Chapter 8

3:45 p.m. Monday

Regan and Joy walked back to their dormitory after their final class – Trigonometry.

"So I'm going to his house Friday night," Regan told Joy. "I'm a little nervous about meeting his mom. She sounds like a very formidable woman."

"She raised a formidable son," Joy said with a smile.

Regan glared at her friend.

"Well, he is," Joy persisted. "Mom asked me yesterday if I was planning to change my admission to San Jose State if things don't work out with you and him. She seemed to think it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world."

"Things will work out," Regan said through gritted teeth.

"I hope they do," Joy said. "I was just jerking your chain a little. But Andy is a pretty cool guy. He is going to make quite a splash at our dance."

"He'll be fine," Regan said. Her voice was clipped because she was still pissed that Joy appeared to have no problem announcing that she planned to make a run at her boyfriend if the chance arose.

"He will," Joy agreed. "Do you want to share a table with us?"

"Who are you going with?" Regan asked. She couldn't remember who Joy had mentioned as her date.

"Robert Holmes," Joy said with a frown. "Dad set it up."

"I think we'll find somewhere else to sit," Regan said.

"Maybe I can join you and leave Robert to sit alone with his ego," Joy replied, grinning.

"Don't make a play for Andy at the dance," Regan said, stopping and taking Joy by the upper arm.

"What?" Joy asked.

"You heard me," Regan said.

"I wouldn't do that," Joy said. "I was trying to be funny about what my mom said. I mean, I wanted you to know that I think Andy is a good guy. Sorry if I sounded, I don't know, like a slut or something. I didn't mean it that way. Besides, you don't have to worry about anything."

They resumed walking to the dorm.

"It's all so new to me," Regan said eventually. "I'm worried that I'm going to turn out to be something a lot different than Andy thinks I am."

"You're being silly," Joy told Regan. "I think Andy is going to like you more than ever the longer you're together. When I see you and Andy together, I don't know, it's like watching two halves become a whole."

"You think?" Regan asked.

"Oh, yeah," Joy said. "Even my mom said so. You'll be fine."

"So you liked him?" Regan asked unnecessarily.

"I thought he was great," Joy said. "He was, I don't know, real. I thought you were great, too. The way you took my dad down was awesome. 'Look, Billy, ' I loved it. The important thing is whether you like him."

"I really do," Regan said. "I know I told you about our first night together. We had such a great time. Then Saturday was perfect. It was perfect – everything I hoped it would be, everything I dreamed it would be. I was nervous about having him up here. I'm a little more nervous about the dance. I could control the situation up here. At the dance, it's going to be more difficult. I would really hate for someone to be a jackass to him. I'm not sure that I could keep from kicking someone's ass for her."

"Harmony is bringing her boyfriend," Joy advised. "Ruth probably has a date with the kid of one of her dad's business associates."

"I am already going to kick the shit out of Ruth as soon as my diploma is my hand," Regan said, her teeth gritted again. "Harmony better keep her boyfriend on a leash. I saw Andy put the hurt on a guy who was a lot scarier than Dirk Reynolds – and Harmony already knows that I'll kick her ass."

Joy laughed.

"Everyone knows you'll kick her ass," she said, covering her mouth with her hand. "Will you see him before Friday?"

"I wish," Regan said. "We'll talk on the phone. We found out something amazing yesterday and we have a lot to talk about it."

"What did you find out?" Joy asked.

"I can't say right now," Regan said. "But it's huge. I think it will be just what I need to get him to come to Stanford with me."

"With us," Joy corrected with a grin.

"Yes," Regan agreed with a frown. "With us."

"Oh, lighten up," Joy replied. "But you think he'll come to Stanford."

"I hope he does," Regan told her. "I ... I think if he goes somewhere else, I'll lose him."

"Why?" Joy asked.

"What's he going to do when all the coeds at San Jose State throw themselves at him," Regan answered with a frown.

Again, Joy laughed.

"He'll do the same thing he's done the past couple of months," Joy said. "He'll bide his time until he sees you again. Regan, look, Andy would be stupid to let you go."

"Because I'm rich," Regan said.

Joy shook her head.

"Because you're you," she replied.

5 p.m. Monday

Andy jumped when the phone rang. His mother wasn't home yet but he expected her any minute. He was fixing hamburgers and French fries for supper. He had fried the hamburgers as soon as he got home – because he expected Regan to call him as soon as her classes ended.

She hadn't. He had the burgers in a warming pan in the oven when a call finally came.

But it wasn't Regan.

