All About Brian

Chapter 4

“Daddy, can Ashley come over and play on the weekend?”

“Hm, you need to check with your Dada about that.”

“Is it okay with you?” Bree asked staring at her father with her violet eyes and batting them gently to make her point.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Can we have a sleepover?”

“Oh, now that’s another question,” Justin said carefully. He was peeling potatoes for dinner. “You definitely need to talk to your Dada about that.”

“Okay, I will, but is it okay with you?”

“I … I guess so. Yes, it’s okay with me … but only if Dada says so.”

“’Kay, Daddy,” Bree said with a sunshine smile. She skipped out to the sun porch to find her other father. There was no sign of him anywhere. She looked up at his office and saw that the door was open. Carefully she climbed the spiral staircase until she stood in the open doorway of Brian’s office. She looked at her father who was studying the computer screen in front of him. He didn’t seem to realize that she was there.

She was about to say something when she thought better of it. If she interrupted whatever her father was doing, that might make him mad and then he wouldn’t let her have Ashley come on the weekend for a sleepover. She decided to wait. She stood still, hoping her father would finish whatever he was doing. She waited and waited, but her father continued to look at the computer screen not at her. After what seemed like hours to her, but was really only a couple of minutes, her good intentions started to peter out. She shifted from foot to foot and finally let out a little sigh.

Brian stretched his arms above his head and then looked at the little girl standing in the doorway. “What’s up, Squirt?”

“Are you done, Dada?”

“For now. Have you been waiting?”

“Yep, for a long, long time,” she said earnestly.

Brian smiled at her. He had heard her come up the stairs a couple of minutes earlier, but he supposed to Bree that was like an eternity. She had waited patiently even if it was only for a couple of minutes. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Daddy says it’s okay for Ashley to some on the weekend and have a sleepover, if it’s okay with you and I really want her to come, so is it okay with you?” Bree used the same look in her violet eyes that had worked on her other father. She batted her lashes slowly as she waited for her Dada’s reply.

“That’s what your Daddy said, was it?”

Bree nodded her head emphatically making her ponytails bounce around. “Yep.”

“Maybe I should talk to Daddy first before I give you my response,” Brian said, waiting to see what her reaction would be.

“Oh no, Dada, you have work to do, and Daddy said it was okay. Just say it’s okay and then you can go back to work,” Bree said hastily. She didn’t want her father’s conferring and figuring out how she was trying to wangle Ashley’s invitation for the weekend.

“I’m done working,” Brian said.

“Oh?” Bree said looking somewhat crestfallen. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.”

“I can go talk to Daddy right now.”

“You don’t need to,” Bree said quickly, but her voice didn’t sound nearly as confident as it had a minute before.

“I seem to be getting a sense that you don’t want me to talk to Daddy about this. Could I be right?” Brian asked trying not to laugh at the look on Bree’s face. It was somewhere between desperation and panic.

Bree frowned and stared at her father. It seemed that the jig was up; she had been found out. She looked down at the floor and scuffed the toe of her slipper against it. “You can talk to Daddy if you want to,” she said in a whisper, having given up on her plan that she had been sure would work.

“But you don’t want me to?”

“No,” Bree replied staring at the toe of her slipper as it slid against the floor.

“Come here, Squirt.”

Bree looked up and into her father’s face. He didn’t seem to be mad, so she ventured into the office and over to his desk. She stopped when she got to his chair. Brian reached down and lifted her onto his knee.

“I love you, Dada,” Bree said wrapping her arms around his neck.

“I love you too,” Bran said smiling as he felt her head nuzzle against his cheek.

“Can Ashley come for a sleepover?” Bree ventured to ask again.

“After I talk to Daddy.”

Bree heaved a sigh. “Okay.”

“Did your Daddy really say it was all right for Ashley and you to have a sleepover?”

Bree was about to say yes when she realized that her father was going to talk to her Daddy, and he would find out what she had tried to do. She decided the truth was probably the best idea. “He said I should ask you and it was okay with him if it was okay with you.”

“But he didn’t give you permission without asking me?” Brian asked.

Bree shook her head making her ponytails swing from side to side. “Not really,” she said.

“It’s not a good idea to try to play your father and me like that,” Brian counseled.

“Huh?”

“You wanted me to believe you already had your father’s permission, when you really didn’t. Isn’t that right?”

