13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

CHLOE

Nora

“ T his is mildly disturbing,” my son mumbled.

“Shut up! She hasn’t even allowed me to touch her yet, but still. I love Heiress,” my youngest snapped.

“Not the cat, the cat bed ,” Nico corrected.

I sat on the sofa in my living room with my legs crossed, a Perrier with lemon and lime in hand, my eyes on my newest dearest darling, my beloved Heiress the cat, lounging on her cream silk, ruched-back, circular cat bed that had jeweled nailhead trim (it even had its own tiny toss pillows!).

She was licking a paw, pretending she wasn’t basking in the attention.

She was life .

Evidence of this: the instant the delivery men set that bed down on Friday, she’d daintily stepped into it, and then rightfully claimed it as her throne.

I was considering buying one for every room.

I didn’t share that.

No, I shared something else.

“I’m trying to find one of those small-animal carriers so she can go on the town with me,” I declared. “Sadly, they all seem to be designed for dogs, which I find offensive. I had no idea the prejudice against felines in the fashion world. It’s disgraceful. And Lagerfeld even had Choupette!”

My son and daughter ( and daughter-in-law, though, Archie was grinning) both stood there staring at me.

“Fortunately,” I waxed on, “she and I did some exploration in my closet, and we found she fits in my Chloe Woody bag, and she can stick her head out of the top. I just need to get a little pillow sewn to put in the bottom so she’s comfortable in there.”

Dru, sitting across from me, laughed softly.

Jamie, seated across the space on the bench of the grand piano, legs spread, elbows on his knees, looking delectable, chuckled.

Both my children (and daughter-in-law) kept staring me.

Archie was still grinning.

Yes, it was Sunday.

Yes, it was time for family lunch.

Yes, I loved Dru’s laughter, my children’s usual horror at my very existence and everything I did with it, and Jamie looking so handsome in his lightweight gray sweater and medium-wash jeans, an outfit he took from our closet where his wardrobe was now situated.

I loved all of this so much, I decided to have a family Sunday luncheon at least once a month.

Jaclyn could have Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I would have this.

“You can’t take a cat on the town like you can carry around a dog, Mom,” Valentina proclaimed, going to plop down in the armchair next to Dru.

“I can do anything I like,” I retorted.

“It’s not good for the cat,” Felice shared dourly as she moved to sit across from me on the sofa.

I looked to her. “Dearest, she was in a cage three days ago.” I swept a hand toward Heiress—who, on Thursday afternoon, had taken precisely five seconds to recognize she’d finally found her true home—currently had her little nose in the air and was pre-nap blinking. “Now she’s lying on a bejeweled cat bed. She’s not dim. She knows precisely how good she has it, including picking the Chloe, which goes with her coloring, over the Fendi, which did not.”

Felice aimed a long-suffering gaze at her husband in response to my pitifully bourgeoisie ways.

Per the protocol I’d created after I’d come to understand my son was serious about her, I ignored her.

Felice’s attention wandered, and she noted, “That’s a new piece,” toward the glass sculpture on the plinth across the room.

“Dad and Nora found that at a vintage store last night,” Dru announced.

I watched Felice’s eyes widen at the news I’d entered a vintage store, then her face blanked, not only as if she couldn’t process this knowledge and make sense of it, but she had no desire to try.

“It’s a Seguso,” Dru continued. “Gemma and Jadyn were thrilled Nora bought it. They were worried they wouldn’t be able to move it. It’s not exactly at a price point they’re used to stocking.”

If the smirk that was now on her face was any indication, Felice appeared to be able to process that without any problems.

Dru also went to the opening last night. She’d come with some friends. And she’d talked me into buying the Seguso.

Because Drusilla Lynch had very good taste.

Alyona strolled in at that moment and put a tray of mini crabcakes and quiches down on the coffee table, announcing, “Some munchies.”

Only Alyona, who had labored over complicated hors d’oeuvres, like crabcakes and quiches (at least I thought they seemed complicated, I would have no way of truly knowing), would describe them as “munchies.”

“You’re working on Sunday, Alyona?” Felice asked in horror.

Hmm.

No.

I shot a warning look to my son.

We’d had this discussion more than once.

