aterovis_bm_reapthewhirlwind.p65 (37 page)

341

JOSH ATEROVIS

The small, informal reception that followed the wedding was almost as unconventional as the ceremony itself. The most traditional touch was a beautifully decorated three-tiered wedding cake, but even that had an original touch. On the top proudly stood two grooms, one with black hair, and one with brown.

Everyone stayed for the festivities, including, to my surprise, Mom, although she was looking a little pale and strained. That was understandable under the circumstances. Who could blame her really? Dad was quite possibly dying, and here she is attending her son’s mar-riage—to another man. She’d been a pastor’s wife her entire adult life; I knew this couldn’t be easy for her. I was very touched that she was there at all.

She wasn’t the only one who wasn’t one-hundred percent supportive. I could tell Laura wasn’t exactly thrilled about this turn of events. I wasn’t looking forward to our next conversation. And then there was Caitlin. I’d noticed that she’d kept a strange expression on her face throughout the ceremony and now she seemed to be positively glaring in our direction every time I looked her way. Whenever she noticed that I was looking at her though, she would quickly rearrange her 342

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features into a poor imitation of a smile. It came out as more of a grimace though, as if she was experiencing some sort of sudden attack of gastro-intestinal pain.

Eventually I disengaged myself from Aidan, no easy task since he seemed to have become so attached to my arm that I thought I might have to be surgically removed, and made my way over to her.

Once there, however, I didn’t know what to say. She didn’t make it easy on me. She stared at me with her arms crossed and an unreadable expression on her face.

“Um, hey. You okay?” I said after an awkward pause.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she said icily.

“I don’t know, but your body language is speaking pretty clearly,” I said in what I hoped was a lighthearted manner.

“And what is it saying?”

“Um—I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Oh, I’m grand. That was some surprise you guys pulled here tonight. I sure as hell didn’t see it coming.

God I wish I had a drink.”

I blinked in surprise at the venom in her voice.

“We didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. We wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Well you succeeded. It makes me wonder what else you’ve been keeping from me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I can see the writing on the wall, Will. You’ve got your perfect little family now, newlyweds with a baby on the way. Only one little problem: me. Once the baby’s here I’ll be out of the picture.”

“Caitlin! That’s crazy!”

“Oh, so now I’m crazy?”

“No, I mean—Caitlin, you’re the mother. I’d never 343

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try to cut you out of the baby’s life. I’m just going to help you, that’s all.”

“Sure, that’s what you say now. I’ll bet you’re already planning ways to get rid of me.”

“Where is this coming from?” I looked around to see if anyone was close enough to bail me out of this bizarre encounter. Everyone seemed to be involved in their own conversations, completely oblivious to the parallel universe that I seemed to have slipped into.

With a sudden intensity that took me off guard, Caitlin leaned in and grabbed me tightly by the wrist.

Instinctively, I pulled back but her grip was like iron.

“Don’t think I don’t know,” she hissed furiously.

“Don’t know what?” I asked helplessly. I felt like I was in a play in which someone had switched the scripts halfway through and no one had thought to provide me a copy.

“Don’t play games with me, Will.”

“Caitlin, I’m not playing games with you. I’m not playing games with anybody. I swear that I have no clue what you are talking about.”

Just then, the phone rang, providing me with the perfect escape from this unreal exchange.

“I’d better get that,” I said and went off in search of the phone.

Killian found it before I did and answered it. I watched him listen for a few seconds then motion to Aidan. Aidan took the phone, and after listening for a few seconds himself, looked around the room. When his eyes met mine, he quickly looked away and disappeared down the hall. Was it my imagination or was he acting a bit guilty? What was going on? Had somebody slipped something in the punch? First Caitlin and now 344

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Aidan.

Thinking of Caitlin again, I turned around to see if she was still there, but she was just slipping out the door with her coat on. Everyone else was still deep in conversation, so I made my way over to Killian.

“Who was that on the phone?” I asked casually. Or at least I was going for casual. It probably came out sounding desperately nosy.

