Rose folded me into her arms but didn’t say anything. She just squeezed me hard. She smiled at Tommy a little. Actually smiled. Weird.
I looked around. The rest of the girls were all at the table, not speaking. Mia looked pissed off. Beth looked happy to see me but nervous. Ruby was staring at the table cloth with tears in her eyes. Nick looked like he was filled with nervous energy. He was staring at me. He’d cut his hair short. That was surprising.
“Okay, sit everyone,” Cal said, “It seems there’s been some stuff going on that we should get out in the open so that we can move forward and have a nice meal together. Everything is ready and I’ve already had a conversation with these folks but we’ll all have a little talk together first.”
Tommy and I sat down at the table. Rose was at the foot, Cal was at the head, Tommy and I to Cal’s left and across from me was Nick, across from Tommy was Mia. Ruby sat beside Nick, Beth sat beside her. The other chairs on the side Tommy and I sat on were empty. Everyone else in the house was absent, the other kids and Connor, Ruby’s brother.
“It seems,” Cal continued, “That everyone was a little bit worried about you, Tia, so they put their heads together, did some snooping and eavesdropping and found your last letter to us, and then went on a mission to find you. I’ve had several telephone conversations plus one long in-person conversation with your husband, before you both left the country, and I have to say that if anyone had come to me or Rose instead of going maverick, we could’ve saved a whole lot of angst. I won’t say that I don’t think you two didn’t jump the gun getting married so quickly but I will say that the few conversations I’ve had with your husband, Athena, have been good ones. He has earned my respect.”
Everyone in the room looked contrite, except Nick. He looked angry.
I was surprised. I had no idea Tommy had been in touch with Cal. I felt Tommy’s arm go around my chair and I felt my heartrate settle a little at feeling his support. I put my hand on his thigh and squeezed. He put his free hand on top of mine.
Mia spoke up, looking at Cal, “We know our friend, our sister, and we know that it’s not her to vanish without a trace. One phone call to Ruby in all that time. One. And it was vague. You and Rose were not you and Rose. You were both worried sick. Secret meetings with social workers, the police, Tia’s father. It was all very weird and we are not small children. We wanted, no needed, to know what was going on. We could tell by how you behaved and by the limited things you did say to us that we wouldn’t get straight answers and so we took matters into our own hands. We found her and we had every intention of saving her because that’s what she’d have done for any of us.” Mia circled the room with her index finger on the word ‘us’, “Am I right?” she was looking right at me, finally.
I let out a deep breath, “I am sorry for worrying you. In the beginning there were a lot of things happening that I can’t talk to any of you about. My f
ather is a piece of work. He put things in motion that put him and I in danger and I had to play things very carefully. In the process of a really messed up situation I fell in love.”
Nick snickered. I glanced at him and then continued.
“I am sorry that I made you all worry but I was in the middle of a dangerous situation that I can’t talk about even now. Now we’re under heavy security because we had to come back before we could confirm that it was safe. I am here to tell you all that I’m sorry you were worried. I am fine. My husband is keeping me safe. I need you all to back off whatever investigations you’ve been doing and to please cooperate with Zack. Mia, he told Tommy you are being very tight-lipped. He’s a good guy and he’s a professional who is helping to keep us safe. In doing that he uncovered your plans to find me and the way you did things could seriously put us and the rest of Tommy’s family now also my family in danger. You guys are still my family, I love you so much, but now that you know I’m okay you need to stop. And you need to give Zack all the info you have.”
“Can I talk to you privately?” Nick interrupted to ask me.
“No,” Tommy answered for me, leaning slightly forward in his chair and exuding a serious bad-ass vibe, “If you need to talk to my wife you can talk to her right here.”
Nick glared at me and didn’t meet Tommy’s eyes.
“Nick, thank you for your concern. I appreciate that you tried to do what you thought was helping me but as you can see, I’m good.”
“Tia…your dad says these guys buy and sell women, drugs, have politicians in their pockets, are into all kinds of bad shit. I know that’s not the kind of life you want. Your father says that’s not the kind of life your mother would want you in and…”
“Shut up,” I blurted, “You don’t know what you’re talking about. If you’ve been listening to my father as an authority on my husband then that was your first mistake. Nick, I’m good, I’m more than good. You don’t know what you’re talking about and you don’t even need to be here. I’m here to talk to my family. Not my ex.”
Ruby snickered, “He’s not here just for you, Tia. He’s here for me, too. He’s really been there for me through this. And if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have found you.”
Nick glanced at Ruby and then back at me and he shook his head, “Ruby and I aren’t seeing each other, Tia.”
Ruby looked at him with incredulity. Clearly, where he and where she saw their relationship was very different.
“If this guy is forcing you to stay with him I won’t give up.” Nick folded his arms across his chest, “Please, can we talk privately?”
I shook my head, “No. There’s no need---”
He cut me off, “I still love you. I’m not afraid of him.”
He was such an idiot.
“Is this guy for real?” Tommy laughed.
High school drama shit. I was so past this.
“Nick, even if I wasn’t happily married, which I am, we were done a while ago. The fact is that I am happily married. Deliriously happy. Maybe you should go. This is not cool. You’re being disrespectful to my husband.”
“I’m staying for Rose’s veal parm.” Nick said, folding his arms across his chest and then he leveled his gaze on Tommy and did it in a way that was seriously stupid.
I rolled my eyes. Then I glanced at Tommy and Tommy’s eyes on Nick’s were glittery and fricking scary. Tommy’s chest was rising and falling rapidly and his upper lip started to curl. Nick looked away, looking frightened but trying to hide it.