Chapter 13
‡
The doorbell rang in quick succession, and Marco picked up his pace as he went down the stairs. He’d been in his bedroom closet on a mission for his mom. She’d texted about ten minutes ago saying that they were close and asked if she could borrow his travel pillow because she forgot hers.
As he made it down the last few steps, he could see his family on the porch through the glass side panels that flanked his front door. His mom stood smiling from ear to ear behind Pops, who sat in his wheelchair with his oxygen tank. He was the one with his finger pressed to the doorbell. Each year that passed he grew less and less patient. Leonard was making his way up the walk with bags, suitcases, and a small ice chest. He looked more loaded down than a pack mule.
Lady met him at the door, stretching her front paws out in front of her, her butt lifted high in the air as she yawned, totally unfazed at the repetitive sound that indicated guests were here.
“Stay,” he said out of habit more than anything else. She’d never once tried to make a great escape or jump on guests.
Lady was the antithesis of a guard dog. She never alerted him to visitors arriving and she also slept through packages being left at his door. Unless there was the possibility of a tasty treat, she had zero interest in anyone or anything if she were napping. Which she did eight to ten hours out of the day. However, she took food motivation to an entirely new level.
Before the door swung even halfway open, he heard Pops’ deep voice, “There’s my girl. My pretty Lady.”
Always one to eat up a compliment, Lady sat and lifted her head wearing a knowing little doggie grin like she thought she was the Mona Lisa posing for Leonardo da Vinci. Never in a million years had he met a dog that loved to be admired and hear how pretty she was as much as Lady did. She also loved looking in mirrors. She’d sit for hours staring at the pretty doggie in the mirror.
“Hey, Pops.” Marco bent down and wrapped his arms around his grandpa, ignoring the fact that Pops was more excited to see Lady than he was to see his human grandson.
“Hey, there, hotshot.” Pops patted his back. “Get it? Hotshot.”
“Yep. I got it.” Marco grinned. He’d figured that was coming. For as tough as Pops was, he did love a good pun and giving people a hard time.
After he hugged his mom, he greeted Leonard and grabbed the ice chest and suitcase. “Hey, man. Let me help you with that.”
They all made their way inside and his mom waved her arms animatedly as she explained, “I tried to help, but he refused to let me carry anything but my purse. And I told him he could make two trips, but someone,” in an exaggerated show, she tilted her head toward Leonard, “is very stubborn.”
Leonard leaned down and kissed his mom on the forehead. “Your days of carrying heavy things are over.”
Warmth filled Marco’s chest as he watched his mom blush from the affection. He hadn’t spent that much time around the newlyweds, nor had his mom ever really dated, so it was still a little strange to see his mom with someone. His dad, on the other hand, had been through countless girlfriends and was currently separated from his fourth wife.
“And I was right, I didn’t need two trips,” Leonard added as he set the bags down with a self-satisfied grin as he wagged his brows.
That earned an eye roll from his mom as she swatted her husband’s arm playfully and giggled when he pulled her into a hug.
Without warning, Marco was struck with an epiphany. His life’s path suddenly felt like there was a fork in it. If he took one side, he would be following in his father’s footsteps. He didn’t want to be in his fifties on his fourth marriage. He didn’t want to be with randoms anymore. He wanted the one.
He’d always been afraid of committing because he hadn’t wanted to repeat the cycle of a broken family and put any kids he had through a divorce. But by dating women that he didn’t care about and didn’t see a future with, he was repeating a different cycle. One that would lead to a life of loneliness.
The four of them caught up as Pops talked about how the Rams were doing and how he was sure that they’d go to the Super Bowl next year and his mom filled him in on all the Sunset Canyon gossip. After several minutes of catching up Marco took them to check out Pops’ room.
An alarm went off on Leonard’s phone. “Sweetie, we need to get going if we’re going to make the flight.”
His mom glanced at her watch and then out the window. “Umm, I was going to wait and make sure Pops got settled.”
