Dissonance (36 page)

When his father saw us, a smile spread across his face so like Logan’s it made me shiver. “This must be Charlotte,” he said brightly.

Logan opened his mouth, probably intending to do introductions, but I stepped forward and extended my hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, sir.”

“James, please,” he insisted. “And can I just ask what a pretty thing like you is doing with my jackass of a son?”

For a second, I was so overwhelmed with shock at his words, that I had no idea what to do. How could he not think his son was incredible? Only when Logan’s hand came back to my side and pulled me to him did I notice the teasing smile on James’ face.

“Well, you know, he’s alright,” I replied. “For now.”

James threw his head back laughing, and I was jerked into Logan’s hard chest.

“Alright for now?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. At my shrug, he tightened his embrace, bringing his lips to my ear. “I’ll show you alright,” he whispered devilishly. Chills rolled through my body and I could feel Logan’s smile against my neck. We both knew I thought he was far more than alright.

“Now, now, none of that,” James broke in.

I pulled away from Logan almost franticly, feeling the blush in my cheeks. Some impression I was making. Keeping my eyes trained to the floor, I waited and hoped someone would bail me out of another awkward situation.

“Come on, Dad,” Logan insisted, “stop making her blush. I’m only so strong.” That wasn’t the shift in conversation I’d been hoping for.

Luckily, Katherine came to my rescue. “Stop it you two, don’t tease the poor girl.” she admonished. “We need more classy ladies around. I’ve been stuck with these Neanderthals alone for far too long,” she said to me.

“Neanderthal, huh?” James replied.

“Nothing more than a caveman in a suit,” she replied tartly.

James eyes shown with mischief. “I’ll show you a Neanderthal,” he countered, snatching his wife into his arms and lifting her quite effortlessly from the floor. The two kissed like they might still be newlyweds.

I wondered what it was like to see your parents be affectionate in that way. As far back as I could remember, my parents scarcely interacted unless it was about bills or my father criticizing something Mom had done. Logan’s expression was akin to amusement as he looked on at his parents, though he tried to pass it off as repulsion.

The doorbell echoing through the house broke them apart.

Katherine slapped her husband’s chest playfully as she pulled herself away. “These Westfield men are all trouble,” she told me directly as she hurried to the door.

I was glad to hear Eli and Alex’s voices carry through the hall a moment later. Logan’s brother, Caleb, was supposed to be coming to dinner as well, and I did not think I could handle another introduction just yet.

Alex was talking animatedly with Katherine when they came in the room, telling her to come by the salon later in the week. Eli immediately came up to me, wrapping my in a hug.

“Happy Thanksgiving, Lottie,” he greeted me. It felt strange to me, that we would actually be having a true Thanksgiving dinner together for the first time in years. A pang of sorrow hit my heart when I remembered the last one we had with Mom. She’d still been healthy then. By the time the holiday came around again, she was gone.

Eli released me to share one of those one-armed, quick, man-hugs guys seem so accustomed to with Logan, and a handshake with James. Alex hugged me as well, before embracing James.

“How’ve you been, Al?” James greeted her. “I haven’t seen you in months. You need to come by the office to visit that boy of yours more often.” He seemed almost paternal towards her, something Alex had never received from her own father.

Suddenly, I was feeling like an interloper around the only two people I considered family. Neither Alex nor Eli had mentioned how close they’d become with Logan’s parents. I knew that they’d come over for the holidays in the past, but this all seemed more familiar than that. Clearly everyone in the room was close, comfortable together, and I was not so sure I belonged.

Everyone moved into the living room to sit while Katherine doled out drinks. Conversation moved easily, James and Katherine asking the others about what they had been up to, Eli and Alex returning the same questions back. All the while, I just sat silently next to Logan, feeling desperately out of place despite the three most important people in my life being right beside me.

“What about you, Charlotte?” James brought me into a conversation I had otherwise checked out of. I must have looked as lost as I felt because he continued, “What do you do?”

Well, this was bound to make a great impression. “I work at a bookstore downtown right now.”

Logan cut in, championing me. “It’s a specialty store that finds and sells rare books.”

“That sounds fascinating,” Katherine interjected, sounding genuinely interested.

“I don’t do anything all that exciting. The owners are really the ones that do the work to find rare editions, I just work the counter,” I explained, choosing to leave out the fact that I only did that part-time. That probably would not do much for impressions.

For the first time since I’d started my job, I was sort of ashamed of it. I had actually been quite proud of myself. After all, I managed to only work part-time and not struggle with the lack of distraction. I kept myself busy, content. That was a first for me. But telling Logan’s parents about it hardly made me seem like the sort of girl you want to be dating your son. Especially with all the James had accomplished. The last thing I wanted was for them to think that I was with Logan because I thought he could support me.

