Brody (9 page)

After claiming it was nice to meet me, Beck hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “We’ve got a pretty sweet setup downstairs. You wanna shoot some pool? We were just watching a football game.”

“I’d love to.” Turning to me, Brody said, “You wanna come with us, Ri?”

“Oh, Riley, I was hoping you’d keep me company? I just brewed a fresh pot of coffee.” To Brody, Sandra said, “There’s a fridge downstairs and plenty of snacks out. Please help yourself.”

“Thanks,” he said with a brief smile. He clearly found it difficult not to be charmed by his stepmother.

So did I. She had a wonderful, positive energy I felt drawn to.  “I’d love that, Sandra. Thank you.”

“Okay then,” Brody said, following his brothers downstairs. “Just shout if you need me, Ri.”

“Don’t you worry about her,” Sandra called after him. “She’s in good hands.”

I followed her down a narrow hallway to a kitchen with a swinging door. The honey wood theme continued in here, with warm wood cabinets, earth-tone granite countertops, and sandy ceramic floors. There were also warm red and green accents, picking up the colors used on the rest of the main floor.

“I love the way your house is decorated,” I said after she invited me to sit at the large wood table butted up against a wraparound window seat. “Did you do it yourself?”

She smiled as she set a pot of coffee on a woven mat beside the dark red mugs she’d left out. “My mother owned a little home décor shop. I’ve worked there since I was teenager, and when she retired, I took over.”

“Ah, I see.” I loved to dabble in decorating and, given my job, felt it was crucial to keep up with the trends not just in weddings, but also home décor and fashion, since they were so closely related. “That makes sense.”

She placed a sliced lemon poppy seed loaf on the table between us, along with two small plates, before going to the stainless steel fridge for milk and cream. After returning to the table, she gestured to the loaf. “If you’re not a fan, I have some blueberry muffins too.”

“No, this is wonderful,” I said, reaching for a slice and a paper napkin. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” She filled our cups before adding cream and sugar to hers. “I can’t tell you how happy I am you and Brody are here. It took Jack so long to work up the courage to go see his son, and when he finally did…” She shook her head. “We weren’t expecting miracles. So when Brody called to say he wanted to meet the boys, we were so grateful.”

“I’m glad we’re here too,” I said, trying to be cautiously optimistic. “I think this will be good for all of them.”

“I hope so,” Sandra said, her smile slipping. “Jack misses his boys so much. He knows he doesn’t have a right to, since he was never much of a father when they were growing up, but people do change. And he certainly has.”

I didn’t want to pry, but since she seemed willing to talk about her husband’s past, I had to ask, “Did you know him… before?”

She fluffed her stylishly tapered bob. “Before he got sober? Yes, I did.” She laughed. “He was a dreadful person. If that’s their only memory of him, I’m not surprised Brody and his brothers want nothing to do with him.”

I was grateful Sandra seemed to see their side of it. If they felt they had an ally in their stepmother, that would make it easier for them all to forge a relationship. “But he’s changed?”

“Oh yes, definitely,” she said, nodding emphatically. “I wouldn’t have married him if I wasn’t sure he had. You see, I’d already had one bad marriage to an abusive alcoholic.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She forced a smile. “I got two beautiful children out of the deal, so I don’t regret it.”

“You have other children?” I took a sip of the strong, rich brew.

“Yes, two daughters.” She pointed at a built-in corner shelf with clusters of pictures, plants, and knickknacks. “There they are with their husbands and children. I have three grandbabies so far.”

“That’s nice,” I said, admiring her beautiful family. “The kids are so cute.” And just as always, I felt a twinge at the sight of ringlets, chubby cheeks, and wide, innocent eyes.

“Thank you,” she said, beaming. “I’m lucky they all live nearby, so I get to babysit a lot.” She drank her coffee before she said, “I understand Jack has grandchildren too, just a little younger than our boys?”

“Yes, Zane and Cole.” I couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. How would Ryker feel if he knew I was talking about his kids with a stepmother he didn’t even know he had? “They’re great kids. I’m sure they’d get along great with Beck and Tanner.”