“I’m settled just fine. No need to wait on my account.”
“Oh, okay, right.” She nodded and then smiled a little too brightly. “Well, I need to use the ladies room.”
She rushed down the hall and Pops started talking about football again. “Goff is a bust,” he complained. “And someone needs to do something about Gurley.”
When his mom came back, she asked Marco twenty rapid-fire questions about his new position. He tried to keep his answers short because he knew that she and Leonard had a plane to catch, but before he’d even get one response out she was firing a follow-up question at him in a slightly manic manner.
His mom’s odd behavior was starting to make him wonder if something more was going on. The only time he’d seen her act like this was when she’d planned a surprise party for his fourteenth birthday. They’d been at the mall and she’d had the same slightly-manic stalling vibe that she was giving off now. Still, maybe she was just nervous to leave Pops with him.
“We really should get going, Robyn.” Leonard prompted. “If we’re going to make that flight we need to get back on the road.”
Her eyes darted back toward the front door and then she looked at her watch again.
“Is everything okay?” Marco asked.
“Yep. It’s great!” She plastered a frozen smile on her face as she nodded. Then she snapped her fingers. “Did you find that pillow?”
“No. I was looking for it when you got here. I think I know where it is though. Do you want me to go—”
“Yes!” She enthused. “We can wait.”
Marco hated being late. On time to him was fifteen minutes early. It almost pained him to think that he was adding to the delay.
As he passed her new husband, Marco mouthed, “Sorry.”
Leonard shrugged before gazing over at his mom with adoration. It was obvious that she could do no wrong in his eyes. Seeing that look expanded the warm feeling that he’d felt earlier.
He took the steps two at a time and located the pillow buried deep in the black hole of his walk-in closet. He was surprised he could find anything in it. There were clothes he hadn’t worn in years. Sports equipment that he should probably donate. Shoes and hats that he’d worn a few times and decided weren’t comfortable.
As he closed the closet door, his mind was busy figuring out when he’d have a day that he could tackle a closet cleanout when he heard a commotion from downstairs. When he got to the top of the stairs another sound stopped him dead in his tracks.
Laughter followed by a snort. Not just any snort. Sydney’s snort.
He may not have heard it in over ten years, but the second the sound hit his ears, his entire being recognized it. He didn’t just hear it. He felt it.
He started slowly down the stairs, stunned and anxious. His heart pounded so hard he felt like it might burst through his chest.
When he was about midway down, he saw that Leonard was picking up Pops’ suitcase that had fallen on its side. He got to the bottom step and turned the corner into the living room, but he only saw the same faces that he’d left. His mom, Leonard, and Pops, who was comfortably seated in Marco’s recliner, all stared back at him.
Disappointment and confusion swirled in his head. “I thought I heard…was that…?”
His mom’s face lit up and she whispered, “Sydney Prince. Surprise!”
“Surprise?” Marco was starting to feel like he was on Candid Camera. He looked around and saw no sign of the surprise. “Where is she? What’s going on?”
His mom rushed to his side, and lowered her voice. “She had to run to the little girl’s room. She’s going to be staying with Pops. When you called yesterday, she was who I had in mind.”
“Isn’t she…? Doesn’t she live in LA?”
“Oh, no honey. She’s been back in Sunset Canyon for almost a year now.”
“Did she move back with her husband?”
“Her husband?” His mom’s brow crinkled.
“Or fiancée?” Marco had just figured that they would’ve been married by now.
“Oh, no sweetie,” she lowered her voice even quieter than a whisper. “They broke up a while ago. I heard infidelity was involved, and Misty who I followed after she left The Cutting Edge and opened Under the Dryer told me that Devon told her it went all the way back to the reunion.”
Shit.
Had he been the reason their engagement ended?
Had him showing up with ice cream tipped him off?
Did he even care if that were the case?
