Beyond the Sea (31 page)

When the door opened, Troy hoped to see Brian but expected to see a nurse. Instead it was his mother, who burst into wailing tears.

“
Oh, Bongbong!” Muttering in Tagalog too fast for him to understand, she rushed to the side of the bed, throwing herself practically on top of him before he could even sit up. Troy held her tightly, not trying to stop his own tears as he inhaled her flowery perfume. He smoothed his hand over her short, dark curls, his voice cracking.

“
Mom. I missed you so much.”

Wiping her eyes, she stood, tiny at five foot nothing. Her face glistened, eyes roving over him and hands running down his arms as if to check for breaks. There were circles under her eyes, but she still looked far younger than fifty-one. “Too skinny!”

“
I’m fine, Mom. We ate pretty well, all things considered.”

“
We’ll do all your favorites when you get home. Chicken adobo and kare-kare.”

“
That sounds amazing. Mom, I’m so sorry.”

“
For what? Did you cast a magical spell and make a cyclone?” She smoothed a hand over his hair and kissed his forehead. “I prayed every moment for you. God heard me. Oh, Bongbong.” Fresh tears glistened in her eyes. “My brave son.”

“
But if I hadn’t freaked out at Ty and rented the plane—” He looked past her into the empty room. “Where is he?”

Sniffing, she pulled up a chair. “Gosh, so much commotion here, especially with all those clickers outside. Don’t know how they got here so fast with their cameras.”

The thought of dealing with the paparazzi made him cringe, but he wouldn’t be deflected. “Mom, where’s Ty?”

Her face tightened, and she looked down at her hands as she clasped them. “Boy is…”

An awful, sickening fear had bile rising in Troy’s throat. “Where is he?” He shot up to sitting. “Mom, what happened?”

“
Shhh. It’s all right. Boy is in a hospital place. Rehabilitation.”

Just like Troy was “Bongbong,” Tyson had always been “Boy” to their mother and the rest of their family on her side. Nicknames were a Filipino thing he’d never questioned. “He’s in rehab?”

She pressed her lips together and nodded.

Troy exhaled and flopped back down to the too-soft mattress. “Oh, thank God.”

“
You aren’t upset he’s not here to see you?”

“
As long as he’s in rehab, that’s all I care about. He’s really okay?” He brushed his feet rhythmically against the metal frame at the bottom of the bed. How strange it was to be on a proper mattress again. Didn’t feel real.

“
Yes really, Bongbong. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Troy exhaled with a smile. Growing up, he’d known he was in trouble if she actually called him his real name. “Thank God he finally saw reason.”

“
Well, your girlfriend was the one who talked him into it, praise the lord.”

His stomach dropped. “My girlfriend? Savannah?”

She clucked her tongue. “Who else? She’s on her way from New York City. She was crying on the phone. So happy.”

“
Oh. We broke up before I left.”

“
A silly fight.” His mother waved her hand dismissively. “All in the past.”

He wanted to argue, but there were more important things. “Tell me about Ty. He’s doing well? Following the program?”

“
So they say.” Her smile was forced. “After you went away, he was at the rock bottom. The rest of the tour was canceled of course. The authorities said you were dead, but I knew better. I prayed day and night, and God answered.” Her eyes welled and she leaned over to kiss his forehead with dry lips. “Oh, Bongbong. I knew you would return.”

After you went away.
His throat thickened. “It’s okay, Mom. I’m here.”

After sniffling, she cleared her throat. “When they said there was no hope to find you, Boy took it very badly. We all did, of course. I’d come down to Sydney with your Auntie Gloria and Uncle Jojo. We wanted to be close when they found you. But then they said they weren’t going to look anymore.” She clenched her jaw. “We told them you were alive, but…”

“
It’s okay, Mom. They were just doing their job.”

“
Yes, well. Boy went out of control. So angry. Drinking everything, and all the other too.”

The other.
Suppressing a shudder, Troy thought of his father on the black and white kitchen tiles. “But he eventually agreed to rehab?”

She nodded. “Savannah convinced him. She flew home to LA with him. He’s been at the center for almost two months now.”

“
Nick too?”

Muttering a Tagalog curse, she shook her head. “That one says he doesn’t need it.”

“
Idiot. But I’m glad Ty listened.” Troy owed Savannah a huge thanks, and probably an apology too. Even if she wasn’t the right girl, he cared about her. The words rolled over in his mind, nausea curling through his belly.

The right girl
. Did he even want a
girl
anymore? His palms got sweaty. Where was Brian?

“
Boy sure wouldn’t listen to me. And why should he?” His mother’s lips trembled. “Why should he listen to me when I did nothing before? When I let your father kill himself?”

“
Mom…” Troy grabbed her hand. “Dad made his own choices. It wasn’t your fault.”

“
I should have stopped him. Now look, Boy is poisoning himself too.” Her nails dug into his skin. “I pretended your father was okay. I let you deal with too much. It should have been me dealing, not looking everywhere else but at the bad truth.” Trembling, her voice broke. “Can you forgive me, Bongbong? I wish I could go back and be different.”