“It would be so wonderful if they could meet,” she said, clasping her hands together. “All their lives, they’ve grown up wanting to know more about their brothers. Jack couldn’t tell them a lot. It was just too hard for him to talk about them, so eventually Beck and Tanner stopped asking. Of course, when they got older, they just Googled them.”

I could only imagine the things they’d read about Brody. I hoped that wouldn’t color their opinion of him. Underneath the hype, he really was one of the finest men I knew. That was why I couldn’t stop loving him, no matter how hard I tried.

“So you and your husband were friends before you married?” If I learned more about their story, I could fill Brody in later. If he saw they were just a regular, happy family, he might be more willing to be a part of it, and invite Ryker and the rest of their brothers to do the same.

“We were neighbors, actually. I lived next door with my girls after the divorce. It was my parents’ home, but they didn’t need all that space, so they moved to a condo and let me stay in their house with the kids.” Rolling her eyes, she said, “My ex was something of a deadbeat. He didn’t pay child support or alimony, and they knew I would have a hard time making it on my own.”

There was so much I could have said in response, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to cause more conflict.

Sandra covered my hand with hers, looking into my eyes. “I know you must be thinking that Jack was no better to his kids than my ex was to ours. I know he didn’t treat his wife well, and he certainly didn’t support those boys. Not while they were all living under the same roof or after he left.”

“Why?” I asked, trying to make sense of the two different pictures she painted. “Why didn’t he even try to help his kids? He knew their mother was gone, that they had no one else, so why didn’t he try to do something to help them?”

“It took him a while to get his own life together,” she said solemnly. “A lifetime’s worth of hard habits aren’t easy to break.”

“No, I don’t imagine they are.”

“I was cautious about befriending him at first because he reminded me so much of my ex, especially when he told me about his late wife and kids.” She traced the pattern on the paisley placemats with her ruby-tipped finger. “But I saw something in him I never saw in Tom—remorse.”

“Really?” I wanted to believe that Brody’s father regretted his actions, since I believed that was the only hope they had of moving past all their bitterness and resentment.

“Absolutely. He hated himself for not being a better husband and father. I think that’s why he turned to the bottle in the first place.”

I was humbled that she was opening up to me about such deeply personal issues, but I appreciated it and had to believe Brody would too. “Brody said Jack had a hard time holding down a job and gambled all the time. Apparently he was in and out of their lives over the years. Sometimes for weeks or a month, depending.”

“I know.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if I’d be able to forgive him if I were Brody. I can only tell you how much he’s changed, how good a father and husband he’s been for the past eighteen years.”

Judging by the timeline I knew, I assumed they’d gotten married the year their oldest son was born, maybe because of him. “I’m glad to hear that. For your sake and for theirs.”

“I feel like I’ve bored you to tears telling you our life story.” She laughed lightly as she touched my arm. “Tell me about you and Brody. Are you a couple?”

“We were for a long time.”

She smiled that knowing smile that said as a mother and grandmother, she’d heard it all. “Let me guess—it’s complicated, right?”

“Something like that.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised.” She inhaled deeply as her eyes drifted to the pictures of her daughters. “My girls had a hard time trusting men after what their father did to me.”

“Do they get along well with Jack?” I was still so curious about the person who’d fathered the man I loved. I wanted to get to know him, and I hoped he wouldn’t hide in the garage all day because he assumed that was what Brody expected or wanted him to do.

“They love him,” she said, reaching for a slice of cake. “They treat him like a father, since theirs is no longer in the picture.” When I nodded, she said, “Ironic, right? That he could be such a good father to my kids even though he was a rotten one to his own?”

“Like you said, people can change.” More than ever, I wanted to believe that was true.

Brody

Hanging out with Beck and Tanner wasn’t weird, as I’d feared it would be. It was comfortable, like hanging out with my nephews. We’d played some pool, watched football, and were battling it out over video games. I supposed it was easy to relate to them because, as Mac teased, I was still just a big kid myself.

“What’s it like?” Tanner asked, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. He’d finally had to concede defeat and drop his controller when his brother “killed” him. “Being loaded?”

