Restored (The Walsh Series Book 5) (3 page)

I turned back to my siblings and Andy, my hands spread out before me.

"Please tell me you all saw that," I said. "Please tell me someone saw her run out of here like she was being chased by Death Eaters."

"We need to give her space," Patrick said.

"I'm tired of her being pissed at me and taking it out on Tiel," I said.

"We have been over this before, Sam. Not everything is about you. She's had a rough few months," Andy said. "She doesn't want to talk about it. She'll avoid the shit out of you if you don't play by the rules. I mean, Lauren pushed her hard, and Shannon barely talks to her now."

"Truth," Matt said. "My wife is very unhappy about the state of affairs."

"And it's not like you haven't done the exact same thing before," Riley muttered. "No. Strike that. You're a little more Wicked Witch of the West with your exits."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I yelled. "I'm going down there and—"

"Don't," Riley interrupted. "Whatever you're thinking right now, don't." He dropped a hand to my shoulder and pushed me into a chair.

I glanced at Patrick. "Do you need anything else from me this morning?"

He lowered his laptop screen with a long sigh. "Congratulations, man. We're happy for you," he said. "But please don't upset her. I have too much on my plate today for another round of Shannon staring out the window and pretending she's not crying."

I collected my things and moved toward the staircase. "It's truly comical how you're all so concerned about Shannon right now, but none of you motherfuckers had noticed anything was wrong until I came home last spring and pointed it out to you. It's also amusing that you think we should simply leave her alone and hope that whatever is slowly killing her magically disappears. If it was any one of us, Shannon wouldn't let that shit fly."

I didn't wait to hear their disagreement. I headed straight for Shannon's office and silenced her assistant, Tom, with a sharp glare as I passed his desk.

Where most people avoided confrontation, Shannon thrived on it. She was born for argument, negotiation, cross-examination. She held nothing back, and when it came to personal matters, it was where she was most honest.

I was praying that bringing this confrontation to her door didn't push her over the edge.

"Is there something you wish to share with me?" I asked.

I dropped into a chair and waited for her to acknowledge me. Her elbows were propped on the desk and her head was in her hands, and though I'd seen her in that pose plenty of times, this moment was scented with bitterness and loss.

"No," she said, shaking out her hair. "A lot on my mind today. A lot of meetings. You know how it is. Mondays are always crazy."

Shannon was good with poker faces. Really good. But she was failing right now. "You're falling apart," I murmured. "Could we drop the 'everything's okay' act?"

"And I'm checking out two more properties this afternoon," she continued, ignoring me. "A pair of brownstones that were in the process of being remodeled but the developer ran out of cash so they've been vacant for a few years. Could be interesting."

"If I wanted your schedule, I could have asked Tom. Why don't you cut the shit and tell me what's going on?"

She stared at her skirt. "Nothing is going on. I'm thrilled for you, truly, and will do anything to help with planning the wedding," she said, and it sounded like a well-rehearsed line.

"That's a load of bullshit," I said, and her gaze snapped to mine, shocked. "It's bullshit. You should have seen your face up there, Shan. You were devastated, and I want to know why."

"Not devastated," she said. "Just surprised. It seems like you just moved in together, and…" She stared at her fingernails for a minute before heaving out a sigh and continuing, "And I can't wait to help with the planning. You're thinking summer, right? Summer weddings are wonderful, though the best spots book up quickly. What about The Cliff House in Ogunquit? Or were you thinking somewhere in town?"

She babbled on, rattling off the names of every hot wedding location in the region and conducting a debate with herself about which location I'd prefer.

"Shannon." I edged forward, into her line of sight. "Stop it. Do not handle me. Do not spin this conversation. If you have a problem that you need to get off your chest, you need to get it out or get over it right now."

She went back to staring at her fingers, and minutes passed without any indication she'd heard me.

"That's not it," she finally said. "Not at all. I know it's selfish, and I'm sorry, but…I wish you'd called me. I wish you'd told me as soon as it happened. I wish you'd asked me to go ring shopping with you."

