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“If this wasn’t my house, I’d go home.” – Abby McClure
WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLL
Izzy
After Leo told the taxi driver the address for his mom’s house, silence settled over the interior of the car.
I waited for something from him, but he obviously had nothing to say to me...still. “Why didn’t you tell me what happened to your mom? Surely, you knew I’d want to be here?” I asked.
Leo blew out a sigh and watched the NYC lights fly by. “You have enough on your plate right now. I didn’t want you to come running.”
Pain tore through my chest. He didn’t tell me because he didn’t want me here. “I won’t stay if you don’t want me.” I never thought I’d see the day when Leo wouldn’t want me by his side. That’s what I got for taking his friendship for granted all these years.
My stomach clenched.
I couldn’t stay long, regardless. I had commitments I couldn’t ignore, but I thought my BFF might want my support. Why didn’t he want me here? I needed to be here for him.
“I love your family. Didn’t you realize I’d want to know about what happened to your mom?” Even I could hear the pain in my voice.
His callousness hurt at the very foundation of where I thought our friendship lay. Had I been wrong about how important we were in one another’s lives?
I’d heard the news from a random news story on a television at the hotel in Colorado this morning at breakfast. It had been pure happenstance that I found out about Mrs. Bennett’s accident and that hurt.
Regardless of what happened between Leo and me, his family had been a second family to me growing up. It hurt that he’d kept this from me, but it just showed how stupid I’d been to ever consider anything more with him beyond friendship.
It was already causing problems, and that was before anything actually happened between us. I needed to get us back to firm footing before I lost him completely.
“Listen, I know the accident on the ski lifts scared you.”
He finally looked at me, swinging his gaze around to glare at me. “Scared me?” Fury made his words sound lower, more intense. “That’s not—”
His mouth slammed shut as the taxi driver turned around to tell us what we owed him.
I’d missed us arriving at his family home.
Leo paid while I stood outside the car and tried to compose myself. I hated that it felt like I was losing him. My fingers shook as I dried my palm on another pair of leggings borrowed from Sofia’s clothing line.
“Listen,” he said, his voice low. “Everything is stressful enough right now. Let me talk over things with my sisters, and then I can deal with you.”
Tears filled my eyes. I didn’t want to be dealt with. I thought he’d be happy to see me. God, I’d gotten that wrong, hadn’t I?
I ignored the buzzing of my phone in the outside pocket of my overnight bag. I knew who it was...my dad. He could wait. I should have turned it off when I’d realized I needed to come to NYC instead of returning home to Austin to finish the work on the campaign.
I needed to be here for Leo and his family, whether he wanted me here or not. I could help. My work could wait twenty-four hours, even if my dad disagreed. I just had to make sure he didn’t know I was in the same town as him, or else I’d have to deal with his tantrum in person. No, thank you.
Leo rested his hand at the small of my back as we climbed the steps to the family brownstone. Even knowing he didn’t want me here, that touch settled something inside me. No matter what, he cared about me.
I was the idiot who let something else cloud things between us.
Once inside, I dropped my overnight bag just inside the door and then we followed the sound of whispers coming from the kitchen. “I’m not going to tell him,” Denae hissed at Danielle. “You do it.”
The only reason I could tell the two apart was that Danielle had dyed her hair platinum blonde a few years ago. In charge of the marketing for their family company, Danielle was the more outgoing of the two. Being more introverted, Denae worked hard to blend into the background and not draw attention to herself.
“Tell me what?” Leo crossed his arms across his chest.
Both women turned wide eyes on Leo, but Danielle stepped forward. “Hey. We didn’t hear you come in. Isn’t it great that Izzy got to come for a visit?”
“Yeah, but she’s not staying for long.”
I hadn’t told him that. “Why do you think that?” I asked.
He flung a hand into the air. “Because I know you have a very demanding campaign that will need your attention immediately. I’m guessing you’re booked to fly out tomorrow...probably early. And I would expect nothing less,” he said to soften the blow of how selfish that sounded, even if it was true.
He turned his attention back to his sister. “So, needless to say, I don’t have much time to deal with drama tonight. I’ve already had enough today. So, spit it out. What’s going on? Does it have something to do with Cassandra’s disappearing act today?”
Denae sagged, and Danielle blew out a breath. “We were hoping she was bluffing. So she’s really gone?”
“Seems to be.” Leo ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “The message I got said she could be gone for two weeks. What couldn’t wait before our mother even got home from the hospital?”
“We should have already told you about this,” Denae said.
“Actually, that’s not true,” Danielle said. “We shouldn’t have had to tell you. Cassandra should have, but she can’t see past being a selfish bitch right now.”
I could feel Leo recoil. His sisters had always had vicious fights, but he’d stayed out of it most of his life. That wouldn’t work for him today.
Denae put a calming hand on Danielle’s arm as she turned to address Leo. “Sorry. Right. None of this is your mess, but unfortunately, it’s going to fall to you to help us figure out how to clean it up.”
The twins joined hands for a second, and then Denae turned to the counter. “We need alcohol for this.” She grabbed a bottle of wine from the wine rack and began uncorking it.
