Chapter 20

2 a.m. Saturday

Regan watched Andy's taillights pull out of her driveway, leaned her back against the door and sighed.

"Did you have fun this evening?" her father asked from the shadows. Her smile – and the minutes-long goodnight kiss at the door should have clued him in but he asked anyway. He had never had to wait up until the wee hours of the morning for his little girl to come home before. He liked Andy – and he trusted him to the extent any father can trust a teenage boy with his daughter – but he couldn't help but worry about all the things he'd failed to teach Regan about life.

"It was perfect," Regan gushed. "His mom is amazing. I mean, she treated me like I've been around for years."

"Did you meet his father?" Robert wondered. He was certain that would be the first question that Rita asked in the morning.

"No," Regan admitted. "I think Evan recognized that tonight could have been awkward enough without him there. I mean, God, what if his mom hated me?"

"I don't think any mother would hate you," Robert said.

"Shit, Dad, I was pretty sure my own mother hated me for most of my life," Regan pointed out.

Robert sighed. He didn't want to delve into this discussion in the middle of the night but he felt the need to correct Regan's assumptions.

"It wasn't that," Robert said. "She loves you. She even loves me. Her problem is that she doesn't really know how to express that love. Your grandparents pressured her into having children early. That was part of her trust."

"So she didn't want me," Regan said.

"You're taking my comments out of context," Robert pointed out. "She wanted you – she was just ill-prepared to deal with a child. She had her own goals and that meant sacrifices. If it is any consolation, she now realizes that she made the wrong choice."

"Fat lot of good that does me," Regan said bitterly.

"I know," Robert said with a sigh. "I think the conversation she had with you earlier in the week finally drove home how much anger you have toward her – and toward me. You and I are starting to develop a relationship and I hope you'll do the same for her."

"I just never know when she's pushing an agenda!" Regan seethed.

"She is always pushing an agenda," Robert stated. "Everyone has an agenda even if you don't see it at first. But if you're asking if I think her recent behavior is because she wants to push you toward Andy, I'm not certain. I think a large portion is because she recognizes that she has missed watching her amazing daughter grow into an adult. Honey, you're going to be surprised how quickly time slips away. It seems like only yesterday that you were learning to ride a bike. It seemed like we had all the time in the world to share things with you. Now you're heading off to college and the weight of that is coming down on both your mother and me. It's hard to watch you acting so grown up when I still want to give you piggy-back rides. I just can't fathom that in a few years, you might be a wife and a mother yourself. I know Rita is having the same problem. But she does love you. In fact, I think she'd willingly give away all of her money to have a few years to share with you."

"That's crap," Regan said.

"Well, most of her money anyway," Robert said, smiling warmly at her. "I know it's asking a lot but I hope you'll give us a chance to show you that we care. I also hope that you'll do things differently than your mother. I hope you leave your mark on the world but I also hope you remember how miserable your childhood was and raise your children differently. That's where your mom and I screwed up. We both went to prep school. We both moved around all over the place. We both were miserable as hell when we were your age. So what did we do? We subjected you to the same sort of life. I wish we would have stayed in New York. I understand why we moved out here but I think you were happier being a day student at Elizabeth Barrett Browning School than you are as a boarding student at Claiborne Benedict. But remember, it was your choice to be a boarder."

"That's because the last year we lived in New York it was the nanny who did everything for me," Regan pointed out. "Mom was flying out here four times a month to meet with startups looking for capital and you were busy holding things together at the Manhattan office. I honestly didn't figure it would make a difference where I spent the night. At least as a boarder, I had the chance to be around kids my own age. That's the thing, Dad. It wasn't only boys you sequestered me from. It was all kids. I could never have a sleepover because you were hosting dinner parties. I could never go to sleepovers because you were going to be out of town or out of the country or out of pocket during the weekends. You surrounded me with people that I could never truly be closed to. I spent the majority of my time in New York with a series of nannies. That's why I speak Spanish like I'm a native of the Dominican Republic!"

