“Better get your checkbook, kid, or this whole thing lands in your lap.” He unscrews the cap to his little flask and knocks it back. “They’re sticklers for late payment-”
I’m on him in a second, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and slamming him back against the house. “Clean up your own damn mess, Harry!”
Dad just grins, even pinned to the wall like that. “Austin, Austin, Austin.” His skeletal hand comes up to pat my cheek. “I will, but my way.”
I let him go and he chuckles as he regains his footing and straightens his shirt. “Now c’mon now, boy, look at this fucking house! Look at this fucking life you’ve got! Two mil ain’t nothin’ to you.”
“You think I keep it under my fucking mattress or something?”
Dad’s eyes perk up.
“I don’t, Harry. It’s in the bank, it’s tied up in this house, and Mom’s, and funds. I can’t just pay that kind of money.”
He shrugs. “Well, sounds like we should put our thinking caps on and figure it out, huh?”
I shake my head, staring at him with rage in my face. “Why couldn’t you just stay in whatever hole you were in the last eight years?”
Dad chuckles as he tucks his flask in his pants and starts to head towards the side gate that leads back to the front of the house.
“Cause I’m a disease, boy,” he calls over his shoulder. “I’ll be in touch.”
I stand there for another ten minutes just staring at the cigarette floating limply in the pool.
Fuck.
27
Natalie
My sister picks up on the first ring.
“Two weeks?” I hold the phone away from my ear as what I’m sure are, well, two weeks’ worth of rehearsed vitriol.
“Viv-”
“You’re married for two fucking weeks and this is the first conversation we have?”
“Hi Vivian,” I say dryly, sitting back on the Venice Pier bench. “How are you today?”
“Mad,” she says petulantly, but I can almost hear her grinning through the phone.
“So…”
She trails off and I smile. “You have questions.”
“Uh, some, yes. Nat, Austin Taylor?”
“Yeah…”
“How does that even happen? And what the hell happened with Vince?”
“Vince died of syphilis related complications,” I say without batting an eye.
My sister snorts, but then her tone changes. “Shit, Nat, I didn’t know.” Her voice softens. “What happened?”
“Banging his secretary, on his desk.”
“Eeew.” Viv makes a retching sound. “What a fucking cliché.”
“Let me guess, Lenore didn’t tell you that part.”
“She mentioned you doing ‘something rash’, but yeah, no. Of course not.” Her voice takes on a stuffy tone. “Natalie, don’t you know it isn’t proper to leave your fiancé when he’s diddling about?”
We both crack into giggles.
“Sorry I didn’t call you, it’s been a busy few weeks.”
“Oh I bet it has,” Viv says with a slight intonation at the end.
“Meaning?”
“Uh, meaning you somehow married the hottest guy on the planet and I’m amazed you’ve got time to make a phone call with all the banging you’ve been doing.”
“Vivian!”
My cheeks go beet-red as I bury my face in my hand.
“Look, it’s not like that.”
“Well, that’s a travesty then,” Viv says with snort. “But seriously, how did that even happen?”
I shrug, even though she’s not in the room with me. “I just didn’t want to be some plaything for some rich guy.”
Viv snorts another laugh. “Nat, there are way worse rich guys to be playthings for than Austin Taylor. Oh, God, remember Marnie Summers from Choate?”
I grimace. “I heard.”
“That guy is seventy years old, Nat. I mean gross. And now look who you landed.”
I roll my eyes. “Christ, Viv, it’s not about landing someone, no matter what Mom says.”
“Says the girl who just married the hottest millionaire in the country.”
“I didn’t-”
I bite my tongue, squeezing eyes shut as I resist the urge to tell her.
“You didn’t what?”
I can’t tell her. I want to, but I can’t. Because I love my sister dearly, but she couldn’t keep a secret to save her damn life.
“Nothing, it’s just not like that.”
She laughs. “Oh, what is it then, Nat. True love? You a huge football fan now?”
“I watch football,” I say indignantly. Indignant, even though it’s a boldface lie.