“That bad, huh?” Leo asked.
Danielle nodded. “Unfortunately, you live in the land of a lot estrogen, little brother,” she said sagely. “Alcohol always helps.”
“Okay.” Leo opened the drawer filled with takeout menus. “If we’re in this for the long haul, I need some food, too. Everyone okay with subs from Macon’s Deli?”
Macon’s Deli was a little corner deli that had been a part of our lives as long as I could remember.
Nobody said a word about the coming discussion until the food arrived. By then we were on our third bottle of wine and all of us were feeling a bit friendlier to have what sounded like it was going to be a heavy discussion. I was thankful that I hadn’t needed to take a pain pill for a couple of days now.
After I helped clean up, I stepped up to Leo. “Listen, I probably need to leave you guys to discuss the family issue and get to my hotel.”
He frowned at me. “Why aren’t you staying here?”
I generally did when I was in town, even if Leo wasn’t with me. “I wasn’t sure you wanted me here.”
He pulled me into his hard chest and hugged me. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault things have been weird between us, but it ends tonight. Stay here. I want you to. Besides, we need to talk, too, and you’re as much a part of this family as I am at this point. I don’t think anyone will have an issue with you being part of this discussion.” He pulled back and grinned at me. “Aren’t you the slightest bit curious about what kind of drama my sisters have cooked up now?”
I grimaced and then gave him an innocent smile while I nodded. “Guilty.” I didn’t know what was going on with Leo’s sisters, but was dying to find out.
I moved my overnight bag upstairs to the room I stayed in when I visited.
Then we all convened in the family room. Leo and I sat on the couch where he pulled my feet into his lap, rubbing over my sock-covered arches. “Be careful,” I said. “If you keep that up, I’m going to be asleep within minutes.”
He kneaded my calf, upping his massage game and making me groan low and deep. It had been a very long weekend, and I had all the sore muscles to prove it. This felt heavenly.
Danielle sat in the club chair in front of the fireplace while Denae sat on the floor next to the coffee table, within easy reach of the bottle of wine she’d brought in with her. The gas fireplace was lit, creating a cozy atmosphere.
“So,” Danielle said slowly as she studied the two of us. She raised an eyebrow. “Are you two a thing now?”
Leo’s hands stilled, and I stiffened, suddenly wide-awake. “No.” I shook my head. “Wh...why?”
Did she know something I didn’t?
She lifted her hands in surrender and shrugged. “Just a vibe I got...” she trailed off.
Leo didn’t give her a chance to add anything more. “I think my sister is just trying to divert attention from whatever they don’t want to tell me.”
Something he just skillfully did to them to change the subject. The guy was good.
“Maybe,” Danielle said as she picked at the hem of her sweater. “Here’s the thing...and no one else from the company knows this, so it can’t leave this room. Right before mom’s accident, she had called all three of us to her office to make an announcement.” Danielle took a big gulp of her wine and then handed her glass to her twin to refill.
“An announcement about what?” Leo asked.
“Mom’s retirement. She’s been trying to push Cassandra into taking over completely for about three years, but Cass hasn’t wanted to hear it. On Friday, mom didn’t offer it. She just said that she was stepping down immediately, so it was time for Cassandra to step up. They had a huge fight and mom left to clear her head.”
“I don’t understand. They’ve always planned for Cassandra to take over when mom was ready to retire. Why isn’t she ready to do so now?”
“This is the part that no one knows, but us.” Danielle waved between her and Denae. “Cassandra doesn’t even know we know. She had a medical emergency a few years ago, and since then has gotten hooked on prescription drugs. From what we’ve been able to figure out, Cassandra is entering a six month live-in rehab clinic.”
Leo stilled and frowned at them. “Are you sure? I know things haven’t exactly normal since I got home, but I haven’t noticed any signs of drug use.”
Danielle nodded, but it was Denae who responded. “She excels at covering.” She reached up and grabbed hold of Danielle’s hand. “And we’ve been helping to cover for her so mom didn’t notice which is how we knew about the clinic. We saw the reservation when I hacked into her email account.”
Leo lifted my feet off his lap and stood so he could start pacing. “Where is this clinic? I can’t believe she’d leave without telling any of us. And she said she was only planning to be gone a couple of weeks. Are you sure it’s a six-month program?”
“Yes.” Both twins nodded.
“I called the clinic this afternoon to verify,” Denae said. “Since I had Cassandra’s confirmation number from her reservation, they told me I had the dates correct but that Ms. Bennett was already settled in and that they required she have no contact with the outside world for the first six weeks of the program.”
“You mean we can’t even talk to her for six weeks? And she planned to do this with none of us having a clue. How could she be so irresponsible? What if something goes wrong with mom?”
He looked at me, but I didn’t know what could have been running through his oldest sister’s mind. Although they probably needed a voice of reason right now. “It’s possible that with the drug use she wasn’t thinking clearly enough to think about what this would do to you all...and the company.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Leo asked the twins. “I know I’m taking care of things right now, but I can’t stay. I have my business to run in Austin.”
Nobody answered, and Leo paled.
This wasn’t good.