“Read About Last Night’s Big Award Winners, Including Superstar, Z McCartney!”
– HIM Magazine
Chapter Six
Aubrey
“Is this your place?” Zane asked as I pulled into the driveway.
“No. I just thought it might be more exciting to park at a stranger’s house. You know, freak them out a little.” I couldn’t help my laughter.
“Smart ass.” He grinned, shaking his head. “Which one is your parents’ house? Right or left.”
“Right,” I replied, turning the engine off. “Are you sure you don’t want to wait here while I go warn them? It might save some drama.”
“Nope. I can fight my own battles. You don’t need to protect me. Besides, I made a mistake leaving you the way I did. It’s time to own up to it.”
“All right.” I hoped he knew what the heck he was doing.
He chuckled. “Why do you sound so depressed?”
“Well, I just got you back in my life. I was kinda hoping you’d live to enjoy it longer than one day.” I was only partially teasing. Zane’s name was an actual four letter swear word, according to my dad. He’d rather cut his own tongue out than speak it.
“You genuinely think it will be that bad?” He raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Honestly, I have no idea. At least let me go in first and send Dustin into the back room to play video games, or something. I don’t want him to feel any discord.”
“Me, neither. I’ll wait out front until you tell me to come in.”
“Okay.” I reached for the door handle.
“Wait!” he said, stilling me. “I’ve got it.” Jumping out, he slammed his door and ran around to my side, opening it.
I couldn’t help my giggle. “Still a gentleman, just like when we were younger.” It made me feel good to have someone who wanted to treat me in a special way. It almost made me feel embarrassed, it had been so long since anyone had paid that kind of attention to me.
Slipping my hand into his outstretched one, I stood. He shut the door behind me and we walked hand in hand over to my parent’s house.
“Your dad taught me that—to always be a gentleman, no matter what.” He sighed. “I’ve missed Brent.”
“Well, for better or worse, you’re about to be reunited.” I paused when we reached the door, sincerely hoping the “better” part was going to be the one we got to deal with.
Nodding, he glanced around. “I’ll just have a seat here on the porch swing until you’re ready for me.”
“It won’t be long, I promise.” Giving him a quick peck on the cheek, I left him and walked inside the house, taking a cleansing breath and hoping for the best. “Hey, everyone! Where are you?”
“Back here, honey!” my mom answered and I made my way to the family room.
“Mom!” Dustin shouted, dropping a game control and running to give me a hug. “You’re back! You were gone a long time!”
“I’m sorry. I had a special work thing I had to do and it took longer than I expected.” I glanced to where my dad was reading the newspaper and my mom was crocheting a doily. Both of them flashed a smile at me before continuing on, though my mom gave me a puzzled once over as she took in my appearance. “Dustin, I need to speak with Grandma and Grandpa in the other room for a minute, sweetie. Do you mind playing video games in here while I do? I have a surprise for you today, but I’m not quite ready for you to see it yet.”
“You have a surprise?” His eyes immediately lit up. “What is it?”
Laughing, I rubbed my hand across his buzzed hair. “I said it’s not quite ready yet. I need to talk to your grandparents first. Play your game and sit tight. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”
Both of my parents were now curiously staring at me and I motioned for them to follow me.
“What’s going on? Is everything okay?” my mom asked as soon as we were in the front room.
“Yeah, everything is fine, but I wanted to give you a chance to see the surprise I have and react to it.” I was too afraid to tell my dad who was on the porch for fear he wouldn’t let Zane inside. “Mom, you asked me what has been bothering me lately. I have permission to tell you about it now. I just ask that before the two of you jump to any conclusions that you allow me the chance to explain everything first.”
“Aubrey, you’re starting to scare me. What’s the matter?” Mom seemed truly nervous.
“Don’t be scared. I’m excited about this. I’m happy—truly happy. Just keep that in mind, all right? Please.” Glancing between them, I waited for them to both nod before I moved to the door and opened it. “You can come in now.” I bit my lip, waiting.
Zane appeared in the doorway, stepping inside, and I heard my mom release a gasp as she stepped backward and sank into the chair behind her, shock clearly evident on her features.
“Zane?” she whispered, her face going pale.
“You son of a bitch!” My dad lunged forward, swinging back his fist and throwing a punch, hitting Zane hard in the cheek and knocking him backward.
“Dad!” I screamed jumping in between them as he moved to swing again. I held my hands out shoving them apart. “Stop!”
“Get the hell out of my house, you bastard!” He strained against me, a bit of spittle flying from his lips as he spoke, his face angrier than I’d ever seen in my life. Veins popped out against his forehead as he struggled to get at him again. “I brought you into my home and this is how you repaid me? I trusted you, dammit! I trusted you!”
“Dad! I love him! Please stop!”