"I know and I'm sorry," Robert said as he looked at the floor. "I was never supposed to have such a large role in your mother's business. When you were born, I was going to be the caretaker. The truth is, I'm an overage kid. I never wanted to work. If corporate raiders hadn't stolen our family business from us, I never would have worked. Well, I wouldn't have worked very damned hard. That's for sure. But, things changed when you were about four. Grandpa and Grandma Riley lost the business they'd put their lives into and your mom nailed the InCo stock split and IPO. She suddenly became the biggest name on Wall Street – and I suddenly had to find a way to make money. Rita took a huge gamble with InCo. If she had been wrong, well, we might be living like Andy and his mom. We had pretty much every penny we could lay our hands on – and a whole lot of pennies that came from other people – wrapped up in that stock.

"The praise went to her head, I suppose. She started to spend more and more time building a bigger and bigger fortune. Her primary goal was to be the wealthiest woman in America. I honestly think she thought she could do it in a year or two and then she'd focus on her family."

"That is what I thought," Rita said from the shadows. She had overheard a great deal of the conversation. Robert had been right about a lot of things and she didn't see the need to correct him about the few things he'd guessed wrongly. "You have to understand, Regan, I was 26 years old when all this hit. It was sort of like a kid who goes pro out of high school. He suddenly has unimaginable wealth and he wants more and more and more."

"And, just like that kid, your mother had someone who was doing his best to spend it as quickly as she could make it," Robert added, putting his arm around his wife. Regan couldn't remember the last time she'd seen that. "That would be me, in case you didn't figure it out."

"It wasn't that bad," Rita said. She put her arm around Robert's waist and her head on his shoulder. "After InCo, I was a big deal on The Street. Investors were asking for me by name. Six months later, I pulled it off again. I put a ton of money into a pharmaceutical company. A couple of months after that, they announced a new stint for heart procedures and it took off again."

"That's when the Feds started sniffing around," Robert remarked.

"The Feds?" Regan asked incredulously.

"The Securities and Exchange Commission," Rita clarified.

"I know these names mean nothing to you but that was the time of Enron and WorldCom," Robert added. "A lot of huge corporations were caught in shady accounting practices. They were over-reporting their revenues so their executives and major investors could pocket huge sums of money. The SEC and Department of Justice were taking a hard look at every single investor who scored a win."

"They were looking to make sure I didn't have inside information," Rita clarified again. "I had to spend a lot of time at the office making sure we had every document in order. If you take business classes, you'll learn more about this. I just want you to know that I was completely clean. Well, I was clean then. Now, if they knew where to look, I might be in some trouble."

"So you tossed away your ethics for money!" Regan said with a trace of disgust in her voice.

"You're missing the point again," Rita said.

"Money was just how we kept score," Robert added. "It was about prestige! It was about having every single business student in the last decade know the name of Riley Capital Investments. It was about every corporate shareholder trembling in his boots when he heard that Rita Riley was taking a hard look at putting him out of business."

"Yeah, that makes it better," Regan said sarcastically.

"I've tried to look at things differently since your fiasco this spring," Rita told her daughter. "Believe it or not, I actually heard some of the things Andy said to me that morning. In the cold light of day, I understood it was the truth. I've had very little to do with your upbringing. The fact that you are, by most standards, an exceptionally well-behaved young lady is a credit to you and the series of caregivers your father found for you."

"Back to the point," Robert said.

"Please give me another minute, Honey," Rita proposed. Robert nodded his agreement. "At the time of your little ... escapade ... I had been offered the job as head of the President's Council of Economic Advisors – and I was seriously considering accepting the post."

"That would have been a huge cut in pay," Regan noted.

"Again with the money thing," Rita said with a sigh. "Your father was exactly correct. It was only a means of keeping score. A Cabinet position would have played into the other portion of my personality that has gotten way out of hand: my ego. I would have had a hand in formulating the economic policy that this country will carry forward for the next 20 years!"

"And you turned it down?" Regan wondered.