Felice could look down on my bourgeoisie ways. But in her rabid progressivism, she was not allowed to make Alyona feel uncomfortable about how she chose to earn a living.

Alyona shot an exasperated look at Felice.

“People work on Sundays, Felice, and I’m one of them,” Alyona said.

“Felice—” Nico began.

“Well, I can bring food in, and I can wash up too,” Felice stated stubbornly.

Alyona straightened from the tray. “Yes, but you won’t, because it’s my job, and that’s my kitchen, and unless I approve the caterers, no one does anything in it but me.”

With that, she huffed off.

Felice blushed.

I sipped my Perrier.

Nico came to sit on the arm of the sofa by his wife, murmuring, “I keep telling you?—”

“Whatever,” Felice snapped quietly.

When she felt my regard, Dru tore her surprised gaze from Felice, and I sent her a rueful smile.

She sent a reassuring one in return.

Jamie had such a lovely daughter.

Through our nonverbal exchange, Archie fell on the crabcakes.

The front door opened.

We all looked in that direction to see tall, dashing Darryn striding in.

But I tensed when I saw the homicidal expression on his face.

“It wasn’t my fucking idea,” he said instead of greeting any of us. “In fact, I was against it.”

Allegra hustled in after him, looking harassed.

“Mom—” she began.

“What’s going on?” I asked, sliding to the edge of the sofa.

“My son in town, and he doesn’t even tell me,” Roland said from the door to the living room.

I froze.

What on earth was he doing here?

“Dad! You promised to wait in the hall,” Allegra cried.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jamie stand, so I did too.

“He was loitering outside the building,” Darryn shared.

“I wasn’t loitering,” Roland snapped.

Darryn went on like Roland didn’t speak. “He talked Allegra into letting him come up with us.”

In homing in on Jamie, I’d missed that Nico had stood too.

Oh dear.

And presently, my son demanded of his father, “Why are you here?”

“To talk to your mother, of course,” Roland returned.

“Does she want to talk to you?” Nico asked.

“No, she does not,” Jamie answered for me.

“All right, everyone—” I tried.

Roland interrupted me. “It’s actually fortuitous you’re all here, including you, Oakley, because I am officially done with being the bad guy, and you should know what you’re getting into.”

He directed that last to Jamie.

My heart squeezed.

“So you’re a magician now?” Valentina sneered.

God.

I hadn’t forgotten how wounded she’d been at her father’s betrayal (oh no, a mother never forgets something like that). They’d been particularly close. She’d been daddy’s little girl.

Of course, I had not shared why we’d split up, but children found their way to learn things.

And they’d learned them.

“Darling—” I tried again, my eyes on my youngest.

I failed again.

Valetina was laser focused on her father. “Drop the satin curtain and voila ! You’re not a cheating bastard anymore?”

With that, my heart bled.

“Valentina, my lovely, maybe you should go to the study while I deal with your father,” I suggested.

“Fuck that, Mom,” Valentina retorted. “He’s hooked me. I’m interested. How is he no longer the bad guy?”

“I cannot believe you’re speaking to me like this,” Roland ground out.

“I cannot believe you’re crashing a family lunch where we’re bonding with our new sister and probably soon-to-be stepdad,” Valentina returned, then her eyes pierced her own sister and she finished, “Thanks, Allegra .”

And Allegra, also wounded by the failure of her parents’ marriage, had always had a soft spot for Roland.

Her face flushed.

Darryn put an arm around her shoulders, but he murmured, “Sorry, but you bought that, baby.”

“Your mother didn’t care,” Roland stated, getting everyone’s attention again, as I felt Jamie come to stand at my side.

“She didn’t care about what? You fucking everything that moved?” Nico asked.

“Nico,” Felice whispered, reaching out from the seat she still occupied on the couch to wrap her fingers around his forearm.

He shook her off.

Instead of showing chagrin for her husband or finding another way to support him during this emotional scene, her face got hard.

Oh my.

Was there trouble between those two?

“It doesn’t matter if I did, because she didn’t care,” Roland said to my son. “You knew your grandmother. And you’re a grown man now. Imagine having that woman as your wife .”

“Dude,” Archie entered the conversation, “are you seriously blaming your ex for you cheating on her?”

