Starting Over (Treading Water Trilogy) (2 page)

“You’ll have the opportunity to make amends,” Steve reminded her, referring to the all-important eighth and ninth steps in the twelve-step program.

“Yes,” Danielle said. “I’ve made my lists. I’m quite certain, though, that my husband won’t want to hear my apologies. I had… I’d turned to prostitution to feed my addiction, and I know he’ll never forgive me for that. I can’t say I blame him.”

Brandon held back a gasp. This pretty, ex-cheerleader type was a
hooker
?
Come on!
No way
.

“I’m going to do everything I can to stick to the program, to stay sober one day at a time, and to try to get visitation with my kids. That’s my goal, and every day I ask God to help me get there.”

While the others nodded in agreement, Brandon resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
Yeah, count on God
.
That’ll get you far
.

The group turned next to a middle-aged man with a potbelly and a red face full of broken blood vessels. “I’m Jeff, and I’m an alcoholic.”

“Hi, Jeff.”

“Today’s my last day at group. I’m getting out of here tomorrow. It’s time to face the music, as they say. I’ll be going to court next week to be sentenced on the embezzlement charges. Fortunately, the bank where I worked asked the court for leniency, but I could still be facing two years in prison.”

Dismay rippled through the group.

“The upside is that at least I won’t be able to drink while I’m in jail,” Jeff said with a grim smile. “I’m ready to face whatever’s ahead. This time I’m committed to staying sober, and I’ve given God the keys to my car. Whatever He has in store for me, I’ll willingly take. Anything is better than where I’ve been, even prison. I just want to thank you all for listening to me all these weeks.” His voice caught with emotion. “You’ve saved my life, and I won’t forget you.”

“Just keep going to meetings, Jeff,” Steve said. “Even if you end up in prison. There’re groups everywhere.”

Jeff nodded. “I will.”

Steve checked his watch before he called on two other people to share their stories. There were similar threads to each of them—they were powerless over alcohol and drugs, their lives were out of control, and once they accepted the presence of a higher power, they found a peace they’d never known before.

All this God talk was a major turnoff to Brandon.
Leave it to Colin the Pope to find the one program on the Cape that was all about God
.

“I want to thank everyone who shared today,” Steve said. “We have a few new members with us. Let’s welcome Phyllis, Frank, and Brandon.”

“Welcome,” the group said in unison.

“I’d like to invite any of you new folks to speak, if you wish to,” Steve said, scanning the circle to include each of them.

Brandon again looked away.
There’s no way I’m talking to these people. They’re all drunks and druggies. What the hell do they know about me?

Phyllis broke under Steve’s gaze and began to sob uncontrollably.

Brandon bit back a groan.

“I need a couple of volunteers to stay and talk with Phyllis when she’s ready,” Steve said, standing to lead the Lord’s Prayer. When they were done, they said together, “Keep coming back.”

Brandon couldn’t get out of there fast enough. He walked through the double doors that led to a patio off the cafeteria. Breathing in the cold winter air, he tried to get his hands to quit shaking by jamming them into the pockets of his worn jeans. They said the shaking was part of the detox process.

“Hey,” the other new guy, Frank, said as he stood next to Brandon and lit a cigarette.

Frank offered him one, and Brandon shook his head.

“Some crazy shit in there, huh?” Frank said.

Brandon watched Frank’s hand tremble when he brought the cigarette up for a drag. “Yeah,” Brandon said. “I couldn’t believe it when that chick Danielle said she was a hooker.”

“Believe it. I’ve seen people do everything—and I mean
everything
—for the next fix. This is my third time through this place. I’m hoping the third time’s the charm.”

Great
, Brandon thought.
All this and it doesn’t even work
. “What happened before?”

“I failed to commit fully to the program and to my sobriety. This time I’m going to do it, though. My wife said she’d leave me and take my kids if I don’t. I can’t let that happen.”

“Well, good luck. I hope it works.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Still in denial? Most people usually are the first week or two.”

Brandon shrugged. “I was never as bad off as those people in there. I get loaded every now and then, but I wasn’t like them.”

“You’re sure of that?”

Brandon watched a group of patients walk along a trail on the back end of the property.

“Let me give you a little piece of advice I wish someone had given me when I was first here,” Frank said. “Give in to it, man. Let these people help you. It’ll save you a lot of time and your loved ones a lot of suffering. Both times I fell off the wagon harder than the time before. I left some serious carnage in my wake.”

“I appreciate the advice, but I’m doing my thirty days and getting the hell out of here. And I won’t be back. You can be sure of that.”

Frank shook his head. “Keep thinking you don’t belong here, and you’ll be back. Mark my words.” He ground out the cigarette and tossed it into the butt bucket. “See
ya
around.”

“Yeah. See
ya
.”

Chapter 2, Day 6

Colin O’Malley drove his green company pickup truck through the picturesque town of Chatham, Massachusetts, on his way to his parents’ home on Shore Road. Once a poor fishing village, Chatham had become one of Cape Cod’s most affluent communities.

As on all the trucks belonging to O’Malley & Sons Construction, the company name on the door of Colin’s truck was encircled by five gold shamrocks—one for each of the O’Malley siblings.

While driving, Colin replied to several pages from crews in the field on his two-way phone. With his father recovering at home from a mild heart attack and his older brother Brandon in rehab, Colin and his younger brother Declan were running the family’s construction business with the help of their sister Erin’s husband, Tommy.

Colin pulled into his parents’ driveway, and as always, he cringed at the fanciful pink-and-yellow paint job his mother had commissioned several years earlier. What she intended to be a gingerbread house looked more like a three-story cake, as Colin’s father often said when his wife wasn’t listening.

