Page 29 of Big Stick Energy
It’s kind of a tough call. And Eric is waiting for my explanation. Even now, he’s turning down the radio to listen, which is a thing men aren’t usually good at.
If being earnest were his whole personality, though, I wouldn’t have a hormone rush every time I see him. On skates, he’s a force of nature. It’s like seeing a chess grandmaster dominate the board while bench-pressing a car. And I’m supposed to watch that on aregular basis and continue on as a functional human being? In this economy?
“Darcy?” he prompts. “I was just making conversation. You don’t have to tell me about Bracknell or your family if you don’t want to.”
“I kind of have to, though,” I say with a sigh. “So… Bracknell is a big suburban sprawl. You’ve probably only been there for hockey games, or maybe you passed it on a school bus headed to Minute Man Park. Excellent D1 hockey team, though. It’s about thirty-five minutes to Marblehead.”Which will be relevant in a minute.
“I like a town with its priorities straight.” Eric accelerates for a lane change. “You probably never went to Marblehead, either. Unless you were passing it to go to the beach.”
You’d be wrong.“That’s actually where my father lives. But I haven’t spent much time there.”
He gives me a glance of confusion.
“Welcome to the family drama. It’s quite the story.”
He gives an awkward chuckle. “Well, now I’mreallycurious. Mostly for Maribel’s sake. This wedding is happening kind of fast. One minute they’re newly engaged and planning a wedding fornextyear. And then suddenly, the wedding is happening this summer. Kind of made me wonder if…” he hesitates.
“If Maribel is pregnant?”
He winces. “It’s really none of my business.”
“Nor mine. But the thing you need to realize is that their excuse sounds totally plausible.” The email—from earlier this spring—had said that a weekend spot opened up at Blue Button Bay, and that they’d snapped it up. “My father is a hotel executive at the Wayfair Group, and Blue Button is one of his signature properties. If Theo holds his wedding there, he probably doesn’teven have to pay for it. It’s cheap, convenient, and showy. And that placeisusually booked years in advance.”
“Oh,” Eric says slowly.
“Yeah. Moving up a wedding to hold it at Daddy’s original luxury resort is absolutely something my family would do.”
“Huh,” he says, smoothly passing a minivan.
“It’s complicated.” I sigh. “I had a perfectly boring childhood in Bracknell until I was thirteen. My dad worked in commercial real estate and was a part owner in the Blue Button and a bunch of other properties. He traveled a lot. At least that’s what we thought. And then one day, we caught him in a lie.”
Eric gives me a nervous glance. Like maybe he regrets asking.
But since we’re headed into the epicenter of the Randolph family drama, I can’t really avoid the topic. “Tessa and Theo are my dad’sotherchildren, whom he had with hisotherwife in Marblehead. My mother and I didn’t know anything about them.”
He actually gasps.
“It’s very daytime TV, isn’t it?”
“It’s… wow,” he mutters.
“So now you know my villain origin story.” Or, more precisely, the moment I realized that not everybody is required to follow the same rules. Particularly men with a bit of money.
“And… suddenly you have two siblings you never knew about? That must have been wild. And your poor mom.”
You have no idea.“My momlostit. She kicked him out the same day, then hired a divorce lawyer the next day.”
“So your whole life changed. Just like that?”
“Right. My mother went back to work because she had to. That was a big change, on top of everything else. But for my father? Everything got easier—hiding your second family is hardwork, and getting caught made his life simpler. He packed up his clothes and left for hisotherhouse, where he stayed forever.”
“Jesus.” He sneaks another glance toward the passenger seat. “I guess that explains why you’re not close to your siblings.”
“It does,” I agree. “Not that he didn’t try. Once his secret got out, he decided we should all spend time together. It went about as well as you’d expect.”
He shakes his head. “Must have been awkward as fuck. What’s the age difference between you and the twins?”
“Two weeks.”