A beeping sound took attention away from me. James fished his cell phone from his pocket, frowning when he saw the screen. He stood, apologizing for the interruption, but said he had to take care of something.

“Logan, can you come with me for a minute?” he asked.

Following Dad into his study, I could not help but wonder what was going on. It seemed unlikely it had to do with work. The office was closed on Thanksgiving. End of story. Dad refused to have any of his employees working on holidays.

He was bristling as he walked straight to his desk. Whatever was going on was bad, and fuck if I wanted to deal with it at the moment when I’d left Charlotte clearly uncomfortable in the living room with Mom. I had thought she would be more at ease when Alex and Eli showed up, but she had seemed to pull into herself entirely until Dad had asked her a direct question.

One problem at a time, though. The sooner I sorted out the issue with Dad, the sooner I could get back to her.

I waited for him to start talking, but was met with tense silence as he rubbed his temples rhythmically.

Finally, I spoke up. “What’s going on, Dad?”

“That was Caleb. He’s not coming to dinner,” he informed me.

Well, shit. Mom was not going to like that one bit.

“Did he say why?” I hedged.

“Does he need to?”

No, probably not. Dad had told me a few weeks ago that the private investigator found evidence of heavy abuse of prescription drugs. From what I understood, Caleb was conning several doctors into giving him the scripts he needed.

“I confronted him about his work issues a few days ago, told him I needed more. I asked him point blank if he was using. He insisted he wasn’t, tried to claim that he needs the pills he’s on. I gave him an ultimatum, told him he needs to clean himself up and improve his performance, or he would be job hunting soon enough. I also made it clear to him that I expected him here tonight,” Dad explained, giving an uncharacteristic shrug that just said
look how that turned out
.

We both sat in silence for a while then. What was there to say? My brother was giving up everything he had strived to for a bottle of pills.

After a while, Dad spoke again. “Have you thought about your place in the company?”

How could I not? It had been on my mind constantly since our last talk. “I have.”

“You know I don’t want to pressure you, son. But I have been promising your mom that I would be releasing the reigns, spending less time in the office and more time at home. I don’t want to be running this thing single-handedly forever.”

I held a hand up to stop him. “I get it, Dad. I do. I’m still thinking about all of it, but it’s hard to let go of that dream I had for so long. I’ve got Charlotte now though, so even if I got offered a contract with a label I could actually accept, I don’t know that I could just get up and go on tour. She’s more important than all of that, but I still have trouble just moving on,” I told him honestly.

All those images that had been swimming in my head of leaving Charlotte behind while I toured for months at a time, they were a nightmare. Music was and always would be my passion, but not all passions are meant to be careers. Maybe I was meant to follow a different path.

Charlotte seemed more relaxed when we returned. Apparently, Mom had started asking about her Master’s work, being a pretty avid reader herself. Charlotte may not be all that confident in much, but literature and music always pulled her from her shell. She was still reserved, particularly when it came to Dad, and she wasn’t leading conversation, but at least she wasn’t completely silent anymore. Small victories were key with Charlotte. If she could bond with Mom somewhat, I’d take that and run with it.

When Mom started asking Alex about wedding plans, I knew it was the perfect time to get Charlotte alone and figure out how she was feeling about everything. Char discreetly rolled her eyes as Mom and Alex chatted excitedly about something. Dresses, maybe. They said something about taffeta. That was a fabric, right?

I leaned in to her, breathing in her scent for a second before whispering in her ear. “Want to see the rest of the house?” She nodded vigorously, ready for anything that got her away from wedding talk.

“I’m going to show Charlotte around,” I announced to everyone else. Mom and Alex hardly cared about what I said. Dad and Eli seemed to take my cue, deciding to go into the other room and check the football score.

We wandered the house while I pointed out different things. Char got a kick out of all the pictures Mom had displayed around the house.

“You were adorable,” she giggled at picture of my wide, toothless, 7-year-old face. At least Mom didn’t feel the need to display the bathtub photos. Not that they did not exist, but she was kind enough to keep them off of the walls.

I really had no intention of showing her each room. What I actually wanted was a moment alone with her, so I led her right up to my old bedroom.

“And now we arrive at the most important room,” I told her with my back to the door.

“The bathroom?” she replied cheekily. God, her feisty side was my kryptonite.

“Very funny,” I said, leading her inside. “This was my room.”

She took it in for a minute. There wasn’t much to it, particularly since most of the belongings that used to fill it were back at our apartment. Shelves sat largely empty, though a few old trinkets remained. The corner where my guitars had always sat in their stands was empty besides the mural Mom had painted on the wall.

“Wait,” Charlotte looked at the mural with a twinge of confusion on her adorable face. “Isn’t that your…” she trailed off, turning to point at me.