Easy Silence (22 page)

“You’re no fun,” he said as he stood up and began to dress.

I couldn’t resist, pulling him into me and kissing him on the cheek. “But I still love you very much…now get!” I grinned as I smacked him on the butt, and he headed out the window.

“I’ll see ya later?” I asked through the open window. He nodded and gave me one last kiss before going on his way.

I threw on my shorts and scurried into the bathroom, getting myself together somewhat before heading out to the kitchen. My mother and father were deep in conversation with Hadley, talking about my grandmother's condition.

"Hey!" I said, trying to sound as upbeat as possible.

They both turned around and looked at me. "There's my girl." My father smiled, pulling me into a hug.

"Hey, sweetie!" My mom exclaimed, kissing me on the cheek. "Look how long your hair has gotten," she remarked, running her hand through it.

That's what happens when you don't see someone for months.
"Yeah, I guess it did."

"Well, it looks beautiful."

"What are you guys doing here? I thought you weren't coming until tomorrow?"

"Oh your father actually has a last minute fundraiser that he has to attend tonight that's nearby. So, we decided to come a day early."

Of course. Why would I think that they actually would come a day early to spend time with me?

"Oh." I tried to disguise my disappointment.

"So, when we get back from California, we have to schedule a shopping day to get everything you need for your dorm," my mother said.

My stomach clenched just at the mere mention of it. I knew the time for stalling was over, and I was going to have to deliver the blow to them while they were here. I didn't respond. I wasn't ready for that battle just yet.

Our attention was turned toward the sliding glass door as my grandmother and Doreen came back in from their morning walk.

"Mother, how are you?" my father asked, approaching her cautiously.

She stared at him questionably. "Caroline, it's Max, your son," Hadley explained.

Grammy shook her head and glared at my mother. "No! No! No!" she shouted.

"Brooke, honey, I'm so sorry." Grammy rushed over to me, hugging me for dear life as the tears flowed down her face.

"Mother! That's enough!" my dad shouted. His voice was a mixture of anger, shock, and panic.

"Dad, it's okay. She doesn't know who anyone is." I tried my best to calm him down as my grandmother remained latched on to me.

"You!" Grammy shook her finger and narrowed her eyes at my mother. She reached over and grabbed the vase from the table beside her and hurled it against the wall, just missing my mother’s head.

"Caroline. Calm down." Doreen and Hadley rushed to her side to try and subdue her. I stood there shocked, finally going to my mother, who was visibly shaken by my grandmother’s violent outburst.

My father was already by her side, pushing the hair from her face, making sure the vase didn't hit her. "Are you okay, Mom?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Her voice shook.

“Maxwell, I think we would be best just checking into a hotel,” my mother said as my father nodded in agreement.

We looked over at my grandmother who was sitting on the couch with Hadley and Doreen on each side of her.

“Sam, sweetie, we’re probably going to be staying at the Madison,” my mother said.

“The Madison? That’s like forty minutes away.”

“Yeah, well that would make the most sense. That’s where the fundraiser is being held,” my father responded.

“Yeah, but I was hoping to spend some time with you guys.”

“Sam, given the way that your grandmother just responded to your mother, I don’t think it’s a good idea that we stay here.”

“Why don’t you stay at the hotel with us?” my mother chimed in.

As much as I wanted to spend time with them, I wanted to spend time with Jaxson more, and I knew that wouldn’t be a possibility if I went with them.

“Oh…umm. Well, I’ve got some things going on here that—”

“Okay, how about if I just go with your mom and check her in and then I’ll come back and we can have lunch together?”

Really? They were going to be here for three days and all I was going to get was a few hours of his time? “Yeah, sure,” I responded, figuring I’d take what I could get.

My mother kissed me goodbye, and they were on their way. I walked over to my grandmother who was sitting silently on the couch. “Hey, Grammy. Are you feeling better?” I asked, taking a seat next to her, rubbing her arm up and down.

“I’m just going to use the bathroom really quickly while you’re here with her,” Doreen said, walking off.

My grandmother looked at me, and her eyes filled with tears once again. “I’m so sorry, Brooke. You didn’t deserve that.” I turned around to find Hadley on the phone and out of earshot.

“What didn’t I deserve?” I asked.

“What Max did to you,” she responded. “He loved you, dear. He really did, but all he could see was the power that woman had for his career.”

“What woman?” I asked, trying to hurry her along when I heard the toilet flush and Hadley wrapping up her conversation.

“That woman he’s married to now.”

My mother?
None of this was making sense. Did my father break up with Brooke to be with my mother?

“It’s okay,” I said, trying to soothe her somewhat, just as Doreen came walking back in.

“I’m gonna head into the shower,” I said to Doreen. I stood up from the couch, feeling more confused than ever.

“Sam,” I turned around and had to do a double take. For the first time since I had arrived, my grandmother actually remembered who I was.

“Yes, Grammy.”

“Please forgive me.”

“For what?”

I inched closer to her just as she began to fuss about something else, totally forgetting about the moment she was just in.

I spent extra time in the shower, trying to crack my grandmother’s cryptic message. What did I need to forgive her for, and why did she fly off the handle at my mother like that? She and my mom never had the best relationship, but it was always your typical mother and daughter in law power struggle. My grandmother had never spoken ill of her in front of me, and she had certainly never gotten violent. I wasn’t sure what brought this all on. Maybe none of it was even real. Maybe my grandmother was conjuring up all of this in her own mind. It would make perfect sense if she were, given the way her state of mind was deteriorating.

