The Strength to Fall (McKinnon Brothers Book 1) (10 page)

“No, Son. I love my family. I do love your mother. We were engaged almost immediately but we didn’t marry until I finished school, June 22, 1986. It was not the passionate, fiery love I had with Claire, but Jo and I fell in love, slowly. I liked her from the beginning but love came many years later. She had another love too, you know. It was not as serious as Claire and I but Jo was forced to marry me too. She’s an amazing women and a wonderful mother. Seeing her slowly fade away is almost more than I can bear. Especially now that I’ve lost Claire.”

“Doc?” He looked at me. “I don’t know how else to ask this than just say it, so forgive my crudeness, but when did you and Claire reconnect and start an affair? And, did you never in all those five years meet her family? Did she never talk about them? About my mother?

“Well, ok, let me take those one at a time. Yes, she spoke of Elizabeth and Matthew and her mother. I never got to meet them. Remember outside of that one year, the majority of our relationship was long distance. I was in med school so even my off time was filled with studying. We had so little time together that we spent the majority of it doing things around the city that we both loved and being alone.” His cheeks flushed at that last comment and he seemed far away reliving a memory in his mind.

I cleared my throat embarrassed, “That makes more sense to me now as to why she never brought you home and why she wouldn’t come home on all the breaks from school.”

“As to how I came to know her now or before she passed, well that in itself is just as sad a story. I’m exhausted from telling that one. I’ve never told it all the way through like that. It’s hard to relive it. This afternoon after you left, Carla confessed to me all that she heard Claire say to Jo. I knew when Ozias called I had to just tell you everything from the beginning before telling you about the present. It would have made you believe things of Claire that wasn’t true and I couldn’t live with that.” Doc looked exhausted at sharing that story. “I need to go let Carla go home, it’s Sunday after all and I don’t usually have her work on the weekends.”

Ozias broke the heaviness in the room, “Dad, could you come back later this evening when mom is asleep?”

“Yes, please. I need to know the rest as this is the part that directly relates to me. To Ozias.” I looked pleadingly at Doc.

He didn’t answer right away, but then agreed.

Chapter Sixteen

              I decided to take a shower and just take my chances at not falling rather than asking Ozias for help again. I needed to be alone and clear my head anyway. What I’ve learned about my aunt so far is shocking and profoundly sad. To know why it was so important that I live here and meet Ozias, is still a mystery until Doc returns and finishes the story. My emotions are all over the place and it may be wise for me to stay in this room and not come out until then. I have never been affected by another person the way Ozias affects me. It’s uncanny. I truly feel I’ve known him for years. There’s a feeling of calmness and safety when I’m near him but I don’t really know him. That needed to change. After I shower I’ll ask if he wants to talk.

              The shower wasn’t the easiest to maneuver but I did it. I put my pj’s and white tee back on. I don’t have many clothes with me right now and I’m not in the mood to do laundry. I was feeling hungry again so I ventured into the kitchen.

“Hey,” I heard Ozias say from the living room. He had been watching TV it seemed.

“Hey,” I answered back. “Is there somewhere I could order lunch for delivery?”

“Oh, yea. Look in the drawer by the fridge. There’s menus in there. What do you feel like?” He had moved next to me and I could smell his soap and deodorant. I noticed his wet hair. Just knowing he was showering at the same time I was gave me a chill. Seriously, girl…calm down! I’ve got to focus on food and not this man!

I looked through the menus. “Um, this place looks good. I like Middle Eastern food. A falafel sandwich sound good.”

“That’s one of my favorite places. One order is enough for two, wanna share some hummus and pita as well?”

“Sure.” I made my way to the couch and sat down while Ozias ordered the food.

“I’ll go down and get it when they get here. Are you ok?”

I wasn’t paying attention to what he said because I noticed two books sitting on the coffee table that weren’t there before, and they were kind of freaking me out. “Ozias, how long have you had these books that just happen to be by two of my favorite authors?”

“Oh, I got those for you when I went out this morning for breakfast. The coffee shop has a small bookstore in the back. I thought since you’d be lying around resting your ankle for a while you might enjoy them.”

