Page 4 of We Thought We Knew It All
“I want to talk about optioning your book.” The woman on the line wouldn’t quit.
“Are you coming out, Mom?” Liam yelled again.
I searched the floor for my shoes, wishing once again that I’d gotten the organization gene my brother had.
“Aha,” I mumbled to myself, finding a pair of sneakers.
“Mom.”
“Ms. McCoy.”
“Cal, you coming?” Of course, throw my father into the mix.
“Ms. Knight,” I said. “I’m sorry you’ve wasted your time. The rights toEmmaare not for sale and if they were, Hendrick’s productions would be first on the list. Have a good day.” I hung up and jammed the phone in my pocket before swinging open my door to find Liam and his younger brother, Declan, waiting.
“Hi, guys.” I ruffled Liam’s copper hair and swung Declan up into my arms. “What has grandpa made for breakfast?”
“Star Wars pancakes.” Liam’s smile widened and my gut clenched. It was getting better, but Liam and Declan both looked so much like their father - perpetually tanned skin, copper hair, and deep mesmerizing green eyes. Jackson, the oldest, was more like me in every aspect.
“Morning dad.” I leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. We’d been living with him for the past eight months. I would have felt bad, but I thought he secretly liked us all here and his house was definitely big enough.
“Hi, darlin’.” He smiled. “Heard you up bright and early on the phone.”
“A and P again.” I rolled my eyes and started cutting up a pancake for Declan. “I told them I already had a buyer forEmma.”
“You would if you’d actually let me buy it.”
“I thought we were done with this conversation,” my brother, Colby, said walking into the room. “She says it took her nine years to finish the damn thing - her word, not mine. And you said that’s why you should handle it and no one else. Did I miss anything or can I go play with my nephews?”
He shot me a wink as he plucked Declan from my arms and took his plate from the counter.
It was always strange seeing Colby in L.A. He felt like home, but not this home. I’d been in California for almost ten years now. One marriage, three kids, and a book later, and I didn’t feel much different from when I came here. I was still scared, sarcastic, and aimless. Now I just had more responsibility.
When Colby came to visit, it reminded me of all of that, but of good things too. He was always telling me to relax, to have fun. Sometimes I forgot to do both. Kat and Jay were regular visitors over the years, but I never went to them. Kids were my excuse, but I had my other reasons.
Too many memories. I still woke up some nights and listened for footsteps outside the door or saw the faces from that locker room out on the street. The shooting was ten years ago, but some things never faded from memory.
While the kids ate, I scrolled through emails on my phone. A and P again. When were they going to stop? It took me nine years of starting and stopping to produce a finished book. My mother’s story. The beginning of mine. The mystery of Emma Bay was now solved for the world. I wrote it under the name C. Bay, but many who knew my father made the connection.
I refused every interview request and my publisher hated me for it at first. Then the sales numbers quieted them down. It turned out, the people wanted to know the truth behind one of Hollywood’s big mysteries.
I was eighteen when I found out my mother was the Hollywood starlet who disappeared from prying eyes. Emma Bay wasn’t her real name, allowing her to melt into a small town in Florida to escape the father of her boyfriend, my grandfather. God, it was such a mess and every time I thought about it, I felt so sad for her.
But she had a good life with us before she died. I think. We were twelve - old enough to remember her as happy.
It wasn’t until I got to know my dad that I realized everything she’d left behind.
Now it was me walking away from the man I thought I’d loved. Only this time, he didn’t love me back.
I shoved Dylan from my mind and joined the boys at the table. He didn’t stay gone for long when I looked into their faces.
He didn’t love them enough either.That fact broke my heart more than anything.He didn’t even fight for them.
* * *
I stoodon the edge of the water at Venice Beach with the pier looming nearby. It was crowded as it always was on a Saturday. Heck, it was packed pretty much every day of the week. Such was Los Angeles.
When I arrived ten years ago, it was all so new, exciting. I’d come as a scared and broken girl and let the thrill overwhelm me. My dad turned out to be more than I was expecting, and my grandma took me under her wing.
