionally, it still feels like I work for Parker. It doesn't feel real.”

Henry nodded, “I know, son. You're not used to owning
something, to having roots. But it's time to get used to the idea. Manda needs
you.”

“Right,” Lauren added, “we don't want to go to her
with this until we have something definitive. After all, her father has just
died, you showed back up...her world's been turned upside down quite enough
without having to deal with this. Plus, it might turn out to be nothing.”

Justin nodded his assent, “Yeah, of course, of course.
You have my permission, anything you need. Look at any of it, look at all of
it. I don't want anyone taking advantage of Amanda.”

Henry smiled widely, “And if we can get rid of
Geoffrey while we're at it, son, well that will just be an added bonus.”

Justin smiled back at the old man. His orneriness was
so amusing, you couldn't help but smile at the mischievous glint in his eye.
“Come on, now, Henry,” he laughed, “don't stir the pot.”

Henry laughed right back, “Son, don't you know? If you
don't stir the pot, the soup'll burn. You gotta stir the pot, or all you end up
with is a big ol' mess.”

--- ~ ---

Amanda walked down the well-worn path to the
bunkhouse, her intention clear in her mind. Tomorrow was the day she had
planned to scatter her father's ashes, and it felt very natural for Justin to
be a part of that. But, still, she felt some trepidation about asking him.
Scattering her father's ashes was such a raw, personal, and painful thing to do
– she felt very vulnerable asking Justin to participate. God, what if he said
no?