Spitting image, p.10
Spitting Image, page 10
Evan looked at Everett like he was an idiot, and Klair appeared to be grinding her teeth.
Harmony broke the silence. “Way to go, Rhett.”
Another several moments of awkward quiet, then Jazz asked if they were having dessert.
“We have carrot cake,” Klair said.
Harmony licked her lips. “Mmmm … Central Marketlicious.”
Klair stood without responding to her daughter and stomped to the kitchen. No one spoke while she was gone, and her return felt like a mercy killing when she came marching back to the table with six separate slices of cake, carrying them like a waitress — one extra just in case someone wanted seconds, or to keep her load symmetrical.
“Thanks for the help, Harmony,” Klair said as she delivered plates of freshly sliced carrot cake across the table.
“Jazz could have helped.”
“You call me a suck-up whenever I offer!”
Everett picked at his slice of cake as they ate in silence. It was obvious that no one wanted him around. He should have kept his mouth shut, then lent Evan a sympathetic ear while Klair did the dishes.
To Everett’s surprise, Klair suggested that they all move outside to the pool.
“I have homework,” Harmony said.
“Fine, go upstairs and do your homework, then,” Klair replied, sounding too tired for what was clearly a very regular argument.
Harmony disappeared, then the remaining four of them shuffled outside.
Klair lit some candles — “or the mosquitos will kill us,” she said — while Jazz sat in a lawn chair off to the side and started scrolling on his phone. Evan took a seat in front of a darkened fire pit, and Everett sat beside him.
“Thank you for all of this. I really appreciate you taking me in.”
“Nothing to it,” Evan said with an anemic smile. “It’s just a couple of days.”
“A couple of days with my twin brother?” Everett kept his voice bright. “That’s a couple more days than I ever expected to have.”
Evan didn’t reply, so Everett asked, “What was it like when you first found out that you were adopted?”
“It wasn’t really like that.” Evan shrugged. “My sister and I always knew.”
“Oh … that’s right … I forgot about your sister.” Everett waited for Evan to follow up his answer with something else, like maybe a question about Everett’s experience. But none came. “What about at school — did anyone ever make fun of you for being adopted?”
“Not really.” Evan shook his head. “I mean, sure, kids are kids, but nothing serious.”
“Oh.” Good for you.
More silence.
Everett needed a different route to reach his destination.
Klair had vanished back inside after lighting the candles, as if getting them all out of the house was only a ploy to give her enough space to hide from the company she couldn’t ask to leave. Jazz didn’t appear to be paying attention to their conversation with his nose just inches away from his phone.
Everett lowered his voice. A risky move, but here he went anyway. “Is there any way you could maybe take a day off before the new restaurant opens? For Klair, I mean. Not that it’s my place to say anything, but that sure seems like it would really mean a lot to her.”
Evan looked over at his brother, clearly irritated. “I love Klair, but she has no idea how hard the restaurant business actually is.”
“I think she understands. She just misses you.”
“Okay.” Evan obviously had zero interest in having a genuine conversation with his brother, and Everett had butted in enough for one night.
Time to find some common ground with his twin.
“Oh … Did you always want to be a chef?”
“I graduated from college with a degree in business management, then got my MBA and went to culinary school.”
“Then you opened your restaurant?” Culinary school had been Everett’s dream, but his grades were never good enough for a scholarship.
“I apprenticed in a four-star restaurant before opening Señor.”
“What’s next, after Tequila Mockingbird?”
Evan gave him a heavy sigh. “We have an investor talking about franchising, but I’m not sure that’s the kind of leap I want to make. At least not yet.”
“Oh yeah, why?”
“Because I want everything with my name on it to maintain a certain level of quality, and two restaurants will be hard enough to manage for a while. I’d rather focus on building my reputation as a world-class chef.”
“Makes sense. My cafe is doing well, if you’re ever looking to share recipes or, you know, do a bit of cross-pollination.”
“Thanks,” Evan said.
Jazz looked up. “Is it okay if go inside?”
“Of course.” Evan smiled at his son, and Everett couldn’t help but think that he wanted to go with him.
But at least they were finally alone.
“What about you? What was it like when you found out that you were adopted?” Evan finally asked.
“My parents didn’t tell me until I was ten, but I knew a long time before that.” Everett decided it was time to get real. “My brothers hated me. They were a lot older, and never wanted me around. They told me first chance they got, and they never let me forget it. At first, I didn’t believe them, but as I got older I saw how different we looked. They said that they’d kill me if I told Mom or Dad that I knew, and I believed them.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Evan said, and it sounded like he truly meant it.
“My brothers were always beating me up,” Everett continued. “My dad knew, but he didn’t care. Mom couldn’t have any more children after my brother Marco was born. She wanted another kid, but Dad obviously didn’t. At least not one from outside his gene pool.”
