Chapter 98

11 p.m. Friday

The group spent a little more than two hours at the track and everyone seemed to have a good time. Regan had watched as her young cousin had gravitated to Andy. She had worried that Tori would make a play for John Manley - and cause a lot of trouble with Lupe. Instead, it was Ashlyn that was the troublemaker.

Regan was well aware of how she'd treated her family in the past. But she wasn't aware of the enmity that the treatment had caused. The ride back to her house was where the awkwardness began. Tori wanted to ride with Andy - as did Regan, if she were honest. Ashlyn didn't want to ride with Regan for reasons Regan didn't understand.

Ruth had elected to ride with Chris so that left Joy to ride back with Regan. Then Tori and Ashlyn got into an argument over who got to sit in the front seat of the SUV with Andy. Andy was about to offer to let Ashlyn drive and sit in the back himself when Tori threw her hands up and climbed into the rear of the SUV. Ashlyn gave a triumphant smile as she got in the front - never realizing that her tantrum had caused everyone else to roll their eyes in disgust.

Ashlyn, who had been sullen and silent all evening long, was suddenly full of humor. Andy became readily aware that Ashlyn's favorite topic of conversation was ... Ashlyn. He glanced in the rearview mirror and caught Tori pretending to puke. He fought a grin as he listened to Ashlyn talk about her swimming exploits, her cool friends in West Hartford, her college choices and her favorite singers.

"I think Regan is giving away a lot of her Alyssa Grace collection if you're missing anything," Andy said when the singer's name came up.

Ashlyn frowned at the news.

"She told me there is a bunch of clothes upstairs that I can look through," Tori offered - just to see her sister's reaction.

"You'd take hand-me-downs from Regan?" Ashlyn hissed.

"You seem to be trying your best to latch onto something of Regan's," Tori said.

"Ignore her," Ashlyn said in her best "big sister" voice. "She gets this way when she's tired."

Tori shot Andy a "told-you-so" look and sat back in her seat with her arms crossed. Ashlyn continued her monologue the rest of the way to the Rileys' house.

"Was that the house your family is moving into?" Tori inquired as they neared the turn. Andy had described it to the girl once and she recognized even in the dark.

"That's it," Andy said. "If it were light, you could see Regan's house from the backyard."

"You're moving in next to your girlfriend?" Ashlyn asked with a scowl.

"My mom and dad are," Andy pointed out. "I'll be at school. They're becoming good friends with Rita and Robert. They go to dinner all the time."

"But what about when you break up?" Ashlyn asked.

"Maybe they don't plan to break up," Tori chimed in from the backseat.

"Well, we don't," Andy said as he followed Chris though the gate. "But even if we do, I think it would be in a way that we can still be friends afterward. At least I hope neither of us would so something so bad that we couldn't still get along."

Ashlyn was still pouting when the SUV came to a stop - but did her best to show Andy how great swimming had made her butt look in her tight jeans. They were cut so low that the top of her teal thong showed in the back.

Tori was still giggling when she got out beside Andy.

"Mine are purple," she said. She pulled the side of her shorts out to show him the top of her panties, too. "Didn't want you to think you missed out on something."

"What am I going to do with you?" Andy asked.

"Not the same thing Ashlyn plans to do with you!" Tori replied.

"Do I want to ask?" Regan wondered as she walked around the back of the car to greet her boyfriend.

"No!" Andy and Tori said in unison. Tori leaned over and gave Regan a kiss on the cheek.

"Tonight was a lot of fun," she said. "Thanks for inviting us."

"I'm glad you had a good time," Regan said. "Jesus, you've turned into an Amazon like your sister!"

"I might be tall but I'm not like my sister," Tori replied. "I'm tired of running interference so I'm going upstairs and get ready for bed."

She saw the lack of comprehension on Regan's face and gestured toward Andy.

"He can fill you in on Slut Girl," she said. She pinched Andy on the butt before she skipped into the house.

Regan watched Tori disappear around the car and then tilted her head at Andy.

"Slut Girl?" she asked.

Andy lowered his head and shook it before tilting his head backward to look at the stars.

"Slut Girl?" Regan repeated. "Did she try to do you in the car on the way back here?"

"Of course not," Andy said. "Look, Tori says that Ashlyn is jealous of you. She thinks that she should have all the things you got out of life. It didn't help that you used to ignore them all the time."

"Jesus, Andy," Regan said, looking toward the house where Joy, Chris and Ruth waited. Elizabeth and Paul had decided to take John and Lupe back home before it got too late.

"I'm just telling you what I was told," Andy said.

"Do you know why I left as soon as they showed up?" Regan asked, turning to him with tears in her eyes. "It's because I couldn't stand to be around the perfect fucking family when mine was such a mess. They got to grow up with two parents that have been there for them their entire lives! Mine were around for a few years at the beginning and then showed back up a couple of months ago. In between? In between it was almost like I didn't exist. Maybe I could do anything I wanted but that was because no one cared.

