Commitment (88 page)

“She would say you had a lot to do with it.”

“I know she would.
She gives
me more credit than I deserve.
In a lot
of ways, I was a shitty mother.
But you’ll se
e when—if—
you have babies.
They pretty much make their own way,
and your
main
responsibility
is to make sure they don’t crack their skulls falling out of the crib.”

Shawn laughed.
“I’ll try to remember that.”

“You didn’t take the bait,”
Lorna said after a few moments of silence.

“What bait?”

“About babies.
Wanting them.”

“Of course I want them.”

She nodded.
“And
Riley
?”

“She doesn’
t talk to you about this stuff?
You sure seem to talk about everything else.”

“I have my
sense
of what she wants, but to be perfectly frank, I didn’t anticipate talking to her about sta
rting a family for many years
.”

“What’s your sense of what she wants?” Shawn pressed.

“
To be perfectly honest
Shawn,
she wants to give yo
u
whatever will make you happy.
And if
it’s
babies
you want
, then she’ll do her darndest to make sure it happens.”

He tried not to show how
relieved
he was with th
at assessment and nodded.
“I feel the same way about her.”

“Good to hear it.”

But in her tone
he thought he heard
the unspoken question: if she means
that much to you
h
ow could you have betrayed her?
He waited, ha
lf-expecting her to ask it but
she didn’t and he was grateful.
Still, he felt she deserved an answer.

“What happen
ed,” he began.
“With me and that girl—
with Keisha
—
it’ll never happen again.
It shouldn’t have . . .”

“How do you know?”

T
he question was asked breezily.
Not as a challenge, but more out of frank curiosity.

When he hesitated, she turned in her seat a little so that she was looking directly at him rather than ahead.

“I’ll c
onfess something to you, Shawn.
I’ve never been what they cal
l ‘faithful’ in a relationship.
Never.”
She paused as t
hough to allow that to sink in.
“But that’s because I was always clear about the rules of engagement w
ith people I was involved with.
They k
new not to expect that from me.
And even then it was
. . . difficult when I strayed.”

Shawn nodded.
“
Riley
and I don’t have
those kinds of rules,” he said.
“I was
just
wron
g.
An
d if the situation was reversed
. . .”

H
e surprised even himself when he was unable to finish the sentence.
Even
the
very idea was too painful to think about and
caused a golf ball sized lump to form in the back of his throat
.
For
not
the first time it hit him full
on just how she must have felt.
After he’d practically pressured her into getting married . .
. 

“But
how
do you know?” Lorna
repeated.
“That it won’t happen again.”

Shawn gave a harsh laugh.
“Because even without a rape charge hanging over my head, it wasn’t worth it.
Not by a
long shot
.
I almost lost her.
”

Lorna nodded her agreement. “Yes, Shawn, you almost did.”

As expected, Brendan seemed be
fuddled by Lorna’s appearance.
As they walked up to him in the lobby of Doug’s building, Shawn could
almost
see the wheels whirring
in his mind
, and the realization
gradually
emerge
as to who this person might be
.
He smiled and came toward them han
d outstretched.
He introduced himself and
seemed unable to let go of Lorna’s hand once he shook it. 

“Down, boy,” Shawn said under his breath.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, Brendan,” Lorna said.

“All good things, of course.”

“
Of course
,” she confirmed.

“Let’s go do this,” Shawn said, putting a hand on his mother-in-law’s back and ushering
her
toward the elevators.

Doug and Robyn seemed to want to interview Lorna before agreeing that she wou
ld assist with jury selection, although they tried to do so in a way that made it
seem like casual conversation.
And
of course
they
wanted to make sure she didn’t have any information that woul
d make her a potential witness.
Shawn watched as Lorna
confidently
transformed the meeting from one that furthered his attorneys’ agenda
to one that advanced her own.
As he listened to her questions, he graduall
y realized what she was doing.
She was dissecting their strategy, and trying to figure out how he would be portrayed. 

H
e stood and excused himself, going out into the lobby, dialing the number at the house as he went.
It was clear he did
n’t need to do any babysitting.
Brendan was in the lobby, having been banned from strategy meetings, so he hung up.

“How’s it going in there?” he asked.