Is this guy for real? I picked them up, one was by Kristin Hannah,
The Nightingale
, her newest book. I haven’t read it yet. The other was the Hunger Games, which I have read but still so sweet of him to buy for me.

“Are they ok? Have you read them? I can’t bring them back if you don’t…”

“No, they’re wonderful. Thank you. And no, I haven’t read this one holding up the Kirstin Hannah book. You didn’t have to do that, but thank you.”

“No problem. I want you to feel comfortable here.” He looked at me as he sat down next to me. “You want me to rub your ankle again? I don’t mind and it helps healing.”

I was just dumbfounded. Men I had dated for months didn’t treat me this well. I was trying to get words to form when I felt him take my feet and place them in his lap. His touch was so soothing. That electricity flowed through my body again tinkling me all over. I needed to talk about something serious, fast.

“You’re so sweet to me,” I smiled at him. “Can we try to get to know each other until your dad comes back? I think we need to really spend some time talking about ourselves.”

Just then the intercom buzzed signaling the food was here.
              “Seems no one wants us to talk, including delivery people. I’ll be right back and then, yes, we will talk. We need to.”

Ozias returned with the food and the smell of the falafel made my stomach growl. He arranged the food on two plates and brought my portion to me along with mine a bottled water. He sat back down and we both ate in silence.

After a few minutes, he turned to me. “So, what do you want to know first?”

“Um, I don’t know, so much I need to ask that I’m drawing a blank. You know what I’d love right now though?” He arched his eyebrow. “Chocolate. I need chocolate. Do you have any?”

“Ok, that was random,” he laughed. “But, yea, I think I do. Hold on a minute” He went to rummage through some drawers in the kitchen. “Ah, ha! Found some.” He came back to the couch with a bag of Hershey’s chocolate kisses that looked empty. “There’s not many, um, let me count.” He peered in the bag. “Yea, there’s only nine pieces. Here, you can have them.” He handed me the bag.

“You don’t like chocolate?” I asked.

“No, I do. I just don’t buy it often.”

“Why don’t we play a version of truth or dare? The truth has to be some aspect of our lives we don’t know anything about. So that leaves a lot, of course. If you don’t want to answer the question, it automatically becomes a dare. If you lose the dare, you lose your piece too. With so few pieces I figure we’re pretty safe from too much soul bearing and too many dares. What do you say?”

Ozias looked at me like I was crazy. “You don’t just want to ask me questions and keep all the chocolate to yourself? This feels like middle school all over again where the pretty, popular girl is trying to trick me into something really embarrassing. I’d rather just answer anything you can think of.”

“I’m not tricking you. I just thought it could be fun, but if you want to be a stick in the mud, let’s just ask questions.” I frowned and pouted a little. Not my usual style of coercion but it seems to be working on Ozias.

“Ok! God, let the game begin, but I want to be on record saying this is a ridiculous version of this game. So why don’t you start, game master?”

“Game master, oh, I like that. Well, ok. Let me think….Oh, ok let’s start with basics, what do you do for a living?”
              “I’m a business consultant.”

“And, that’s it? No other explanation or details? You don’t get a kiss for that.” I held up one of the candies and dangled it in front of him.

“You’re amending the rules, but ok, it’s your game. I’m do freelance consultant work for companies that are in trouble, mainly. Basically, they hire me when the consultant group they hired hasn’t done their job and they are in a crisis. I do some consulting at the company my brother runs for the family, McKinnon-Wallace. Sadly, despite the millions they made in the 80’s, both my grandfathers had delusions of grandeur, they always invested poorly and thought they would worm their way out of a bad deal. Alastair is really turning the company around, but I try not to mix business with family as much as possible. It never ends well. There, satisfied. Do I get my chocolate now?” He gave me a smart-ass look.

“No, I don’t think so.” I said. “Why do freelance, why not work with a group?”

“You don’t have enough candy in that bag for that answer.” He joked.

“Well, I’m game master so I’m amending the rules. We have to answer follow up questions or do a dare.”

“What if I chose dare, then?”

