Page 98 of Bred
I sigh and walk around to the driver’s side of my car and slide back in. Letting my head fall back against the headrest, I listen to my mom and Ted shuffle around, pushing buttons and trying to figure out if they’ve actually sent Silas a text and if it’s gone through.
“So what happened with Lucas? He was such a nice boy,” Ted asks bluntly, but with absolutely no malice in his voice.
And that’s the only reason I don’t lose my last fuck I’ve been hanging onto and scream at himHe’s not fucking nice.
“Hunny. Shh. I’ll tell you later, dear,” Mom says and is only drowned out by Ted’s sounds of discontentment that he’s not getting the hot gossip about my failed relationship right now.
A loud ringing noise interrupts the nightmare that I’m currently enmeshed in, and I realize that it’s Ted’s phone.
“Silas?” Ted asks loudly, and then I hear some shuffling around.
“Ted, be careful on those rocks. They’re slippery,” I hear Mom scold him and I guess by the loud intake of breath that follows, he’s ignoring her. I can’t help but smile at the visual it puts in my head.
“It’s okay, Mom. I’m going to drive around and get something to eat and like ten coffees. Just call me back if you think he can help,” I tell her, because I don’t want to be the reason Ted falls into shark infested water, or whatever is happening right now.
“Theodore!” Mom calls, ignoring me for a moment and I can hear her power walking presumably toward Ted. “Okay, dear. I’ll call you back.” I stay on the line for a few seconds longer than necessary to listen to her try to get Ted off the rocks while he’s chattering on to Silas about the weather in North Carolina before I end the call and pull out of my neighborhood for the last time.
CHAPTER TWO
SILAS
Si,it’syourbrother.Ted. Call me, it’s an emergency.
I stare down at the text and seriously ponder how my brother has gotten this far in life. My only brother, as in we have no other siblings. I don’t know how many times I’ve told him he doesn’t need to announce himself in a text. I love my older brother but I’m almost positive Lana, our mother, dropped him on his head one too many times. The last time Ted told me there was an emergency, our mother was in the hospital and the board was staging a coup right from under our feet at Barlow Corp.
I hear the ring tone trill in my ear repeatedly before finally a voice comes over the line, “Silas?” my brother questions as if my name and number aren’t in his phone.
“Ted, what is going on? Is it Mom?” I question, trying to get to the root of the issue.
There’s some shuffling around and just barely in earshot, I hear Melinda, my sister-in-law tell him to be careful and get off the rocks. I wince because whatever he’s doing is surely going to end up in disaster.
“Silas, you have got to come out to North Carolina. It’s just beautiful and Melinda and I are having the best time. We pulled the RV into this cute little camp site right off the shore. Can you believe that? You don’t even have to lock your door.” It takes everything in me to not berate this man. It’s like ever since he’s retired, a whimsical spirit has emerged.
He used to be right beside me, negotiating the strictest deals and being what essentially most in the office referred to as a hardass. We started Barlow Corp. together and have been working side by side until about six months ago when Ted told me he wanted to retire and asked if I wanted to buy him out. Obviously, I wasn’t going to allow anyone else to buy his shares and hold a controlling stake in the company, so I agreed. I currently hold a majority controlling interest but the remaining shares I split and put back on the market. The last thing I needed was another attempted coup on my person.
Everything slowly changed when he met Melinda. She’s good for him in a way I didn’t think was possible. He’s happy with her and of course I want to see my brother happy. I could do without being dragged to mandatory family functions. Sitting through Thanksgiving and other such holidays with my brother’s family has me breaking out in hives.
“Theodore, quite frankly I don’t give a fuck about North Carolina and can’t even begin to get into it with you about your lack of security in locking your door. What. Is. The. Emergency?” I cut him off harshly because he has a tendency to ramble, and this is the exact reason I tell him to write everything down and email me. He will continue on until being firmly put into place.
“Hmm, no need to get snippy Si. I was just trying to share my retirement adventures with you. Now what did you say about Mom? Have you spoken to her?”
I swear if he was in front of me right now, I would smack him across the back of the head regardless of him being the eldest.
“No, I have not. Which is exactly why I asked if something was wrong because of your alleged emergency.” Clearly, nothing is wrong with Mom if he’s asking about her. He’s flighty, but when it comes to our mother, he’s always operating straight and narrow.
“Well, you see brother… you know Mel and I sold the house and we’ve been RVing around, but we may have forgotten to tell Zoey.”
Zoey. Young, pretty, sarcastic Zoey. My brother’s step-daughter. I can’t help but see her flash in my head with her golden-brown hair and green eyes. I had no business noticing her beauty when Ted and Melinda got married her senior year of high school, but over the last five years it gets harder and harder to ignore. Another reason why I try to limit my interactions with the family unit to the bare minimum. The less I see of her, the better.
“How do you just forget to tell your wife’s daughter that you sold her childhood home and are off traipsing across the East Coast?” I question because while they both fly by the seat of their pants, I find it baffling that the house that Melinda refused to move out of when they got married because of that connection to Zoey, was sold and they uttered not a word to the girl. Woman. Girl. Fuck. I need to get it together.
“It just slipped our minds. It’s fine, but we do have an issue now and we could use your help.”
There’s a pause and my mind is cycling, trying to figure out where he is going with this. What could he possibly need from me?
“Whoa, these rocks are slippery. I didn’t realize how far out I am. Okay, so Mel and I are enjoying our time together and can’t really have Zoey traveling with us. I haven’t worn clothes in the RV once and I don’t think she’d appreciate that.” He chuckles. Meanwhile, I shudder, thinking of my brother and his bare ass on every surface of the camper.
I’m confused on why Zoey would need to be in the camper or traveling with them. She just graduated a few months ago. I remember it vividly because of the silver leaf party invitations Melinda and my mother sent out. My presence was requested, but I read between the lines of Lana Barlow's personal note and knew that no matter how old I was, if my ass was not at the graduation party for her step granddaughter, she would never let me live it down. My mother’s ability to hold a grudge and wreak havoc on your life for any perceived slight is well known.