I chuckled when Beck got me too. Good thing I was better at poker than I was at video games, or I wouldn’t be
loaded
. “It’s better than being dirt poor,” I admitted after a beat.

We’d carefully avoided the subject of our father all afternoon, and I didn’t want to talk about him now. But I knew we couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room forever, and since I was supposed to be the adult, I decided to dive in to let them know it was okay to do the same.

“We didn’t have it easy growing up,” I said, though I was pretty sure they already knew that. My old man wouldn’t have invited me here if he was trying to keep secrets from his youngest kids about the kind of father he’d been to us. Or if he was, he was an idiot to think I’d protect him. I didn’t owe him a damn thing. “My mom died when we were pretty young, and the old man was in and out of the picture. To be honest, life was better when he was out of the picture.”

Tanner and Beck shared a look before Beck said, “I know you’ve got problems with Dad, Brody. He told us all about it, but he’s a really good guy. He’s always been there for us.”

“I’m glad.” And a little envious. “Maybe he learned a thing or two from the mistakes he made with us.”

I heard a door slam upstairs, and since Sandra and Riley had just come downstairs to let us know they were going to take a walk to visit her home décor shop, I knew the man in question must have crawled out of his hole. I’d wondered if he’d have the guts to show his face eventually. Apparently he was getting braver in his old age, or stupider. I didn’t want to fight with him, not in front of his kids, but I wasn’t interested in making nice either.

He slowly made his way down the stairs, a soft drink can in one hand. It was still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that he’d traded beer for soda, but he was standing there with the proof in his hand.

“Hey, Brody.” Jack looked nervous as he stood behind one of two sofas in the large, open space. “I hope you don’t mind that I made myself scarce for a while? I thought you’d want to hang out with these guys first.”

“That is why I came,” I reminded him.
Not to see you. So back the hell off.

“Uh, I’ve got some homework to do,” Tanner said, jumping up.

“Yeah,” Beck said, following suit. “And I’ve got some studying to do.”

On a Saturday afternoon? I wasn’t buying it.

“You’ll come up and see us before you leave, won’t you, Brody?” Tanner asked.

“Yeah, sure.” After they ran upstairs, I stared my father down, waiting for him to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Uh, I met your girlfriend,” he said, sitting on the free sofa. “She came out to the garage with Sandra to tell me they were going out for a bit. She seems like a real nice girl.”

“She is.” I could have told him she wasn’t my girlfriend anymore, but I didn’t feel like explaining myself to him. He didn’t deserve the courtesy. “She was there for me when Mom died.”
Which is more than I can say for you.

“Wow, you two have been together a long time then? Ever think about getting married?”

“Why? So I can wind up disappointing her the way you disappointed Mom? No, I love her too much to do that to her.”

He shook his head as though he’d come down here prepared to take his blows. “Didn’t stop your brother Ryker from getting married. From everything I’ve heard and read, he seems happy. Nex just got married too, didn’t he?”

He didn’t deserve to know anything about the sons he’d abandoned, but I couldn’t deny he’d done his research.

“Yeah. But Nex was too young to remember much.” That wasn’t entirely true, but my kid brother hadn’t let our old man’s actions define him the way I had.

“I spent a lot of years hating myself.” He set the can on the glass-topped table. “I eventually had to stop.”

As far as I was concerned, he should hate himself. “Am I supposed to be impressed? ‘Cause I’m not.”

“I couldn’t be a good husband, father, or provider if I continued blaming myself for my mistakes. I knew I couldn’t make up for the damage I’d done with you boys and your mother, but I could be a good husband to Sandra and a good dad to Beck and Tanner. So that’s what I decided to do, make the most of my second chance.”

The father I remembered had never had a coherent thought. I couldn’t believe the person sitting across from me was the same man. He made sense, presenting a rational defense… and I hated it. What he’d done was inexcusable, and I wanted him to see it the way I did.

“What makes you think you deserve a second chance?”

“That’s a good question,” he said, scraping a hand over the silver stubble on his face. “One I asked myself over and over, especially the first year after your mom died. Bill was trying to convince me I deserved a chance at a decent life. So was Sandra. The people in the AA meetings and at church thought I deserved one too. But I didn’t.”