“I guess not.” She was never okay after the day she last saw her father.
“I trust Samantha. She knows how to help people through tragedies such as this,” he remarked in a more amicable tone.
So how come she hasn’t helped you through yours? She pulled out the chair at the far end of the table and sat down.
“Jason is a very quiet and sensitive boy. Not the average nine-year-old who’s ashamed to kiss his mother in front of his friends. He and Lauren were very close. They shared a very special kind of love. Maybe it’s because he was her first child and only son. I don’t know. Some people accused Lauren of babying him. Losing her wouldn’t be easy for him.”
“Nor for you.” He was grieving for his friends while trying to stay strong for the children, and still obviously dealing with a loss of his own. It couldn’t be easy for him. The torment in his eyes when Jason had mentioned Pilar in the nursery was embedded into Kaya’s mind forever, and in spite of her protest, her heart took on the weight of his pain. “I’m sorry about the way I acted in Steven’s office, Bryce.”
“I wasn’t that kosher, either. I said some pretty unpleasant things to you.”
“I should have been a little more sympathetic to your grief and more understanding about your close relationship with your godchildren.” She picked up a bottle ring and twirled it around on her finger. “It’s just that, I fell in love with these kids the moment I saw them. They’re family—”
“If you feel that strongly about family, why didn’t you ever come up to visit Lauren?”
Kaya dropped the bottle ring on the table and watched it spin to a stop. Because I was jealous of her. She had the father who’d abandoned me.
She raised her head to find Bryce studying her. “I guess I was too busy building my career. You know, climbing my way to the top of that corporate ladder of success.”
“Touché, Miss Brehna.”
Despite their estrangement, there were details of her sister’s life Kaya wished she knew. Simple things like... “How did Michael and Lauren meet?” she asked, verbalizing her question.
Bryce seemed to enjoy a slow smile before answering.
“They met when Lauren came to Granite Falls to compete in a skiing tournament. She beat Michael’s prized student and took home the gold. Michael was so impressed he offered her a job as an instructor at his school. She returned to Granite Falls after she lost her mother to breast cancer. A mother who until today, I assumed you both shared.”
Kaya was too embarrassed to admit that she didn’t even know when or how Lauren’s mother had died. She’d only met her sister once, and it wasn’t under pleasant circumstances. Then shortly after their father died, Lauren and her mother moved to a town in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
“It was love at first sight,” Bryce continued, obviously happy to relate the heartwarming tale. “I was very skeptical of Lauren at first. She was barely an adult, but she soon proved that age was just a number, and that love knew no boundaries.”
“Michael was a lot older than her,” Kaya said of the salt and pepper-haired, distinguished-looking, silver-grey-eyed man she’d seen in the family pictures.
“Quite a bit.” Bryce brushed the pad of his thumb back and forth across Anastasia’s cheek. “Michael was a kid at heart, though. Perhaps that’s why he gravitated toward the younger generation.”
“How long had you known him?”
“Hmm. About twenty years. I signed up for ski lessons at his school. He was the best instructor in both alpine and Nordic skiing around here. Michael took one look at me and said, ‘Son you have a better shot at making a profitable career in football or basketball. Why waste your time and talent on skis?’”
“I’m sure it’s not just because of your quarterback size, but more precisely because you’re black?”
“Yep. Michael was prejudiced and he didn’t even know it.”