Bent (12 page)

She should have known better than to bring up anything with Adam before he got to town. It would have only been two more days. The problem was, the rate she and Micah seemed to be moving, they could wind up married before then. Julia laughed at the thought, forgetting the phone held to her ear.

"Jules, this isn't funny. Adam just called me freaking out, wanting to know what in the hell I'm doing to his sister."

"I didn't say anything, Micah. He'd made a comment when he emailed me bitching that I didn't tell him I was back in Brooklyn and I asked him about it tonight. I told him we'll talk about it Friday night when he gets here."

Micah didn't seem calmed by her answer, "Okay, but you need to know, he sounded pissed." She heard two exaggerated breaths before he continued, "He's not going to be happy that we're trying to work things out, you know that, right?"

"Yes. And I also know that I'm almost thirty-one and I don't need my baby brother protecting me. Good night."

There was silence on the line before Micah spoke again. "Jules, I meant what I said earlier tonight."

"I know," Julia whispered. She couldn't say what he wanted to hear. Not yet.

Chapter Eight

The atmosphere around town was electric on Friday afternoon. If there was one thing Brooklyn knew how to do right, it was say goodbye to summer. Every year, families who would always call this little town home came back for an all-class reunion weekend. This was the first year that Micah could honestly say he was looking forward to celebrating with his friends.

So much had changed in the past week. He had walked into The Oasis last Friday for one beer after a horrendous week of work. The first time he walked out that night, he felt like an adolescent going home to ask permission to spend time with friends. At bar time, he sulked to his truck, certain that he'd pushed Julia away for good. And yet here he was, driving to Julia's house to take her to the first of several reunion weekend events.

Family night was the event that Micah always avoided. He had contemplated skipping this year as well since Caleb seemed upset about the idea but Lizzie had begged them to come. It sucked being friends with the husband of the pregnant and moody organizer. Might as well enjoy tonight since she'd also managed to wrangle him into working a shift at the festival tent for tomorrow night. Luckily, Julia didn't flinch when he asked her to go to the family-friendly mixer with him and Caleb.

When they pulled up to the curb in front of Julia's, Micah flicked the brim of Caleb's baseball cap, "Hey man, hop in the back."

"Can I ask you something?" Caleb asked as he opened the doors so he could slide in behind the passenger's seat.

"You know you can. What's up?" Micah was on edge. His son's mood had shifted drastically last night when he mentioned going to family night tonight.

"You like her a lot, don't you?" The kid was so damned perceptive. Sometimes, that wasn't a good thing. This wasn't a conversation Micah was ready to have with anyone, especially not his twelve year old son. Julia had been right, they needed to be careful.

Without hesitation, Micah turned to look his son in the eye, "You're the only person in the world who means more to me than her." It wasn't what he intended to say, but it was the truth. Caleb wasn't a child who needed to be sheltered. He was growing into a young man who deserved to know what was going on in his father's life, especially when it also affected his own life. It was going to be a fine line to avoid keeping things from him while still protecting Caleb from getting hurt.

"Okay." Caleb appeared to be processing what Micah had just told him. The silence grew uncomfortable.

"Is that okay with you?" Micah asked, hoping to pry the thoughts out of Caleb's head. He wasn't going to let a child make decisions for him, but he respected his son enough to want his opinion.

"Would it matter if it wasn't?"

The question threw Micah. What would he do if Caleb said he wasn't okay with it? "Buddy, what you think and what you feel always counts for something."

Caleb snorted in disbelief, "Sure."

"What's that mean?" Micah was getting pissed. He may not be the perfect parent, but as far as he knew, he'd always been considerate of Caleb's feelings. Everything he'd done for the past almost thirteen years was done with him in mind.

"Nothing," Caleb mumbled.

Any second, Julia was going to come through her front door. She didn't need to walk into this mess. "Look buddy, I really do want to know if you have a problem with this."

"Nah, she's nice." Caleb's voice cracked, "It's just..."

Crap.
The front door opened. Time was running out to clear the air. "It's just what?" Micah's tone was clipped. He'd been love-drunk for a week and felt a hangover coming on.

"Really Dad, it's fine. But don't you think it's weird that we're going to
family
night with her?" And the real problem finally came to light.

The words flew out of Micah's mouth, faster with every step Julia took towards the truck. "We'll talk about this later, I promise. But please, don't over-think this. It's not so much that it's a night for families, it's just that this is the night when they have things for all ages and a lot of people bring their kids. That's it. Okay?"

Julia's hand reached for the door. Micah needed reassurance that Caleb understood and wasn't going to be moody all night. "Yeah, okay." He still didn't seem completely at ease, but Micah saw his shoulders relax with the words.

The tension was palpable as they pulled into the park. Julia knew part of it was her own nerves but she couldn't shake the feeling there was something else going on. Caleb barely said a word on the drive other than to ask his dad if he could go to the creek with Andy. He wasn't thrilled when Micah told him that he needed to stay close, at least until they grabbed something to eat.

As they walked up the hill to the festival tent, Julia felt like someone was watching them.
Of course they're watching
, she chided herself,
you can't expect to show up on the arm of your high school sweetheart after running away for thirteen years and not have people watching your every move. Not here.
Glancing towards the truck, she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. That should have calmed her nerves, but it had the opposite effect. She felt more on-edge than she had before.

Coming here together was a mistake. By walking in with Micah and Caleb, Julia felt as though she was laying claim to something that wasn't hers. This was family night. The night when everyone came to show their classmates how wonderful life was and how beautiful and intelligent their own children were. Of course, no one said that, but everyone knew that's what was going on. No matter what the reality was, everyone tried to show how happy they were with life after school. Julia pulled away and sat on an isolated bench.

