Chapter 106

4:30 p.m. Monday

"Your mother is either an idiot or a far better person than I am," Camille declared. "Because I was ready to strangle the little shit 10 minutes after I met her."

Evan, Anne, Regan and Andy were seated in the suite after picking Camille up from work. Regan had just informed the group that her mother had taken Ashlyn to work with her for the afternoon. Now she laughed at Camille.

"I'm not sure it's either," she said. "I ... I think she sees a little of herself in Ashlyn. Uncle Scott told us some pretty harrowing stories of his childhood."

"More harrowing than the stories from your childhood?" Andy wondered.

"About the same but from different ends of the spectrum, I think," Regan replied after a moment of consideration. "With me, it was indifference. She didn't actively cause me torment. That's what she did with Uncle Scott. She seemed to have a knack for finding out what he wanted most - and then making sure he didn't get it."

"Have I mentioned lately how happy I am that I'm your only child?" Andy asked with a laugh. Camille and Evan shared a look but didn't speak.

The awkward moment was avoided when Evan's cell phone rang. He quickly got up to answer it - and then moved as far away from the conversation as he could.

"So, what's on your agenda tonight?" Camille asked her son.

"I think we're on babysitting duty," Andy replied.

"We're going to have a small gathering at the house," Regan corrected, shaking her head at Andy. "In fact, I need to call some people to make sure it is a gathering. Is it OK if I use Andy's bedroom to make some calls?"

Camille bit back a comment about Regan using Andy's bedroom for a lot of other purposes previously and simply nodded. She concluded that Andy had caught the look she had given Evan because his eyes didn't follow Regan's butt out of the room.

Regan passed Evan returning from the hallway where he had concluded his conversation. Evan was smiling broadly - and he didn't look at Regan's rear end either, Camille noticed.

He sat down and looked at Camille.

"That was my solicitor," he said with a grin. "The offer has been accepted and we can close late in the week."

"That seems quick," Camille noted. She saw Andy's frown deepen at this additional news.

"The financing was in place and the owner is motivated to sell," Evan said with a shrug. "These things only take time if there are issues. In this case, there aren't. We could be moved in by this weekend."

"Uh, Andy has a lot going on this weekend," Camille replied.

"Oh, I haven't forgotten that!" Evan said, reaching over to pat his son on the arm. "But, truly, how long do you think it will require for us to set up house? We're all essentially living from suitcases."

"True," Camille admitted, glancing at her son to gauge his reaction. The frown had left but his face showed no other expression. "Andy?"

He simply shrugged. He had accepted that the house wouldn't be his home anymore than the hotel (or the inner city apartment) had been. It made no difference to him if he stayed there or somewhere else.

Evan turned and saw his son's stony expression.

"Andy, the suite here was only a layover for all of us," Evan told him.

"I know," Andy admitted. "Really, it's fine."

"We can delay if you want us to," Evan told him. "I know you've been through a great many changes lately. I'm sorry that we really haven't sat down to discuss this with you fully. But, in our defense, you've been gone quite a bit lately."

"No, it's fine," Andy said - although he wasn't certain he was telling the truth. "I can't really be a consideration in this."

"You're a consideration in everything," Anne said. She tried to gesture for Evan and Camille to let her talk to Andy alone but they were looking at her grandson. "You two, scram. I want to talk to Andy for a bit."

Camille stood but Evan looked across the table.

"Mother, remember what I told you in Toronto," he said. "This is one of those boundaries you ought not to approach."

Anne met her son's glare with one of her own.

"And this is one of those times when you can't get out of your own damned way," she said. "Now go somewhere and do something and let me speak to my grandson. If you decide to put me on plane back to England right afterward, so be it."

Andy's gaze shifted from his grandmother to his father.

"You threatened to send Grandma home?" he asked incredulously. Evan continued to stare at his mother but nodded slightly.

"Your grandmother needs to understand that there are still decisions in your life that belong solely to your mother," Evan said. "This is one of them. In a couple of weeks, you'll be free to decide upon your residence. Right now, you cannot. That is the simple fact of the matter. This decision rests solely with Camille - not with you, not with me and certainly not with your grandmother."

"This is fucked up beyond belief," Andy said, shaking his head.

"Andy!" Camille said sharply.

"What else would you call it, Mom?" he asked angrily. "Yeah, I get this is out of my hands. I have no problem with that. But threatening to send Grandma home is just fucked up. I can't think of any other way to phrase it."

Regan had started down the hallway, heard the raised voices and immediately retreated. Andy heard his bedroom door shut again.

"In Evan's defense, I earned the threat," Anne said. "I have overstepped my authority on several occasions. I wanted to speak to you privately so ... well, to be perfectly frank, so I wouldn't hurt Camille's feelings. That said, she is a big girl and I think she'll understand what I'm about to tell you - and I'm going to say this to you, consequences be damned."

She took a deep breath.