"It would have required a full-time move to D.C.," Rita said with a sigh. "I decided, after hearing Andy's assessment of my character – and finding out that you agreed with him wholeheartedly – that I would prefer to be closer to you. The reason I've been in D.C. so much the past couple of months is because I was asked to sit on the advisory board to select the person who will be offered the job. The President and I don't agree on many things so when he asked me to join his Cabinet, I was flattered. When I turned him down and he asked me to help him pick who would serve instead, I felt I couldn't refuse again. Agree or not, he is the President."

"So you decided to stay here ... for me?" Regan asked with a note of disbelief.

"For you, for Robert, for me, for us," Rita said with a shrug. "Then I stuck my damned foot in my mouth again at your school this week. I should have told you everything that was going on in Washington. I should have filled you in on my plans for Riley Capital in the coming year or two. Instead, I chose to believe you were a naïve child who wouldn't understand the intricacies of politics. When I heard of Andy's heritage, well, all the gains I'd made in correcting my character flaws flew out the window."

"Why?" Regan asked. "It's just a stupid title! It means nothing over here. He doesn't care and he doesn't want anything to do with it. He said he doesn't even think Evan can name his as his heir. It's confusing but Evan said that he won't push Andy either way. I don't want you to push him either. It doesn't matter!""

"It comes back to prestige," Rita admitted. "I was the fourth female member of Augusta National Golf Club. I am one of only three females to be named to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board. There are many things I've found a way to join when few other women could. The heredity aristocracy that exists in several countries is the one club in the world that I can't buy my way into. I can't force my way in and I can't coax my way in."

"But I could marry your way in," Regan said with disgust.

"Exactly," Rita confessed. "Even if Andy never gets a title, at some point, everyone will know him. That's the thing I'm not sure anyone understands. Evander Duffield is a distant relative of the Queen. He can trace his ancestors back to King George IV just like the Queen does. That means Andy Drayton is a distant relative of the Queen – whether she wants to acknowledge it or not. People are going to notice this and, even if Andy doesn't care, others will. The only way I have to be a part of the most exclusive club in the world – Great Britain's hereditary aristocracy – is to have you marry into it. Oh, I suppose I could marry into it but I think your father might be a bit displeased at that prospect."

Regan was surprised when her father nodded. She had expected him to stand silently – as he usually did when the topic of his happiness came up in conversation.

"We're working on moving things back to where they were when we were younger," Robert answered Regan's unasked question. "We had a nice long talk after your mother dropped you back at school after the ice cream run."

"Your father very graciously pulled my head out of my butt," Rita said with a smile. "He pointed out the other things the investigator learned about Andy and told me those were the most important things. Where he came from was far less important than what he's become."

"Regan, do you recall your great-grandfather Riley?" Robert asked.

Regan thought for a moment and then shook her head. She didn't understand the segue in the slightest but she didn't point that out. She was learning a great deal and she wanted to learn more.

"He passed away when you were still in diapers," Robert said. "But, oh how he adored you! One day soon, we'll sit down and look at pictures and you'll see that you were always loved. At least I hope you do. Anyway, my grandfather came from a background that made Andy Drayton look like ... Regan Riley. Grandpa Riley grew up in one of the poorest areas in Great Britain. He was drafted into the military during World War II. The town where he was born was – literally, I'm afraid – bombed into oblivion by the Germans. His entire family – mother, father, two brothers and a sister – were killed in German air raids during the Blitzkrieg."

Regan covered her mouth with her hand in shock.

"I didn't know," she admitted.

"It's a bit of family lore we don't talk about much," Robert admitted. "To his dying day, it was almost impossible for my grandfather to talk about it. You know, he never even finished school. He quit school to work in a factory. He was always good at tinkering. Well, since he had nothing, he decided to come to America. He got here in 1947 – and my father was born not long afterward. He found work in the oil fields of Oklahoma.