“You didn’t know Eleanor,” Roland retorted.

“I didn’t need to, man. That’s whacked,” Archie shot back.

“It is, totally whacked. Grandmother was awesome,” Valentina asserted.

“She was cold as an icicle,” Roland stated.

Before anyone could say or do anything, Nico exploded, and that was when all the men, plus Valentina, moved.

Toward Nico.

“ Fuck you! ” he roared, bumping chests with his father.

Darryn got there first, wrapped an arm around his chest, and pulled him back, but even though Darryn was six four, and quite built, and my son was no slouch, but he was not, Nico fought it. He didn’t win, but he fought it.

Dru sidled up next to me and took my hand.

Dear Lord, she was witnessing this debacle.

My chest threatened to cave in.

Nico stopped fighting Darryn and jabbed a finger at his father. “Tell yourself that, you asshole. Convince yourself that Mom did shit to deserve you shitting all over her . All over your marriage. All over your family . Tell yourself that, you motherfucker.”

Roland looked struck.

“Nico,” he whispered.

“You didn’t take us to school, Mom did,” Nico bit out. “And she was standing outside every fucking day to walk us home. She might not have made us after-school snacks, but she sat with us while we did our homework, so if we had a question, she could help. We had family dinners every night, and you weren’t around for most of them, because you were working or off fucking one your whores. She was a Mom .” He threw his arm out to indicate the room. “ We were a family. I’m sorry you weren’t a part of it, but that was your choice , not hers, and not ours .”

Jamie turned to me during Nico’s speech, and the warmth coming at me from his beautiful blue eyes set in his stony-angry face was probably the only reason I kept my feet.

“You went to the best private school in the city because of the work I had to do,” Roland returned.

“ Had to do ,” Nico scoffed. “Bullshit,” he fired back. “You came from money. So does Mom. And newsflash, Dad, I’d give it all up if I could erase just one time hearing her crying at night in your room when it was late, and you still weren’t fucking home .”

At that, the warmth in Jamie’s eyes turned to fire, and he aimed it at Roland.

As for me, the threatening ended, and my chest caved in.

I had no idea my son had heard me.

Quick glances at my daughters and their forlorn expressions directed my way told me they’d heard it too.

But I couldn’t focus on his new knowledge.

At Nico’s words, Jamie was done, I knew, because he stepped in and asked Nico, “Have you finished?”

Belatedly realizing we had a large audience, and I was a part of it, Nico glanced sheepishly at me and said, “Christ, Ma. I’m so sorry.”

“That’s all right, dearest,” I whispered.

Jamie took that as Nico’s assent, because he moved between Nico and Roland, with Darryn and Archie coming in at his sides, and he said, “You can leave right now, or we can remove you. Choose.”

Roland scowled at Jamie, then he looked between Darryn and Archie and declared, “I never liked either of you for my daughters.”

I also had not forgotten my ex could be petty.

I just wished he hadn’t said that to his sons-in-law, because it would far from ingratiate him to his daughters, and he had one who still cared, but if he crossed Darryn, she would not.

“That’s okay, seein’ as we don’t give two shits,” Archie replied.

Roland’s scowl intensified before he turned stiffly on his foot and marched out the door.

Archie followed him, and I heard the front door slam.

“You were kind of harsh, Nico,” Felice said quietly.

Oh no.

Nico whirled on his wife. “I was? You know how it was for us with him out fucking around?”

She lifted a feeble hand. “I was just saying?—”

“What?” he demanded. “What were you just saying ? Or, I should ask, what would I give a shit about you saying, since you seem to have an awful lot to say about fuckin’ everything .”

“Nico,” I warned.

Nico visibly pulled it together, and said to his wife, “You have more to say, we can move it somewhere else. If you don’t, then for fuck’s sake, don’t say anything.”

She screwed her lips up angrily.

Yes, my son’s marriage was in trouble.

I didn’t want to admit it, but if forced to do so, I would have said I’d seen it coming.

It wasn’t that they were from two different worlds (she hailed from upstate, both her parents were teachers, and they’d gone barefoot to my son’s wedding too). It was just that…

Well…

He’d married his mother.