“Oh, uh—I dunno. You should ask Aidan. I, uh, hafta pee. Excuse me.”

I sighed. So much for casual. Another glance around the room told me everyone was still engrossed in their conversations, so I started off down the hall to find Aidan.

He was in our bedroom talking in a hushed tone.

When he noticed me in the doorway his eyes widened for a split-second, then he smiled and covered up the mouthpiece.

“Hey babe, you need something?” he asked cheerily.

Curiouser and curiouser, I thought, especially considering that he never calls me babe.

“I was wondering where you’d disappeared to,” I said.

“I have to take this call and then I’ll be right out. You go on back to the party.”

“Who is it?”

“Who is—uh—who?”

I sighed again. “On the phone, Aidan, who is it on the phone?”

His mouth opened and closed soundlessly several times.

“Okay, look, never mind. Forget I asked. You look like a freakin’ goldfish. I’ll get back to our guests.”

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“Will,” he called and I stopped, “I—I’ll tell you later, okay?”

“Whatever,” I said with a disgusted wave. “I think there must be a full moon.”

“Huh? Full moon?” he called after me, but I was gone.

I grabbed my coat and slipped out of the apartment.

I was a little disappointed that no one even seemed to notice my departure. So much for being the guest of honor.

There was no sign of Caitlin anywhere, so I wandered into the back yard of the apartment building. I was standing by the river with my head thrown back, staring into the sky when Asher found me.

“Hey, cuz, how come you’re out here? The party’s inside.”

“I know. That’s why I’m out here.”

“Not much of a party person, huh?”

I shrugged. “I was right. The moon is full.”

“Is that why you’re out here, to admire the moon?

What are you now, an astronomer? It’s your wedding night for Pete’s sake! Come on back in.”

“Everybody’s acting weird. It must be because of the full moon.”

“I don’t know about everybody else, but you sure are acting weird.”

“Caitlin flipped out on me, accused me of playing some sort of game with her, and then Aidan was acting all secretive. Even Killian’s acting weird.”

“Okay, first off, Killian always acts weird. Second, Caitlin is pregnant; aren’t pregnant women supposed to act weird? You know, hormones and all? And as for Aidan, I don’t know, maybe he’s planning a surprise wedding present. You guys seem to be really into sur-346

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prises.”

“What am I doing, Ash?”

“Um, right now? You’re staring into the sky. You’re neck is going to get stiff by the way. What do you mean?”

“I mean, what am I doing with my life? Getting married? I’m 18! And to a guy? I mean, three months ago I didn’t even know I was gay! And a baby?” I gave a short bark of edgy laughter. “What do I know about raising a baby? Absolutely nothing. I’ve been messing around with a killer, I may have gotten two people killed, I could have been killed myself, or one of my friends—I’ve lost my fucking mind!”

“Will, take a deep breath. You’ve got to calm down,”

Asher said calmly. “I’m no expert or anything, but I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to have cold feet before the wedding.”

“Who had time?” I laughed again. I was definitely teetering on the edge of hysteria.

“Maybe that’s what this is, you’re moving too fast.

Do you love Aidan?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You know he loves you. What more do you need?

No one’s saying it’ll be easy, but if you love each other, you can make it through anything. Like the baby. Nobody really knows how to raise a child at first. They don’t come with instruction manuals. You just do your best and give them lots of love and support. Listen to me, like I know what I’m talking about! I don’t even have kids!”

“You’re right, though,” I was starting to calm down, my panic was subsiding. “I should have listened to you to begin with. You’re the one who didn’t want to get 347

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involved with this killer.”

He sighed. “I didn’t want anything to do with this whole thing, but if you’d listened to me the police wouldn’t be investigating now.”

“If I’d listened to you Blake and Robbie would still be alive.”

“You can’t know that Will. The killer would have found them eventually if he was determined enough.”

“She.”

“Huh?”

“The killer is a she. You said he.”