“That sucks.”
Everett found himself smiling. “I was always so jealous of the connection my older brothers had with each other. The way they could finish one another’s sentences or communicate with a look. They each always seemed to know what the other one was thinking. And they always backed each other up, no matter what.”
“So you guys had nothing in common?”
“Nothing. They played varsity football in high school and dated cheerleaders. They were both prom kings in their respective senior years. And class presidents. Not because they cared about school politics. They were just great at being popular. It was the opposite for me. I never made the cut, even though I tried out for the football team all four years, and I never went to prom because I didn’t want to go alone.”
“But you had friends, right?”
“Oh yeah, my best friends, the Ds. Devon and Derek. They’re twins.”
“I remember you mentioning them.”
“It was weird, growing up with twins for best friends.”
“In what way?” Evan asked.
“They were always there for me, but …” It was hard to admit this next bit, so Everett sort of just spit it out. “I was just always so jealous of them, too.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
His throat tightened, and he took a big gulp of whiskey while he braced himself for the next admission. It was the thing he wanted to share most with his brother — but he didn’t want to cry in front of him, not when they still barely knew each other.
“My mom died a couple of weeks ago. She was the only one in the family who cared about me, and all the good stuff about me … it came from her. My happiest times as a little kid were when I would follow her around the kitchen, learning her recipes.”
Evan smiled. “That sounds familiar.”
“I’m a great cook, and an even better baker … I just wish I was better at the business side of things.”
“It takes a lot of practice.”
“And an MBA,” Everett laughed.
“Yeah, that helps.”
Another silent moment, but this one felt nice.
“Anyway,” Everett started the conversation again. “My adoption was sealed, but I kept getting more and more curious about where I came from, so I eventually hired a private eye to track down my birth parents. That’s what led me here to you. Man, you should have seen me the day I found out that I had a twin brother.”
He turned to Evan, wanting to see his face for this next part.
“I know I dropped in out of nowhere, but what did you think … when you opened the door and saw that you had a twin?”
It took too long before Evan answered. Enough for Everett’s heart to start beating faster.
Evan set a comforting hand on his brother’s shoulder. “I always knew I had a twin.”
“What?”
Everett had never felt more destroyed. He’d rather be suffering yet another beating from his adopted brothers than facing the truth that his biological brother had known about him, and not cared.
“Why didn’t you ever come looking for me?” Then, because that barely scratched at the bigger question. “You obviously had the resources.”
Evan squeezed his shoulder before letting it go. “I wished you well, brother, but I was happy with the family I had.”
“Oh.” Another word and Everett would start crying for sure.
Evan seemed to sense it. “Even though I never reached out, I’m glad you drove to Austin and that I’m getting to know you now.”
Everett smiled and buried his aching as best he could.
But it was too little, too late.
Chapter Fifteen
Everett groaned as he checked his phone — almost nine.
So much for getting up early enough to catch Evan before work. He must have turned the alarm off in his sleep. But maybe that was better? His stomach still ached from the gut-punch of Evan’s admission last night. How could he know about Everett but not care enough to reach out?
Worse, Everett wasn’t sure if he’d have done the same in Evan’s position. If he’d had everything a child could want, would he have cared that Evan might be suffering halfway across the country?
Probably not. And admitting that made Everett feel wrong for coming here and intruding on his brother’s perfect life.
Well, almost perfect. Apparently Klair wasn’t entirely happy with Evan. Did it make Everett a bad person to feel relieved that he wasn’t the only one struggling to balance a career and a significant other?
Speaking of which, it was time to return Clara’s call, now that he could finally report some success. He couldn’t claim an instant soul-bond with his newfound twin, but he could say that they’d celebrated their shared birthday without lying.
“Oh, amazing,” she said when she picked up. “You finally learned how to use your phone. Did you need to take an online course for that, or were you able to find a simple how-to article?”
“Is everything okay?” Everett felt a sudden and perhaps unreasonable fear that no, things were absolutely not in any way okay. Something awful had happened with Jimi while he was fifteen hundred miles away and unable to help.
“Everything is fine, assuming you can do your job as Jimi’s other parent.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I got an audition.”
“Oh yeah? That’s great.”
“For lead guitarist in A Splinter of Moon.”
“Wow. Prodigious!” How had she managed that? A Splinter of Moon was Clara’s favorite band, and one of the biggest influences on what she referred to as “her personal sound.”
Clara sighed, clearly annoyed that he hadn’t responded with more enthusiasm. “So I need you to take Jimi, for at least the next three days. I can drop him off at your place in an hour.”
“I can’t, Clara. I’m in Texas.”
“TEXAS?”
“Austin. My brother is here. I came to visit.”
“I saw Marco and Roberto at the grocery store last night.”