"One day, he started tinkering with one of the valves that was giving them fits. He said as he looked at it, he knew he could do it better. By the next year, he had developed a new device that made the industry much safer. He patented his idea and sold the patent to a group that still manufactures something similar today. My father used that money to invest in other energy sectors. As he got older, he took a few too many risks. He left himself open for a hostile takeover and someone did just that. He and Mom have enough money to live on but there won't be any to pass on to you, I'm afraid."

"I don't care about money!" Regan practically shouted.

"I know," Robert said in a soothing voice. "I was just pointing out that money can disappear pretty quickly if you're not careful – and also illustrating why I had to return to the work force. At the time, your mother hadn't made a name for herself. We were ... moderately well-off ... but we also had a large mortgage and car payments and all the other bills that young couples have."

"Plus, you might not have noticed, but kids cost a lot of money," Rita said with a laugh. "Doctors, dentists, diapers ... it adds up."

"What we want you to know is, despite the numerous mistakes we've made, we've always loved you," Robert said.

"I do want you to know that," Rita stressed. "I also wanted to tell you that I've come to appreciate your boyfriend for who he is and for how he treats you. Although I still wish he'd go to Stanford."

"He is," Regan told her. She realized that Andy had left that bit of information out the previous evening.

"Really?" Rita asked. Regan was sure she heard excitement in her mother's voice. "How did you convince him?"

"I didn't," Regan said. "I was content to let it be his choice. My roommate next fall wasn't. She gave back some of her scholarships because he was next in line. I told you that she knows Andy. Well, I've sort of started to wonder if she has some sort of obsession for keeping him nearby. She's dated the same guy since she was a freshman but I think she's always viewed Andy as her fallback plan."

Robert frowned slightly.

"And how does he view her?" he asked.

Regan shrugged.

"Truthfully?" she mused. "I'm not that worried about it. I know how he views me and that's all that's important. He and I might not work out. Personally, I think we will but people change. I guess I realized that this evening when I met Elizabeth's boyfriend for the first time. She's told me about him; Andy's told me about him. The guy I met was really nothing like they'd described. He got to college and it changed him. I like him. He seems ... more genuine ... than the guy they both told me about. But, I also wouldn't be surprised if Mom someday gets her invitation to the club she's trying to get into. At least that's my plan right now."

2:30 a.m. Saturday

As Regan was concluding an enlightening conversation with her parents, Andy was beginning an uncomfortable one with his mom.

Just as he had the night before, Andy slipped as quietly as possible into the apartment. The fact that no clean bowls rested in front of his door was all the evidence he needed that his mother had returned before him. Rico and his crew had never failed to wash their bowls and stack them neatly in front of the apartment door within minutes of finishing their food.

Andy wasn't trying to sneak in. He was concerned that his mother was asleep and he might wake her. Instead, he found her sitting on the couch looking at him.

"It's a little late, isn't it?" Camille wondered. Andy figured it was probably 2:30 in the morning. He had come home later than his a few times.

"Not really," he replied. "How was your night?"

"It was ... OK," Camille answered. "I was more interested in discussing your evening. Andy, I thought I made it perfectly clear that I thought you were moving a bit too fast with Regan. I expected, given the dance tomorrow night, to find you sound asleep when I got home. Instead, I found all of Regan's clothing – including her underwear – on your bed."

"She borrowed those shorts you hate and one of my shirts," Andy said with a shrug. "Regan figures this is about our, I don't know, I lost count, eighth or ninth date. And, in case you didn't know it, I had sex with Erin on our first date."

"And we saw how that turned out," Camille said flatly.

Again, Andy only shrugged.

"It turned out the way I expected it to," he replied. "I had no illusions about that situation – just like I have no illusions about where things are going with Regan."

"Andy, she is not ready," Camille asserted. "And you're not ready for the all-encompassing type of relationship that she is looking for."

"Don't you think it's for us to decide what we're ready for?" Andy shot back. "I seem to recall, not 10 hours ago, you sitting in that very spot and telling us that it was!"

"That's because I knew if I told you what I really thought you'd do it just spite me!" Camille said angrily.