“You know that for sure now?”

“Robbie told me, before he was killed. He said he thought that the person with Joey when he died was a female.”

“Oh.” He didn’t seem to know what to say.

“You really think Aidan and I can make it?”

He looked over at me. “Yeah, I do. I think if anybody has a chance you guys do.”

“What about you and Killian? Do you guys still have a chance or did I screw everything up?”

He was quiet for a minute. “I don’t know. I hope we still have a chance. I love him and I know he loves me, but I just don’t know. I do know one thing; if things are screwed up, it’s not your fault. It’s something that we have to deal with between us.”

“I hope it’s not too late.”

“Me too. You ready to go back in?”

“In a minute. You go ahead.”

“‘Kay,” he said and started away.

“Hey Asher, did you know Seth?” I asked suddenly.

“What?”

“Did you know Seth? Adam’s son?”

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“Whoa, where did that come from?”

“I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about him lately.”

“Did you know him?”

“No, Aidan told me a little about him, about what happened with you and Killian and all. And then Adam was here all day today working his butt off putting together our wedding. And I couldn’t help but think that he had to be thinking about Seth and how he would never get the chance to get married.”

“You know I never even thought of that. Killian must have though; he’s been staying kind of close to him all night. Steve too, of course. I did know Seth a little. Not like Killian though, he was Seth’s only real friend. Killian took it really hard when he died, but it brought us together. You know, this really isn’t what you should be thinking about tonight.”

“Why not? Death has been all I’ve thought about for the last few months. It seems fitting somehow to think about death on my wedding night. And I have a feeling I haven’t seen the last of it yet.”

“You mean your dad?”

“Yeah—and I don’t know. I just have a feeling that we haven’t seen the last of Joey’s killer.”

“God, Will! You’re freaking me out.”

I forced a laugh. “Sorry, Ash. Come on; let’s go back in. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should be deliriously happy, but I just can’t shake this feeling that something is going to go wrong, that it won’t last.”

“Will, you’re still grieving for Joey and your dad could be dying; no one expects you to be delirious, but it is your wedding night so try to enjoy it, huh?

“Yeah, okay.”

349

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We walked back inside in a companionable silence. I was glad to have a friend and cousin as grounded as Asher. Everyone cheered as we re-entered the apartment.

“There you are,” Aidan said. “Nobody knew where you had gotten to.”

“You seemed busy so I went out for some air,” I mumbled through a deep blush. It felt like every eye in the room was on me, which of course it was. Mom made her way over to me and said that she wanted to get home to Dad. I gave her a kiss and thanked her for coming. I think she knew how much it meant to me.

The party went on until late into the night. I noticed that Killian and Steve did seem to be hovering a bit around Adam, but to all appearances, he seemed fine.

Things came crashing to a halt a little after midnight.

The phone rang and this time I got to it first.

“Will?” It was Mom and she sounded as if she was crying.

“Dad?” The single word was all I could manage to squeeze past the sudden lump that had formed in my throat.

“He took a turn for the worst, Will. Deb had to call the ambulance again. I came home to find a note saying they were at the hospital. That’s where I am now. The doctor just came. He said—he said I should call the family together. You’re the only family—”

“I’m on my way, Ma.”

I looked up to find the whole room had gone deathly quiet, apprehension was clearly written all over every face.

“It’s my dad,” I said hoarsely.

“I’ll drive,” Aidan said as he swept into action, scoop-350

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ing up the car keys and my coat.

“We’ll come too,” Killian said and Asher nodded.

“Me too,” Laura said immediately.

“We’ll stay and clean up the apartment,” Adam assured me and everyone else was quick to agree. “Don’t worry about anything here. Just go.”

We were out the door in record time and speeding to the hospital. We traveled in separate cars, Aidan, Asher, Killian and me in one car, Gabe and Laura in another.

Once there, we went directly to Dad’s room, stopping just outside the door.

“You go on in,” Aidan said gently. “We’ll be right out here in the waiting room.”