“And she’s not in LA anymore.” Unaware of his internal crisis, she went on. “She moved back to Sunset Canyon after the accident.”
“The accident?”
“Devon was hit by a car when she was walking across the street. Poor thing was in a coma and had to have several surgeries. She couldn’t even walk after it happened. Then her husband left her—”
“What a lowlife, loser,” Pops said under his breath.
His mom nodded in agreement. “Yeah. And Devon, the kids, and Sydney all moved back into their parents’ house. Sydney has been taking care of the kids, taking care of Devon and working at the nursing home.”
“Is Devon okay?”
“Oh, she’s doing much better now. I saw her the other day, and she said that she’s planning on opening a yoga studio downtown.”
“How did I not…why didn’t you tell me…”
“I tried, but you’ve been so busy.”
Right. He’d been making excuses to get off the phone whenever his mom started telling him about anyone back home. He hadn’t wanted to be reminded of the reunion.
“And she’s staying here?” Marco knew that he was a little slow on the uptake, but it was so much information for him to take in.
“Yes.” His mom’s enthusiasm waned. “I thought you’d be excited. You two used to be so close.”
They were close. Very close. Possibly so close it ended her engagement.
*
“Get it together,” Sydney whispered forcefully to herself as she looked in the bathroom mirror.
Her nerves were something else today. She’d seriously stubbed her toe when she’d knocked over that suitcase and in an effort to make it seem like it was no big deal, she’d started laughing. Which means she snorted. Twice. It looked like it was going to be a day.
Not exactly the professional, capable impression she’d wanted to make.
Class and grace, those had been the words that she’d repeated over and over again in her head. Class and grace, they were going to be the things that carried her through the next three weeks. Class and grace, that was what she’d planned on exuding when she saw Marco again.
At least he hadn’t seen the stumble and snort fiasco. If her life was a movie, she was getting a take two.
Marco hadn’t seen her. That’s what she needed to focus on. Not the fact that she was about to throw up or that she was a few shallow breaths away from hyperventilating.
She’d thought that eight hours alone in a car would’ve been plenty of time to get her in the proper mindset. No one complaining, no one asking her for a snack. No dinner to make. No laundry to do. No patients to take care of. It would be the most uninterrupted alone time that she’d had since her sister’s accident.
She’d even stayed up late last night and made an eight-hour playlist for the drive. It was meant to inspire and embolden her. She wanted to show up empowered, completely unfazed by the fact that this would be the first time she’d see Marco since he’d left her naked, in her hotel room, after making love to her.
She’d included every empowering I-am-woman-hear-me-roar song she could think of and had been feeling pretty dang good about herself and seeing him again. It looked like she may have overestimated the efficacy of alone time and girl power anthems.
Wait, she set her hands on the counter as a thought occurred to her.
She hadn’t seen a car in the driveway.
Maybe he wasn’t home. Maybe he was at work. Maybe she had hours before she’d see him.
Of course, that was it. She was sure he’d left a key for his parents and was at work. That’s why she was here. Because he was going to be working so much.
Shutting off the water, she glanced around for a hand towel but found none.
The bathroom was bare. There was a roll of toilet paper sitting on top of the toilet and a bar of soap in a dish with residue that told her it hadn’t been cleaned in a while. It was the epitome of a bachelor bathroom.
Another realization hit her. He lived alone. This place had no signs of a woman’s touch.
Things might’ve started off rocky, but they were looking up. If her deductive skills were correct, there was a good chance that he wasn’t home, so she’d have a little time to acclimate before seeing him. And he didn’t have a live-in girlfriend, so even if he were seeing someone, Sydney wouldn’t be under the same roof as her.
“I can do this. I’ve got this. Class and grace.” She gave herself one more pep talk before heading out.
She could hear Robyn speaking in a quiet voice and wondered if Pops had fallen asleep after the long drive. She’d been brought up to date on his condition, and although the disease was progressing very slowly, Robyn said he did get fatigued easily.