Opinionated and outspoken.

The problem was, Nico didn’t agree with her opinions, considering quite a number of them were judgments about the life he was born into, something which was out of his control.

He’d turned his back on it because he was Nico. He made his own way. He’d always wanted to be a teacher. He was a teacher. He’d never been into owning things. Now he didn’t have a lot of things. He’d always liked to earn his own money, so at sixteen, he’d gotten a weekend job in a bakery. Getting up at five in the morning to make bread and pastries, going home to his apartment on the Upper West Side, and having cash he earned to take a date to the movies.

But he’d also turned his back on it for her, living in a cramped, one-bedroom in the East Village, growing herbs on the fire escape, when he had a trust fund he’d never touched that could purchase them a property four times the size for when their family expanded.

She could make her jam and grow her herbs, but their children’s schooling would be paid for, and they’d all have closets where they could put their clothes.

“I’d like to discuss why Allegra let him come up here,” Valentina groused.

Darryn again got close to his wife, but it was me who spoke.

“She loves her father. She’s allowed, Valentina. So I’ll hear not another word about it.”

But Allegra looked distraught. “I had no idea he was going to say any of those things, Mom. And he promised, he swore he wouldn’t come inside unless you invited him. He said he just needed a word with you.”

Darryn gave the fullness of it. “He told her you two were talking reconciliation. That you’d ended things with Jamie. And, once Jamie learned you were getting back together, Jamie interfered.”

Fucking Roland .

“That isn’t true, Allegra,” I asserted, my voice trembling with unhappy emotion.

“I know that now ,” Allegra mumbled.

“He’s a fucking piece of work,” Nico clipped.

I hated women going out in leggings. Occasionally, yes. The constancy with which I saw it, absolutely not.

I hated the seating in some of the theaters on Broadway. It was too close, the seats too small. I couldn’t enjoy a musical when I was eating my knees and practically sitting in my neighbor’s lap.

I hated the communal tables some of the new cafés and restaurants had. I didn’t want to eat or sip my coffee with strangers.

But the thing I hated most of all was how much my son hated his father, how hurt all my children were, and that for some reason, the man had listened to the message I left on his voicemail, and he’d still shown up at my building and ruined an important lunch.

I knew why that was too, and Allegra would admit it to me in private.

She’d told her father this was happening today. And he knew why, since I told him Jamie and I were moving in together. And in an act of sheer jealousy and spite, Roland had acted on it.

Oh, and I hated that Jamie had been right.

I had a feeling, if he’d dealt with this, Roland wouldn’t have caused that scene.

I walked to Nico, lifted my hands and smoothed the skin on his face, leaving my hands on either side of his head.

“Thank you for defending me, my champion,” I said softly.

“Ma—”

“And I don’t know what your father is going through right now, but he’s still your father. So feel these feelings, my handsome boy, then I hope you find your way to reaching out to him. Because he wasn’t a good husband, and perhaps not around as much as he should have been, but he loves you all very much.”

“I wouldn’t hold my breath for that, Ma,” Nico warned.

“Yeah, totally, Mom,” Valentina added.

I drew in a deep breath, and let it go, along with my hold on my son.

I stepped away and said, “So be it.” I looked to Jamie. “Darling, can you make me a martini?”

Jamie was studying me intently even as he said, “Of course.”

“I’ll take one too, please, Jamie,” Allegra requested.

“I’m just gonna do shots of vodka,” Valentina announced, following Jamie to the drinks cart.

“That’s my girl,” Archie encouraged on a smile.

I felt attention, so turned to Felice just in time to watch her quickly rearrange her features from distaste to benign.

“Would you like a drink, Felice?” I asked.

“No. I’m good, thanks,” she said shortly.

“You must be Dru,” Darryn said to Dru.

Damn, it’d slipped my mind they hadn’t met yet. At a function several months ago that Darryn couldn’t attend, she’d met Allegra. She’d met the rest earlier when they’d arrived for lunch. Darryn, no.

“Yes, and you’re Darryn.” Dru offered her hand, and Darryn took it.

“I’d say welcome to the family, but that isn’t usually the way we play. Normally, it’s Nora being hilarious, her kids pretending they don’t think she is, when they do, and me stuffing myself so full of Alyona’s food, I have to wear untucked shirts every time I come here so I can unbutton my pants.”