After I showered and dressed, I lay back down on my bed to wait for my father. I pulled the pillow that Jaxson had slept on, hugging it tightly, wishing it were him instead. I wondered what he had been dreaming about last night to make him so restless. And, most of all, I wondered if he truly didn’t have any recollection of it this morning. The beep of a text message on my phone broke me from my thoughts. I got up when I saw it was my dad letting me know he was five minutes away. I grabbed the picture of him and Brooke from high school, figuring I would gauge a reaction from him when he saw it and was on my way. I said my goodbyes to Hadley, letting her know where I was going and headed out the front door to wait for him. He was just pulling into the driveway in what looked to be an even newer Mercedes than what he had before.

“New car?” I asked as I hopped in.

“Yeah, I just picked it up yesterday. Do you like it?”

I shrugged. I was never impressed by names or brands like my parents were. “It’s just a car. It will get you from point A to B just like any other.”

He let out a loud chuckle. “Oh, Sam, I need to teach you a thing or two about automobiles.”

The ride to the restaurant was filled with stories of his trip to Europe. I tried to seem interested, but I couldn’t really care less. I was thankful when we pulled up to the swanky oceanfront restaurant that most people could only afford for a special occasion, but for my dad, it was a drop in the bucket.

The maître de greeted us and led us to our table when we walked in. As I looked around, I noticed most of the patrons who occupied it seemed to be uptight businessmen and prissy old ladies. I bit my lip upon catching a glimpse of Sue Ellen Marsh sitting at a corner table with some other woman. My heart was racing, now wishing that I hadn’t been so bold with her that night at the wedding. My back was to her as we took a seat at the opposite end of the restaurant. I was hoping with any luck she wouldn’t notice us.

After looking over our menus and placing our orders, we began our conversation. “So, what have you been up to? Aren’t you missing home and your friends?” my father asked.

I shook my head. “Not really, I kind of like it here. Being close to the ocean is really nice.” So was being close to Jaxson, but I would leave that part out…for now.

“Yeah, it gets old after a while.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think I could ever tire of it.”

“So, three more weeks until you are officially a Georgetown student.”

I grabbed a piece of bread from the basket and ripped it apart, trying to ignore his last statement. “Oh, Dad, look what I have.” I reached into my purse and pulled out his high school picture, placing it on the table.

He picked it up and his hand began to shake with a pained look on his face. “Where—where did you get this from?” He quickly placed it on the table and stared at me intently.

I crinkled my forehead at his bizarre behavior. “Pete. He was showing me some old pictures of you from high school. You had some great hair!” I laughed. “I didn’t know you played—”

“You need to get home and start hanging around with people your own age!” His voice was stern and demanding.

“Geeze, Dad! Pete is really cool, and I’m not really hanging out with him, I’m hanging out with—”

I stopped talking when the waitress came over with our food. My father closed his eyes as I stealthily slid the photo across the table and back into my purse. I knew that the topic of his high school days was off limits just gauging by his reaction when he saw that picture. Maybe my grandmother was right. Maybe there was something about the Brooke girl. It obviously just struck a chord with him. I knew he would never tell me. Not like I would care what he did back in high school, but he always tried to behave as if he were never a teenager, like he had always lived the prim and proper lifestyle that he was living now.

The rest of our lunch conversation was filled with more boring details about his trip to Europe and his political agenda in California. All things I didn’t care to hear about, but I still listened like I was interested.

“Max! Darling, how are you?” The familiar voice sneaking up on me made me cringe. Sue Ellen Marsh had spotted us.

“Hello, Sue Ellen. How have you been?” my father responded.

“Very well. Thank you. Oh, and hello, Sam.” Her voice changed from feigned excitement over seeing my dad to blatant disgust over seeing me.

I was never one for playing that game, and I wasn’t going to start now. I refused to pretend to be nice to the likes of her just because it was the “proper” thing to do, especially not after what she had said about Jaxson. Let her spill the beans to my father. I didn’t care. He was going to find out soon enough. A raise of my eyebrow was my only response to her sarcastic greeting. I could feel my father’s eyes burning into me over my bad manners, but I didn’t care.

“I ran into Sam at Bobby Benton’s wedding last month. Are you still seeing that boy you were with, Sam?”

“As a matter of fact I am, Mrs. Marsh,” I said with a phony smile.

“Hmm…interesting. Well, it was good seeing you, Max. Send your mother my love.”

“Will do,” my dad responded, just as his phone began to ring. I was hoping that would be enough of a distraction to make him forget about the gossip queen’s last statement. When I heard him deep into business with whoever was on the other end, I knew I was in the clear.

“Ready to go?” he asked once his call had ended.

I nodded, and we were on our way.

* * *

“Aren’t you going to come in and see Grammy?” I asked when we pulled up to her house. He looked down at his watch.

“Yeah, I suppose I have a few minutes,” he replied as we both got out of the car and headed up the porch.

“She just went in for a nap,” Hadley announced when we walked through the front door.

“Oh. Well, it’s just as well. I have to head back to the hotel and go over my notes for this speech I have to give tonight.”

The familiar pain in my heart overwhelmed me once again. Why couldn’t he spend more than just an hour with me, ever? “I was hoping that you would hang out with me for a little while longer. I mean, who knows when I’ll see ya again.”

He looked down at his watch again. “I got some time for a little walk. You want to go?”

“Sure,” I sighed, hating that I had to schedule time to spend with my own dad like I was a business meeting.

We headed out to the beach and began to walk along the ocean. The sky was turning overcast, so there weren’t as many beachgoers out and about as usual.