If he were napping, she could use the time to unpack and whip up a healthy protein shake to have in the fridge for when he woke up. While she was making her playlist last night, she’d researched several recipes that boosted immunity as well as specific raw foods that had the vitamins, enzymes, and antioxidants to support respiratory health. Her job didn’t technically involve nutrition, but she always strived to treat patients with every tool she had in her toolbox, not just modern medicine.
Luckily, she’d had all the ingredients at the house to bring here with her, since she’d been making her sister shakes during her recovery. Devon had benefited exponentially from them as well as eating whole, raw foods and implementing the use of essential oils. Sydney had packed her diffuser and several oils.
She tiptoed down the hall so as not to disturb Pops, but when she stepped into the front room, she saw that he was wide awake.
“There she is!” his loud voice exclaimed. “My favorite candy striper.”
“She was a volunteer.” Two voices chorused.
Her heart skidded to a halt and time felt like it stopped as well. In slow motion, her eyelids closed in a blink as she turned her head toward the voices. When they opened, she saw him.
Marco was not at work. He was standing across the room wearing navy slacks and a matching T-shirt that had an emblem and the letters HFFD in white over the left side of his chest.
She stared at him, and he stared back. There was a vague awareness on the outskirts of her consciousness that Robyn, Leonard, and Pops were in the room but her focus was entirely on Marco. Her brain was screaming for her to speak, to say something, but her mouth was not cooperating.
An alarm sounded, and it broke the spell that Marco’s stare had put her under. She blinked and saw that Leonard was holding up his phone to show Robyn the time.
“We really need to get going, sweetie.”
The next few minutes were a blur of goodbyes, hugs, and promises to check in. Robyn wrapped Sydney up in a hug. When it ended, Robyn put her hands on Sydney’s arms and looked right into her eyes, “Are you okay? You don’t look like you’re feeling well.”
“I’m fine. It was just a long drive.”
“Are you sure?” she double checked.
“I am.”
Sydney had always loved Robyn. Marco’s mom was so attentive and nurturing, which were qualities she’d never had in a parent. Robyn was at every game that Marco played. She was at every graduation and awards ceremony. She made dinners and checked Marco’s homework.
Those all might seem like insignificant things to someone that had that growing up, but Sydney had always felt like an afterthought to her parents. They provided the basics: food, shelter, and clothing. And she was grateful for that. She knew there were a lot of kids that didn’t even have that. But they’d never shown a particular interest in her.
Devon had received a little more attention, but Sydney had a feeling that was only because her sister had demanded it. She wasn’t someone that was easy to ignore or overlook.
Robyn pulled her in for one more quick hug and whispered, “Take care of my guys.”
“I will,” Sydney promised.
Marco walked his mom and Leonard to their car, and she turned to say a proper hello to Pops, but he was sound asleep in the recliner.
She thought this would be a good time to unpack his things and then get herself settled in as well. That way she’d be doing her job and be able to avoid Marco when he returned.
“Good plan,” she breathed as she picked up his suitcase.
“Ugh,” she grunted as she started to lift it.
There were rollers on the bottom, but she didn’t want to chance waking Pops. She’d only got it about an inch from the ground when she felt it being pulled out of her grasp. She looked up and she saw Marco beside her, suitcase in hand.
“Are you a ninja or something?” she whispered, wondering how in the world she hadn’t heard him come back in.
“What?” He looked at her like Devon did whenever she’d ask if she was feeling all right.
“Nothing.” She gestured down the hall. “I was going to—”
“I’ve got it,” he cut her off in a similar tone to his previous texts.
Well, she guessed that answered the question about how he would act toward her. Rude and dismissive. Perfect.
He took off in the direction of Pops’ room and having no desire to follow him, she grabbed the ice chest. It wasn’t that much lighter than the suitcase, but now she had irritation coursing through her veins. She was like the mom whose kid was trapped beneath the car, and she could lift it with superhuman strength. Except it wasn’t maternal instinct that was fueling her power, it was anger.