I swallowed a sigh and sat back in the seat. The first thing I thought when I saw that ring was that I wanted it for Tiel. The second thought was along the lines of "Oh holy fuck, I want to marry this girl." The third thought was deep, organ-twisting regret that Shannon wasn't there with me. We'd always been close, and done everything together, but right now we were miles apart.

"I didn't exactly plan it out. I didn't intentionally exclude you. And yesterday, well, we got a little carried away."

"I'm happy for you and Tiel. Really. Now when can we get together to celebrate? I'll bring the champagne," she said.

"Soon, but…" I started, "I love you. You know that."

Shannon jerked a shoulder up in agreement, and gestured for me to continue. She wanted this discussion over, and she wanted to move on to tasks and projects where she didn't have to deal with whichever gray area was dragging her down.

"But that doesn't mean you can adopt our wedding as your new pet project," I said.

I had to rip the bandage, the same way she'd ripped it for me in the past. It was going to hurt, and she was going to hate me, but I had to snap Shannon out of this fog
and
shield Tiel from Shannon's war-general brand of event planning.

"You hijacked Matt and Lauren's wedding, but they were too busy to care," I said, laughing.

Shannon's glare was a clear indication that she found no humor in this statement.

"We want to do this our own way. Tiel will reach out to you, I can guarantee that, but she'll do it on her time. She adores you, and I really appreciate how you've given her as much time as she needed to warm up to you, and everyone else. But that doesn't mean you can smother her now."

Her eyebrows knit together, and she pursed her lips for a long pause before responding. "I wasn't trying to hijack anything. It's your day, and I just wanted to help with—"

"Give Tiel some space," I pleaded. She'd been working on a relationship with Shannon since the summer, but wedding planning resided in a much higher weight class than weeknight drinks and pedicures. "If she wants your opinion on these things, she'll ask. Until then, I need you to take an enormous step back."

Her bottom lip quivered for a moment before she snared it between her teeth, and she nodded, the fight abandoning her. She wasn't stepping up for this confrontation.

"Of course, Sam. Whatever you need. If there's anything at all that I can do for either of you, just let me know."

"
Y
ou said
what
to Shannon
?" Tiel cried.

"I told her to back off," I said as I wiped my hands on a kitchen towel. "What's wrong with that?"

Tiel shook her head and muttered at the pot on the stove. "Okay, let's see. Where should I start? How about your sister already thinks I'm an enormous bitch? Or that I have to plan out what I'll say to her before I see her so that I don't have a fit of word vomit? Or that she's going through a rough patch? Or that I've spent, hmm…" She held up her fingers as she ticked off the months. "May, June, July, August, September, October, and November. Yep, that's seven months. I've spent seven months trying to make friends with your sister, and Andy and Lauren, too, and then you kill it all in one morning."

"She needed to hear it," I said.

Tiel leaned against the countertop, groaning. "In summary, the only people excited to hear that we're engaged are Riley and Ellie. Outstanding."

She crossed her arms over her chest, her fingertips tapping out a beat on her elbow. I let the music in her mind take over rather than inquiring further into her best friend's reaction. I'd texted Ellie a picture of the ring and asked for her blessing last week. It made perfect sense to me. She was Tiel's only true guardian, and if there was anyone I needed on my side, it was Miz Ellie Tsai.

She'd sent me a link to a music video—'Everlasting Light' by The Black Keys'—and I'd interpreted that as her stamp of approval.

Tiel started pacing around the kitchen, keeping her hands busy by sorting mail and drying dishes. She wasn't one to sit still for long. "Did you talk to Erin?"

I studied the grill pan for a long moment before turning to meet her eyes. My youngest sibling didn't do phone calls, ever. Her lifestyle could also be fairly encapsulated as "professional backpacking through Europe."

"I emailed her. I haven't heard back yet, but that's not unusual for her."

Tiel sighed into the refrigerator as she reached for the wine. She'd departed from her preference for craft beers, and somewhere in recent months adopted a taste for Riesling and pinot grigio, but calling that out didn't figure into the complete and total honesty agreement we'd enacted.

