“Where’d he go?” I asked, curious as we exchanged hugs. “I’d have expected him to be hanging out here, bugging you in the kitchen or something like he does every time he spends time at home.”
Layla laughed musically, and I was again struck by how much she looked like her daughter. Except for her hair being light brown instead of ash blonde, she looked like you had taken Alix and just aged her a bit. “Your father, as you know, is off on another one of his crusades. He got a call from the members of the local Lions; he’s organizing a charity auction for them, and they just had to get some information from him before the weekend. Derek was going to say no until I reminded him that if he just hung around the house all day, he’d drive me up a wall. So off he went, although I’m sure he’ll be disappointed he wasn’t back before you got here. So how was your drive?”
“Quite nice, the Pacific’s the same as ever,” I replied as the two of us caught up. I wished I had more time to talk with Layla. She was, in a lot of ways, the woman I’d have wished I could have grown up with as a mother. As it was, with my life in Portland and her life in Laguna, we didn’t get together nearly as often as I’d have liked.
I was just telling Layla about my newest investment, a six-unit apartment building in Corvallis, near Oregon State University, when the front door rattled, and I heard my father come in. “Layla? Kade?”
Regardless of the fact that I was now twenty-six years old, I hugged him like I did back in the days when it was just the two of us, squeezing until he groaned and slapped me on my back. “Okay, okay, let go, you’re going to break a rib!”
“Just remember, you can’t spell torture without tort,” I teased, an old lawyer’s joke that got him to smile. “How’re you doing, Dad?”
“It’s good to see you, Kade,” he replied happily. My Dad was shorter than me, at just over five foot ten compared to my six two. I got a lot of my height from my mother, who, like Layla, was tall. I guess Dad had a thing for tall women. “I’m not going to ask you about your drive; I’m sure Lay’s been twisting your ear for as long as you’ve been here. But it’s good to see you.”
Our family reunion continued, with Dad telling me about his community projects he had going on while Layla filled me in on what Alix was up to. Despite the bad feelings Alix had for her mother, Layla was immensely proud of her daughter. I was just looking over some of the recent photo spreads Alix had done when the front door opened again before slamming shut.
“I guess that’s Alix,” Layla said, smiling in hope. It hurt me to see what Alix’s rejection did to her mother, the glimmer in her eyes twisting a knife deep in my guts. Instead of saying what I felt, I smiled and nodded, following Layla and Dad back out into the foyer of the house.
What I saw when we got there caused me to stop in my tracks. A huge, red welt was rising up on Alix’s face around her left eye, already starting to darken into one hell of a shiner. She was trying to hide it under a hat, but even at the angle I was standing on the second floor, I could see it creeping down her cheek.
“Alix, what happened?” Layla said, approaching her daughter and trying to embrace her, a very natural reaction for any mother.
Alix pushed off, shaking her head. “It’s nothing, Mom, just an accident that happened on set today.”
“That accident looks like something more along the lines of John Cena than Sean John,” I said as I came up to her. “Seriously, Alix, what happened?”
“It’s nothing,” Alix said, putting on a smile that as soon as I saw it, perked my instincts. I’m a good lawyer, and better than my dad when it comes to negotiations. The reason is that I can read faces and voices at an almost unconscious level and in an instant judge if someone is telling me the truth.
Alix was telling us total bullshit. She was good at it though, probably a side effect of her modeling instincts, and I think both Layla and Dad bought it. I could hear it in her voice, bright warning lights blinking in my head as she talked. “I was doing a shoot for Men’s Health, and as I was walking out I turned to say something to the photographer and walked right into a spotlight. They’d just shut it down and I was a bit dazzled, that’s all.”
“Must have been a very heavy light,” Dad said, and I heard the confusion and suspicion in his voice, but it wasn’t high enough for him to act on it. I love my father, but in the years since stepping mostly into executive work at his law firm and devoting himself to his community work, he’d lost his edge in some areas, bullshit detection being one of them. “You sure you don’t want to get it looked at?”
“It’s fine, Derek, I already iced it down and I can see fine. Seriously, guys, it’s okay,” Alix replied, smiling a sweet smile that made my instincts bark all the more. Alix was hiding something, that was for sure.
“Well, if you’re sure, honey,” Layla said. “Can I at least help you with your bags? Did you bring any?”