"Andy?" the voice asked after he answered. "This is ... Evan, Evan Duffield."

"Hello, Sir," Andy said with a smile. Even if he had known other people named Evan, the British accent would have given it away.

"I think you can call me Evan, if you'd prefer," the man told him.

"Thank you," Andy replied automatically. "Mom isn't home from work yet."

"She got her job back?" Evan asked. Andy had told him that Camille had two jobs but, with all the other information that had been imparted, it hadn't stuck.

"Her first job," Andy said. "She has two – or she did. I finally convinced her that she should use my college money on herself. That account represents about six years of work at the bakery. Without me taking up a bunch of her money, she should be good with only one job now."

"Where else does she work, Andy?" Evan wondered.

"At Risotti's Towing," Andy answered. "She pretty much does everything but drive the trucks and sweep the floors."

Evan was quite for a moment.

"I expected bigger things from her," he admitted. "Your mom is, well, she is intelligent and driven."

"Well, things didn't work out that way," Andy said with a touch of heat in his voice. "Something about having a child to take care of all alone. She used her intelligence and drive to make sure I turned out well – even if it meant that she had to push her own dreams into the back."

"I'm sorry, Andy," Evan said. "That came out badly. I didn't mean it in the manner it was said. Please know that if I had any notion of how things truly were, I would not have allowed it to happen as it has."

"Allowed?" Andy asked, his back still up. "Evan, no offense, but Mom calls the shots. Things happened as she knew they would. She's had your number since you left. If she wanted your assistance, she would have contacted you. The fact that she didn't should tell you that she didn't need or want your help."

"Of course," Evan said. "Andy, I'm very off-kilter here. Please understand that. I believe that my words have come out in a way that I didn't intend. I was very fond of your mother. No, that's not correct. I am very fond of your mother. I have wished for my entire adult life that I had been able to convince your mother to marry me. Now that I know about you, I wish that I had been a part of your life from the outset – and if I had known, I would have done my utmost to do just that. Has your mother told you how we parted?"

"Some," Andy told him, his temper abated slightly. "I understand that my grandmother disliked the fact that you weren't Catholic. Mom had to choose between you and her and, as she has said, she chose badly."

"She said that?" Evan cut in. Andy thought there might have been a hint of hopefulness in the voice.

"Given the fact that we live in a subsidized apartment in a high-crime neighborhood and she works 100 hours a week just so we can eat macaroni and cheese, I think that it is a pretty obvious statement," Andy replied.

"Of course," Evan replied. The hopefulness Andy had heard before was gone. Was it possible that Evan Duffield, the Earl of Smithfield, still harbored feelings for a woman who had scraped and scrounged for everything in her life (and in his)?

Andy decided that the man could do a lot worse.

"So tell me a little more about yourself," Evan said.

"Well, I'm not sure where to start," Andy admitted. "I turn 18 on June 18th. I graduate high school in three weeks. I plan to attend San Jose State in the fall. I think I'm going to study business and marketing but my first year I'm going to take general classes to assess my options. But don't worry, I plan to stay away from a liberal arts degree. Those are worthless."

"Yes, I've heard that," Evan commented with a laugh. "If not for my family's holdings, my art history degree would probably have led me to seek out Cami for a loan."

"That would have been funny," Andy commented. "What happened after you left the United States?"

"I came back to England," Evan replied. "I went to the University of the Arts in London where I finished my worthless degree. Like your mother, I spent my young adulthood spiting my parents. They wished for me to attend Oxford – as my father had done – and find a nice, upper-class debutante for my bride. We would live in the country, have many proper English babies and live a perfectly miserable existence – as my family had done for generations."

"Instead, I flew off to America," Evan continued. "I planned to be a surfer and become a sculptor. The only flaw in my plan was that I lacked the talent to do either. Instead, I transferred into the art history program at St. Mary's, met your mother and fell in love."

"I'll bet your parents were as thrilled as Mom's," Andy remarked dryly.

"Oh, they were a bit upset until they met Cami for the first time," Evan agreed. "She came over for Christmas and she completely won them over. My mother found a kindred spirit in yours. My mother had longed for a life outside of society. She wanted a job. She wanted to have a life of meaning instead of a life of relative privilege. Your mother was the same way. Cami was studying to be a veterinarian, did you know that?"

"I didn't," Andy admitted.

