Never Enough (29 page)
The men had washed up after the meal while Gillian headed out onto the large patio with a glass of wine to join Erin and the others. This was a very good deal, she thought, given how much cake and frosting Alexander had smeared all over himself and his high chair.
Todd had disappeared to clean the boy up. Gillian really liked Erin’s husbands. Both men clearly adored their child as much as they adored Erin. Both were active, involved fathers, and Alexander thrived because of it.
“Have we talked you to death?” Erin asked, somewhat teasingly.
“How can we not?” Ella smiled reassuringly in Gillian’s direction.
“My friends are a lot like you all, actually. I was thinking of having a winter mixer at the house to introduce them to you.”
Erin’s smile turned up a thousand watts and she leaned in, taking Gillian’s hands. “That would be awesome. From what Adrian’s told us about your friends, I’m excited to meet them.”
“They’re all quite curious about you all since I’m spending more time here. They love Miles and he talks about you nonstop.”
“You too, Adrian says. Anyway, I’m sure in their place I’d be just as curious. Though you’re a woman with her head and her priorities straight. I’d wager they trust that too.” Elise was always so reassuring.
“Oh, Raven’s here.” Erin waved at a lush, ridiculously beautiful woman making her way to the patio.
Adrian had mentioned this woman in cautious terms as a close friend of Erin’s who had a no-nonsense personality that rubbed some people the wrong way. As she studied those lazy cat eyes of hers and the swell of her mouth, Gillian noted the closed expression that had bloomed at the sight of Erin.
For some reason that appealed to her. Maybe it was that this woman who swept outside and into a hug with Erin wasn’t entirely snug up in the family either. Maybe it was the hesitation Gillian saw on Raven’s face, but there was an affinity.
Raven turned and looked Gillian up and down. Her gaze was appraising, eyes narrowed. She was being judged. Which irritated her to no end until she finally spoke.
“Can I help you with something?” She kept her accent smoothed, haughty.
Raven startled, her smile brightening. “Awesome. You’re a bitch under the surface. Nicely done.” And she held her hand out. “I’m Raven and you’re Miles’s mom. I’m glad to know you.”
She smiled, taking Raven’s hand for a moment. It was an odd way to say it, but Gillian was sure she’d meant to say exactly what she had said. Gillian had apparently been under some sort of test and had passed by not taking any shit.
She could deal with that sort of blunt.
“I’m Gillian, the aforementioned mother of Miles and admitted bitch under the surface.”
“We should move to sit down and speak with the others or they’ll continue to hold their breaths that we’ll get along. You’ve probably heard that I’ve got a little bit of a reputation.” Raven linked her arm with Gillian and pulled her to the nearby swing to sit.
“Now then.” She handed Gillian the glass of wine she’d set down when Raven had first entered. “Hey, Ella. Elise.” She smiled over at Erin. “Loving that shade of purple.”
Erin grinned back. “It’s so totally grape soda.”
“Where’s the young master? I come bearing presents.”
Before anyone could say anything else, Rennie crept out onto the patio, a giant grin on her face.
“Irene Brown, how have you been, girlfriend?” Raven waved her over.
“Did you go snorkeling in Mexico? You said you might. Did you? Did you see dolphins? Did you know the salmon is my favorite animal? They smell the dirt, you know, from where they were born? That’s how they get back home at the end. Isn’t that cool? Imagine that. Did you see sea turtles like the last time?”
“I can see I should have a slice of pie or perhaps even cake, before I enter into the telling of my tale. But I want to find out more about Gillian. Can we work something out?”
All this said with Gillian right there.
“Are you trying to con me into getting you a slice of pie?”
Raven sent a raised brow toward Elise, who sighed, though with some amusement. Adrian had told her some about Raven and Brody’s long-past romance and the trouble she’d given Elise when they’d first gotten together.
But Elise’s body language wasn’t tight. Her smile toward Raven just a few minutes before had been genuine, so some sort of accord must have been made.
“It’s not a con if I’m being blatantly obvious. It’s called being resourceful.”
“Mm-hm,” Rennie said in a perfect imitation of Brody.
“Is there cherry?” Raven asked Erin, who nodded. “I want a slice of cherry, and if you add some ice cream, I will totally share with you. I will also show you the pictures from my trip.”
“Deal!” Rennie tore off toward the house.
“I dig that kid. Keeps me on my toes and helps her mom forgive me for being a bitch when she first came around.”
Elise snorted. “You’re still a bitch, but you’re better behaved.”
Raven looked back to Gillian. “We didn’t throw down or anything. But queen serene over there would have totally cut a bitch if she had to. So what’s your story?”
“You have absolutely no filters at all.”
Raven pondered that for a moment and then laughed. “Erin says I’m sort of feral.”
Todd strolled out with a grumpy toddler in his arms. “Alexander is freshly cleaned up from cakegasm. He’s having none of us menfolk. I tried to coax him into a nap and he actually snorted at me. It’s clear he takes after his mother.”
“Mah! Yo!” And then Alexander saw Raven and laughed. “Ray!”
“I love that he expresses himself pretty much solely with exclamations.” Raven blew Alexander a kiss and he tipped his head back, grinning.
Elise stood. “No doubt Martine has sensed her partner in crime is ready for another round and she’ll be up soon too.” She paused to kiss the top of Alexander’s head before moving inside where Martine had been napping.
“You even changed him.” Erin grinned up at Todd as he deposited Alexander into her lap. He kissed her soundly and stood back.
“ ’Course I did. I can’t make milk like you do, but I can change a diaper. I had to bathe him anyway; he had cake in the little folds on his arms. Plus he stunk so bad I couldn’t pass him off and pretend I hadn’t noticed.”
