Including giving him opportunities to be the big brother to his little sister.
Wisely, Jamie didn’t get involved.
But Chloe never kept her nose out of shit.
Dru had her way of doing things in the kitchen.
More importantly, though, Dru adored Judge.
And…
The end.
Chloe picked up the thread.
“Have you talked to your sister?” she asked Alex.
“I called, she didn’t pick up, but I left a message that if she wanted to talk, I was there. I texted the same,” Alex answered. “She hasn’t contacted me.”
“Why did your mother carry on with the brunch?” Chloe asked.
“I honestly have no idea,” Alex told her.
Rix felt Judge’s gaze, he met it and gave another shrug.
Chloe took a sip of her wine and noted, “It’d be a shame that Marchesa gown is wasted. You look lovely in it.”
“Coco!” Dru cried. “You can’t think Blake should go through with it.”
“Of course not,” Chloe replied. “It’d still be a shame. No matter how Blake is, she has excellent taste in bridesmaid gowns.”
Dru laughed, and Alex’s dimple came out.
From there, they segued into Chloe and Judge’s engagement. Thoughts on their wedding. Chloe opening another boutique, this one in Prescott. How well Genny’s new series was being received, and that she was now in Boston, filming her latest movie. After which there would be Duncan and Genny’s wedding.
Then came updates on Sully, Chloe’s soon-to-be stepbrother, who was at a new job in Texas. And Gage, Chloe’s other soon-to-be stepbrother, who was finally getting serious about his degree. Meaning he’d fallen on a major for his coursework. He’d decided it was natural resources with an emphasis on ecology and management and restoration of rangelands.
So Sul was an environmental engineer.
Gage was getting into ecology.
And there was proof those apples didn’t fall far from the tree.
They finished their group discussion with everyone getting in on the act of sharing what they thought should be done with Hale Wheeler’s half a billion dollars.
The conversation was free flowing, easy, constant and animated. There was laughter. Dru’s spaghetti was awesome. Rix tried both, but he liked the garlic bread with the cheese better. And they were all stuffed, even if Dru warned them not to be because she’d made a homemade spumoni ice cream terrine.
So they were giving it time for the food to settle and had moved into a large room that ran the front to the back of the house. It had paneled walls of glossy wood and lots of leather seating.
The women were curled into the corner of a sectional in front of the fire.
The men were across the room in a cluster of chairs where the paneled walls gave way to an angle of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
And Judge got into it.
“You caught the man fucking someone else?” he asked low.
Rix jerked up his chin.
“The mother has no soul. The sister is a nightmare. You’re right,” Rix said to Jamie. “Ned is waking up to shit.”
Judge glanced between his father and friend, not having been in on this, but not interrupting.
Rix kept going.
“And Chad is a waste of space. It’s all dicked up. I don’t know how Alex came to be Alex, except maybe her grandmother was more of a force of nature than she said. She sounded awesome. But we’re talking miracle worker. Alex showed me the room she grew up in last night. It had been cleared out, but the bones of it were there. It didn’t take much imagination to see it was always bones. Or trappings. Nothing fertile. No imagination. She told me she didn’t have posters, but she did have a Degas.”
Jamie, a father, flinched.
Judge just stared at him.
“I couldn’t even keep my feet in that room,” Rix told them. “I had to sit down, that shit was so heavy. I hated it so much she grew up in what really was kind of an actual ivory tower. Nothing for her roots to push into. No nourishment to be found. Her bed has this stuff at the top, like a curtain, you see them in movies. The beds the princesses sleep in. And straight up, she was that. A princess, stuck there, waiting for the chance to get free.”
“And how is she handling all of this, being back?” Judge asked.
“She laid into her mom and dad today. Tore them up. Helena was insulted at the time, but she’s probably forgotten it happened by now because she’s probably forgotten Alex exists by now. Ned’s thinking on things.”
“Well, that’s good,” Jamie remarked.
“Would be,” Rix told him, “if he hadn’t told Alex she abandoned him when she was a little girl. Then he just motors. Drops that bomb, and he’s gone.” Rix shook his head. “The drama is fuckin’ madness. You wouldn’t believe the extremes. But he got what he wanted. Alex has no idea what he was talking about, and it’s been eating her up all day.”
“Abandoned him?” Judge asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Rix told him.
“He’s a grown man and he’s a father,” Jamie said in a steely way. “That’s not on. If he has something to discuss with his daughter, he discusses it. Fully.”
“You know that. I do too,” Rix agreed. “But you’ve been to his place. Probably don’t think of it. Cool place. Really something. But compare it to what you have. Which is a cool place. Really something. But Dru doesn’t pour your coffee in the morning from a silver pitcher with a hella long swooped spout, that if I tried to use it, I’d pour coffee all over the table.”
“Ned doesn’t strike me as that traditional,” Jamie noted, looking mildly freaked.
“You were right about something else,” Rix told him. “Ned fell into a life of who he was supposed to be and forgot to figure out who he actually is. When she’s with him, like she slips into a second skin, Alex is in that life too.”
“It’s good this is over in a few days,” Judge put in.
“My thoughts, man,” Rix returned. “And now you’re here. That’s good. Al likes it when my people are around.”
Judge sounded vaguely offended. “We’re her people too.”
Rix grinned at him. “Right. Yeah.” His grin died. “And again, that’s good. Alex hasn’t talked about a single friend she wants to visit while she’s here. She was full of ideas of places she wanted me to see. We hit up Battery Park today after the Memorial. Took a walk and a selfie with the Statue of Liberty in the background. She’s told me about bookstores she digs. Cool buildings she thinks I’d like. But no friends.”
“Okay, so tomorrow, if the sister doesn’t call it off, it’s what? The rehearsal?” Judge asked.
Rix nodded. “Yup. Rehearsal five to six-thirty. Dinner at seven-thirty.”
“Right. I got time to show you some of the good New York. I’ll swing by and get you in the morning. We’ll take a run in Central Park. No way Chloe’s gonna be up then, but if Alex doesn’t come with us, we can come back, get showered. Chloe and I can grab you and Alex. Dru’s in class tomorrow. But maybe she can meet us for lunch. We’ll go to the first Shake Shack in Madison Square Park. It’s next to the Flatiron building, which is kickass. We can decide over lunch what’s next.”