“Tell me.”
I heard a crash from inside the staging area and had to hold myself back from storming in to investigate. Emilia would handle it until I could go back.
I walked to the window to put some distance between me and the chaos.
“Well, after a great deal of thought I’ve decided that it’s time for me to downsize. I’m selling the house.”
The words didn’t compute for a few seconds.
“Which one? Palm Island?”
“Well, no, not that one… but now that you mention it, maybe the Florida house should go as well?”
My heart thumped in my chest. What was with his sudden fire sale mentality?
“Wait a minute, are you talking aboutourhouse? Halcyon Drive?”
It couldn’t be. The home where my brothers and I had learned to ride bikes in the driveway. Where my mother’s roses perfumed the air. The de facto site of every holiday and celebration for nearly three decades of my life. It was the heart of our family, and more importantly, it was my mother’s loving vision of home brought to life. Her fingerprints were everywhere in the place, and I couldn’t imagine anyone but Ashfords there.
“Yes, that’s the one,” my dad replied. “I think it’s time.”
I started pacing. I had to talk him off the ledge, but gently. My instinct was to go straight to yelling about how odd he was acting and how much of a mistake he’d realize this all was once he came to his senses.
“Dad, we need to talk about this but I’m sort of in the middle of a crisis. For now please tell mewhy. What could possibly be driving this decision?”
“Well, a few things. The writing’s been on the wall for ages now, and when Candace and I started talking about life stages we?—”
“Hold on, that freakingCandacewoman is pushing you to do this? She’s the reason?”
“No, absolutely not,” he insisted. “This is my decision. But she’s anexcellent sounding board. She downsized as well not too long ago, so she has valuable insights.”
I stared out the window, not really seeing anything. I didn’t have the bandwidth to take in what he was telling me. All I knew was that my brothers and I needed to come together to convince him that he was throwing his life away. First retirement and now this?
“Dad,” I sighed. “We need to discuss this as a family. I can’t get into it now, okay?”
“You’re right, you’re right,” he said quickly. “Sorry I interrupted your day. I was just feeling good about finally making the decision and I wanted to share it with you.”
“I appreciate that you’re keeping me in the loop, but like I said, we need to really talk this out, and now’s not the time. Please don’t do anything rash, okay?”
“Never,” he replied. “Go take care of whatever fire you’re dealing with. Good luck, son.”
“Thanks. I need it.”
Fuck.
I braced myself before walking back into the drama, because the noise was spilling down the hallway. When I walked into the room Emilia was standing between the pastel-clad mothers of the groom like a referee at a boxing match, her arms outstretched to keep them from colliding.
It was such an insane moment that I was convinced that Dorian had somehow set it up, but instead of him hovering in the shadows goading them on, there was a single camera operator standing a few feet away. Yes, the dramatic footage was getting captured, but the drama was muted without the number one shit stirrer egging them on.
Emilia was so locked into the showdown that she didn’t see me walking over.
“Hey, hey, excuse me, ladies,” I shouted above the noise. “What’s going on?”
Emilia widened her eyes at me so that only I could see. “Jeanie thinks that Linda moved some of the seating cards so that she would be closer to the bride and groom at the rehearsal dinner.”
“I didnotmove them,” Linda lunged at her enemy on the other side of Emilia. “How dare you say I’d do that?”
A tiny part of me wanted to see what would happen if Emilia let them go at it, which was the exact impulse that made reality TV so successful. I glanced at the camera then back at the pending fight.
