— Eveline —
Darren nodded at his Mother's invitation, which made her smile. I put my hand upon his and squeezed gently.
Fifteen minutes later, we were coming to the dining room as everyone else was joining us. When James came in and saw Darren he said, "Hope you're not going to embarrass us now." Under his breath.
Darren froze halfway down to his seat. Something switched in his eyes, like all life just left for a moment. He stretched back up. I saw his mother hyperventilate at the signs of what was about to happen. I took Darren's hand and tried to tell him to relax wordlessly. I know his eyes saw me, but there was no life behind them. And I knew at this moment he was coming to the realization than his father was not ready for peace, and he wasn't ready to compromise his well-being or mine for his father's stubbornness.
He gave me the smallest of nod to tell me he understood. He nodded more deeply to his mother. "Sorry," he said with a dead voice. "Something came up that we have to take care of now. We'll eat later." And he left with me in tow.
I think I might have heard his father scoff behind us. I did hear his mother tsk angrily at him though.
"I'm sorry, I—," he began when we got out of earshot.
"I know," I said. "I understand."
He gave me a wry smile, but at least I could see him again behind his eyes. I don't know where he left, but I got the strong feeling it's his safe place. He was protecting himself. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. He was hurting, and he needed to retreat where this would not attain him as strongly.
I felt sad for him. I knew he loved and cared for his family, like I do. But no family is perfect, and sometimes we clash. Only we all know each other so well, we all get really good at knowing which button to press to hurt the most.
I've been lucky that there as never been any major arguments like this in our household—or at least, not that I know of—, but I know just how devastated I'd be to fight like this with my father, or mother. How little comments like this would hurt me. But at the same time, confrontations would mean hurting back someone—even if they'd hurt you—I wouldn't want to hurt. In a family, you can never really just hurt one person without affecting the others. And even if one thing is wrong, doesn't mean everything about that person is wrong. Which is why family fights are so hard, and hurts so much. Because despite the bad, we can't stop caring.
Actually, as a child, Kaden as been more on the receiving end of this type of hostility from me and my sisters than my parents. In some ways, he was more the parent than them, or at least when it came to discipline. He didn't have as much time as them to share the activities, the festivities, or the teachings, but he had to pick the slacks when it came to discipline. And it's only now that I realize how unfair this must have felt for him. He was still a child himself, but only with so much more responsibilities that one should ever have, especially this young. He was the head of the family, and the head of the pack, before he was mature enough to have a family himself. I love my brother, and care about him. And now knowing how fragile his health his and how long he's suffered from it, alone. It breaks my heart.
When we reached Darren's room, I tried to blink my tears away before they fell and he saw them, but he was so lost in his own mind that he didn't see.
I sat on his bed while he went to his closet and came out with a few suitcases. Then he began pulling his clothes out of the closet and folding them, storing them in the suitcase.
"Are you sure?" I asked him. Was he making a rash decision? It's not something to decide while upset.
"It's time. I'm ready."
He was calm. Posed. I guess he was ready.
"Then there are a few things that must be taken care of." He looked at me. "Call school to tell them you'll be transferring internship," I told him.
"Right," he said a little lost. "I should have called first to see if they'll take me at the other place to begin with."
"Do that, I'll take care of the rest."
He looked at me inquisitively. I just smiled and pulled out my phone.
For the next half hour, he was talking to Benedict, the CEO of Celia, one of my brother's companies. Kaden was playing this tough guy's facade, but there were times when he was just a big teddy bear. Giving Darren the CEO's personal cellphone number and all.
Darren then went to his laptop to send his resume, and school report, and filled a few forms. And then called his school to tell them of the transfer. And finally his father's company of the fact he was leaving the country and finishing is internship elsewhere.
I made a few calls of my own.
When he was done, he was sitting at his desk, and I went to sit on his lap.
"Everything worked out?" I asked.
"Surprisingly yes. It's all taken care of."
"Cool. You have an apartment."
He just looked at me.
"I know a couple who's leaving in a couple weeks for a few months. They have an apartment, furnished and everything, so you don't have to worry about that, and it's all yours. Free of charge."
He got a weird look on his face.
"Don't worry, I didn't pull rank or anything. Residential insurance are twice as expensive when you insure somewhere empty for long and they tend to refuse to insure against theft. They were looking for a house-sitter, well apartment-sitter, anyways. You just have to water the plants. Then after a few months, you'll know what you want and where, and you'll be able to get somewhere of your own. In the meantime, it's in Blakeden. It's the big town on our territory. Everything is close by, 25 minutes of walks from my place so even without a car it's doable for both of us. Your job is in the big city, and there's a shuttle going back and forth four times a day and it's free. So until you get a car, you're covered. By the time you'll have to leave the apartment, the internship will be done and you'll have more income to choose what you want. And for the couple of weeks before the apartment is available, we have extra room at home and you're welcome. Mom is getting a room ready for you.
Also, a plane will come and pick us up tomorrow morning. See," I said. "I told you I'd help set you up."
In answer, he smashed his lips against mine, and we got a little busy with mapping one another's buccal anatomy with our tongues.
