Redwood Bend (Virgin River #18)(46)

“Dylan,” she said, a bit breathless. “Sweetheart!”

“Why does anything ever surprise me,” he muttered.

Cherise straightened herself. She would be sixty-three by now, older than his father would be had he lived, but she didn’t look a day over forty, though her skin was a little tight across her face. She was too thin, but that would not be too thin for Cherise’s tastes; she worked hard at thin.

“Is that all you have to say to your mother after all these years?”

She hadn’t called him once in twenty years to ask how he was getting along. Never just to talk. She always had an agenda that revolved around him helping her out in some way. For reasons he would never be able to explain, he had achieved the kind of enduring popularity and success his extended family found enviable and it was that for which they reached out to him, the rare times they had. “Pretty much,” he said. “I didn’t listen to all the messages.”

She stiffened as if affronted. “I only said I’d like to see you while you’re in town…”

“There were calls from Bryce and Blaine,” he said. “Why are you circling the wagons? What is it you think I can do for you?”

“Can we have a late lunch? Talk things over?”

“How did you find out I’d be here?” he asked. “How did you get my number?”

“I can’t actually remember… Can we just have a meal? A drink? Dessert later on?”

He laughed. “You don’t eat dessert, Cherise.”

“Please, can’t you call me Mother?”

“No, I can’t. That train left the station a long time ago,” he said.

She straightened her spine. “Are you staying at your grandmother’s house?” she asked.

He briefly wondered what that had to do with anything and then as quickly he realized family would start showing up wherever he was housed. He employed his considerable acting talents to behave as if bored. He looked at his watch and said, “You have sixty seconds to spit it out—tell me what you want from me. Otherwise, there is no conversation between us. I’m here on business.”

“I want a job in your film.”

“Well,” he said, smiling. “There’s a big surprise. And jobs for Blaine and Bryce, as well?”

“I’m not in the business of finding them work—we’re not in touch. I just want something to do, quite honestly. And if I could do it with my son…”

He took a step toward her. “You’re not in touch with them, yet they also had my cell number?”

“I can’t explain that. I have nothing to do with that.”

He whistled. “Amazing,” he said. “Sorry, Cherise, but we’re not going to work together. It would be a very bad mix. Have a nice day.” And he stepped past her into the office building. But his heart squeezed. That was his mother, and she was still not above using him. No wonder he was so f**ked up.

When he stepped into Jay’s office, Sean Adams was already there and rose to shake his hand. The first thing Dylan said to Jay was, “Your office is now off-limits. Cherise Fontaine met me at the front door, looking for work in a movie I haven’t even agreed to do. I think we’d better move this meeting to a more secure location or you might have every one of my extended family in the lobby. You have a leak.”

“Well, shit,” Jay said. “Come with me.”

“I hope there’s a back door,” Dylan said.

Katie had been cautious about how much time Dylan spent around her cabin while the boys were home so they didn’t start to think of him as a member of the family. If he was around for dinner or the evening, she shuffled him out the door by the time she was getting the boys ready for bed. But it didn’t take Andy and Mitch any time at all to notice Dylan was missing. They asked if he was coming over five minutes after they got home from summer program on Friday afternoon. Katie had talked to herself all day long about sucking it up; she did not want her boys to grieve his departure. “Well, funny you should ask,” she said with fake nonchalance. “Dylan had to leave town—he has to work.”

“When is he coming back?” Mitch asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ll be sure to ask him that if he calls. But, honey, if he’s out of town working, he’s very busy.”

“I don’t want to miss him,” Andy said. “When is he calling us?”

Oh, God, that shot her through the heart. He was not likely to call. All part of goodbye was admitting their relationship, such as it was, was over. He had to go where work led him and she had to get on with her life. That was a roundabout way of saying they’d go for the clean break.

But what she said was, “I’m not sure, sweetheart. But if he does, I promise to ask him if he’s coming back to visit.”

That brief exchange had prompted her to reach out to her brother. “I need a little backup,” she said. “If you have a little time this weekend, could you spend some with the boys? Anything that comes to mind.”

“Sure,” he said. “You and Dylan have some plans?”

“Well, that’s the thing—Dylan had to go to L.A. to work. Of course I knew this was going to happen soon. L.A. or Montana. The man has to earn a living.”