With ease, she brought it into the kitchen and set it on the counter, not the floor, just because she could. She was busily unpacking Pops’ medication that needed to be refrigerated when she felt someone behind her.
Turning her head, she looked over her shoulder. He was standing in the framed doorway that led to the hall, just staring at her. Or more accurately, glaring at her.
“Did you need something?” she asked in a faux-pleasant tone.
“I have to get back to work. Do you want me to show you where you’re staying?”
This was how he was going to be? No, hi, how are you? No, thanks for agreeing to come all the way up here and take care of Pops? No, sorry I was such an asshole after we hooked up?
“Your mom showed me.”
Not that she couldn’t have figured it out. There were two bedrooms with a Jack and Jill bathroom between them. One had a hospital bed and a chair, and the other was clearly a guest room.
“Is that it?” she asked when he didn’t leave.
His jaw ticked and his eyes cut to the ice chest then back to her. “I would’ve carried that.”
She stared at him, waiting to see what else he was upset about, but when he didn’t continue, she realized that was it. “You’re mad because I brought this into the kitchen?”
“It was heavy. You shouldn’t have carried it.”
“I shouldn’t have carried it?” she clarified.
“No.”
He could not be serious. She was not some wilting flower. Did he have any idea how physically strong she had to be to work with patients? How many patients she had to lift into bed, out of bed, help sit down, help get up?
And that was just in her professional life. Did he have any idea the things she’d had to carry in the past year in her personal life? The kids, the groceries, her sister.
A perfect storm of anger brewed inside of her. Anger from everything that had happened to her sister. Anger with how Paulo had abandoned his family and she’d had to pick up the pieces. Anger at Simon for taking advantage of a low time in her life and being a lying, cheating pig. Anger at Marco for treating her like an annoyance after sleeping with her.
She took a step toward him and spoke with a deadly calm that had his eyes widening. “Okay, Tarzan, well the last time I checked, my name is not Jane, and I’m not some damsel in distress. So you can save the caveman routine for someone who needs it.”
She expected him to turn and leave without another word, but instead, the corners of his mouth lifted. “You know Tarzan wasn’t a caveman.”
“Seriously?!” Was he trying to piss her off?
He nodded earnestly as his eyes twinkled with devilish delight. “Seriously. He was an Englishman, not a Neanderthal.”
In an attempt not to smile, she pursed her lips together, but it was too late. He saw that his charms had worked on her and his own smile spread, which caused that damn dimple to appear above his left cheek.
A funny feeling fluttered in her core.
No, she reprimanded herself.
His phone buzzed, and he cursed under his breath as he pulled it out of his pocket. “I have to go. I’ll try to come home for dinner. What’s your number?”
“Why?” she asked defensively.
His charms may have worked to dissipate her anger momentarily, but if he thought everything was back to normal between them, he was crazy.
“In case I need to get a hold of you, or vice versa. If Pops needs something.”
Oh, right. Because she was here to work. She forgot that she’d had to message him on Facebook after the reunion to check and see if Pops was better because she didn’t have his phone number.
So, she gave it to him and he left.
When she heard the front door shut, a sense of relief fell over her. The hard part was done. She’d seen him. They’d talked. Sort of. And now all she had to do was get through the next three weeks without killing him or falling in love with him. She couldn’t be drawn in by his smile, his eyes, his arms, his dimple, his charm, or his wit. She couldn’t think about how amazing being kissed, touched, and loved by him had been.
She needed to keep professional walls up. Do her job. And go home.
She’d contracted Malaria and Typhoid fever while she was in Tanzania with the Peace Corps and had had no running water or toilet paper. She could do this. No problem. Compared to that this would be a walk in the park…or, at least that’s what she was telling herself to keep the panic attack at bay.
Walk in the park.