CHAPTER THIRTY
Ash was leaving a late-night briefing when his phone began to buzz. He looked at the display and saw that he'd had multiple missed calls from Phoebe, Jack, and Frank. Feeling panic well in his chest as he realized he'd received no calls from Reggie, he bolted for the exit and stepped out into the brisk night air.
Just as he made it to his rental car, there was another incoming call. It was from his sister, Frank.
"What's wrong?" He opened his car door, tossed his case onto the passenger seat, then fell into the driver's seat. "Is it Reg?"
"You asshole!" raged Frank through the receiver. "How could you do this?"
He held the phone away from his ear as he checked the name on the phone. It was Frank on the other end, but she didn't sound like the rational, coolheaded sibling she usually was.
Feeling his anxiety dissipate, he started the car and turned on the air conditioner. If there was something wrong with Reg, Frank wouldn't be pissed at him.
"What have I done now?" he asked, switching on the speaker function for his phone. He placed the phone into its holder, then he put the car in reverse and pulled out of the parking spot. As he drove from the parking lot, he could hear Frank's heavy breathing through the phone. "Should I be worried?"
He heard a faint sniff, and he realized that she was silent because she was crying. Once again, his anxiety returned.
"Tell me what's wrong. I can't do a damn thing about it if I don't know what's bothering you."
"Did you get married?"
No use beating around the bush. She knew the truth, and he wasn't going to lie about it. Not to Frank. "Yeah. I did."
"You asshole."
His hands gripped the steering wheel. He struggled to pay attention to the other cars on the road as he framed an explanation in his mind. "It's complicated."
"That's all you can say? It's complicated?"
"Look," Ash said, pulling onto the main road that led to the lodge. "I'm driving back to my room right now. Can we talk later?"
"No," she said. There was a bit of noise in the background. It sounded as if a door was slamming. "Pull over if you have to, but you're not getting off this phone until you talk to me. How you could you do this?" There were tears in her voice. "Ash, you fell in love with someone and you couldn't tell me about her?"
"It's not that simple. I--"
"Was it that Victoria? Please tell me you didn't marry her. No, wait. Jack said her name is Phoebe. Who is Phoebe? Was she the dental hygienist?"
He had to go through his mental catalog of ex-girlfriends. Unfortunately, he'd dated a few dental hygienists, but he figured she must have been talking about one particular girl. "You're thinking of Patricia and, no, I didn't marry her."
"Who is Phoebe?"
Who was Phoebe? He could spend the next hour describing her, but he knew that wouldn't satisfy his middle sister. He settled for an abridged version of the story and hoped it would be enough to satisfy her curiosity until the two of them could meet.
"You haven't met her. She's new to the area, and she's planning to go to school to become a nurse."
"And?"
"And what?" he said, pulling into the parking lot of the lodge. He parked his car near the stairway leading to his room, then he turned off the car. "What else would you like to know?"
"How did you meet her? How long were you two dating? Why didn't you invite us to the wedding?" There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone. "Oh my goodness. You got her pregnant, didn't you?"
"I'll have you know we didn't have sex until after we were married." Ash felt smug as he realized that was the truth. "I met her online and--"
"You're joking, right?"
His head dropped to the steering wheel. He knew he should be forthcoming with Frank, but he decided to only give her part of the truth. "No. I'm dead serious. Look, it's not a real marriage, okay? It's a special arrangement between us."
Ash didn't try to explain that his relationship with Phoebe was much more than a special arrangement. He'd spent a lifetime telling everyone near and dear to him that he had no plans to get married. Both of his sisters knew he enjoyed a life with minimal commitments. But his whole perspective on marriage had changed after he'd married his temporary wife. And he wasn't quite ready to announce that to Frank, who he knew would be happy and supportive. He was much more concerned about Jack finding out because she'd take pleasure in destroying his happiness.
"A special arrangement?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"
He plucked the phone from the holder, then turned off the speaker. He cradled the phone between his head and shoulder as he climbed out of the car. "Hold on. Let me get to my room, and I'll explain." He found himself dragging his feet as he walked the long corridor to his room. When he arrived, he slowly unlocked the door, dropped his case, then leapt onto the bed. "I got in a little over my head when I moved Reggie in. I just assumed I could hire someone to take care of her while I was at work but, you know Reggie, she didn't appreciate having someone babysitting her. Before I knew it, she'd run through nearly a dozen"--he knew he exaggerated--"caregivers and my boss was running out of patience. Someone suggested finding a wife who'd care for Reggie, and it sounded like a good idea."
"You could have sent her home to me," Frank muttered. In the background, Ash could hear his newborn nephew screaming for attention.
"Your hands are already full." He sat up and kicked off his shoes. "And asking Jack was out of the question."
"You have to give her a chance, Ash."
He shook his head even though she couldn't see the motion. "Look. She's burned me way too many times. I've bailed her out of jail. I let her move in with me, only to have her steal from me, then get arrested when she was trying to buy her next fix." He was so angry with the abrupt change in conversation that he found himself ripping his clothes off. "I know she's been sober for a while, but she's been sober before. She's gonna have to earn my trust again, and that's going to take time."
Frank released a heavy sigh. "Jack says Phoebe--"
"Wait a second. How does Jack know about Phoebe? Reggie wouldn't rat me out."
There was a brief pause on the other end. "Don't get mad."
"Frank."
"I might have told Jack that you were going away for a while and leaving Reggie with a caregiver. In my defense, if I'd known that you were leaving her with your wife, I might not have worried."
Dread formed in the pit of his stomach. His fingers ached as he clutched the phone more tightly. "What are you saying?"
"Jack's there."
"Bye," he said, ending the call abruptly so he could call Phoebe. When she answered the phone, he could hear Jack and Reggie talking in the background. "What's going on?"
There was a slight hesitation, then Phoebe greeted him. "Hey, Ash."
"Look, I'm sure you're confused and probably pissed, and you have a right to be. But right now, I need you to do me a favor. Is Jack in the same room with you?"
There was another hesitation. "Yes."
"Go to another room."
"Why? We're just sitting down for dinner."
"Please, just go up to your room." He heard her murmur her apologies. He held onto the phone as he waited for her to give him the all-clear.
"Okay. What's up?"
"My sister, Jack, she's in recovery."
"Ah." The way she said that simple sound conveyed a lot. He knew a bit about her history. He knew that her mother had struggled with addiction and that she'd died from a drug overdose. "I'd wondered, considering how Reggie acted when she arrived. I guess there's still some bad blood there, huh?"
"It's complicated," he muttered. He loved his younger sister, he truly did, and he felt awful putting Phoebe into this awkward position, but he wasn't ready to be burned again. "She's been sober over a year, but she's relapsed in the past. I'm not worried about her being around Reggie. I am worried that she might try to take Reggie's meds. She's done things like that before."
"Got it," Phoebe said.
He knew what he was about to say would upset her. "She has a lot of bitterness. She's never forgiven me for reporting her to the cops." If Jack understood how much trouble he could face for marrying Phoebe under false pretenses, then she would report his ass in a heartbeat. But he didn't want to burden Phoebe with that knowledge. "Don't let her out of your sight. She has a history of rummaging through people's things."