Shawn laughed.
“She
could’ve been a lawyer herself.
Hell, maybe I should get rid of the paid help and let her take over.”

B
rendan nodded. “Not surprised.
But damn, she’s cute too.
I glimpsed her that time she came to take you upstate but I didn’t know she was  . . .
How old is she anyway?
”

Shawn looked at him warningly.

“
I’m just
sayin’,”
Brendan shrugged.
“I
f the opportunity presented itself, I can’t make
no promises.”

“So what’s
been going on
?”

“I got a call from one of
Riley
’s co-workers.
She
said you spoke to her one time.
A photographer.
Dawn somebody?”

Shawn shook his head, drawing a blank.

“Well she said sh
e wanted to do a photo spread.
She thought you might be interested in do
ing it now,
something with
Riley
?
”

Shaw
n was already shaking his head.
“
She
ain’t going for that.”

“
This chick
might
be on to something though man.
Seeing you right now in a family setting couldn’t hurt.”

“But I can’t talk to press though.”

“No interview.
That would be
the
offer
.
A photo spread, but with everything else off the record
.
And maybe Riley could do the interview.
”

“But who could we trust to write the right story?
Especially with no interview.
”

“Darnell,” Brendan said.

Shawn nodded.
“Maybe.”

“Look.
He said he wanted something exclusive and I think he might want to kiss up after that dumb shit he wrote about you losing street cred
.
”

“
Riley
would have to be on board and right now, man, I’m not crazy about
getting her more involved in this mess.”

“Shawn.
You
can’t prevent that from happening
.
That’s the bottom line.
So the only other option is for you to control how she gets
involved
.”

“I think I remember Dawn.
I did talk to her one time.
She’s a pretty good friend of
Riley
’
s.”

“Wonder why she didn’t just go to
Riley
directly then.
”

“She did, I think
,
but
at the time she wasn’t into it
.
Don’t know what would make her change her mind considering all the crap that’s
going on.”

“If she thinks it’
ll help you, she’ll do it,” Brendan said.

Shawn shrugged
.
“Okay, we’ll see.
And you’ll line up Darnell’s punk ass?”

“Yup.
Done.”
Brendan was already dialing
as he walked away
. 

When he reached her,
Riley
was
watching MTV which he’d expr
essly warned her against doing.
But of course, that should have been reason enough for him to expect that she’d do it.

“Cameron’s on,” she said, her voice flat.
Riley
listened for awhile and Shawn could hear the muffled sound of the television in the background.  Then
Riley
was back.

“You’re not going to believe this,” she said
finally.

“What?”

“
I missed the first part while I was talking to you, but y
ou want the
part I heard
?” She sounded oddly amused.

“Lemme hear it.”

“He said,
‘
The worst I can say about K
Smooth
is that he hits like a girl.
All this mess about him raping somebody is some . . .”
and then they b
l
eeped him.
But I’m pretty sure he said ‘bullshit’.”

Shawn said nothing.
All Cameron was thinking about was whether it would be open season on guys l
ike him if K Smooth went down.

“You there?”
Riley
asked after a moment.

“Yeah, I’m here.”

“So
. . .
a
nyway, how’s the meeting going?
With Lorna and Doug?”

“She’s keeping them in line,” Shawn said with a laugh.

“
Of course,”
Riley
said.
“So we should expect you guys back for lunch?”

“Sure.”

“I’ll run out and pick something up.”

“Take Tiny with you,” Shawn said
. 

“I will,” she said.

“Oh, and your friend Dawn called Brendan a
bout setting up a photo spread.
You know about this?”

“Yeah, but that was
a long time ago.
I may have given he
r his number, I don’t remember.
I
’ll call her back.
I
don’t know what she’s thinking,
that right now we would want to . . .”

“Well Brendan was th
inking it might be a good idea.
Because of what’s going on.”

There was silence for a few moments while
Riley
considered the idea.

“I see,” sh
e said finally.
“Do you want to do it?”

“
W
e can talk about it when I get back.”

“Okay.”

Before he could ask
whether she was lukewarm or completely cold on the idea, he heard L
orna’s voice over his shoulder.
She was done
interrogating
Doug and Robyn
and was calling him
back into the conference room.
He
reluctantly ended the call and turned to face the u
npleasant task ahead.