My grandmother gave him a stern look. "Stop lecturing him. He won't want to come see us anymore."
I chuckled. "Don't worry, Grandmother. He can't scare me away."
“That’s good. Before I forget... as you know, I'm turning ninety this year."
"I know." My brothers were already up in arms about buying her presents.
"And I want to throw a big bash. You know, I never thought I'd actually get to this age. And now that I have, I want to celebrate it with my friends. Those who are still with us," she added after a dramatic pause. My grandmother had been a local theater actress her whole life. She said she missed putting on performances, so she employed what she calledthe dramatic flairwhenever she could with the family.
"It's going to be grand," she finished.
"On a weekday?"
Grandmother rolled her eyes. "It's going to be on a weekend."
"That's good. I can take weekends off. Where?"
"I haven't decided yet, but I'm going to hire a very nice event planner to help me with it."
No kidding. She meant business, then. I couldn't remember a time when she'd hired someone else to plan a party for her. My grandmother lived for throwing big get-togethers. She jokingly called it her second job.
"I'll be there," I said. Even though I lived in another city, I never missed either of their celebrations.
"I'll keep you to that, young man. Do you promise?"
"I wouldn't miss it." Something told me she didn't totally believe me. Was I such a coldhearted bastard that my own grandmother thought I’d miss her birthday? Sure, I was tough in business, but hadn’t I made it clear to them how much I cared for them?
"It's going to be fabulous," she continued, putting on her actress smile. It was easy to tell it apart from her regular one. It was practiced. "I've already started on the guest list. I'm not sure if I'm going to invite Angela. She always brags about having great-grandkids. Keeps asking me when I'm going to have some of my own." She looked at me speculatively. This was guilt trip number two. When was I going to settle down? When was I going to have children? The answer was simple. I wouldn't. It wasn't in my plans. Not now, not in the future.
"Any news to share with us, darling?"
"The answer to that is always no. You know that." I knew they thought I was being hardheaded about this, but I didn’t believe in the illusion of family. I’d witnessed firsthand how easily one could be ruined. I wanted no part of it.
"I keep hoping that will change. Such a pity. All those good genes to pass on."
That was what bothered me. I didn't exactly want to pass down the Whitley genes.
"Okay, time to let the boy go. You wouldn't want to be late for your brothers. How much time do you have allotted for them?"
I couldn't help but laugh because they knew me so well. “Two hours, and then I'm flying back to New York.”
"Goodness, Jake, you can't work eighteen-hour days your whole life."
"I've reduced that considerably from eighteen to twelve," I said with a straight face. "These days, I make time for other activities, like working out in the morning."
Grandmother sighed. "If I didn't love you so much, I'd say you sound like a lost cause."
"But I’m not."
Kissing their cheeks, I bid them both goodbye before stepping out of the house.
I was meeting my brothers at a bar in Beacon Hill. Colton had been the one to suggest it. I'd been surprised, to say the least, when he informed me that he was joining our get-together as well. He was in the midst of a new discovery, as he called it, and the whole family complained they barely saw him these days.
I arrived in Beacon Hill twenty minutes later. The end of June was pleasantly warm in Boston and not yet humid. Even though I grew up here, I'd been gone for a long while. I’d left two years after our life imploded. I finished my BA and went to NYU Stern School of Business to get my master’s. New York felt more like home than Boston, but I wouldn't deny that seeing my four brothers gathered at a bar table made me feel like the odd man out.
I was missing a lot by not being here with them.
"The man of the hour," Spencer said when I approached, patting my shoulder. "You even got Colton to leave the lab. Good for you."