“Dinner smells amazing, Mr. P. How are you doing?” Bre gave Dad a hug and then hurried to put down her purse.
“That’s new.” I walked over and admired the bag as she gave me a quick hug. Her hair was almost as long as mine, but instead of jet-black, hers was more of a purple-toned red and wavy. Bre had always been a bit edgier and had often tried to get me to put color in my hair. Jet black was as brave as I could get, and with my tanned complexion, it worked.
“I hit the biggest sale down at the mall. I tried to call you, but you never picked up. I assumed you were on shift.”
“I miss everything.” I poked out my bottom lip and then Mom came in to hurry us up.
“Dinner is ready, and I’ve made a salad.” She turned to walk away, and Bre glanced my way, mimicking my mother’s hand tossing of the salad. I nodded, and she made a face. She knew Mom well. The woman hadn’t made a meal much less a salad in her life.
“Can’t wait.” Bre threw her arm around me, and we walked to the dining room where my parents were already seated.
We chatted a little, mostly Bre and I, while we ate and then finally I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to know what was going on and what the big surprise was.
“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on? What’s this big news?” I smiled Dad’s way and hoped I could tell simply by the look on his face. He was much easier to read than my mother, but then he gave me a weary look.
“You tell her, honey.” He took a drink and wiped his mouth. When I turned to my mother, she had tears in her eyes.
“We’ve decided it’s time to go forth with the lawsuit. We filed the papers today.” She took a long pull from her drink, and I was certain it was laced with something stiff.
Bre sat back in her seat and dropped her fork, and my stomach turned. I had hoped that my parents could move along and be satisfied with the insurance settlement, but they’d gone back and forth for months contemplating for the right time and if they should.
“What’s changed? Why now?” I reached for some sort of understanding.
My mother swirled her glass, clinking the ice in it. “Well, after paying the house off, there simply wasn’t much left for your father and me to retire on, not to mention we’d like to secure your future.”
“So this is about money.” I knew my parents had blown through the life insurance money, but this was ridiculous. “Don’t you think you have enough?”
“There was new evidence found by our investigators. It puts Mr. Walker in the pilot’s seat at the time of the crash. He wasn’t a licensed pilot,” Dad explained. “It’s perfectly within our rights, Lexa.”
“No, I don’t have enough because I’ll never see my son again. You’re brother meant the world to me, Lexa, and because of some rich prick wanting to show off in the cockpit, I’ve got to live without him!” Mom threw back her drink and downed it.
I couldn’t argue with her. I understood the pain of losing Shawn, but no amount of a settlement would make it right and the man she wanted to punish died along with my brother. There was nothing to gain, and both families had suffered enough.
I’d heard that the Walkers’ son, Aiden, Allison’s brother, was the only surviving family member. I couldn’t imagine him losing his entire family. It didn’t seem right to sue someone who’d already lost so much. There was nothing left to gain, and I couldn’t help but feel that my brother wouldn’t want things this way, either. He’d loved Allison and wouldn’t want this.
I only wished I could tell my parents, but I knew they wouldn’t understand. They hadn’t cared much about my opinions since the funerals when I’d wanted to go to Allison’s. I ended up skipping it out of respect for them, but I’d since felt so lonely in the world because neither of them had been there to support me in my grief.
Thank goodness that I had Bre. She sat next to me wringing her hands in her lap, and I knew she was biting her tongue just as hard.
Chapter Three
Aiden
For the first time in days, I woke up in my own bed instead of on the sofa; even better than that, I had managed to make it under a blanket. I pushed the covers off of me and sat up noticing the beer bottles that had collected on my bedside table. Mattie hadn’t made her way into my private room, and for that I was thankful. She wasn’t going to be happy with me when she saw how much laundry had piled up.
Over the past year, I had discovered that I only needed so many shirts and pants, socks and underwear for this type of existence, and my effort to keep them clean had been the only chore I’d kept consistently. I wasn’t a total slob, even if I lived like one for the most part.
Sure my house was a mess, but that’s because one night I’d had a party and never cleaned up, so the mess had only been around for a good solid six months. The party had been a fluke, and I didn’t know any of the people that showed up. I’d woken up naked with three women in my bed, and that’s about all I remembered. Once they all left, I’d thrown out the food they had lying around, showered, and got on my bike to go to the bar.
And since other than showering daily and keeping my clothes and linens washed, I didn’t do anything else. Every meal was bought, and though I’d kept a pretty healthy diet, I’d stopped going to the gym.
I stripped off my clothes, walked naked to the bathroom, and turned on the water. While it got hot, I stood at the sink and brushed my teeth, wondering how long I was going to let my beard get.
My cell phone rang, and I walked back to my room to see that it was Layne Connor, my dad’s business partner at the law office. I ignored the call because I’d heard enough of his trying to get me on board at the firm. I didn’t care if my name was already on the letterhead, door, and the sign out front: I wasn’t much of a defender. I’d spent my time in law school hoping to be a prosecuting attorney, and since my parents’ death, I’d lost interest in it as much as I’d lost interest in seeing my face in the mirror.
I brought the phone with me into the steamy bathroom and left it on the counter as I stepped under the spray.
After washing up, I stepped out to find that Layne had called again, but I wasn’t in the mood. I hadn’t had enough alcohol in me to deal with his shit, so I wrapped a towel around me and went to my closet. I grabbed a clean shirt and a pair of jeans and got ready to go downstairs where my beer waited.