Gold - Linde K. A. (книги без регистрации бесплатно полностью txt) 📗

Celia shook her head. “She likes you.”

“She’d better,” Bryna said, not taking her eyes off of the baby. “I’m awesome.”

Celia laughed again. “You’re good with her. I knew you would be.”

“I don’t like babies,” Bryna said to Zoe. “But you’re family now. I guess I can’t let you turn out like the rest of them.” Bryna frowned at her own joke. She had wanted it to be funny, but all things considered, it wasn’t even true. “On second thought, we should get you a nanny who speaks a couple of languages. Then, you can talk circles around your mom and dad and turn out better than all of us.”

Celia’s eyebrows drew together. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“I know we haven’t gotten along in the past, and I pushed you too hard to try to be a family. But I truly only wanted the best for you. It might not seem like much, but I want to be family for you, and that doesn’t mean anything more than this right here, if you don’t want anything more. Know you are always free to talk to me…maybe just as a friend, if that’s easier.”

Bryna didn’t take her eyes off of Zoe. She couldn’t look up at Celia with all of her sincerity. This was the woman who had ruined her life and wrecked her parents’ marriage. Bryna was here for the baby. Yet Celia had sounded so heartfelt.

Zoe fussed, and Celia held her hands out to take her from Bryna. Once she was cuddled back against her mom, Bryna took a deep breath and sat down on the chair next to the bed.

“Tell me what happened with my dad. I only know the aftermath. Divorce, and boom, new mommy.”

“Oh, Bryna,” Celia said with so much sympathy in her eyes that Bryna had to look away.

“I need to know the truth.”

“I met Lawrence on set. I was working for a production company at the time. It was a coincidence that we ran into each other. Everyone was afraid of him so I ended up bringing a lot of stuff to him. I was doing errands that were a bit beneath me actually,” she said, remembering the incident with a smile. “I was there the day Olivia served him divorce papers. He made everyone else go home, but I didn’t know until it was too late. I’d been there myself, and I couldn’t leave him. So, I offered to take him to lunch. In a million years, I never thought it would lead to this,” she told Bryna.

“So…you didn’t even date until after Mom divorced him?” Bryna asked in surprise.

“Of course not! Well, I didn’t even really know him. Then, I got to know him, and we fell in love. Neither of us expected it. We both had kids who were nearly adults. We were both divorced. We never thought it would work. But then, one day, we decided that the past was the past. What was important to us was our kids and being happy. We knew everything else would work itself out.” Celia smiled down at little baby Zoe. “And it has.”

“So…you love him?”

“Love him?” she asked with a giggle. “We have a baby together! Of course I love him. I’ve never loved anyone more.”

“But how did you know?” Bryna asked.

“That I loved him?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, wow. No one has ever asked me that before.” She looked up thoughtfully contemplating the question. “I don’t know really. I can’t place it exactly, as if there were a moment when I didn’t love him, and then suddenly, I did. I couldn’t go a day without thinking about him. I always smiled at the thought. I stopped being able to imagine a life without him in it, and I was okay with that. I just knew. There was no going back.”

Bryna looked at Celia with uncertainty. How could it have been that easy? Nothing is that easy. She had put so much effort into all of her relationships, and they hadn’t panned out at all. If love is effortless, then how am I supposed to find it?

“Okay…”

“You know you don’t have to find love at eighteen.”

“Almost nineteen,” she reminded Celia.

“Yes…almost nineteen either. Look at me. I didn’t find it until I was almost forty!”

“Hmm…that’s true. Thanks.”

“Anytime, Bryna.”

Bryna stood and reached down to lightly pinch baby Zoe’s cheeks. She had a lot to think about. “You’re cute, little missy. You must have gotten that from me.”

Celia laughed. “Probably. She’s lucky to have a big sister like you.”

“Maybe I’ll come see Zoe again.”

“I’m sure she’d love that.”

Bryna and Celia shared a smile.

On her way out, Bryna shook her head in confusion. She’d had a completely civil conversation with her stepmother, and it hadn’t been terrible. Actually, it had been perfectly normal. She had no idea what had just happened.

“How was my little girl?” her dad asked once she was outside the room again.

“Good. I think she probably wants to see her dad though.”

He smiled brightly and then rushed back into the room. It was as if he were twenty years old again. Zoe had reenergized him just like Celia had when they got married. Why didn’t I see it before?

“So, you like the baby.”

Bryna turned around in a rush and saw Pace walking toward her.

“I’m surprised,” he continued, “that you came back from your vacation for this. After you were so adamantly against it, I didn’t think you’d show.”

“Yeah,” she said. She didn’t have it in her to argue with him right now.

“Aren’t you going to gloat?”

“About what?” she asked.

“Barcelona? This strange life you’re leading?”

Bryna arched an eyebrow. “No. There’s nothing to gloat about. I’m glad summer is almost over. How is Stacia?”

“You’re asking about Stacia?”

“Yes. I miss her,” she said plainly.

Pace softened at the mention of Stacia. A rare genuine smile touched his lips, replacing his typical sneer. “She’s good. She misses you, too.”

“So, you’re still together then.” She had suspected as much since she hadn’t heard from Stacia at all. She had only heard about Stacia through Trihn.

“We’ve been together all summer. She lives here in the city, you know.”

“Right. Her dad is the USC coach.”

“Her dad is…something,” he said uncertainly. “A bit controlling.”

“I’m not surprised. Has to be hard to try to control all that wild child in her.”

“Yeah. She’s fun that way.” He smirked.

There’s that asshole again.

“Ew. I can’t. Gross.”

Bryna walked away from him. She’d thought they were working toward a civil conversation, too, and then he had brought that shit up.

“Hey,” he called, following her. “Do you think you could talk to her?”

Bryna narrowed her eyes, wondering what the catch was. “Why?”

“She’s still upset that you’re mad at her. I don’t like to see her like this,” he admitted.

“I’m not going to talk to her because I care about what you say. Let’s make that clear.”

He nodded.

“I’ll do it because I care about Stacia. You just happen to be associated with her at the moment.”

“Fine.”

“Fine!”

Bryna left the hospital lobby and took a cab back to her father’s house in the Hills. She dropped her luggage in her old room and stared around with a small smile on her face. It felt surreal to be back home. She hadn’t been back since Thanksgiving, and she hadn’t even realized she had missed it.

She had been missing a lot these days. Like the truth behind her parents’ divorce and how Celia and her father had gotten together. She had blamed it all on Celia. It was the easiest thing to do. But after what Celia had said at the hospital, Bryna wasn’t sure what to think. Maybe she had just been taking out all her anger on her stepmother. Either way, she had lost her mother, but that didn’t necessarily make it Celia’s fault. That revelation softened Bryna’s resolve for a minute.

She shook her head. She couldn’t deal with all of that today. Maybe her family was a little less fucked up now. It was an improvement. Something to think on later.

Right now, she needed to talk to Stacia.

Here goes nothing.