“Your people get the job done,” he said to Reid, ignoring Cash. “What more do you want to know?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Smith saw Cash frown. Whatever. He didn’t like the guy, never would, and didn’t see the point of continuing trying to get close.
Maybe this was a good time to leave. “You know, it’s time for me to—”
“Cake,” Naomi cut in. “Who’s ready for dessert?”
Before he could blink, the table was cleared and the cake set in the middle, served up on smaller plates. Jordan and Cash left and reappeared with coffee and cups.
Smith did his duty and took a plate of dessert. He ignored Naomi watching him as he took a small forkful. As expected, the cake wasn’t to his taste. But to keep the peace, he pretended to like it.
She beamed at him. “I knew if you gave it a chance, you’d like it.”
He pushed it around on his plate, hoping the mushed part made it look as if he’d eaten more than that one bite. Thankfully, that seemed to make Reid happy as well, and talk returned to people they knew and funny stories from Naomi’s latest public relations client. He continued to push around the chocolate mess on his plate, wondering when he could leave without hearing a ration of shit about it.
“Uh oh. It’s time.” Naomi stood and pulled Kenzie and Jordan with her. “Let’s go, girls.” They grabbed coats and purses and left before Smith knew what the hell was going on.
When he saw the others watching him, he stood. “Time for me to go too.”
Evan sighed. “Smith, stop avoiding the elephant in the room.”
“Cash? I’ve talked to him tonight.”
“Such a dick.” Cash shook his head.
Reid spoke up. “I know this can’t be easy. But we’d like to talk to you about Angela. About…our mother.”
There it was. The truth finally out in the open. What Smith had been wanting to talk about since he’d first learned his mother wasn’t his mother, and that he had brothers she’d loved better than him.
Yet now, the words wouldn’t come. Like a big pussy, he felt hot and cold, nervous yet furious because he didn’t know how to comport his feelings.
“You first,” he managed and leaned up against the wall so he had room to breathe.
The others remained seated around the dining table, probably in the same room Angela had once fed her boys and her nephew, Evan. Comfortable family time where everyone shared stories and laughter, then got sent off to bed with kisses and hugs.
Oh, Evan had tried telling him that his brothers hadn’t had an easy time of it growing up, but it couldn’t all have been bad. He’d dare any of them to compare their childhoods to his.
Reid looked at Cash, who nodded, and Reid said, “Our father—my father—Charles Griffith, died six years ago. He passed while we were still in the Marine Corps. To be frank, he wasn’t the nicest man.”
“He was a fucking bastard, and I’m glad he’s gone,” Cash said, his voice flat.
Evan cringed. “I hate to speak ill of the dead, but he wasn’t a pleasant person. He hated Cash.”
Normally Smith would pipe in with a sarcastic comment like, “We all hate Cash.” But the raw emotion floating in the room kept him quiet.
“Angela seemed to have had no one,” Reid said. “No relatives other than her sister-in-law. But she never really got along with Aunt Jane. So, she spent her life pretty much alone.”
“Well, as alone as she could ever be.” Cash snorted. “The woman lived with her head in the fucking clouds, buried in soap operas and books. She lived in a fantasy world where her kids didn’t matter, but two fictional strangers falling in love was everything. Total bullshit.”
Smith wanted him to say it. “You’re telling me she was a bad mother.” Not exactly what Meg had told him.
“Mother?” Cash scoffed. “The woman gave birth to us, but that was about it.”
“That’s not true, Cash.” Reid shook his head and met Smith’s gaze. “She tried, but something in her snapped. We were young, and one day she just wasn’t there anymore. I mean, physically she was. But mentally she was gone. Angela lived in a world of make-believe up until the day she died.
“We didn’t know about her having any friends, but some woman named Margaret took care of her final resting place. And apparently Margaret visited her at the assisted living home Mom was in. She was a mystery to us, but maybe not to you.”
They waited.
