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“When it comes to sex, men can’t help lying and women can’t keep from telling the truth. I don’t know which is worse.” – Cathy
BOYS’ NIGHT OUT
Leo
My phone buzzed with a text from Izzy as I stepped through the foyer of the New York City corporate office of the family company, House of Bennett. I didn’t open the message.
It had been two days since I’d left Colorado and she’d been texting constantly, demanding answers about why I’d left. While I’d been in touch with her about the Mod Appeal campaign—I still had a job to do as photographer—, I’d ignored all the personal questions she’d asked, just telling her that my mom had been in an accident and that I needed to be in New York City for a while.
Izzy would travel back from Colorado to Austin today. I knew that once she was back home and not running around trying to organize an out-of-town photo shoot, she’d probably start blowing up my phone...with actual phone calls. But honestly, I just didn’t have the capacity to worry about Izzy right now.
I needed to focus on my family and keeping everything here afloat.
My mom had been crossing the street in downtown Manhattan when a taxi driver had swerved to miss another car, and instead ended up hitting my sixty-three-year-old mother just as she stepped off the curb.
Beyond the multiple broken bones with several serious surgeries in her future, she’d suffered a brain bleed and had just begun showing signs of coming out of her coma last night. The doctors kept warning us she had a long recovery ahead, but they were guardedly optimistic. All good news, although I’d admit to feeling a lot easier about her condition once I saw her eyes open and heard her voice, but in the meantime I had my hands full helping keep House of Bennett on an even keel.
I was nowhere near qualified for this job as the only Bennett who’d never actually worked within the corporation.
Growing up, I’d been that nerdy, awkward kid that nobody wanted to acknowledge. The world of fashion multiplied that uncomfortable status by a million. Throughout my childhood, I’d hated fashion events where people met me and didn’t know how to react to the ugly, gangly, awkward kid that stood among the swans that were my beautiful sisters.
I’d picked up a camera out of self-defense. I needed a place to hide, and placing a camera in front of my face had worked.
My mom had been the CEO of House of Bennett ever since my father’s death twenty-six years ago. My three sisters had settled into the company of fashion since they’d all inherited my mom’s model-worthy beauty. They’d been a natural fit to the company and ran the fashion house alongside mom: our eldest sister, Cassandra, as President and the twins, Danielle and Denae, acting as Vice Presidents.
But none of them had been capable of making the business the priority since the accident. They were all too devastated about my mom’s condition.
So, qualified or not, I’d stepped up and taken over.
I still had Bennett as my last name and that gave me enough clout with the employees and board so I could fake it...at least for the moment.
Aside from Izzy, my other closest friend was Franklin Montgomery, and he was the head designer for the company. We’d met when he’d been interning for House of Bennett when I was in college. He’d come a long way from being the flamboyant and over the top fashion apprentice I’d first met. Oh, he was still over the top and flamboyant, but now he was also in charge of the entire fashion side of the company. I counted on him more and more every day.
In the past, Franklin had been my rock when Izzy was too caught up in her latest love to remember she had a best friend...both in college and since. He was also probably part of the reason she’d thought I was gay once upon a time. But I couldn’t dwell on that today.
No, today I had to answer to the board of directors about our plans for the spring lines. My oldest sister, Cassandra, as President of the company, should be here handling this, but I hadn’t been able to locate her in over twenty-four hours. The nurses reported that she’d visited the ICU, so I knew she was alive. But that’s all I knew.
Someone in the lobby must have called up to the office that I was on my way up because Franklin met me in the swank foyer of the executive offices. “Thank fuck you’re here,” he said, looking frazzled. Franklin never looked less than perfect.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, just everything.” He waved his hand in the air. The panic appeared to be bubbling out of him. “Cassandra came in sometime last night and marked up all the style boards for today with changes she thought I needed to make.” He shook his head and wrinkled his nose. “Let’s ignore for a moment that we need those for the meeting today, but that’s not her place. Your family has never been part of the design process. That’s my job. I need you all to stay in your lane. Your mother never had a problem with that. She trusts me, so why doesn’t your sister?”
I blew out a breath. “I’ll talk to her. I’m just glad she’s here. I thought for a moment that she planned to leave us high and dry for the board meeting this morning.”