We'd scheduled time for a Serious Conversation one weekend in July, and set the stakes high: no sex until the big topics were suitably addressed. All of the cards were on the table, and we talked through everything from my father's unrepentantly awful stamp on me and my siblings to her trust and abandonment issues to all of the small things that drove us crazy. There was a lot of baggage to process—we maintained a running joke that neither of us packed light—and none of these topics made for easy conversation. It was akin to passing through airport security, with your belongings moving through an X-ray machine, your body open for intimate inspection, and your pants seconds from falling down.

But we'd survived, and before sunset that Sunday, I was buried inside her.

"I'm sorry that I upset you, but Shannon needs a hard shove. She's wasting away in front of our eyes, and everyone is acting like we should watch quietly while it happens."

"I think you've forgotten how a bad breakup can wreck your life," Tiel said. "She's working herself into the ground and shutting everyone out because it's her way of grieving and coping. Stop instigating arguments with her, and tell her it's okay to feel her feelings."

"Breakup? This is about a guy?" I asked. "When? Who? No one told me."

Tiel brought her hands to my face and tugged me down for a quick kiss. "How can you be so smart and so clueless at the same time?"

"It's one of my many gifts and talents," I said.

Things got rockier after my chat with Shannon. Lauren—sweet, loving Miss Honey—called this afternoon to bust my balls about hearing the news from Matt, and not directly from me. She seemed genuinely hurt by the implication that she didn't rank high enough in my book to warrant telling her myself, and that was when I started feeling like the highest grade of asshole possible.

Or the lowest. Whichever was worse.

Riley piled on with a lecture that bordered on beat down over my discussion with Shannon. He heard about it from Tom, of course. He also felt it was necessary to remind me that she was dealing with some shit, and if I couldn't say anything nice to her, I wasn't to say anything at all.

Then, Tiel and I called her parents. Or, more accurately, Tiel called, and I listened while her parents talked over each other about her older sister, Agapi, for twenty-five minutes. They were especially pleased with Agapi for doing something miraculous with menus at the Greek restaurant they owned, and her husband was "a doll," and her infant daughter, Anatola, was the most beautiful, brilliant child ever conceived. Once Agapi Appreciation Hour was over, they turned their attention to Tiel.

I knew she spoke with her father about once a month, and she'd mentioned she was seeing someone, but she'd erred on the side of sharing less and I respected that choice. Her family situation was far too complicated for me to jump in and demand higher billing before our engagement.

When they started with their questions about whether she had a job or a place to stay, I understood why she kept these calls to a minimum. I also wanted to make sure they grasped how wrong they were about her, but her stern expression told me to stay quiet. I didn't correct their faulty assumptions, but I did growl like an irritable wolf when they invited her to "move home and start over" whenever she was ready. For some incomprehensible reason, her parents treated her prodigy-level musical talent as a burden and embarrassment.

It made no fucking sense, but who was I to point out family dysfunction?

When she announced we were engaged, there was thirty seconds of dead silence. Their disapproval dripped from every word and stilted pause, and though I still didn't grasp why they were such dickheads, I knew it was another reminder that it was time for us to shake off the dead weights of the past and build our own family.

"This is not something we're going to stress out about," I said as I moved salmon and vegetables around the grill pan. "And please clarify for me why the hell we should care what anyone thinks anyway? We're happy for us, and everyone else can fuck off."

"You don't actually believe that," she said. "The everyone fucking off part."

"I mostly do," I said. "We're going to do what makes us happy. End of story."

Tiel grabbed a set of plates and silverware and busied herself at the table. "Sam," she said, shaking her head. "You know that's not even close to the end of the story. We don't get to live happily ever after just yet. Simply because we want to get married doesn't mean that we won't deal with real life and real issues."

Recognizing she was right, I didn't say anything else as I headed toward the table.

Tiel looked around the kitchen and great room, her eyes narrowed. "Is Riley not joining us? I mean, there's food on the table and he's not here, and I can't remember a time when that's ever happened."