"I don't want to talk about this with you," Andy said as he threw up his hands.

"That's too bad," Camille asserted. "I might treat you like an adult most of the time but you're still a child and you're a child living under my roof."

"Do you really want to play that card?" Andy asked angrily. "Because I'm pretty sure I can change that situation in about a second if push came to shove."

Camille took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"Andy," she said in a more reasonable tone, "I sat here silently while you let Erin walk all over you. At first, well, to be honest, I figured you were using her as much as she was using you. A girl like Erin deserves to be used a time or two and at least I knew you wouldn't leave her permanently damaged. As time progressed, it got worse but I still didn't say anything because I didn't want to turn into your grandmother. I wanted you to be able to live and learn, as it were. Then, in the course of about 10 minutes, she was gone and Regan was there. Do you know that you never even mentioned Regan's name to me until she called on the phone last week?"

She looked hard at her son.

"Last week!" she repeated. "This is a lot for me to take in. Eight days ago, I thought you were pining away for Erin – for some unknown reason. Then I wondered if there might be something going on with Elizabeth Pena. I've heard about her since you were 12 years old! I thought ... well, you weren't very forthcoming with me, Andy."

"You have absolutely no room to go there," Andy replied. He was standing the in the middle of the room, his arms crossed, glaring at her. She saw the muscles in his arms were bunched in anger. If she didn't already recognize that sign, the look on his face would have been all the clue Camille needed about her son's mood.

"And yet, I'm going to," Camille said. "Sit down and listen to me for a minute. Stop formulating your answers to my arguments while I'm talking and listen. Can you do that?"

"Truthfully?" Andy asked. "Probably not. I had a great night tonight. I was walking on air when I came up the stairs a few minutes ago. Now I'm getting a lecture from you about crap you should have either told me earlier or that you've flat-out lied to me about for years. That doesn't really give me much incentive for taking your views into consideration right now, Mother."

"I don't want to see you rush into something and wind up hurt," Camille replied with a sigh. "Damn it, you're the only thing I've cared about for 18 years. Honey, I spent a lot of time talking to Regan this afternoon. She's not looking for a young adult relationship. She's looking to you to make up for all the neglect she got from her parents. She is going to push and push things until you wake up one day, married with two kids and you're only 22 years old. That's an awesome responsibility – too much responsibility for you at your age."

Andy clenched his jaw to keep from speaking before he could marshal his thoughts.

"Let me explain something," he said in clipped tones. "Then this conversation is done – for tonight and forever. After you left, yes, Regan and I did a few things that every teenage boy does with his girlfriend. We kissed for a while. We touched each other in intimate places. We did a few other things that you don't need to know about and I wouldn't tell you about if you did. What you need to understand is that we did not make love ... or have sex ... or screw like bunnies ... or any other way you want to phrase it. Then we went to a party with Elizabeth and her boyfriend where we talked with our friends and to each other. We all went to a diner where we ate and talked about college and what we could expect there. Paul – that's the guy Elizabeth has been dating since she was 14 – is already at Stanford. Then I drove Regan home and came back here.

"I could have spent the night at her house. We could have gone somewhere else and spent the night together. We could have stayed here and done anything we wanted to do and been sitting like proper angels holding hands and drinking cocoa when you came home. I understand what Regan is looking for and it isn't what you think. She's looking for a safe way to live life a little bit. Yes, we have feelings for each other – real feelings, Mother. Regan is looking for a way to find the little spot in the universe that's all her own. She no longer is willing to fit into the niche her parents think she should occupy – and, Mother, I am no longer willing to fit into the niche you think I should. I'm going to bed. I have to pick up my tux before noon. Good night."

"Wait!" Camille said, tears forming in her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. "I'm sorry if you think I'm trying to make a decision for you. I don't want you to think I dislike Regan. I really don't. I thought she was sweet and genuine today. I don't think she is trying to deceive you or that the person you see is not who she really is. I hope I didn't give you that impression. I just ... it's all such a big change for me, Andy. This whole week has been something I've dreaded since you were probably five or six years old. OK? You have been my whole life for my entire adulthood. You are my everything! I just ... I don't want you to look back in two or three years and regret something when a word or two from me now can prevent it."