“Oh, darling.” He patted my arm. “She definitely did that, because she’s not here. She left a note saying she’ll be incommunicado for the next two weeks and that you were in charge. Left a signed, legal letter and everything.”
I stumbled to a halt. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
His lips thinned, and pity shone in his gaze. “I wish I was. She’s been cagey the last few weeks, long before your mother’s accident. I don’t know what’s going on, but something has been off with her for a while.”
“She hasn't said anything to anyone?”
He shrugged. “It’s possible someone from your family knows something, but none of us here at the company are in the loop. Maybe check with the twins?”
Although the way he said that, he didn’t truly think they’d be of any help.
I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck. “They’re already both so overwhelmed. They’re going to have a meltdown when I tell them that Cassandra’s disappeared on top of everything else.”
“Okay, so don’t tell them. Their positions don’t leave them with enough knowledge about the company for them to lend much aid to the management of it. Honestly, without Saoirse here, even Cassandra would have struggled. Your mother doesn’t give up control easily.”
That wasn’t a surprise. My mom had married my dad when she was only twenty-one years old. He’d been forty-six. The tongues had wagged and mom had done everything possible since to make sure those vultures saw she was as capable and independent as my dad, whom, according to my sisters and mom, she’d loved dearly. I didn’t have any firsthand knowledge or remember their relationship because he’d died from a heart attack when I’d only been one. I had no memories of the man I called father, only the bits and pieces others told me.
At the time, mom had been a Vice President of the company, something most people thought was a cushy figurehead position only. It had shocked them when she’d stepped up and taken the helm, many times fighting the resistance that had been built into the company. My mother was a dragon to be reckoned with, and I needed to remember that with her survival now. Saoirse Bennett knew how to fight.
That independent spirit might come back to bite us right now. Mom had been the CEO, Cassandra the President, while the twins played lesser rolls in the company: Danielle in charge of manufacturing, and Denae heading up marketing. Cassandra was supposed to be our backup for mom, but I got the feeling from Franklin that wasn’t an accurate representation of the leadership in the company.
Mom had never allowed her enough power to fill the role. But she sure had a better shot than I did.
The ugly duckling didn’t belong among the swans. I wasn’t meant to be part of the beautiful set of fashion between my long-legged gorgeous sisters. Our mother had been a supermodel at seventeen, and the girls had all gotten her genes. Me, not so much. I’d just been awkward and had never really grown past that, as the past weekend with Izzy had proven.
“Okay, well our goal is to not run the company into the ground before she can come back and take over again.” I just prayed that she’d get to the place where that was a possibility.
“So, tell me, how are we going to get through today’s board meeting?” I waved Franklin to the chairs across from my mom’s desk while I settled in behind it. Nothing had ever felt so wrong in my life.
“Well, the first thing we have to do is make you look the part.” He winced as he studied my fitted wool vest. “We need to take you from moldy professor to head of a fashion house.”
“Good luck with that.” I tried to ignore the uncomfortable, squirrelly feeling trying to crawl out of my stomach.
I didn’t belong here, but sometimes we had to accept the uncomfortable things in life.
***
I DIDN’T MAKE IT BACK to mom’s office until after seven o’clock that night. It had been a full day of trying to balance placating the panicking board to handling the details of launching a spring line.
To say I was in way over my head was putting it lightly. I didn’t think this would be easy, but before today, I’d thought I understood the basics of customer relations and good business practices. I’d been wrong.
Nothing in my life had prepared me for handling the demands of a board that thought the company would totally fail without my mom at the helm.
(If nothing else, I hoped that bit of belief in her would be a panacea for their doubts when she’d taken over twenty-six years ago.)
I hadn’t been up to the hospital all day, but I’d heard from the twins that mom was finally conscious, so I needed to get there soon. But I needed to settle my stress first. Mom didn’t need to see it. I leaned back into the chair and blew out a sigh and closed my eyes.
If I were in Austin, this would be a night where I’d grab a bottle of wine and head to Izzy’s, losing myself in one of her ridiculous old rom-com movies.
I missed my best friend.
That didn’t mean I was ready to reach out to her and I could be honest enough with myself to admit that I wasn’t sure if I worried she’d come when she had so much that she needed to concentrate on with her own career. Or if I was more terrified that she wouldn’t come to help me. I wasn’t ready to make her choose between her job and me. Mainly because I truly didn’t trust that she’d choose me first, and fuck, that hurt.