"Oh, yes," Evan said, his voice filled with happiness. "And she would have been dandy. She was only a freshman when we met. I was smitten from the first moment I spoke to her. But I always knew she would be successful at whatever path she chose. I believe from that moment, I wished for nothing less than a life by her side. I was saddened beyond belief when first she told me she had to consider my proposal and then decided against it. I tucked my tail between my legs and returned to England. St. Mary's was too small for us not to see each other occasionally and I knew I could not bear that. I quit school and came home the week after she told me she wouldn't consent to marry me."

All the happiness that Andy had heard in the previous few moments was gone as Evan relived that moment of his life – the bitterest disappointment he had ever experienced. Andy thought it best to change the subject.

"So did you work in a museum or anything after you graduated?" he asked.

"For a while," Evan said. "My father took ill shortly after I began my career. Although our holdings are far less extensive than in the past, they do require someone to look after them. I had always believed it would be my mother. Instead, she foisted the responsibility off to me and began the life she had always wished to lead. Would you believe that your grandmother runs a daycare?"

"I will assume that you mean your mother and not Mom's," Andy commented. "That hateful old woman would be just as likely to smother them with a pillow as to nurture them."

"Indeed," Evan said. Andy detected the trace of anger in Evan's voice that mirrored the one in his own.

"Uh, so your mother is still alive?" Andy asked hesitantly.

"Oh, yes," Evan replied brightly. "Alive and well, spry and spritely and all that. It was all I could do to refrain from calling her to tell her about you. She will be singularly pleased to know that she has a grandchild – and then she will throttle me for not keeping tabs on Cami, thereby denying her the right and privilege of spoiling you rotten. But I believed that it would be best to wait to see if you elect to meet me before I raise her hopes."

"Meet you?" Andy asked. It was something he had never considered. In his mind he would speak to Evan Duffield a time or two, glean information about his family roots and that would the end of it. Now the man was talking about developing a long-term relationship. Andy instantly realized that he was being foolish. Of course the man would want to meet and to get to know about his progeny.

Andy's attention was diverted as it had been the night before – by the opening of the front door. The culprit was the same, too – his mother was home.

Camille saw her son with a telephone to his ear and rolled her eyes. Andy had spent more time on the phone in the past few days than he had in the past year.

Rather than speak to his mother, he handed her the phone.

"I need to get supper," he said simply. "I think there is someone on the line who would really like to speak to you."

Camille looked at the phone as though her son had handed her a live rattlesnake. Andy winked and headed to the kitchen. His mother had two choices – hang up or say hello. She chose the latter.

"Hello, Evan," she said.

"Camille," Evan replied. The tone of his voice betrayed his emotions. "Camille."

"How have you been?" Camille asked, unsure of what to say.

"Well, I can say that I've been a bit overwhelmed today," the British voice replied. "It started this morning when I got the strangest call. A young man claiming to be my son – and your son – wanted to speak to me. I knew it had to be an imposter. Surely you wouldn't keep something as important as that hidden from me for almost 20 years!"

"You know damned well that I did!" Camille fired back. "I knew what you'd do. You'd be all gallant and come riding to the rescue. I didn't want to be rescued. I made my decision and I'll suffer the consequences. If that's all you wanted to say, I suppose we should go. I know it's after midnight there."

"Wait!" Evan called out. "That's not all I want to say. I'm sorry but you had to know I would be perturbed by this news."

"Which is why I had no intention of ever telling you," Camille replied. "If I hadn't lost my temper at Andy yesterday he never would have known – and neither would you."

"That is singularly unfair!" Evan retorted. "Cami, I'm not the bad guy here. I don't think I ever raised my voice to you - not even once. I worshipped you from the first moment I met you."

The man's voice went softer.

"And 19 years hasn't changed that a bit," he said, almost to himself. Still, Camille heard.

"You're right, Evan, it is unfair," she agreed. "As he has grown, Andy has reminded me so much of you. He's almost the same age now as you were when we met. He looks so much like you it's uncanny but what's worse is that he acts like you. Did he tell you how he met his girlfriend?"

"No," Evan replied. "Our conversation has been fairly superficial."

"I suppose I knew that," Camille said with a frown. "He's like you in that way, too. He's very reluctant to let people get to know him. He keeps his own counsel. I recall that you were standoffish, too."

"True," Evan said. "Tell me about his girlfriend. I think he said her name but I don't remember it."

"Her name is Regan," Camille related. "She comes from a very influential family, if you can believe that."

"Really?" Evan asked incredulously. "I understand your financial situation was such that such a meeting would be unlikely. Do they go to school together?"

"They met on the highway," Camille said. "She had this idiotic idea to walk from her prep school to the city because she was on restriction. She ran into a bit of trouble and Andy helped her out. It's a very convoluted story."

Chapter 9 »