After Troy’s teenage years of stress and fear, of whispered resentment that she’d let him deal with far too much, far too young, he’d have thought when this moment came, his anger would finally erupt.

But he was
alive
and rescued and holding her hand, solid and warm and real, and that was what mattered now. “Of course I forgive you. It’s done. Neither of us can go back. We need to go forward. We have a second chance.”

With a sob, she took his face in her hands and kissed him. “A second chance. No more pretending. Never again.”

Heart thumping, Troy nodded.
No more pretending.
He had to see Brian. They had to figure out…everything. He swung his legs over the side of the bed. “I have to find—”

“
Whoa, whoa, mister.” With surprising strength, his mother hauled him back onto the mattress. “The doctors are still running their tests.”

He huffed. “I’m
fine.
”

“
Yes, you are. But we wait for the tests, Bongbong. No debating.”

There was no point in arguing with his mother. “Ty knows I’m okay?”

“
Of course. You’ll see him soon. He is getting better, and now it’s your turn.”

“
Have they mentioned anything about Brian?”

A tap on the door preceded an employee entering with a lunch tray. She was barely inside when Troy’s relatives flooded into the room in a chorus of greetings and tears. Two sets of his aunts and uncles fawned over him, remarking on his tan and how he needed to eat.

The young woman who brought his meal squeezed through the crowd and managed to get his lunch on the tray and swing it over his bed. “There are only two visitors permitted at a time,” she said, lost in the cacophony of Tagalog.

Troy smiled at her. “Sorry. They’ll leave soon, I promise.”

She met his eyes and blushed, smiling and nodding as she scurried away. For a moment, Troy was puzzled by her reaction, and then he remembered. He was famous. He had fans. The life that had become so distant on Golden Sands was his again.

Where’s Brian?

As his family talked over each other at him, Troy had to smile, affection for them smoothing over the nagging worry about Brian, at least for the moment. He blinked rapidly, keeping tears at bay as he listened to Auntie Thelma and his mother bicker over something to do with food.

“
Oh, here he is!” Auntie Gloria threw up her hands.

Troy couldn’t see through the crush of bodies in the small room. “Huh? Who?”

“
Move, move, move.” His mother shuffled everyone aside, and there stood Brian in jeans and a new purple T-shirt that said
Aloha means love
, accompanied by an image of palm trees. Troy’s heart flopped like a dying fish. Brian was there. He was okay.

He was freshly showered, but still not shaved. With a deep pang of
wanting
, Troy remembered Brian’s head in his lap, and the scrape of the razor over skin, Brian’s eyes closed with total trust and a contented sigh on their last island spa day.

“
Hi,” Troy squawked, his heart thumping.

“
Sorry to interrupt.” Brian smiled wanly. “I’ll come back later.”

Troy’s argument was lost in a flurry of similar arguments from his family, and his mother caught Brian’s wrist as he pivoted in the doorway.

“
God bless you for saving my son.” She clasped his hand between her own. “God bless you.”

“
I didn’t—there’s no need to thank me.” Brian smiled at her weakly.

“
No need?” She argued this vociferously, Troy’s aunties and uncles joining into a chorus.

It was beyond bizarre to see Brian and his family in the same room, and Troy didn’t know what to feel. He wanted to rush into Brian’s arms and kiss him, but… Taking out the fact this his family would probably pass out in unison from the shock, would Brian even want that? Should Troy want that?

As his mother pledged enthusiastically to fatten him up as well, Brian edged backward with a forced smile. “Okay, thank you. Troy, I’ll… I’ll leave you with your family. Talk to you later.”

“
Brian, I want—”

Then he was gone, and Troy’s mother and aunties cooed about how handsome he was and what a lovely man. Troy smiled and nodded at the right places, wishing what he wanted wasn’t a giant knot to untangle.

At the knock, Troy rushed to the door of his hotel room. It had to be Brian, and—

“
Oh my God.” Savannah stood there, her long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, tears tracking her pale cheeks, and a little hot-pink suitcase at her feet. She threw her arms around him. “I was afraid to really believe it.”

Troy hugged her back, struck by a wave of déjà vu at the press of her slim body and vanilla musk scent. “I’m okay.”

She pulled back, still clutching his shoulders and examining him. “You’re so thin. Are you sure you’re okay?” She hiccupped, tears still falling as she reached up to brush back his hair. “Oh, Troy. I’m so glad you’re here. We thought…well, you know what we thought.”

“
I know. But I’m fine.”

“
Are you sure? God, I can’t imagine what you went through.”

“
I’m fine.”

“
I can’t believe it’s really you. I missed you so much, baby.” Savannah leaned up, her lips zeroing in on his.

Troy stumbled back. “It’s good to see you too.”

Smiling tentatively, she asked, “Are you going to let me in?”

He retreated farther out of the doorway. “Of course.” When she’d passed by, he collected her suitcase and closed the door.