“Nope, this party’s all about you, bro,” Cameron said. Slouched against the kitchen counter, he took a pull of his longneck bottle of beer. “You’ve got Mom all freaked out. She can’t stop worrying about you.”
“Well, hell.”
“Yeah. Which means we’re going to have to kick your ass.”
Adam rolled his eyes and drank his beer. “That’s what this is all about?”
At the stove, Brandon shrugged. “Nothing personal you understand. It’s our job.”
“I do understand that,” Adam said, picking up his car keys and slipping his sunglasses back on as he moved toward the kitchen door. “Enjoy the beer I brought. Say hi to Mom. I’ll see you all around.”
Brandon grinned. “And here I thought you’d be grateful for a chance to share your feelings.”
“When pigs fly.” Adam stepped outside and tried to close the door behind him, but Cameron caught it.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” Cameron said calmly and stepped through the doorway.
“This should be fun,” Brandon said, chuckling as he followed his brothers outside.
Adam stopped near the heated pool and turned to face his two closest friends in the world. “Guys, I love you, but if you come any closer, I’ll have to kill you.”
“Love you, too, bro,” Cameron said, approaching him cautiously from the right. “But you’re being an ass and we’re tired of Mom bugging the hell out of us about it.”
“See,” Brandon said, taking a step toward him on the left, “it’s a matter of facing you down or dealing with Mom. You be the judge.”
Adam had to admit they had a point. “Fine,” he said, splaying his arms out. “Take your best shot. But I warn you, I’m taking you both down with me.”
“As long as you go down first,” Cameron said and rushed forward.
The explosion of water set off a mini-tsunami in the pool as all three brothers plunged into the deep end.
After some flailing and splashing and dunking of heads, Adam finally surfaced. He wiped his eyes of excess water and eventually focused on the pair of pink flip-flops standing at the edge of the pool. He looked up and saw his mother glaring down at him. She wore a goofy hat but her lips were set in a grim line and both hands were bunched up into fists perched on her pink shorts-clad hips.
“Hey, Mom, you’re looking good,” Adam said.
“Adam, I want to talk to you.”
“Ouch,” Brandon said. “She’s mad.”
“Yeah, that’s going to leave a mark,” Cameron agreed.
Adam sighed in resignation. He’d seen his mother’s eyes before she walked away. She wasn’t angry with him. She was worried. And that knowledge cut him in ways he couldn’t begin to understand. He gripped the side of the pool and pushed himself up and out. Grabbing a towel, he followed him mother inside and found her in the kitchen, stirring the barbecue sauce on the stove.
“Everyone says you’ve turned into a bear at work,” she said nonchalantly after a few moments.
“I’ve had a lot on my mind.” He walked to the fridge and pulled out another beer, then sat down at the kitchen table, popped the top and took a long sip. “We’re really swamped right now. Just opened Fantasy Mountain and now we’ve got Monarch Dunes opening in three months.”
Sally sat down at the table next to him and Adam knew she was through beating around the bush. “Adam, what happened to Trish?”
He tried several ways of skirting the subject but eventually she wore him down, as she always did.
When he was finished telling his side of the story, she sighed. “Sweetie, even as a child, you didn’t want to trust in love. But you’re not a child any longer. Are you going to let Trish walk away, knowing you’ll never be whole without her? Or will you find a way to convince her that you truly are the good man she once thought you were?”
“Let’s get it straight, we’re not talking about love.” He realized his knuckles were turning white and loosened his grip on the beer bottle. “Besides, she lied.”
“Maybe she had a good reason to lie. Did you ever ask?”
His jaw worked as he stared out at the wide expanse of grassy lawn that stretched all the way to the cliff. “No, I never asked. How could I trust her to tell me the truth?”
“Oh, Adam,” Sally said. “Of the three of you, you were always the one who had the hardest time giving your trust.”
“I trust you, Mom.”
She sniffed a little and her eyes glistened. “Thank you, darling. I hope you always will. But more than anything else, I want you to trust yourself.”
“I trust myself,” he muttered. “It’s the rest of humanity I have a problem with.”
She laughed. “You’re going to have to let that go.” Sitting forward, she grabbed his hand. “Honey, if you want Trish, you have to dig deep, find out what happened there. Maybe it won’t bring the two of you back together, but at least you’ll be able to go on, having found out the whole truth. Until you do, I don’t know if you can ever be happy. And if there’s one thing I want in this world, it’s for you to be happy. And you know I always get what I want.”
Adam chuckled as he squeezed her hand with both of his. “You scare me to death, Mom.”
“Oh, honey.” She jumped out of her chair and gave him a tight hug. “That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
He didn’t go straight home but stopped at the office instead. It was a quiet Sunday so he knew he wouldn’t be disturbed. Sitting down at his desk, he picked up Trish’s disk and stared at it. “Vista del Lago” was written on it, probably by Trish, and he absently rubbed his finger over the script.
Swearing under his breath, he shoved the disk into his laptop and viewed the two pages of scanned documents.
When he was finished, Adam swiped his hand across his face. What the hell?
The letterhead was Duke Development’s but he didn’t recognize the name of the letter writer, Peter Abernathy. He logged in and used his special admin password to look up Abernathy’s employment background and his record with DDI. The man had been president of Abernathy Construction up until a few months ago when Duke bought him out.
While Adam was logged on, he decided to look up the same information on Stan Strathbaum. Turned out, Strathbaum had a background similar to Abernathy’s. He’d been head of his own small company, Strathbaum Ltd., until Duke bought him out eight months ago.
After reading both men’s employment histories, along with the DDI due diligence reports, Adam spent some quality Google time in order to get more information on both men and their business practices, as well as some details regarding certain historical landmarks in Dunsmuir Bay.
Finally, he sat back in his chair and thought about what he’d learned. For a long time, he stared out at the horizon where the pale blue sky met the cobalt blue of the ocean. He could now understand why Trish had been so upset by the thought that Adam would approve the plan to tear down Vista del Lago. She must’ve experienced a painful sense of deja vu when she’d read that letter and notice, thinking Adam was out to destroy another small community of friends and neighbors, just like hers, all over again.
But what she didn’t know was that Adam had never approved the Vista del Lago teardown. He never would. He didn’t operate that way-not that she would ever believe him. And furthermore, he never would’ve approved the destruction of the Victorian Village if he’d known about it. That one had slipped through the cracks. Or rather, Strathbaum had shoved it through the cracks. The slimy little creep had rushed the demolition through before anyone at Duke could make a decision on the property one way or the other. And as furious as he was at the little toad, Adam had to admit that he was culpable, too. His company, his mistake. The mistake being that he hadn’t been paying close enough attention. He’d taken his eye off the ball and people had been hurt.
With ruthless calm, he made a note to fire Strathbaum on Monday. Adam and his brothers didn’t need someone like that working for Duke Development. But as satisfying as firing the man would be, it wouldn’t bring back Trish’s home or her grandmother. There was nothing he could do about the past. But there was plenty he could do about the future.
Trish drove to the hospital and handed the vase filled with two dozen perfect red roses to the clerk at the front
