Page 23 of Always Be My Baby

“He? We know a lot ofhes.”

“Not with red hair and goes by the name Lachlan Bell.”

Oh my God. He’d come back. My half-brother had come back here. Part of me was happy about it because like I told Girard, I really needed to meet him, but I wasn’t sure of his sanity, given the way Girard had thrown him out before.

“Okay, have him seated,” I told Lena. “Then I’ll be out there in just a second. Girard knows I want to meet him, but please don’t let him kill the guy before I get a chance to talk to him.”

“I don’t know,” Lena said. “I’m of the mind to let Girard kill him.”

“Not until we know what he’s after.”

It was time to put on my game face. I stood, straightened my blouse, primped my hair and walked confidently, at least on the outside, through the kitchen and out into the dining room. I found him right away. Lena had him tucked away in one of the far corner tables for two. Red hair, exactly as she’d described him. Young, early twenties, exactly as Girard had described him. I righted my shoulders, cracked my neck, and walked over to his table.

He looked up at my approach. He didn’t look a thing like my dad.

“I’m Marilee Bell. I’ve heard you’ve been looking for me,” I said, holding my hand out for him to shake. It seemed the professional thing to do, and I wanted to maintain a sense of professionalism since he saw fit to visit my business.

The moment our eyes met, I understood what Girard had been talking about. Although this kid schooled his expression quickly. He went from a split second of assessing to a happy yet weary face that I just didn’t trust. If you worked around people long enough, you learned how to read them. I wasn’t sure I liked this book. Slowly—the kid had acting skills, even if not good ones—he reached his hand up to shake mine. “Yeah, I just can’t believe I’m actually talking to you. You’ve got more guards on your duty detail than Fort Knox.”

“They just love me and don’t want to see me get hurt.”

“Ain’t that the truth.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Well, for starters, I’m Lachlan. I’m your brother.” Then he had the gall to drop my hand and stand, widening his arms as if about to give me a hug. Uh…no.Respect thebody space, boy. Since the day my youngest brother Jimmy—of my original family I supposed—went off to college, I’d hugged exactly two people. Lena and Girard. Staring atLachlan, I felt no need to change that and held my hand up to stop him.

“I’m not really a hugger. We didn’t get that a lot growing up, so you’ll have to excuse me.”

“No problem.” Lachlan then dropped his hands awkwardly at his side like he wasn’t exactly sure what to do with them.

“Please...” I gestured for him to sit again. “Take your seat. No need to stand on pretense.”

“Do you have time to sit and talk with me?”

“Not a great deal, but Lena has the floor for now. I can stay for a little while.” I sat across from him and he followed suit. He moved his arms to rest folded on the table. I folded mine across my chest. I wanted to look intimidating. I wanted him to be intimidated so he knew that whatever his purpose in showing here today didn’t stand a chance at succeeding.

“Right… I wanted to ask you about an old Bible.”

“Wait, let me get this straight. You show up here to my place of business unannounced. I didn’t even know you existed in this world until a couple of days ago, and you’re going to ask me for something? Not even going to get the pleasantries out of the way? How is dear old dad? If he’s even still alive?”

“Yeah, sorry. Dad is alive. He doesn’t know that I came here, though. I go home every so often. Mom likes to cook and I like to catch up with the lives of my younger brother and sister.”

“So you’re telling me my father has six kids? Three of which he sees on a regular basis?”

The kid at least had the sense to look uncomfortable. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you about Dad. I just know that we got to talking the last time I was home, and he told me about this old family Bible. He said he’d left it at his home in Michigan when we moved. It sounded really old and important to him. He told me he wanted me to have it. And I just figured since you’re not really part of his life…”

I pushed up from the table. “Whoa, hold it right there. You make it sound likeIabandonedhim. He took off on me and my brother and sister when we were ten, eight, and six. I’ve not heard from him or seen him in all of that time. And I’m sorry to tell you, but you’ve wasted your time. There’s nothing left from the house that we grew up in. Once Mom moved to the facility, I cleared out the house, donated what I could, sold off some of what I could, not that there was much worth anyone paying actual money for, and the rest got dumped. I haven’t seen anything in years. Save maybe for a few old photographs that are of my mom’s family, so you have no interest in them.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You’re lying.” Then he must have realized quickly that he’d let his facade drop and quickly schooled his expression to that of shock. “You’re kidding. I meant you’re kidding. I’m sorry. My shock got the better of me.”

“You could’ve saved yourself a trip had you thought to look me up on any one of the numerous social media sites. I’d have told you there and saved you the cost of a plane ticket.”

“Gas money,” he corrected. “I drove.”

“Semantics.” I looked down at my wrist as if I wore a watch, which I didn’t, he saw that I didn't but smartly didn’t comment, then I said, “Now, I’m sorry this was a wasted trip, but I have to get back to work. Please stay for lunch,” I threw that in as an afterthought. “The mac and cheese is my favorite.” It took every ounce of strength I didn’t know I had to keep my voice even and not stomp away. Though, I didn’t give him the chance to stop my departure. I couldn’t. If I’d stayed any longer, I’d have strangled him on the spot, and it wasn’t a secret that running a business from prison was more than difficult.

Fuming like never before, only once my back was turned, I speed-walked back to the safety of my office. Girard saw me as I turned my speed-walk into a stomp through the kitchen.

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