Micah followed her, "Hey, what's going on?"

"I just need some space," her voice wavered as she tried to hide the pain she felt. The truth was Julia's life was further from perfect than anyone, even Micah, could fathom. With or without Micah, she wasn't ready to face that in front of a tent full of people she'd known most of her life. "You two go ahead, I'll meet you in there."

He hesitated. She'd been so adamant that she had no problem being seen with him but her actions showed him that it was a huge problem. "Go. I'll be fine," she said when Micah didn't move from where he'd crouched in front of her. "Go."

The similarities between father and son were uncanny as she watched them walking away. Even though Caleb was young, his gait was nearly identical to his father's. If she had seen Caleb without knowing he was Micah's son, she would have sworn she was hallucinating. The way his chestnut hair fell in front of his eyes. The gold flecks that gave his dark, sleepy eyes a glint of mischief. If only things had been different...

No. Tonight, of all nights, Julia refused to allow herself to think about how different life could have been. As Micah and Caleb disappeared into the crowd, Julia again felt eyes boring into her. She turned, certain there was someone behind her. There was no one in the darkness. She shivered as she stood, no longer comfortable sitting in the shadows on the bench.

Walking into the tent on her own was strangely freeing. Despite her earlier feelings that her life was a total mess, being able to hold her shoulders back and walk in on her own let the world, or at least her former classmates, know that life goes on and she was proud to be in control of her life.

Like everyone else, she was playing a part for the evening and she was okay with that. She wouldn't see most of them for another year, so it didn't matter if they believed her or not. She could say she didn't care what they thought at all, but if that was true, she would have walked in with Micah.

The band playing in the festival tent was the same one that had played family night for as long as Julia could remember. She was surprised to see it was still the original lineup. They'd seemed ancient when she graduated. Somehow, they looked no older now than they had then. This was another good memory of growing up in Brooklyn. The one weekend each year when the petty fights were pushed aside and everyone had a good time.

Lost in thought, Julia didn't notice the man approaching behind her. She was snapped out of her thoughts as she was hoisted high in the air. "Hey, big sister!" Adam roared with laughter as she screamed.

"Not funny! Put me down!" She pummeled her fists into her brother's back.

He set her feet back on the ground and gave her a tight squeeze. "You look good, sis. Now, how 'bout you buy me a beer."

Julia couldn't hide the shocked look on her face. "We have all weekend. Are you telling me you'd rather be seen with your big sister than hang with the guys?"

"Yeah, they're all getting old and settling down. All of us broke-ass single peeps have to stick together," he laughed. Adam wrapped an arm around his sister's shoulder and led her to the beer ticket booth. Julia leaned into him as she realized that she wasn't alone. She didn't have the family that most of her classmates were here with, but she and Adam had one another.

Again, Julia felt eyes boring into the back of her head. She whipped around, expecting to see someone staring at her but she only saw groups immersed in their own conversations. She couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so unsettled. Muttering to herself about how foolish she was being, Julia didn't realize Adam was talking to her. "Hey, you in there?" Adam was snapping his fingers in front of her face.

She batted his hand away, "Yeah, just keep getting this weird feeling. I'm sure it's nothing."

Adam asked her again how many tickets to buy. She told him to get whatever he wanted and pulled a twenty out of her handbag. Tickets in hand, they started back to the tent. Caleb ran up to them, "Julia, my dad told me to let you know he's over there. He said Adam should come over too." Julia groaned when she realized moody Caleb was in their midst. It seemed everything about this night was going completely wrong.

"Let him know we'll be over in a minute, thanks." Julia rolled her eyes at the disapproving look on her brother's face. Micah told her he'd received a few phone calls from Adam wanting to know what was going on. She hoped he didn't plan on playing protector tonight.

The line at the beer table wasn't so much a line as a sea of people in various states of sobriety or lack thereof. Just as Adam went to say something to Julia, she felt herself pushed away from him. She silently thanked the rowdy crowd for stopping what she knew would be an uncomfortable conversation. Unfortunately, something was going to need to be said in the next few minutes. If not, it was going to be even more awkward when they were all together.

Beers in hand, Julia found her brother towering over many of the drinkers. She led him to the nearest picnic table and set down the drinks. She reached up to put a hand on her younger brother's shoulder. "Look, I've heard you might have some issues with me and Micah. You need to tell me right here and now if that's true." Even though he was two years younger, Adam had always looked out for Julia and she respected his opinion. It didn't mean she always listened to what he had to say, but she wanted to hear it.

"Issues, no. Concerns, yes." Adam stated. "Look Jules, you don't know what happened while you were gone. He--"

Julia cut him off, "No, details later. I just need to make sure you don't have a problem with us talking. Let's go." She picked up her beer and turned away. Once Adam got talking, he wasn't likely to stop for a while and Julia wanted to be near Micah. She wanted to apologize to him for her mood when they first arrived. She needed to explain what was going on in her head.

Micah jumped off the picnic table and gave Adam a one-arm hug. "Hey man, good to see ya." He glanced at Julia, his eyes seeming to ask if everything was okay. She nodded and Adam let out a deep laugh.

"Dude, you two should see your faces," he chuckled. "Just hug her, dammit. I promise, I'm not going to kick your ass if you do." Adam's face got very serious and he leaned in towards Micah's ear. His voice was low and the words clipped, "Just remember that if she gets hurt again, I'm big enough to kick your ass now."