A knock sounded from the open doorway and I spun the chair around. Franklin stood there looking much fresher than I felt, especially since I knew his day had been just as rough as mine.
“Hey,” I said. “Good job today with the board. You handled them well.” I didn’t know how things normally went, but the board had come in like a demolition team ready to knock down any idea presented to them that mom hadn’t signed off on before her accident. But Franklin hadn’t let them ruffle his confidence. It had helped me do the same when they’d finally turned to lambast me for having the gall to not be my mother.
“Your mother told me a secret to handling them years ago.”
“Impart the wisdom. I certainly can use all the help I can get.”
“They like their positions on the board because it makes them feel powerful, but in the end, we’re the ones running the company, not them, and as long as we’re making money, they really won’t have much to say later if we don’t follow their recommendations.”
I laughed. “But what if I ignore their recommendations and then we lose money?”
“Don’t worry, honey. I’m in charge of the fashion line and I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen. I know what I’m doing. You just keep paying the bills and we’ll be golden.”
Fuck, I really hoped that was true. Although now that I considered it, I didn’t know what to do to make sure we paid the bills, either. I needed to contact the finance department first thing tomorrow and make sure everything was still okay there.
I was in so far over my head here.
I’d been calling Cassandra’s cell all day long, but it went directly to voice mail, so she turned it off or it had a dead battery.
“You can do this, Leo,” Franklin said in a hushed, but confident voice.
“Thanks. I hope so.”
“Besides, your mom is awake now, right? She’ll be back in the office and bossing us all around before you know it...or we’re ready for it. No little car running her over is going to keep Saoirse down. Now, don’t you need to get out of here so you can tell her that?”
“Yeah.” I glanced at the clock. I’d be pushing it to make it to the hospital before the visiting hours were over. “Thanks, Franklin, for everything.”
I stood and glanced down at the couture plaid suit I now wore, thanks to Franklin’s re-styling of me earlier in the day. “I’ll get this cleaned and then return it.”
He shook his head at me. “Keep it. Consider it a bonus for the job. It looks fantastic on you.”
“Thanks...for everything.”
It only took ten minutes to get to the hospital via taxi. I hadn’t had time to mess with the subway.
Just as I entered the hospital, I received a text from Denae to let me know they had moved mom out of ICU and that her private room was on another floor in a different area of the hospital. A glance at the hospital map showed me how to find it and the correct elevators for that wing.
After a check in at the nurse’s desk, I followed the sound of familiar laughter down the hall to my mom’s open doorway. My heart raced at what I thought I heard, but it was nothing compared to looking through the doorway and finding Izzy sitting on the edge of my mom’s bed laughing along with the twins and my mom, who finally had her eyes open.
I quickly checked both women who I loved. Both of them had faced down death this week. I shuddered again at the thought of losing either one of them like that.
Mom had aged since I’d last seen her, but that didn’t negate the vitality in her eyes that sent a bolt of relief through me.
Izzy looked better than she had a couple of days ago, not as pale, although she definitely had circles of exhaustion under her eyes. No matter that she’d been hurt, I doubted she’d rested much throughout the rest of the weekend and then she had shown up here instead of accompanying the rest of the team back to Austin.
Guilt assailed me. If I’d been there, I could have made sure that she’d taken better care of herself.
Mom saw me first and her mouth broke out in a wide smile as she reached out a hand to me. “There’s my missing in action handsome son now.” She examined as I walked over to her bedside. “Looks like Franklin got hold of you. Don’t you look dapper?”
“Thanks, mom,” I said as I leaned over and brushed a kiss along the feathery thin skin of her cheek. “But nothing looks better than seeing you awake. It’s so good to have you back. You gave us quite a scare.”
She pulled back from my embrace. “Sometimes a mother has to go to extremes to get her prodigal children home for a visit. It’s good to see your face.” She cupped my cheek and then looked behind me. “I couldn’t believe you pulled your other half along with you.”
I hadn’t met Izzy’s eyes since walking in, although I could feel the heat of her searching gaze on me. “You always said the two of us was like getting a two-fer.”