My father stared at me incredulously, his face growing even redder, though I didn’t know how it was possible. “How can you love this jackass? Don’t you remember what the last ten years of your life has been like? How lonely you’ve been? All the while he’s been out screwing everything in a skirt. How dare you bring him to my home!”
I could feel my irritation growing now. “He’s Dustin’s father, and he has every right to know his son and I intend to give it to him. I love you Dad, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but this is my life and I get to decide who’s in it. Not you. I love Zane. I always have. Now please, can you not cause a scene? I want to introduce him to his son.”
Rage, was the only way I could describe my dad’s features. His face was so mottled, I worried it might actually explode. Turning on his heel, he marched out of the room without another word.
“Mom?” Dustin’s shaky voice came to me and I noticed him standing there with concerned eyes. Immediately, I wondered how much he’d heard.
“Come here, sweetie,” I said, taking a steadying breath and glancing briefly at Zane, who despite being punched was standing quietly near the door. “I want you to meet someone.”
Dustin came into the room, standing close to me, and I put an arm around him. “Dustin, this is Zane McCartney. He’s your daddy.” Emotion choked my voice and I couldn’t speak any more and I blinked back my tears. The moment I’d dreamed of for so long was finally happening.
Zane crouched down, at eye level with his son, and held out a gift bag. “It’s nice to meet you, Dustin. Your mom has been telling me all about you. She said you like to play video games, so I brought you a whole bunch of mine. Maybe we could play together sometime, if you think you’d like that.”
Gingerly, Dustin reached out and took the bag from him, briefly peering inside before glancing at Zane again. “Wow! These are cool games!” He paused, studying him for a moment. “Are you really my dad?”
Tears flooded the rims of Zane’s eyes and he nodded. “I really am.”
Dustin looked at me, and I nodded too, reaffirming his words.
“Where have you been?” Dustin asked him. “All my friends have dads who live with them.”
I didn’t want Zane taking the blame for this. “That’s mommy’s fault. I never told Zane about you. He just barely found out and he wanted to come meet you as soon as he heard the news.”
“So why was Grandpa yelling?” Dustin’s eyes were wide and still seemed confused.
“Your grandpa is really mad at me, Dustin, and he has every right to be,” Zane said. “I didn’t treat your mom the right way and it hurt her really bad. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but I did. Now that I’ve found you both, I’d like to fix that and make things better—if your mom and you will let me. Is that okay with you?”
I couldn’t stop crying as he took all the blame on himself, leaving Dustin’s image of his grandpa intact. Seeing the two of them together was something I’d always dreamed of but never thought I’d live to see. My heart was so full right now it felt like it might burst.
Dustin looked up at me. “He looks like the guy in the Soldier Force video game.”
I laughed. “I don’t think that’s him, but he is an actor.”
“Actually, I am the guy in the Soldier Force video game. I did the voice-over work for the video and modeled for the character. Did you know that’s the next movie I’m making? I’m playing Captain Jase Dean in Soldier Force the movie.” Zane grinned, looking like a kid himself. In that moment the resemblance between father and son was so strong it was uncanny. It was as if I’d had nothing to do with the creation of Dustin. He was the spitting image of Zane, just with shorter hair.
“You are? That’s so cool!” Dustin said, awe filling his eyes.
“If it’s okay with your mom, maybe you can spend some days on set with me and watch some of the filming. When I’m not shooting scenes we can play video games together in my trailer. How would you like that?”
“That would be awesome! You live in a trailer?”
I giggled. “No sweetie, that’s just where he rests when he’s at work—kind of like his personal office. He actually lives downtown in a giant skyscraper on the very top floor.”
“You do? Can we go there?” Dustin seemed to be totally excited.
“I’d be happy to take you there, any time you want, as long as it’s all right with your mom.”
“Can she come, too?”
Zane glanced up at me. “Both you and your mom are welcome to do anything with me that you want. I just want to get to spend time with both of you.”
I wanted to kiss Zane right now. He was handling this perfectly and I loved seeing the instant connection forming between father and son. “Dustin, why don’t you take your dad over to see our house? You can show him your room and whatever else you want. I’ll be over in a minute. I just need to talk to Grandma real quick first.”
My poor mom looked like she was still in shock. I handed Zane my key ring and showed him which one to use.
Straightening, he stared at my mom. “For what it’s worth, Daphne, I sure am happy to see both you and Brent again.” Reaching up, he rubbed his cheek. “Tell Brent he packs a good punch. I’m probably gonna need an icepack. You can also tell him I know I deserved that hit and a whole lot more. If he needs to keep hitting me so he can feel better, that’s fine with me. But I also need him to realize this is my family and I’m not going anywhere. We’ve been apart for too long and I won’t let anything come between us again. I’ve never stopped loving Aubrey, despite all my mistakes. I intend to make things up to her and Dustin the best I can—with or without your blessing, but I hope it will eventually be with.”