When we resurfaced for air, we moved to packing his stuff together. As we weren't worried about maximum luggage size and weight—the advantage of having access to a private plane—we packed everything he wanted to bring. After a couple of hours, his room was pretty empty. All the furniture was there, but nothing was left in it. He had made a few boxes to give to his brothers, his mother, his friends, and the rest to charity. Then we went to my room and packed everything, then brought it to his room.
We didn't say it, but I was pretty sure I was spending the night there anyway. We did spend most of our nights together since the day of Darren's fight with his father.
Once done, we were famished and went to the kitchen.
We sat on stools at the island counter and heated a few leftovers to munch on.
"Hey," said Kevin as he came in with Michael. They looked like they'd just come out of the gym, and they both grabbed sports drink from the fridge. "Took you a while."
"We were busy," said Darren with a mouth full.
"Uh huh!" said Michael unconvinced.
"Got some boxes for you guys. Stuff you might want," Darren said.
"Boxes?" Michael asked.
"Yeah, I'm taking the plane tomorrow morning, so I'm emptying everything."
They both froze.
"Tomorrow?" Kevin asked his voice small.
"Yeah. Do you have some time in the morning?" Darren asked Kevin. "We could take a lift. But if you're busy we can call a cab."
"Yeah, sure," he said a little numb.
"You told Mom yet?" Michael asked him.
"I will after lunch. Where is she?"
Michael shrugged. "Garden maybe."
Darren nodded. "I'll check."
"So," said Michael carefully. "Right now?"
"Seems as good as ever."
"Running away from Dad?" he asked a little upset.
"No. We'll have a talk, eventually. When he'll be ready," Darren said. "We'll probably see each other for Christmas. But you can visit if you want. Besides, we can still call right? Mom is probably gonna call every day for a little while. At least until she gets used to it."
— Darren —
I had some talks with my brothers. They all came to my room before the end of the evening and grabbed some stuff in my donation boxes.
For dinner, I went to see my friends, brought some things for them, and we pretty much celebrated all evening.
I didn't want to celebrate too hard, as we were leaving early, but it was hard with Ty and Mal to do, as they have very little restraint.
I got them to promise me to visit before the end of the year.
The hardest was Mom.
I went to see her before I left for Zayn's place and we had a long chat just the two of us. She had a lot of worries that I had to smooth out, but I took the time. Even though most of us are in our twenties, she never had a son leave home, and I think she was feeling some of the empty nest syndrome right now. I promised to call, and be there for Christmas, and her birthday next year—which made her feel better.
She took a wad of cash and put it in my hands.
"Mom…" I complained.
"Take it, use it if you need it. Store it in case of emergency, or invest it, or use it to start your own company, or to get married, but take it. I'm not going to miss it."
I wanted to complain again but decided against it.
I thought of sneaking it back in her stuff, but I realized the moment she would see I'd left without it, she would probably panic, and it would probably be easier to just pocket it. So I did.
In the morning I said my goodbyes. Dad was shining by his absence. Kevin and Kate gave us a ride to the airport and we chatted casually along the way.
Eva's head dropped on my shoulder at some point. We did have a short night. And I woke her only when we arrived at our destination.
There, Mads was ready to take our luggage, and we gave our last few hugs before take off.
The plane was nice. Comfortable. The crew amiable, but we mostly slept until lunch.
After that, Eva informed me her brother had a bed in his office and we moved there for more comfort. I never slept on a bed in an airplane before. We did fool around too so I suppose you could say we got our mile-high card.
It only occurred to me when we landed that I've just had sex in the bed of a terrifyingly powerful guy, with his sister—and his employees, I was sure, knew.
Which pretty much whipped the pleased with myself expression I had on.
Yeah. Go me!
We helped Mads with all our luggage, and some big burly guy next to a black sedan came to grab some of the rest to put it in the trunk of the car.
"Hi Sam," said Eva to whom I assumed was our chauffeur, and gave him kisses on each cheek.
"How was your trip?" he asked her.
"Nice," she replied. "This is Darren."
"Hi," I said and shook his hand. He had a really strong grip. Not like he was trying to crush my hand, but more like he had to hold back not to accidentally do it.
Mads sat at the front with Sam, they chatted quietly.
"Is Kaden at home?" asked Eva.
"Yes," said Sam.
The small private airport was on one of the Blakemore territories, nevertheless, it still took us 45 minutes to reach Eva's place.
The estate was immense. There was a large central building that must have been built a few centuries ago, at least, and which must have been the main pack house.
There were a number of other buildings, from rich cottages, to more modern additions. Many were linked through corridors, some old stone affairs, and others modern square glass rectangles. There were extensive gardens, and a large Victorian greenhouse. Old carriage shed, classier than many homes, has been turned into garages. One of the wings on the main house looked like it had once been a medieval fort. Eva informed me that this was the office building. Her parent's house was one of the detached cottages. It had five storeys if you counted the basement and attic, which was fairly big for a cottage, and some would more probably consider this a small mansion in its own right. But I supposed that compared to the main building, it was a cottage.
Everything was in excellent condition, despite the age.
There was a humongous pool, three artificial lakes, and manicured lawns and woods. There wasn't a single fallen branch under the trees.
Well, if I wondered about her family having money, I had my answer.