Beauty from Pain(75)

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m not coming home for this.”


“I think you’re making a mistake.”


“If I am, then I’ll be the one who has to live with it.” I’d always been the one to live with both of our mistakes anyway, so I was used to it.


She isn’t happy with me when I end our call and it leaves me feeling unsettled, although I know I’m making a logical decision. Between the two of us, someone has to be rational and I can’t depend on it to be her. She isn’t well known for making the best choices when it comes to my father.


“I assume there’s trouble at home.”


Yes, but only what my mom is making for me. “My father’s son was killed in a snow-skiing accident.”


“I’m sorry.”


“He’s a half-brother I’ve never met and my mom is acting like I should be in mourning. Hell, when she said his name, it took a minute for me to realize whom she was talking about. He’s a stranger to me. I’m sorry for his family’s loss, but I don’t feel anything more. Is that wrong?”


“No, Laurelyn. You’re not wrong for the way you feel. Please, don’t let your mum make you feel guilty.”


I’m certain he thinks she is a terrible mother after everything he’s learned about her today. “You must think even worse of my mom now.”


“She doesn’t make the top-ten list of my favorites today. You, however, make the number-one position.” He pulls me close to kiss the top of my head. I love the way he makes my worries disappear.


How can this be? This man, almost a stranger, brings me comfort and makes it easy for me to bare my soul to him. As I ask myself how it’s possible, I know the answer. I don’t have to guard my heart with Lachlan. I’m safe with him. And it’s nice.


30


Jack McLachlan


Laurelyn doesn’t know it’s my birthday or that the only wish I have is to stay home with her. But I can’t. I have to go to my parents’ house for my annual birthday dinner with the whole family. What a ripper day this will be.


She’s been living with me for two weeks and I’m surprised by the way I feel as I drive away, leaving her at the house. I want to go back for her. I consider whipping the Sunset around, but I remind myself of the rules I have in place and why meeting my family is one that can’t be broken.


I haven’t seen my family in almost three weeks, not since my mother sent me back to Avalon to be with Laurelyn on Christmas Day. Thank you, Mum. It was the best gift you could have given me.


My mum has made a point to speak to me weekly about my relationship with my “girlfriend” and I’m not looking forward to showing up without her again. Margaret McLachlan is going to be very put out with me over Laurelyn’s absence. I shouldn’t have told her I’d bring her to my birthday dinner, but I didn’t have a reasonable excuse to give her when we discussed it.


I walk through the door and Mum flies into the foyer. She’s smiling and her eyes are wide with anticipation, but then I see them fill with disappointment when she notes the emptiness beside me. I feel like a shitty son. “Where is she?”


“I’m sorry, Mum. Laurelyn wasn’t feeling well. We think she has the stomach flu. She told me to tell you how sorry she is that she couldn’t make it.”


She gives me a look of disapproval and I know I’ve done all wrong. “And you left her alone while she’s sick?”


Shit. I didn’t think of that. “I’m paying Mrs. Porcelli to take care of her.”


Now, she’s really giving me her disapproval. “What kind of message does that send if you leave her when she’s sick, Jack Henry?”


I feel like a cur, although I’m guilty of nothing. Almost. “I didn’t think of that.”


“You boys never do, but it’s not from lack of me trying.” Mum stalks out of the foyer into the kitchen. She’s pissed off and I want her to know her lessons weren’t in vain. She’d be proud of how considerate I am with Laurelyn, but I can’t tell her, so I’m forced to endure her disapproval instead.


I go into the living room where my dad and brother are, hoping to find neutral ground among them. I have no doubt Mum is in the kitchen telling Chloe and Emma what I did. Soon I’ll have the whole adult female household against me. I’ll be lucky if my nieces, Celia and Mila, aren’t included in the pact.