Andy couldn't remember if he'd ever seen his mother cry in front of him. He'd heard her crying before and he'd seen red eyes and a raw nose some mornings when she came out for breakfast but he didn't think she had shed tears in front of him. He sat down on the couch and hugged her to him as she cried harder.

"I know it's been a weird week," he said soothingly. "We're all a little out of whack right now."

He felt Camille nod against his shoulder and he kissed her on top of the head.

"I know you mean well," Andy said after a sigh. "But you always warned me that I need to be careful about how I say things ... that people can hear a single word or a tone of voice and completely miss the rest of the message. Maybe that's what happened this evening. I felt like you were accusing me of something. Mom, we didn't do anything bad this evening. We didn't do anything that either of us will regret tomorrow, or next week or in 15 years. Yes, Regan wants to experience that part of a relationship. The thing is that she wants to experience every part of a relationship because she's never had one with anyone.

"She doesn't really have friends. Her parents ... well, let's just say I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and I'm hoping they recognize their role in things. But here's what you're missing, Mom. I'm not that much different from Regan in a lot of ways. I don't have friends either. I've never really had a relationship worth talking about. Grace Evans in ninth grade is probably the closest thing I've ever had to something normal with a girl. I know you worried about Erin but, and please don't think I'm being a jerk ... I figured out pretty quickly that she and I had more of a transaction than a relationship. She wanted to feel special ... to be in control. I got to go to some cool parties, hang out with the popular kids and ... uh ... have sex with a girl who liked to have sex. I knew it wasn't long term. I knew that once I went off to college, she'd be just a memory. If things had turned out differently, it would have been a fond memory. But, well, I got tired of being her doormat and started to stand up for myself. I started to assert some control in the relationship and she didn't like it one bit.

"With Regan, it's different. She could find enough money under her car seats to buy us a dozen times. Did you get the impression that she thinks that makes her better than us?"

"No," Camille said with a sniff. "I got the opposite impression – that she was embarrassed not that we lived here but that she lived where she does. I told you I like her, Andy."

"Well, to be blunt, you've told me a lot of things lately that haven't really been true when all the facts came to light," Andy said. "We can talk about that in a day or two, I guess. Right now, I want you to know that Regan and I are moving at a pace that is comfortable for both of us. We're not going to run off to Las Vegas the day we turn 18. I think we got a real understanding that what we're feeling right now might not last past our first semester in college. Paul is a lot different than I remember him and that sort of threw me a little bit. Regan told me on the way home that he didn't seem like the same guy I described to her. That's because he isn't the same guy. The thing is, Mom, I'm not the same guy who started to go out with Erin Cooley last summer either. I'm not even the same guy she broke up with a couple of months ago."

"I know and that's part of what worries me," Camille admitted. She sat up from Andy's shoulder and looked at him with red-rimmed eyes. "I loved that guy, Andy."

"And you don't love me now?" Andy asked with a smile.

"Of course I do," Camille said.

"The change was going to happen eventually," Andy told her. "Every person goes from who he was to who he is at some point in his life. I really and truly think that having Regan in my life has made my transition easier than most – for me, at least. I'm happy with who I'm becoming, Mom. Yeah, Regan gets some of the credit, I guess. But you're the reason I'm comfortable facing the future. You told me once that some of the lessons you'd taught me weren't the right ones. I hope you know that, eventually, everything you try to teach me sinks into my thick skull so I've thought about what you said. There is one lesson I learned from watching you that I don't want to repeat. I'm not going to be a hermit. I'm not going to let a single mistake isolate me from the rest of the world. That's what you did, Mom. I can see it as plainly as the nose on my face. You made a mistake when you turned down Evan's proposal – or you think you did. It wasn't a capital offense. You didn't have to give up your life because of it. I hope, in hindsight, you can see that now."