Dru burst out laughing.

Thank God for Darryn.

“You’ll be pleased to know I made your favorite chicken salad, Darryn,” Alyona shouted from the kitchen.

“Allegra needs a sister wife,” Darryn shouted back.

Allegra turned her eyes to the ceiling.

I felt an arm slide along my waist, and I looked up at my boy.

“You okay, Ma?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I assured.

“I lost it. It was uncool. I’m sorry.”

“You’re home, Nico. This will always be your home, even, in a way, it will be when it’s Darryn and Allegra’s. You’re free to behave however you like at home.”

“Oh, yeah,” Darryn called to me. “Thanks for the future new digs, Momma.”

I chuckled.

“Darryn!” Allegra snapped.

I looked to Dru to see her reaction to this, considering I knew Jamie had spoken to her about my redecoration plans, and she’d agreed to help, but I had not had the opportunity to discuss it with her and get a sense as to how she really felt about it.

But she was smiling at Darryn.

“Losers!” Valentina yelled from the bar cart. “Jamie and me just made up a cocktail and everyone has to drink it.”

“Is it a riff on a Long Island?” Archie called.

“You know me so well, loverboy,” Valentina cooed.

“I’m in,” Archie declared.

Dear Lord.

Valentina at the helm, we’d all be sloshed in an hour.

But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.

I sought Jamie’s gaze, and he didn’t make me work for it. His was on me.

All right? he mouthed.

I nodded.

He sent me a gentle smile.

I hadn’t been all right.

But receiving his smile, I was on my way to getting there.

And witnessing this byplay between Jamie and me, our children hadn’t been all right.

But they were definitely on their way to getting there.

I sat in bed beside Jamie, smoothing lotion into my hands.

“I’m concerned about Nico and Felice,” I announced.

Jamie, with Heiress lounging on his ankles (she knew who her daddy was, my precious darling furry girl), wearing attractive glasses because he was reading a book (I’d just joined him after an epic rundown of the day’s events over the phone with Mika), turned his gaze and peered at me over the frames.

“You should be,” he stated.

“What’s your take?” I asked.

“He loves her, so it’s going to destroy him, but he’s not going to be able to put up with her acting like she’s better than his mother every time he spends time with the both of you. Or, I’m sorry if you haven’t already put this together, but it’s something you should be cognizant of, sweetheart, every time she talks shit about you. Which I would guess is often.”

“I would guess that too,” I mumbled.

Jamie nodded. “And that isn’t about him being a momma’s boy. That’s about his wife’s rampant disrespect. Her treatment of Alyona was unconscionable. She’s so up her own ass about how the world is supposed to work according to her, she doesn’t see that Alyona takes pride in what she does. She belongs in this house even more than Felice does, and her efforts to humiliate you by using Alyona only serve to make Alyona think Felice looks down on the decision she’s made as to what she does with her life.”

I made a face, because this was very true, and it was the reason I broke my vow never to get involved in my children’s relationships and spoke to my son about his wife’s behavior toward my employee.

Jamie carried on. “Nico won’t be able to ignore it if they have children, and he won’t be able to stop Felice from talking shit about you to his kids, which will do his fucking head in. So before it gets to that, he’s going to let her go.”

This hurt me so much, I was unable to move or speak.

“It happens, darlin’,” Jamie, reading my response, said quietly. “Life has a way of burning off the rosy glow of first love and making things come into sharp focus. There’s nothing wrong with the lives we live, just as long as we don’t fuck anybody over to live them, and we’re conscious that others aren’t as fortunate. He didn’t turn his back on his life, he pivoted to embrace his future. She thought he’d turned his back on his life. She thought he agreed with her. She was mistaken. And she doesn’t like that very much.”

“I can see her being mistaken. My children tease me about the way I am,” I explained.

“I noticed, but it’s teasing, and it’s rooted in love. She’s not dumb, Nora. She saw what she wanted to see. When it became clear it was what it actually is, that’s what caused the problem.”

Unhappily, because I was keenly aware that I played a part in my son’s marriage issues, I shifted to pull the covers out from under me and settle them over me.