“Zane . . . I don’t know what to say.” She seemed totally flustered.
“You don’t need to say anything. If either Brent or you want to talk to me, I’m happy to do that too, in private. There’s no need to draw anyone else into it. We can settle this one way or another between ourselves.”
Her eyes flickered to Dustin and then back to him. “I understand. Thank you for the offer.”
“My pleasure. Let’s go see your room, shall we, kiddo?” he said, and Dustin practically dragged him out the door as he began listing all the things he wanted to show him.
As soon as they were out of sight, I closed the door and turned back to my mom. “I’m so sorry. I handled that all wrong. I was hoping if Dad didn’t know what was happening that he’d be too shocked to react. Guess I was way off base on that.”
“Zane didn’t even try to protect himself,” Mom replied, still staring at the door.
“No, and he never will. He believes he deserves anything Dad can dish out to him, which is why we need to talk Dad down. I can’t have this kind of tension going on between them all the time, and Zane can’t be walking around with bruises, especially while filming.”
“Your dad won’t touch him again. The surprise is over. He can work on calming down now. Besides, you heard him. It’s not just Zane’s treatment of you that has him fired up. There’s a lot of personal pain there for him. He feels like Zane abandoned all of us.”
“He did,” I replied with a heavy sigh. “And he feels terrible about it.”
“How’d you find him?” she asked, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.
“He found me, actually. He’s been struggling with some substance abuse issues and he found out I was working at Sunnybrook and was admitted there. I almost had a heart attack when I realized my patient listed as John Carpenter on my chart was actually Zane. It’s been a very trying time for me and I wanted to talk to you about it so badly, but I couldn’t.”
“He’s a drug addict?” She looked mortified, glancing at the door as if she might jump up and bolt after Dustin.
“He’s used a lot,” I replied honestly. “Apparently the way he left the past between us has been eating him up really bad. I’m certain that’s not the only reason, but it was a large part of it. He turned to substances to try and suppress the pain and it finally caught up with him.”
“Are you sure it’s wise to leave him alone with Dustin?”
I grimaced, but understood her reserve. “I trust him, Mom. Really, I do. He’s been just as brokenhearted as I have been.”
“It sure doesn’t seem that way to me. Not if one believes the things all over the covers of those rag magazines at the supermarket.”
“When have those things ever been accurate, Mom?”
“Is he denying being with a parade of women then? Because apparently there’s a viral video going around right now that—”
“Mom! That’s enough. Yes, he’s struggling with some things, but he’s trying to fix them. I want to let him. I want to repair my mistake, too. Those two need each other, and I need both of them. Hopefully Dad and you can figure out some way to forgive him, because I have, and I’m the one he wronged. If something goes awry now, I will take all the blame, but I’ve always believed people can choose to take their life in a new direction. Yes, we got sidetracked, but now we have a chance to try and change that and find the happiness we’ve always wanted. I’m just asking for you and Dad to allow us to try and find that place together. Hopefully someday you can find a way to forgive him, too.”
She was quiet for several moments before she looked up at me. “Please be careful, Aubrey.”
“I will, Mom. I swear. I know all the signs to watch for. If Zane falls, I’ll know. It’s my job to know. But you’re gonna have to trust me.”
She nodded, sighing heavily. “Then I will try and talk to your dad.”
“Thank you.” She rose and hugged me before walking me to the door.
“On a totally separate note, I can’t believe how good looking that kid has gotten. I know we’ve seen him in pictures and movies, but I think he’s better looking in real life than he is even on the big screen. That’s saying something.”
“He is pretty hot, isn’t he?” I replied with a smile. “It can be quite distracting, actually. I swear sometimes I forget what I’m thinking.”
“He probably feels the same about you. The two of you always made such a beautiful couple together. People are going to think you’re a celebrity also.”
“Whatever.” I shook my head, laughing. “Although I did spend last night with him on the Red Carpet. He even bought me a Dominic Florin gown, and Chico Bellefonte himself did my hair and make up! Can you believe it?”
Eyes widening, she stared at me. She wasn’t as into the fashion scene as I was, but she still knew the names. Everyone knew who those people were. “I thought you were at a work function last night?”
“Technically, I was. I’ll explain it all later. Right now I want to go spend time with my family.” Joy infused me. “I love how that sounds.”
“Me, too.” She smiled but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. I knew she was worried—I was too. Things were so crazy right now. “Go have fun. We’ll talk later, and I’ll work on your dad.”
“Thanks, Mom. I love you so much.”
“I love you too, honey. Have a good night.”
I practically bounded off the front porch as I hurried to my house with a giant grin plastered on my face. For the first time in my life, both my boys were in there waiting for me.
I couldn’t imagine anything better.