Page 49 of The Perfect Son
“You’re right. I’d better go,” I say, stepping toward the gate. Jamie is on the zipline now, zooming back and forth, oblivious to the weather.
“Tess, wait.” Ian reaches behind him into the back seat before opening the driver’s door and stepping out beside me with one of those large white golf umbrellas in his hands.
He opens the umbrella and moves nearer so that we’re both sheltered from the rain. I don’t like how close he is.
“Tess, please. We can’t keep having conversations like this.”
“Why not?” I ask.
“What do you mean, why not?”
“I mean, you never bothered with me or Jamie, or Mark, for that matter, before the plane crash. The only reason you’re bothering now is because you want me to sort out Mark’s will and look for your money.”
“That’s not true at all, Tess.”
“Isn’t it? You’ve never liked me—admit it.”
My words hang in the damp air. The only sound is the pattering of rain on the umbrella.
“What difference does it make now whether I liked you or not?” Ian says with a long sigh. “Not everyone is supposed to get on.”
“Right.” I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t an admission. “But you never tried to get to know me.”
“You and Mark didn’t give me a chance. The first time I heard anything about you was from Mum when she phoned me up to tell me that Mark had got a girl pregnant. When I met you, all you talked about was giving up work and having a family. What was I supposed to think? You saw Mark as your golden ticket to an easy life.”
“Easy life? Does any of this look easy to you?”
“No, it doesn’t. And for what it’s worth, my first opinion was probably wrong. You and Mark clearly loved each other.”
“But not everyone is supposed to get on,” I finish for him.
Ian shrugs and I find myself fixated on his eyes, your eyes. “We’re different people.”
“So why are you here then? If you don’t like me, then why are you bothering?”
Ian looks past me to the playground and Jamie, now standing on one of the swings and swaying back and forth, higher and higher. “You’re the closest thing to family I have left. I want to help you. I want us to get on. It’s what Mark would’ve wanted.”
Tears swim in my eyes at the mention of your name. “I have to go.” I back away until the rain hits the top of my head.
Ian stands for a moment as if he might follow me, but then he moves back to the car. “If you change your mind, give me a call,” he shouts over the sound of the rain.
I hurry through the gate, breaking into a run for no reason at all except wanting distance from your brother and a sudden need to be near Jamie.
My head spins with Ian’s words.“You’re the closest thing to family I have left. I want to help you.”
Does he? Why don’t I believe him?
There has to be more to this than brotherly obligation, I’m sure of it. And there is no way I’m signing that form until I find out what it is.
CHAPTER 29
Wednesday, March 14
25 DAYS TO JAMIE’S BIRTHDAY
Tessie, remember our honeymoon in Scotland and the evenings in the little B and B when Jamie slept like a log and we cuddled up together trying to stop the bed creaking?
Please don’t. Not today, Mark. I don’t have it in me today.