I didn’t know what Izzy had told her about how she’d ended up here, especially sporting her own injuries.
“But I promise you don’t need to go to these kinds of extremes to get me home again. I’ve learned my lesson. I promise to visit regularly.” Assuming I’d get to resume my life someday.
“Good. Come in and have a seat. Isolde was just telling me about the photo shoot you two just did for Mod Appeal. How exciting.”
“Yeah. Exciting. That’s one way to put that photo shoot.” I finally looked over at my best friend checking her war wounds. She gave me a weary smile, her exhaustion palpable in the room. I reached over and brushed my thumb across the bruises under her eyes. “But I fear all this travel is making its mark. Are you okay?” I asked her quietly.
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s been a long day.”
Since she was supposed to be returning to Austin today, I had no idea how she’d gotten here. “We’ll talk later.”
I turned back to my mom. “Right now, I want to hear what your doctors are saying. A regular hospital room...that’s a good sign, although I’d be happier if your room was at home.” But honestly, she looked amazing, considering all she’d been through. There were visible bruises and lacerations on her arms and she looked incredibly pale, but overall, it was just such an amazing relief to see her awake and acting like the mom I remembered. I’d been scared we’d never see that again.
“They still have lots of tests to run to check my neurological function, but the doctor seemed okay with my answers to his questions about what year it was and the facts of my life although I don’t remember the accident.” Her brow furrowed as if that bothered her, and then she looked to the twins to verify. They both nodded.
It was Danielle who chimed in. “Her doctor says she’s making a remarkable recovery and showing the mental acuity of a twenty-year-old who’d survived this kind of accident, not a sixty-year-old. They plan to tackle the broken bones tomorrow and evaluate how likely mom can handle surgery, then fix some of the broken bones in her leg and pelvis.”
“Okay. So this is all sounding very good. You’ll be ready for the office before I know it, right?”
Mom tilted her head and studied me. “I notice Cassandra hasn’t been around since I awoke. Is she still at the office or...?”
Her question trailed off like she wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Cassandra had abandoned her job at the helm of House of Bennett. What the hell was going on?
“No,” I said slowly, suddenly wondering if I should shield my mom from the truth. Would stress hurt her physical condition at this point? I almost shook my head at my idiocy.
Of course, stress would hurt her.
Numerous studies over the years showed how bad stress became for human beings because we internalized it. I could handle this for now. “Cassandra’s away for a few days. I’m sure she’ll be back before we know it.”
Both the twins swung alarmed expressions at me. I couldn’t fool them about Cassandra not being here. “In the meantime, I have everything under control with a lot of help from Franklin. We aced the board meeting today, so you have nothing to worry about. The company will still be standing by the time you’re sprung out of here. We have it handled.”
She had a suspicious look on her face, but then she simply smiled as she gathered up my hand. “I have full faith in you. You should have been handling things at House of Bennett long before now, so I’m thrilled to hear that you’re thriving. I always knew if you had a chance you’d show just as much business acumen as your father had.”
I was about to interject that this was a temporary situation...an old argument between the two of us. She’d never understood why I didn’t fit in at House of Bennett. But before I could, a nurse bustled into the room and clapped her hands. “Okay, family, visiting hours are over. We need to let the patient have some peace so she can get some sleep, because lord knows I’ll be waking her up all night long. You can come back during visiting hours tomorrow. In the meantime, she’s in very capable hands.”
After exchanging gentle hugs with mom, the four of us shuffled out of mom’s room. There was a small waiting room beyond the nurse’s station. We slowed there.
I could see the twins had questions, but I simply held up a hand to them. “I know. We have a lot we need to discuss. Can it we meet at mom’s house? I don’t want to discuss it here.” The last thing we needed was the wrong ears hearing there might be difficulty within the House of Bennett. “We can order dinner and figure out a plan of action.”
They both reluctantly nodded. “Meet you there?” Denae asked with an obvious glance at Izzy, who hovered behind me.
Yeah, I needed to figure that whole situation out, too.
“Sounds good. We’ll be right behind you.” And on the short drive to my mom’s place, I’d find out how my BFF had ended up here. Not that I was sad about that, but I couldn’t deal with any more stress in my life right now, and if it was one thing Izzy did well, it was causing me stress.