“I hired a private eye to find my birthparents. Turns out I had a twin brother living in Austin.”
“I’m guessing that this is the ‘really great news’ you were going to tell me about later?”
“You wouldn’t believe how many similarities there are between us. It’s like all those stories you hear about identical twins. He’s married to a Klair instead of a Clara—”
“We’re not married.”
“— and she’s a musician, too. Her band is called Redheaded Stepchild — have you ever heard of them? They’re opening for the Stray Bullets. Anyway, my brother, Evan, owns two restaurants here in Austin. I know I only have the one, and both of his are a little bigger than mine, but—”
“That wouldn’t be hard.” Clara paused. “Are you guys really identical?”
“He’s my spitting image.” Except for being in much better shape, with a much better haircut, and a much better life.
“Is he allergic to exercise, too?”
“You don’t have to be mean.”
“When are you coming home?”
“I’m not sure.”
A long silence, then, “Fuck you, Everett.”
“I’ve asked you to please not swear at me like that.”
“Well, I asked you to start being a goddamned grown-up and look where we are.”
“I know it’s not your first choice, but you can take Jimi to your mom’s.”
“Not for three days. No way.”
“Why do you need three days for an audition?”
“Because it’s in Nashville!”
“How was I supposed to know that?”
“By doing the math, Everett. Goddammit, I knew you’d fuck this up for me!”
“I’m sorry your audition is in Nashville. If I’d known, I could have delayed my trip. I just wanted to be here for my twin brother’s birthday party. By the way, thanks for wishing me a happy—”
“Oh, fuck you and your birthday week! We’re not married anymore. I don’t have to treat you like a goddamned ten-year-old.”
“That’s not fair,” Everett said.
“You know what’s not fair? You taking off to Texas without telling me.”
“I have a twin brother now. Why can’t you understand how important family is to me?”
There was a long silence.
“You need to get current on your child support,” Clara finally said.
“What?”
“You heard me. I’ve been cutting you slack because the cafe hasn’t been doing well, but if you can afford an impromptu trip to Texas, you can afford to support your son. Who is also a member of your family.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“About what, Everett? That you owe me thousands of dollars in child support? Or do you not believe that Jimi is your son?”
“All I’m asking is for you to think about what I’m going through for once.”
Now Clara was yelling. “You’re always ‘going through’ something.”
“That’s not true and you know it.”
“Are you going to come back here and take responsibility for your son?”
“I just need—”
“It’s a yes or no question, Everett.”
“The Ds would watch him for a few days—”
“You can’t dump Jimi on your friends. It’s not fair to your son, and incidentally, it’s also not fair to your friends who have families of their own to take care of.”
“Even if I could get back there in time—”
Clara hung up.
Chapter Sixteen
You’re always going through something.
The only way to get Clara’s words out of Everett’s head was for him to prove her wrong.
If he wanted to connect with his brother, then he needed to make a deliberate effort, instead of waiting around for Evan to hand him an engraved invitation.
After a rushed shower and a quick check of his dwindling bank account, Everett headed for the main house. He straightened his shoulders in front of the back door, ready to knock, and confident enough to do so without acting like a baby this time.
Or a ten-year-old.
He raised his knuckles, but they never made it to the glass.
He could hear a noise inside. Low voices.
Maybe he should have knocked, or turned right around and gone back to the guest house. But Everett couldn’t do either. Something compelled him to put his hand on the doorknob, then that same something insisted he turn it.
He closed the door softly behind him, surprised to realize that one of the voices was Evan’s. He wasn’t at work after all. He was in the kitchen, arguing with Klair.
Everett stopped walking and peeked around the corner.
At a glance, it looked like Evan was having a meltdown and Klair was trying to calm him.
“So you’re really going to look me in the eye and tell me that this isn’t total fucking bullshit?” He stared at Klair, apparently waiting for her to answer what sounded like a rhetorical question.
“No,” she said calmly. “It’s clearly bullshit. I’m trying to say that it’s not the end of the world.”
He ran a hand across his stubbled face. “Well, it’s the end of our world.”
“Our world isn’t the new restaurant, Evan.”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“THAT THIS IS A TOTAL FUCKING DISASTER!”
Everett shouldn’t be standing here. He needed to turn around and return to the guest house, come back and try again later. But just as he was about to take a long and quiet step backward, Klair made a half-turn and caught his gaze.
To his tremendous surprise, she gave him a smile, then turned back to her husband without alerting him to Everett’s presence.
“I just lost one of the two station chefs for Tequila. He’s going to be in the hospital for a month.” Evan shook his head. “What the hell was he doing skiing two weeks before our big opening?”
“You promised him a long weekend after a murderous few months. To bond with his family before things got stupid crazy again.”
“BUT SKIING? He couldn’t have picked something less likely to fuck him up — like swimming with sharks?”