"While I'm happy that your mother has returned to our lives, I don't really give a rat's ass about Camille - other than the fact that she is your mother," Anne stated. "Whether or not she was in the picture at all, I would have moved here to be close to you. I decided that on the very night I met you. If Evan stayed, that was fine. If Camille liked it, all the better. Either way, I was going to find a place near to you. Evan decided the exact same thing - well before Camille made up her mind about what she wanted from life.

"The house - a house - was going to be purchased and we were going to live there. The fact that you and your mother will live there with us is simply a bonus. I will admit that it will save me from learning how to drive. The simple fact is that your father, for all of his obvious faults, has grown to love you very quickly. I have grown to love you just as quickly. Evan's threat is relatively toothless. If he were to send me away, I would come back. But, I will be more circumspect in trying to dictate my agenda in the place of your mother's. That was my greatest sin."

"And what agenda is that?" Andy asked.

Anne sighed.

"I want you to be as proud to be a Duffield as the Duffields are to have you," she admitted.

"I am proud of you both," Andy cut in.

"I don't want you proud of us," Anne said. "I want you to be proud of you. I want you to look at yourself and see the same thing that I see - a thoughtful, kind young man that I am thrilled to have as my grandson."

"I do see myself that way," Andy protested.

"No," Anne said. "You don't. You see the young man who was raised by a single mother in the poorest of neighborhoods. You believe yourself to be someone who, by sheer luck, has found himself in places he never thought he'd see. That simply isn't the case. All that you have, you've earned - either through hard work or good deeds or a sweet demeanor. The fiasco last night was my silly way of trying to show you that your family is just as influential as Regan's - and that you are just as good as you believe her to be."

"Mother," Evan said in a warning voice.

"Let her finish," Andy said, raising his hand like a traffic cop.

"I am not trying to disparage Regan at all," Anne continued. "I'm simply pointing out that she is as lucky to have you as you are to have found her."

"Which is what I've always believed," Regan said. She had heard the voices lower and thought it was safe to return. She had overheard much of what Anne had told Andy. "In fact, I believe I'm far luckier. I told one of my friends something similar. I said that if we stopped a hundred random people, explained our situations to them and ask their opinion, 99 would say that Andy is the lucky one. I've always known differently and I hope I haven't given you a reason to think otherwise."

"You haven't," Anne said, smiling softly at Regan. "But he doesn't get it yet. I'm not saying that one of you is better than the other. I'm simply trying to get across to him that he's not the lesser light in your relationship. Both of your stars shine equally as brightly. Now you can call the same neighborhood home; you'll go to the same university; you'll be equal in all the ways that Andy appears to place importance. As I said, Andy, your happiness is the primary consideration we put on every decision we make. Even when we don't discuss them with you beforehand, Evan and I are trying to do what we see your mother has always done; to make sure our actions are done to benefit you in some way."

"I'm sorry for walking in on that," Regan said from the passenger seat of Andy's SUV. They were returning to the yacht to retrieve the items they'd left behind that morning.

He gave a slight shrug.

"I've seen enough arguments at your house that it's good you know that happen at my house, too," he said, offering a smile that he didn't really feel.

"Can I ask what caused it?" Regan wondered. "I mean, everything was fine when I went back to call Joy and Ruth."

Andy glanced out his window. The rain had come back and the droplets on the glass made the passing buildings glisten.

"The house," he replied after a moment.

"What about it?" Regan asked, tilting her head in concern. She'd never seen Andy so uncommunicative. He'd barely spoken in anything more than single syllable words for the last 10 minutes.

"They bought it," he answered tonelessly. "They can move in this weekend."

"That's great!" Regan said, shifting in her seat to look at him fully.

"Is it?" he asked, his mouth turning downward.

Regan continued to look at him for another block.

"Andy, you can talk to me about anything," she said, putting a hand on his arm. "Tell me what's bothering you."

Andy sighed and glanced in her direction. She was studying him carefully, a look of concern on her face. He rubbed his lips and looked away.

"It's just so quick," he began. "Evan's been back in town for three weeks and they're moving in together! How do you think Mom would react if I told her that you and I were getting a place of our own? She'd go crazy - first with anger that I was doing it without talking to her about it and then with worry that things wouldn't work out between us. It's no different! She's rushing headlong into something, praying that it works out the way she wants. That's not Mom. And I can't say anything without everyone turning it around on me - like I'm the whiny little kid who doesn't want to move."

He hit the windshield wipers and watched them glide across the windshield. It was only when they were resting in their cradle again that Andy realized that his blurry view came from tears in his eyes.

He swore and used the back of his hand to wipe them away. Regan watched him and her heart went out to him. But she knew there was nothing she could do or say to make it better.

"Then Evan points out that I'm out of the loop because I haven't been around," Andy continued. "And he's right. I've spent every minute I could with you and when I'm around them we don't talk about important things."

"Why don't you just drop me off at the boat and go back there?" Regan offered. "I can call someone to pick me up."

"You heard what she said," Andy said bitterly. He had asked Camille if it was OK for him to go to Regan's house for the evening. She had replied that she hadn't really expected to even see him again until Friday afternoon. Andy didn't get the impression that she was joking.