"Aunt Estrella and Uncle Scott have always put those girls first. There hasn't been a time when one of them was forgotten at school or had to spend a month with a nanny. She's jealous of me? Well, I'm fucking jealous of her! She can have all the shit I have if she would give me 17 years of having parents that give a shit about me."

Andy wrapped his arms around Regan as she cried softly on his shoulder.

"You need to tell that to both of them," Andy suggested. "They're under the impression that you just didn't like them or that you think you're better than they are. Tori said the last time she saw you before today, you walked right past her in the mall and didn't even acknowledge her."

"I was with some of my friends from prep school," Regan said with a sigh. "Most of the girls I hung out with were complete idiots most of the time. Look, do you know what diplomatic immunity is?"

"Sort of," Andy said.

"The girls I was with that day were daughters of people from the U.N.," Regan said. "They'd been shoplifting shit everywhere we went. I was so scared that we were going to get caught and I didn't want Tori involved in anything like that. What's worse, if I had of stopped, one of them probably would have tried to slip something she stole into Tori's purse. That's the sort of things those girls did. So I just walked right past her."

"Go up and talk to them," Andy suggested. "Tell them what you've just told me. I think it will make a lot of difference."

"What are you going to do while I'm talking to them?" Regan asked.

"I'm going to head back to the hotel," Andy replied.

"I didn't get to spend 20 minutes with you tonight!" Regan said.

"I know," Andy told her. "But we'll have more time to spend together. I think this is something you need to head off now before the whole week is ruined."

Regan studied Andy's face in the moonlight before nodding.

"I love you," she said. "And I'm sorry that our plans are so screwed up."

"We have time," Andy said again. "What are the plans for tomorrow?"

"I'm not sure," Regan admitted. "I'll call you in the morning."

"Sounds good," Andy told her. He gave her a soft kiss on the lips before getting in his SUV. Joy and Ruth had rooms at the Riley household so they'd be fine. They'd spent the previous week living there and knew their way around. He figured one or both of them would keep Chris entertained.

Regan watched Andy's taillights disappear down the drive. She turned to find her father standing behind her.

"He's not staying?" Robert asked.

Regan shook her head.

"I need to have a heart-to-heart with Ashlyn and Tori," she said with a sigh.

"About?" Robert wondered.

"A few misunderstandings from our childhoods," Regan answered.

"Did something happen tonight?" he inquired.

"Sort of, I guess," Regan told him. "Ashlyn ... I guess she either made a run at Andy or plans to. Tori hung out with him all night to keep her away."

"I'm going to ask you not to harm her," Robert said, putting his hands on Regan's shoulders and looking at her face.

"I'm not going to hurt her," Regan replied. "I'm just going to explain why she shouldn't feel jealous of me. She could do whatever she wants, Andy isn't going anywhere."

"Except home, I suppose," Robert said, frowning. "I hope Camille doesn't shoot him. I told her he could stay here tonight. I guess I should call her and let her know he's on his way back."

"Or you could have let me and him know the plan," Regan said with a huff.

"Or that," Robert said. "I guess it's just as well. I didn't relish the fight we'd have when we told you he was to stay in a guest room and not with you."

11 a.m., Saturday

Camille watched as Andy came out of his room and plopped down on the couch. He picked up the remote control and started to idly flip through channels.

"No plans for today?" she asked.

"None that include me," Andy answered.

Camille looked at him with pursed lips.

"So Regan has plans today," she said.

"Family Fun Day or something like that," Andy said with a sigh. "Chris is hanging out with Ruth. Elizabeth and Paul are having a picnic. Joy is helping her Dad with something."

"And poor Andy, the kid that six weeks ago had absolutely no life whatsoever, is left to twiddle his thumbs," Camille said.

"Pretty much," Andy agreed, unwilling to rise to the bait his mother had offered.

"Let me ask you this," Camille said, "in the olden days, before Regan Riley shone light upon your darkened world, what you have done today?"

"Laundry, paid bills, grocery shopping, cooked dinner for the week, gone to work," Andy said. "Now we send the laundry downstairs, you have an accountant to pay the bills, our meals are delivered and I'm unemployed. Any other smart-assed questions?"

Camille stared at him for a moment before laughing.

"Yeah, the luxurious life is pretty boring when you think about it," she said. "How about this? Why don't we take a drive to Palo Alto? We can walk around the campus, maybe check out your dorm assignment. We'll go out to a fancy-schmancy restaurant across the bay when we get back. We'll have our own Family Fun Day."

"Without Evan and Grandma," Andy pointed out.

"That's what they get for running off to Canada," Camille laughed. "It's that or we sit around here all day irritating the other."

"So you think we should irritate each other somewhere else?" Andy asked with a smile.

"Too many sharp objects around here," Camille replied. "What do you say?"

"Sounds like a plan," Andy said, arising. "Let me get a shower and change clothes. What do you think - a pair of the linen pants Grandma bought me and a pullover?"

"And you can even pick out one that might clash with Regan's complexion," Camille said. "Because I don't give a crap if I looked 'washed out.'"