The energy between the two of them sparked and Gillian’s gaze scanned the room for Adrian, who was sitting near the fireplace, a guitar on his lap, Miles at one side, both singing.
She was standing before she knew it. “I need to go see this,” she said faintly as she wandered in.
She perched on a nearby couch arm and simply listened as her two favorite males made music. Her fingers itched to join.
Miles’s head swung up and he smiled at her. “Mum!”
“Hello, darling.” She waved him back to work but he stopped, putting a hand on Adrian’s knee.
“Dad, you have a piano downstairs right? Mum can jam with us now. You haven’t heard her play yet.”
“You haven’t?” Brody shook his head. “Neither have I, come to think of it.” He turned toward the open doors to the patio. “Erin, you wanna jam with Gillian, Miles and Adrian?”
She knew her blush was apparent to everyone in the room. “Oh no, that’s all right. Really.”
“Oh, but I have heard her play. Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.” Adrian spoke with eyes just for Gillian.
He’d come to her after that morning when she’d played Bach. Had told her he lay in his bed, wondering at how much talent she had. He wanted more, she knew. Wanted to know why she was a piano teacher instead of working in the industry. He didn’t understand, of course, coming up the way he had, making it at the level he’d achieved would color his perception.
One day she’d tell him.
“She’s wicked talented. Come on, English.” Adrian stood and held a hand out to her. “Show us what you’ve got.”
She attempted to send him a look but he ignored it, leading them all down to his studio.
She’d looked at the piano before of course. Hello, she wasn’t made of stone. But now she sat ran her fingers over the keys. Tuned perfectly. A man who kept his instruments in good shape, was Adrian Brown. A good quality.
“Play something, Mum.”
“We’ll jam, silly. We’ll
all
play.”
all
play.”
Elise came in holding Marti, Rennie pulling Raven in behind them.
“Will you play for us? I miss hearing piano live.”
Because it was Elise and yes, maybe because she wanted to show some of what she had, she assented.
“All right. Do you have any preferences?”
“Beethoven? Sonata number Eight?”
She smiled and nodded her head. Simple, beautiful, a piece she hadn’t played other than to teach for a long time.
Adrian watched her as she played. She felt his attention and in her own way, felt better for it.
When she finished Marti clapped and Rennie, who’d been dancing around, stopped and bowed toward Gillian. That little girl made Gillian wonder if she’d ever have a daughter some day. And in truth, the Browns and their crazy menagerie of colorful, loving people who’ve made themselves a family in their own way gave her hope.
They’d built something important and unique and very, very powerful, and it was impossible not to admire it. If her son and the odd relationship she and Adrian had could fit in anywhere it was with them and with her friends at home.
“Mum went to Juilliard.” Miles said it offhandedly as he plugged his bass in.
Elise’s smile brightened. “Really? How did I not know this until today?”
“Because Gillian hides her light under a bushel.” Adrian winked at her.
They jammed and she had a lovely time. Playing music with all these people she liked so much was a joy. Playing it with Adrian and Miles though, that part was extra special and it was a memory she knew she’d recall with pleasure for the rest of her days.
15
“Over the first week of the winter break, would you and Miles come to Miami with me?”
She looked up from where she’d been working on her computer just a few feet away. He’d set up a mini workstation at her house and she’d begun to get used to him there.
“I have some meetings to attend. There’s a producer I really want to work with for my new CD and he’s going to be in the U.S. for a short period of time. I have to go for a few days and I thought it might be a fun family trip to take. And, well, I’d like to introduce Miles to my team.”
At his excited nervous tone, she turned in her chair to face him fully.
It would come. She knew this. Knew that their blissful time of anonymity would end at some point and it would become widely known that Adrian had a son. His people knew already, and they weren’t the only ones.
This alarmed her most. The way that something Miles had come to take for granted like his relationship with his dad could put him at risk and threaten his privacy. Already some in the press knew, like the prat who showed up on her doorstep the day before.
“I want him kept out of the media as much as is possible.”
Adrian’s gaze raked over her in that way he had. “Is there something you’d like to tell me, Gillian?”
Oh so much.
“A reporter came to the door yesterday. He stopped in town and spoke with Cal and Jules threw him out of Tart.”
Adrian’s gaze shuttered. It rarely had with her since the truth about Miles had come out. But it hurt to see just then. Hated to see that distrust aimed at her.
“What did you tell him?”
“I described that birthmark you have on the back of your thigh. You know the one, right below your arse cheek. Was I not supposed to?”
“Gillian, be serious.”
“Yes, since I so rarely am. Not that you knew just how much I crave being interrogated as if I had given a total stranger the code to your front gates. I told him nothing. You might recall just how infrequently I share my personal business with total and utter strangers out to manipulate me to exploit my child and my boyfriend.” She rolled her eyes. “I told him to get off my porch or I’d call the police. But I did call the school and tell them to be extra wary about visitors on campus.”
He blushed. “I’m not trying to do that. It’s just . . . hard to get used to the constant level of attention by total strangers. It’s hard not to get taken in by it all at first.”
“I get that. I do. But you have to deal with the fact that the people in your life care about you and aren’t out to collaborate with the media to expose your love of root beer and jelly beans.”
He grinned and the tension eased a little. “Good idea with the school. What did your friends say?”
“Cal’s not a moron, you know. And I just told you Jules threw him out of the shop.”
“Sometimes they get their hooks into you and you don’t even know it until the story shows up. I still think you should let me see about putting Miles into private school.”
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