When I was in, Jamie asked, “What are you thinking?”

“That it isn’t all that fun to be the cause of Nico’s troubles in his marriage,” I answered.

Jamie shook his head.

“Stop thinking that, Nora. It has nothing to do with you. Please know, I will be cordial to her for as long as she lasts, but I’m going to say it like I see it, she’s a judgmental bitch. I’m all for social justice. What I don’t like are these self-proclaimed social justice warriors who are so grounded in their beliefs, they think they speak for everyone, when they don’t. She tuned out after that big scene, because if she tuned in, she’d have to confront the reality that you’re a human with feelings, regardless you live in a palatial apartment. You can be hurt. Your life isn’t always roses. And you were hurt. Gravely. But you kept your family together. It was you who earned the respect you received today, not only from your children, but from Darryn and Archie. This tells me she’s not a listener, but she fancies herself a preacher. She doesn’t understand there isn’t a single decent preacher on this planet who isn’t, first, a damn good listener. If they don’t have that skill, any word that comes out of their mouth loses meaning, because they’ve lost touch. She has no idea how this world should be because she’s lost touch.”

My Jamie was so very wise, and I felt better.

Not great.

But better.

So I nodded.

Jamie remarked, “I always liked your son. I respect him a good deal more now.”

“Well, at least something positive came from the day,” I mumbled.

Jamie set his book aside so he could turn to me and pull me up and into his arms (Heiress didn’t like this much, but she’d be back, I’d noticed she didn’t tend to stray too far from her new daddy).

“Before you say it, yes. I should have let you deal with Roland,” I proclaimed.

“That wasn’t what I was going to say. You told me you’d contacted him, today was all on him. Even I couldn’t guess he’d pull that move.”

“Your cock didn’t warn you?” I asked, trying to inject humor in our dreary discussion.

The corners of his eyes wrinkled, and he said, “That wasn’t man shit, that was spoiled-boy-tantrum shit. So no, my cock doesn’t know anything about that.”

I laughed and tucked my head in the crook of his shoulder.

Jamie stroked my back. “Another positive, your kids love you very much. Felice looked like she was sucking lemons when Nico was describing how you were a great mom. It isn’t something she understands, but she can’t deny you love your kids, show them in a number of ways, and were always there for them. It explains why they rally around you, something she probably won’t allow herself to understand either. But she doesn’t like it.”

“How long do you think they have?” I asked.

“I’d put money down on them fighting all the way to Vermont, if she didn’t give him the silent treatment. And I think he’ll think that’s fucked up, because he went through some serious shit today, so she should be all about him. As such, I wouldn’t worry about buying her a present at Christmas.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” I quipped to hide my dismay my son’s wife was more than likely not supporting him after that awful scene. “She’s immensely difficult to buy a gift for.”

“I have no doubt,” he murmured with humor.

I looked at him. “Are we going to make love?”

He tipped his head to the side. “If you want to. But I thought maybe just cuddling and reading might be a nice change of pace.”

Ah.

My Jamie.

He wanted to make love. He had an active libido. It was a miracle he’d gone without for so long between Rosalind and me (truth told, I didn’t know if he actually had, I didn’t ask, and wouldn’t, but I would listen if he cared to share).

No, he was offering me a different kind of intimacy, and showing me a window into our future that wasn’t always about performing and grand gestures, but sometimes having quiet times and togetherness.

And I loved when Jamie made love to me, but frankly, tonight, I needed cuddling.

“I’ve been neglecting my book,” I noted.

He looked to my nightstand, then to me. “Get it, darlin’.”

I turned and grabbed my novel, and my reading glasses.

Then I turned back to Jamie and cuddled in.

We each found a comfortable position to be able to hold our books and turn pages.

I fell asleep before Jamie.

But I woke when I felt my book slide from my fingers, the lights going off, and he tangled himself in me. Not long later, Heiress returned and draped herself over both our ankles, because she loved her daddy, but she also loved Mother.

Witnessing even one of your children’s pain was impossible to take, so doing that with three was excruciating.

Even so, I fell asleep in Jamie’s arms, and he in mine, because we had tomorrow, our children had tomorrow.

So it was all right for now.