Nate(33)

I had started to tune him out.

I had problems growing up, so many of them. But I conquered every single one of them.

There was no way… Was there?

All my therapists, though. He paid for them. He’d have those records, those notes, because I knew he made them share their notes with him, regardless of any doctor-client confidentiality. He ruled the roost and held the purse strings when I was younger. He’d been my father. He’d been paying my bills. He only chose the therapists who would agree to his terms and conditions, and the ones who wouldn’t, I never went to them. That one therapist had been the exception, Naomi.

I should look her up, find her phone number.

I should call her. She’d know ways to help me with problems that I wasn’t even aware I was having. It was how she had always been for me.

“Quincey?”

“Aahhhaamama!” Nova shrieked, pumping her hands all the way up, and then, hearing herself, she began laughing.

My heart stopped. Mama? Had she called me that?

No. She was staring at the wall, and I looked.

It was a picture of a woman with red hair. Not Valerie. It looked like a piece of art the designer had chosen to make the pool house feel more like home, but Nova was now pointing and staring at the picture.

“Mama.” She was saying it over and over again.

Nova couldn’t talk when Valerie died.

I bent my head over my knees, and I let the burning move through me.

I wasn’t surprised when I tasted salt on my lips a moment later.

Valerie.

Why did you have to go?





21





Nate





The next night





“Hey, loser.”

I gave Graham Robertson a look as he tapped me on the arm, passing to slide in the seat across from me.

“You don’t know me well enough to use Logan’s terms of endearment.”

He laughed, taking his coat off and putting it on the chair next to him. “You’re right, but we’re family, so I figure I can. And who says it was Logan’s term of endearment? Maybe that’s what Val called you on your ‘off’ times?”

I relaxed, then sat up. “Was it? Did she?”

“No.” Another laugh from him as he grabbed the drink menu. “Val just called you ‘him’ or by your name. That’s about it. She didn’t talk about you much, to be honest. Didn’t have to, I guess. We all knew she loved you.”

I felt a good one-two punch at everything he just said.

Valerie.

I’d been so focused on Nova that I pushed my thoughts and emotions about Valerie to the side. I didn’t know if that was fair to her or not, but Nova and the fight for Nova took first priority. Hearing that information now, regret sliced through me.

If she had told me? What then…

But I hadn’t called him to discuss Valerie. It was the other sister I needed information on.

The waitress came over, getting our orders. When she left, Graham lifted his chin toward me. “So, what’s up? I’m guessing you called for a reason, and talking about Val’s term of endearment isn’t it?”

I liked Graham.

We’d known him since college, though not well. Mason had met him at a football camp, but it wasn’t until after college that we got to know him better. He suffered an injury and went into sports broadcasting instead of an NFL career. Then when my brother-in-law and Aspen lived in Seattle, and Graham was here, it was inevitable our paths would cross more and more. Because of all that, I felt comfortable viewing Graham as a friend.

“Has Duke Royas reached out to your mother at all?”

The waiter had come over, and he was in the midst of lifting his glass for a drink. He froze right before the glass touched his mouth at my question. Then he set it down and scowled at me. “You’re serious?”

I had to ask. “Yes.”

“Fuck no. I hate that dipshit. Not only did he fuck over my mom, and he wasn’t in the standing to do that in the first place, but he’s been in Quincey’s head all her life. He’s turned her against us. Swear to God, she felt guilty about just having a meal with us.” He made a gun motion pointing at his head. “That’s how engrained he is in her head. Poisoned my own sister against us, against all of us.” He paused, frowning, and gripped his water tighter. “Why are you asking?”

“Because Quincey moved in with me.”

My statement was the equivalent of a mic being dropped.

Graham could only gape at me, and as far as I’d known Graham, he wasn’t a guy to gape. Always charming. Ever smooth. Maybe one or two retorts to Logan, but he was mostly a laidback and unshakeable guy.

Graham Robertson was shook now.

“You kidding me?”

“No.”

“When? I mean, fuck. Fuck! That’s great, right? That means you have Nova then?”

I nodded. “We dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s, but we have her. Both Quincey and I do.”

“In your house?” He jerked upright and shook his head briskly. “Wait a minute. You have a house here? Since when?”

“About four weeks ago, maybe a little less.”

“Holy shit. You Fallen Crest people move fast once you know what you want, huh?”