Saugatuck Summer (Saugatuck, #1)(90)
Aunt Blythe and Uncle Pete didn’t really react except to murmur courteous welcomes. They really didn’t care that I was gay—in fact, they were both quite liberal, considering where they lived—as long as my unconventionality didn’t embarrass them among their circle of acquaintances.
After the doctor finished his recitation, he left us alone.
“Well,” my aunt said, nodding briskly. “I’ll talk to a social worker while I’m here, start finding out about long-term care options and what your mom’s insurance is going to cover.”
“Talk to Colleen to coordinate that,” I said dispassionately. “I’ve got to get back to my job in Saugatuck and won’t have the time. We decided hiring a nurse would be the best thing for all of us, so I gave her some money to cover it. She’ll be in charge of handling that since she’s in the area.”
Jace’s head shot up and he stared at me in astonishment. I gave him a solemn look, silently begging him not to make an issue of it here and now. He seemed to get the message and didn’t say anything.
Unfortunately, my uncle didn’t pick up that same signal.
“What money?”
“Doesn’t matter,” I muttered, not meeting his eyes.
“Topher,” my aunt insisted. “What money?”
“What I’d saved up for school, okay?” I said impatiently. “I gave her my college money.”
Colleen’s face went red, and I could just about see steam coming out of her ears. We both knew where this was going to lead. She’d probably been hoping I wouldn’t mention the money I’d given her so she could do whatever she wanted with it. Now that someone else knew, there would be an accounting. Which was exactly why I’d brought it up. I might be washing my hands of the situation, but at least this way someone could keep an eye on what she was doing.
“What?” Uncle Pete asked sharply. He was a tall man, quiet enough to be mistaken for soft-spoken, but he wasn’t really. He didn’t say much, but when he spoke, he did so with intelligence and authority, and got straight to the point. “Whoa, wait. No. That is not acceptable.”
My aunt looked at me, aghast. “Topher! No. You need to keep that money for school.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to get an education if I’m stuck here taking care of Mom anyway, so it might as well go toward something that will help us all deal with this without completely mucking up our lives. I’ll go to school part-time, stretch out getting my degree longer so I can work full-time. Or I’ll get student loans, go into hock for the rest of my life like everyone else in the country.”
My aunt’s pinched nose flared and her dark blue eyes sparked. She was an absolutely beautiful woman except for that thin, hooked beak of hers; it was easy to see why she had been homecoming queen and always had so many friends. She was gentle and funny and entertaining—except when she had power over you and was pissed off. It was actually a bit disconcerting, a Jekyll-and-Hyde type of thing. Everyone liked her because they didn’t see those moments. I could already see from Jace’s reaction that my aunt and uncle weren’t the ogres he was expecting.
“Colleen,” she said tightly. “Give Topher his money back. We’ll find another way to handle this as a family.”
Colleen had a deer-caught-in-the-headlights look, and behind her eyes, the pathological liar within her, the one who took and took and took with no sense of obligation whatsoever, was spinning in circles to find a way to get out of this.
“I already deposited it at the ATM,” she said at last. “I didn’t want to risk anything happening to the check Topher threw at me until we had time to sit down and discuss this calmly, which I couldn’t do because he was being so irrational. Now, I don’t have my checkbook.”
My uncle’s jaw flexed, and my aunt reached into her bag and pulled out her own checkbook. “Well, when the bank opens Monday, Colleen, you can withdraw it and pay us back. With a cashier’s check.” Colleen reddened, and I had to duck my head and bite my lip to avoid smirking and making a joke about locating the burn unit here at the hospital.
“How much was it?” Aunt Blythe pressed.
I closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose with a tired sigh, refusing to answer. Fuck. Even my dramatic and liberating grand gesture had to be undermined, didn’t it? I didn’t know whether to be relieved or disgusted. On the one hand, I could afford school again. On the other, now I would never be free of this family and their guilt trips and manipulations.
“At least fifteen thousand dollars.” Jace sounded pissed. Really, really pissed. I was definitely going hear about this when he got me alone. “Right?”
“Nineteen,” Colleen snapped when my aunt stammered at the amount. I’d added the money I’d earned working for Geoff and Robin on top of the money from the paintings. “And just where the hell did you get that kind of money over the summer anyway, Christopher? What exactly have you been doing?”
Oh, no f*cking way. I narrowed my eyes at her, then forced myself to shrug, batting my eyes disingenuously.
“Mostly running drugs,” I chirped, beaming. “Also, rentboys go for top dollar in a rich town like Saugatuck. Then there were the porn videos.” I gave Colleen a cheeky smile as she blustered. “I have a line on a few infants I can smuggle on the black market, but the buyers haven’t come through yet.”