Page 97 of Everything We Give

“I repeat. He’s manipulative.” I don’t say anything further, and for a moment we’re both quiet, lost in our thoughts. I’m not sure I can handle Nadia dating Thomas, but I don’t want to lose her as a friend either. “Are you still working with him?”

“Yes, but not for much longer. I send off the plans next week. Unless he makes any changes, my contribution to the project will be done.”

“Are you going to see him again after that?”

“I won’t if you don’t want me to. Our friendship is too important.”

“I can’t tell you who you can or can’t date. Just know that I don’t trust anyone in the Donato family, especially Thomas. You shouldn’t either. Be careful around him. I care about you too much.”

“Don’t worry about me. I will.”

“Good. Now I need a favor from you. Meet me at the café Thursday evening.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see. I’ve got to go. My dinner’s getting cold.”

I end the call, and on the way back to the room, I purchase two beers in the lobby bar. Ian’s still at the table upon my return. He briefly looks up when I set his dinner and open beer beside him, but he doesn’t touch his food. I quietly eat mine so as not to disturb him, then take a shower. When I’m finished, dewy and wrapped in the hotel’s terry-cloth robe, I return to his side. He’s turned off the lights and shut down his laptop. He faces the window, which he opened in my absence. The sheer curtain billows like an ocean surface. Our room is on the second floor and the soft glow of the parking lot lights cast Ian’s profile in muted grays like an old black-and-white movie. He still hasn’t touched his food.

“Ian?”

He doesn’t look at me. “Al won’t contract me again if he doesn’t have the shots by morning. I’m not even halfway done.”

“They seem to be in an awful rush for this feature. Can you get an extension? Tell him you’ve had a family emergency.”

“Oldest excuse in the book. He won’t buy it.”

“It’s the truth.”

He looks at his hands and runs a nail around his thumb cuticle. “Stu knows where Sarah is.”

My breath catches in my throat. “Did he tell you?”

He nods. “He bought a condo in Paradise and set her up there after her release. He found her a job, too. She’s a seamstress at a dry cleaners in Las Vegas.”

“Ian.” I can’t even.

I sink to my heels, looking up at him, and grip his hand with both of mine.

“He’s been supporting her and he expects me to take over when he’s gone. Thing is, I can’t see her. Unless it’s a medical or financial emergency, or she reaches out to me, I’m not fucking allowed to contact her.” He snatches his beer and downs half.

“Why not?”

“Jackie was violent. My mom doesn’t trust herself around me. She doesn’t want to hurt me.”

“But that was a long time ago. Surely she’s had time to better understand and manage her condition.”

Ian shrugs. He finishes his beer and sets down the bottle. “She has a companion. She’s a nurse or something like that, and she lives with my mom. She helps her with her schedule and accompanies her when she leaves the condo. I’m expected to communicate through her.” He looks down at me and smiles. It comes across as a sneer. “It all makes sense now, why my dad took on those extra assignments. He was saving money. He and Sarah hatched the plan long before her sentence was up and he kept everything from me. He let me believe my mom needed distance and that she didn’t love me. Turns out that’s why she left. She loved me too much to risk hurting me again. All these years I thought she hated me and all I wanted was to tell her, ‘I’m sorry.’”

My heart breaks for him. I kiss his hand, turn it over, and kiss his palm. I press his palm against my cheek.

“I don’t think I can do it, Aimee. I can’t make financial and medical decisions on her behalf and not see her.”

Crawling into his lap, I wrap my arms around him, threading my fingers in his hair, now dry and wavy. He lowers his forehead to my shoulder and ropes his arms around my back. He sighs, a long exhalation full of sadness.

Ian, my Ian.

I kiss his head and he murmurs something incoherent. His hair tickles my nose as I inhale his scent. Tea tree shampoo and hotel soap. I want to absorb his pain, take it all away from him.

---