“Let me guess—you talked to the doctor before you came in here.”
“Fraternity brother.”
Major rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’ll come stay. But you can’t make me like it.”
Forbes’s booming laugh filled the room. “I won’t try to make you. Did you ever get in touch with your health insurance company this afternoon?”
Major told him everything he’d managed to do since their earlier phone conversation. “What I want to know is how am I supposed to get the ambulance, emergency room visit, and surgery preapproved? I mean, come on!”
Brows raised, Forbes leaned forward. “Are they refusing coverage?”
“No, I just had to go over the head of the gal who answered the phone and talk to someone who wasn’t just reading off a script.”
“If you have any more trouble with them, just tell them your lawyer will be calling.” He relaxed again.
“I will. Now, I’m tired of wallowing in my own issues. Tell me about an interesting case you’re working on or something. I’ve spent too much time in my own head today.”
Forbes obliged. Major zoned out a bit, listening to the ramifications of some statute or other that was keeping Mairee and Lawson from moving forward with getting the area around the old warehouse district declared eminent domain, or something to that effect.
“Your dad told me that the groundbreaking had been pushed back six months. Is that why?” Major readjusted his pillow.
“Yes. Apparently some of the property owners out there are putting up a fight.”
“I thought you didn’t represent your parents—that everything for B-G was handled by one of the senior partners.”
“I don’t. But I keep up with everything that’s going on—because my folks expect me to know about it. Speaking of, Dad told me you turned down the restaurant deal.”
Major told him about his mother’s accident the night of the Hearts to HEARTS banquet. “It made me realize that as long as my mother’s around, I’ll never be free to do something like that.”
Forbes crossed his arms, his expression hardening. “Did you ever tell Meredith about your mother?”
And here they were—on the very subject Major had hoped wouldn’t come up tonight. But if he was going to be staying with Meredith’s brother, he’d have to tell him sooner or later. “I was going to tell her last night. I cooked dinner for her at her house but was running out to the Pointe to see Ma when I got in the accident. Apparently Ma had an episode when I didn’t show up. Meredith answered my phone and went out to try to get Ma to calm down.”
“I see.” Forbes’s jaw worked back and forth. “I would imagine she was pretty upset finding out that way.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she doesn’t want anything to do with me again.”
A flicker of anger twitched Forbes’s expression. “Once again, you’re underestimating my sister.”
“You didn’t see how mad she was.”
“I don’t have to. I know her ... better than you do.”
Anger—at himself, at Meredith, at Forbes, at Ma—boiled in Major’s chest. “Look, I appreciate your concern for Meredith. I really do. But this isn’t any of your business. It’s between me and Meredith and no one else.”
“If you had a sister, you’d understand why I can’t let this go, why it is my responsibility to make sure she isn’t hurt.”
“Like it was your responsibility to get George Laurence to lie to Anne for weeks about his real identity?” Sure, it was a low blow, but Major wasn’t going to be the only one in this room being accused of not treating someone fairly.
“You don’t know anything about what happened. Besides, that’s a totally different situation.” Forbes raked his fingers through his hair. “I think the real issue here isn’t Meredith. It’s you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean you’re a coward.” Forbes stood, posture stiff.
Major tried to push himself into a straighter position and ignored the sharp pain in his side. “I beg your pardon?”
“You never told Meredith about your mother because you’re a coward—you were afraid that if you told her, she might not love you anymore just because of your mother’s condition.”
No words came to mind with which Major could defend himself.
“I’ve known you, watched you, listened to you talk about your mother for more than half our lives. The truth is that you’re ashamed of her. You didn’t keep her a secret from everyone—especially Meredith—because you were protecting her from them. You kept her a secret because you’re embarrassed by her condition, mortified that someone might think that you’re the same way she is.”
Guilt pelted Major like hot grease splattering from a fryer.
“If that’s the way you truly feel, you are not the kind of man I want my sister spending the rest of her life with.” Forbes gathered his coat and tie and started toward the door.
Through the overwhelming pressure in his chest, Major caught his breath. “Wait.”
Forbes stopped, arms crossed. “Well?”
“You—you’re right. I am embarrassed by my mother. I always have been. But you don’t understand what it was like growing up with a mom who might throw a tantrum in the middle of Sears with everyone watching. You don’t know what it’s like to be called out of Algebra class and told that your mother set fire to your apartment and she’s being taken to the state mental hospital and you’re being put into foster care. You don’t know what it’s been like to have every woman you’ve ever dated break up with you as soon as they find out about your mom because they’re too scared to listen to the facts and find out that I’m not going to be like her.”
Forbes came back around the bed and sat down.
“You don’t know what it’s like to give up everything—football, New York, the restaurant, Meredith—because she’s had another breakdown, set another fire, had another episode. I’ve had to live with that my whole life, have had to deal with it with no help from anyone else for thirty-eight years. And I’m tired of it.”
As quickly as his anger had flared, it waned. “But mostly, I’m ashamed of myself.”
“Why?”
“Because ever since I moved back here from New York, every time something happens with her, it makes me wish she weren’t around.” His voice cracked, and he tried to clear the pressure out of his throat. “Can you imagine that? My mother, who raised me by herself, who loves me, who did the best she could. And I wish she didn’t exist, because I feel like she’s ruining my life.”
“How do you think your life would be better if she didn’t exist?”
Major closed his eyes and leaned his head back. “I don’t know.... Maybe I’d still be in New York, executive chef in a high-end restaurant in Manhattan.”
“Why did you go to New York in the first place?”
He looked at his friend, wondering if he’d really forgotten. “For culinary school.”
Forbes stood up again and began pacing the length of the bed. “What made you decide to go to culinary school?”
“I’d been working in food service since I was fifteen.” He now knew what a witness on the stand felt like under Forbes’s cross-examination.
“You were fifteen?” Forbes paused and raised his brows.
“Yes—you know this already.”
“What happened when you were fifteen that led you to taking a job in a kitchen?” The attorney resumed pacing.
“I—” Major clamped his mouth shut.
Forbes stopped and turned to look at him again, his gaze piercing.
Frustration pushed out a big sigh. “The foster family I was placed with when Ma was put into the state institution owned a restaurant, and everyone in the family pitched in.”
“But when you went back to living with your mom, you kept working at the restaurant?”
“I needed some kind of stability. Some assurance I could take care of myself.” He was starting to see the point of Forbes’s probing. He never would have thought of working in a restaurant if he hadn’t lived with that foster family for a month. He wouldn’t have fallen in love with the industry, wouldn’t have gone to work for Maggie Babineaux in her catering business.