The phone beeped again as he reached the front door, and Colin took care of two more crises before he went inside.

“Mum?” He removed his Red Sox ball cap and ran a hand through his too-long strawberry blond hair. Like Declan and Erin, he resembled his mother, but the three of them had their father’s light blue eyes. With their wavy, dark brown hair, Aidan and Brandon favored their father in his younger years but with their mother’s dark green eyes.

Wearing an apron over a wool sweater and jeans, Colleen O’Malley came from the kitchen to greet her third son. “Hello, love,” she said, planting a kiss on his cheek. Her thick Irish brogue seemed heavier than usual that day. “Have you had lunch? I made your Da some chicken soup, and there’s plenty.”

“Sounds good, Mum,” Colin said, even though he couldn’t really afford the time. But she’d been so sad over everything with Brandon, including the awful fight he’d had with Aidan, and so worried about her husband that Colin wanted to spend some time with her. “Let me just go up and see Da first. He said he needed to see me right away. I don’t want him fretting about work when he’s supposed to be taking it easy.”

“Neither do I, but I don’t want you running yourself ragged either, Col.” Her green eyes softened with concern. “I know you must be overwhelmed at work without Da and Brandon.”

“We’re coping,” he said as he headed for the stairs. He didn’t think she needed to hear that it had been a long time since anyone relied on Brandon at work. “Don’t worry, Mum.” Colin had vague memories of the house before the second and third floors were added on. His father had worked nights, weekends, and holidays for more than two years to expand the former ranch house to fit his growing family.

Colin knocked on the door to his parents’ bedroom.

“Come in,” Dennis called in a voice that was already stronger than it had been the day before. He was propped up in bed, resting against a small mountain of pillows. The room was full of the flowers he had received from friends and business associates.

“Hey, Da. How you feeling today?”

“Cooped up and coddled,” Dennis grumbled as he ran a hand through his snow-white hair. “Your Mum’s making me nuts.”

Colin chuckled. “I don’t doubt it.” He reached into the pocket of his green O’Malley & Sons coat, pulled out a Snicker’s bar, and slid it under his father’s pillow. “Don’t tell.”

“Have I mentioned you’re my favorite kid?” Dennis asked with a big smile.

Colin snorted. “Yeah, right. I’m your favorite kid at this moment.”

“Why would you say that? Have I made you feel that way?”

“What way?” Colin asked, surprised to find sincere concern on his father’s usually jovial face.

“That you weren’t my favorite. I love you all the same. I hope you know that.”

“Of course, I do. Even though I’m the one who never went to college. I’m not a doctor like Aidan was or an athlete like Brandon. I can’t sing like Aidan and Dec can, and, of course, Erin gave you five grandchildren. Nope, I’m just good old Colin.”

“You’re the one I see myself in more than any of the others.”

Taken aback, Colin said, “You do?”

Dennis nodded. “From the time you were old enough to walk, all you ever wanted was to come to work with me. You loved everything about the trucks, the yard, the men, the gravel, all of it.”

“But you were mad I didn’t go to college,” Colin reminded him.

“I wanted more for you—for all my kids—than I’d had. I wanted you to go to school before you came into the business so you’d have something to fall back on if you ever needed it.”

“You’ve worked seven days a week for forty years to make sure I’d never need it.”

“I’m proud of the business, but nothing makes me prouder than having my sons and son-in-law working with me.”

“You’re awfully sentimental today, Da. What’s gotten into you?”

“The fear of God in the form of a heart attack,” Dennis confessed. “Listen, Col…”

Colin sat on the edge of the bed and took his father’s work-roughened hand in his. “What is it?”

“I’m not coming back,” Dennis said.

“What do you mean?”

“Mum wants me to retire, and I’m going to do it. She’s been waiting for me to slow down for a long time, and there’re things she wants to do. I owe her some of my time before I’m too old and sick to be any good to her.”

Astounded, Colin had no idea what to say. “I figured you’d put up a fight when she was ranting in the hospital about you retiring.”

“I’m tired. I think I’m ready.”

“I can’t imagine you not being at work with us.”

“Oh, you don’t need me. You all have been running the show for years now. I was just there to keep you guys from bickering.”

“You do a lot more than that, and you know it.”

“I want you to take over for me, Col.”

Shocked, Colin stared at him.

“Someone has to be in charge, and I’ve decided it should be you.”

“But what about Brandon? He’ll blow a gasket over this when he gets back.”

“He won’t be in any shape to take on this kind of responsibility for some time, and even if he was, he’s not the one I want. I want you, son.”

Colin released a ragged deep breath. He hadn’t seen this coming. “I don’t know, Da.”
“It was Aidan’s idea, actually.”

“You asked him first, didn’t you?” Colin made no attempt to hide his disappointment.

“I only asked him first for one reason—all you boys respect him so much. I knew no one would fight him as the authority figure. You’ll have a tougher time with that than he would’ve had as the oldest.”

“Why did he say no?”

“He’s getting his life together in Vermont. His restoration business is going well, and he’s finally got a new woman in his life. Coming back here wouldn’t be good for him after everything he’s been through. It was wrong of me to even ask him—for all those reasons and because the most obvious choice was the one who’s been here all along.”
“Good old Colin.”

“Just because you flew under the radar doesn’t mean I didn’t notice you, son. You’ve never given me an ounce of grief. And when a man has five high-spirited children, you’d better believe he notices the one who never gives him any trouble.”

Colin smiled. “I should’ve raised some more hell.”

“Your brothers and sister did plenty of hell-raising, believe me. So will you do it, Col? Will you take over my business and make it your own with the help of your brothers and Tommy?”