“Come on, just answer. I’m curious. I am quite surprised at what you do for a living. I pegged you as the computer programmer type or come kind of scientist.”

Ozias sighed. “Ok, here’s the short version of this answer and that’s all you get right now.” He hesitated, stood up and paced as he spoke not looking at me. “I’ve never been good with people. I’m honest to a fault. As I mentioned before, I graduated from high school at 15, and well, it turns out being a genius is not always enough to be successful at college and at life. College was hard for me, socially and somewhat academically. The classes were easy, but I’d disagree with my professors and it got me in trouble frequently. Seems professors don’t like you telling the class that they’re wrong.” He chuckled, still pacing. He took a deep breath. “Thing is I love analyzing data and making predictions based on that information, and I’m good at it, I mean, Adira,” He looked at me then. “I’m scary good at it, like it’s a sixth sense or something. So when I graduated, I had the pick of any consulting job I wanted, problem is I was just 19 years old. I could have got my master’s but I was tired of school and all the issues that came along with it. So, when I got job offers, I just went with that path instead. Being so young, CEO’s didn’t respect me and I couldn’t go on business dinners at certain places or travel like the rest of the employees. They still wanted my ideas, because, frankly, they were the best they’d ever heard, but they wanted me to use another employee as a front man, you know I’d do all the work, tell the “more appropriate employ” what to say.”

I interrupted him, “I thought this was the short version,” I smirked at him.

“Do you want to hear this or not? I’m not going to tell this story again because I hate it and it pisses me off just thinking about it?” Ozias said seriously.

Wow. “Continue then,” I said.

He nodded. “At first they were still giving me credit but soon that stopped and I didn’t want to do it that way, if I wasn’t getting the credit I deserved. So, basically I kind of crashed into a meeting with a very important client and let them know I was behind their success. Let’s just say it did not go well. The asshole who they had as my front man lied and told them I was a young, disgruntled employee and
I
was
his
apprentice. I said a lot of things I shouldn’t have about him and the group and, yea, that was my last day. Security escort from the building type of last day. Dad was pissed. I did get hired by another group but seems it’s not professional to tell the honest truth, at least not call a failing company’s CEO, ‘The biggest idiot I’ve ever met’.” He came and sat next to me and breathed deeply. “Ok, so that was a little longer than the short version, which basically is, consultant groups see me as too big a risk to employ, so I started my own company, and I’m the only employee. It works better that way.”

I felt bad for pushing him. I extended my hand and offered him the kiss on my palm. He hesitated but then took it. He sat back down, un-foiled the candy, and then ate it. He turned to face me.

“My turn,” he said. “So, Ms. McLeod, what do you do for a living?”

I get excited when I talk about my work because I love it, so I sat up so I could talk with my hands, which is required when I’m excited. “Ok, well, I’ve told you my family owns a restaurant. I waitressed since I was about 13, unofficially ya know, and I started to help my mom and her best friend, Lauren Sanders, work the catering jobs. My mom would fuss at me for redecorating behind her. She was good at it, but I, this sounds conceited I know but, I was
great
at it, and I loved it. Before I knew it mom and Ms. Lauren would ask my opinion about catering jobs before they even consulted with clients.” I took a breath. “Then, my parents never came home and Ms. Lauren needed full time help, so I became the restaurant’s official event coordinator. I was 16. It was a lot of work with school too, but I loved every minute of it. I just get a vision in my head and run with it, so far I’ve only had satisfied clients. So, I obtained a degree in business with a minor in hospitality. I was just going to continue on at the restaurant until Aunt Claire died and I decided to come here. My whole life was work and my Gran thought that I needed more of a life. She’s the one who convinced me to come here, and I decided to make it a personal mission for independence. When I came into town Thursday, I had an interview with an event planning company that is just starting out, and they’re small, which I like. I really hope to work for them. They’re not far from here so that’s a plus too. They told me it would be the middle of next week before they make a decision because they had more interviews and the owner was out of town. So that’s my answer to what I do for a living.” I put my hand down and sat back. Ozias stared at me with big eyes and a smile.