LITMIR.BIZ

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is it?” she heard her mother ask in the background.

      “No. He lives in California,” Lauren said. “He learned about Audra and came to see Brandon.”

      “Did you let him in?”

      An ominous silence followed this question, one that made Lauren glad she could answer honestly when she said no. She didn’t add, “not yet.”

      “Good for you, honey,” he said. “Harley Nelson has no business with us. That boy’s nothing but trouble.”

      That boy? Harley wasn’t a boy any longer. He was a man now, and a man to be reckoned with, if her instincts could be trusted.

      “Harley Nelson’s back?” her mother cried.

      “You tell him to go back to whatever rock he crawled out from under,” her father said. “I won’t let him say two words to Brandon.”

      The relief Lauren had experienced when she’d first heard her father’s voice was quickly fading. “Audra’s gone now, Dad,” she said as he finally quieted her mother with a terse, “Just a minute, Marilee, I can’t hear a thing she’s saying with you squawking in my ear.”

      “What did you say?” he demanded, returning to the conversation.

      “I said Audra’s gone now.”

      “You think I don’t know that?”

      “Well, he is Brandon’s father, his only living parent.”

      “I don’t care if he’s the man on the moon—Marilee, would you please shut up and let me talk?—Audra’s dead because of him. Besides, we’re all the family Brandon needs.”

      “We’re all he’s ever known,” her mother put in.

      “That might be true,” Lauren said. “But what if Harley takes us to court? You realize he could win complete custody. We stand to lose Brandon altogether.”

      At last, a moment of silence. “What’s he like now?” Quentin asked, his voice less emotional and more calculating.

      Lauren pictured the tall, handsome spectacle that was Harley Nelson and tried not to feel so much as a flicker of admiration, but something fluttered in her stomach all the same. “He’s taller and…a little broader,” she said to avoid saying anything more flattering. She could have added that he was confident, almost cocky, and very real, very appealing—far different from any of the stuffed shirts she’d dated. But she didn’t. “He still drives a motorcycle,” she said so her description wouldn’t sound quite so sketchy.

      Fortunately her father didn’t push her for any more details. “See?” he responded immediately. “He hasn’t changed. Bad seeds rarely do. Probably doesn’t have a pot to piss in. Don’t worry, Lauren, there’s nothing a man like that can do to us or Brandon.”

      So they had Harley outgunned as far as resources went. Did that justify denying him the opportunity to meet his own son? What about the moral side of the dilemma? And what about Brandon’s wishes? If he were to find out his father was in town, surely he’d want to see him. “But if Harley sincerely regrets what he did, then it would only be right to—”

      “Don’t tell me what’s right,” her father snapped. “He couldn’t regret what happened any more than I do. That son of a bitch cost me my little girl,” he said, his voice growing hoarse with emotion.

      Audra. Lauren felt the same sense of loss and regret she knew her father felt, but she had to ask herself how much of the situation ten years ago had been Audra’s fault? And how much had been Harley’s? Had she told him she was on the pill, as he claimed? If so, she certainly deserved a larger portion of the responsibility than the Worthingtons had ever allotted to her before. But the real question was whether or not Audra would’ve alienated her family and sunk into drug abuse without Harley starting her down the wrong road and abandoning her.

      That was tough to say. Remembering the way her sister had behaved at school, flitting from one guy to the next, partying with the best of them and rebelling against any kind of authority, Lauren had difficulty placing all the blame in Harley’s lap. “She was eighteen, Dad.”

      “So? What are you saying?”

      That she was old enough to understand the consequences of her actions. Lauren had known better than to follow in Audra’s footsteps, even at the tender age of seventeen. “She was almost an adult.”

      “How can you say that? Audra was just an innocent young girl when she met Harley.”

      “He was the same age.”

      “Maybe. But he was hardly innocent. And I tried to tell him to leave her alone. I told him what was going to happen. If only the little bastard had listened. Don’t you remember me catching them in the front yard in the middle of the night, both of them nearly falling-down drunk? I told him to stay away from her then. I knew it was just a matter of time before he ruined her life, and I was right.”

      Lauren heard her mother warning Quentin to watch his blood pressure, but he seemed to pay no more attention to that than anything else Marilee said.

      “He’s cost us enough already, Lauren. You know that,” he muttered.

      “What about Brandon? What about what he might want?”

      “Lauren, Brandon’s not even ten. He doesn’t know what’s best, and it wouldn’t be fair to involve him.”

      “Shouldn’t we at least tell him that his father’s in town? See if—”

      “Why? What good would it do?” he broke in. “If you bring Brandon into this, you’ll only upset him.”

      Lauren didn’t say anything. She hated confrontations and avoided them whenever possible, especially with her father. But somehow it felt dishonest not to tell Brandon that his father had some interest in knowing him.

      “Lauren?” her father said when she didn’t speak.

      “I’m here.”

      “I love Brandon, honey. You know how much.”

      Lauren couldn’t help responding to the softening in his voice. “I don’t doubt that.”

      “If Audra had listened to me in the first place, this wouldn’t be happening. She’d still be with us. But she wouldn’t listen, wouldn’t let me do what I knew was best for her.”

      Was Lauren making the same mistake? Was she undermining her father when she should be supporting him? The thought that she might be doing just that seemed to shed new light on everything.

      “Okay,” she finally said. “I won’t mention Harley to Brandon, and I’ll tell Harley to stay away. But what do I do if he won’t take no for an answer? What if he won’t leave us alone?”

      “Then we’ll get a restraining order against him until this can go to court. But don’t worry. It won’t get that far. The boy I remember from ten years ago wasn’t the kind to stick around long enough to fight for anything. Do you think things are any different now?”

      Yes! She thought things were significantly different. Harley wasn’t a man who’d allow himself to be bullied or intimidated or denied. Not by Quentin Worthington or his fortune. How Lauren knew that, she couldn’t exactly say. It had something to do with Harley’s bearing and demeanor. At the same time, it was only a hunch and she could be wrong, so she hesitated to state her opinion too strongly.

      “He’s a little more determined than he used to be,” she said.

      “Then we’ll be just as determined. He’s not going to threaten my family’s well-being a second time.”

      “Right. I understand.”

      “Where is he now?”

      “I believe he’s staying with an old friend of his.” In fact, she knew he was. He’d said so last night.

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