Bree nodded. “But how did you know?”

“Because I was your age once.”

Bree frowned. “You were?”

“Yes, unbelievably I was,” Brian chuckled. “And I remember how these things work.”

“Oh.”

“So keep that in mind when you try your manipulations again.”

“Manip-you…?”

“Manipulations, Squirt. There’s time enough for those when you’re older.”

“Okay, Dada, I won’t do it again.”

“I’m afraid you will, so don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

Bree wasn’t sure what her father meant by that. She would be very careful about her manip-yous in the future. “I won’t promise if you don’t want me to,” she said.

“That isn’t exactly what I meant,” Brian chuckled. He should have left well enough alone.

“So, can Ashley come for a sleepover?”

“I think that would be all right.”

“Yay,” Bree reacted throwing her arms around Brian’s neck once again. “Can I call her and tell her?”

“I think that would be acceptable,” Brian agreed as he picked up the phone on his desk. “Here you go,” Brian said handing Bree the phone before lifting her up so that he could stand. He placed her down in his big office chair. “Don’t be too long, Squirt.”

“’Kay, Dada, thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Brian left the office and walked down the stairs as Bree dialed Ashley’s number. He went into the kitchen.

“Did she get your permission to have Ashley for a sleepover?” Justin asked from where he was preparing dinner.

“With a little manipulation.”

“I wondered if she’d try that. What did you do?”

“I called her on it.”

“Good for you.”

“Yeah, right,” Brian said shaking his head.

“So, Ashley’s not coming on the weekend?” Justin asked, as he heard the funny tone in Brian’s voice.

“Bree’s in my office calling Ashley now … to arrange their weekend together.”

Justin chuckled. “How did that happen?”

“She admitted what she had tried to do and said she wouldn’t do it again,” Brian replied.

“And you gave in.”

“I was going to let her have Ashley over anyway. We’re not doing anything special this weekend.”

“But she got her way.”

“But she knows I’m onto her.”

“I was onto you for years. I told you that many times, and look where that got you,” Justin laughed.

Brian frowned. He wasn’t sure what Justin meant. He had handled Bree just right, or so he had thought. He poured himself some coffee and headed back up to his office. He had some thinking to do.

 

*****
 

“So do you really think the Squirt pulled a fast one on me?” Brian asked as he and Justin were cuddled on the sofa in front of the fire. The cottage was quiet. The kids were asleep and John and Bobby had turned in for the night. Justin had worked on another commissioned painting for a few hours after dinner while Brian had gone over Briana’s homework. Brian built a roaring fire and now they were sharing a brandy and an afghan before going to bed.

“No, not really. I was only teasing you. I’m glad you called her on trying to play us. She needs to know that we’ll always be available to her and will listen to any reasonable requests she makes, but I won’t be tricked into agreeing with her. We don’t have any definite plans for this weekend so if I don’t mind if the girls have a sleepover,” Justin explained reasonably.

Brian said nothing but Justin felt him relax.

“You were really worried about it, weren’t you?” Justin said as he examined Brian’s face.

“A little,” Brian revealed. “It’s one thing when the guys try to pull a fast one on me or tease me that Bree has me wrapped around her little finger or that you lead me around by my balls. It’s another thing if you believe it.”

“Brian, I might tease you a little about spoiling our daughter but it is tempered with a lot of common sense. It may look to the world that Bree gets everything she wants but we know she doesn’t. And her requests have never been that unreasonable. She's precocious, I’ll admit, but she isn’t manipulative in a bad way. She’s just doing what any normal kid does with two somewhat indulgent parents. I know I tried to pull that shit on my parents all the time especially when Molly was a baby. They were so busy with her that I was able to get away with some things until my dad got wise to me.” Justin sighed then took the snifter from Brian so he could have a sip of brandy.

“Justin,” Brian began as he cupped Justin’s chin with his hand. “It’s okay to love your father and to think about the fun you had with him when you were a kid. It’s okay to hang on to those good memories. Jack was a for shit father, but every once in a while he had his moments,” Brian said with a smirk.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Tell me,” Justin whispered as he snuggled into Brian’s arms. Brian pulled the afghan up around them both as he told Justin about the night Jack met Gus.

“I think he was finally proud of me for a few minutes that night,” Brian said trying to control the hitch in his voice. “And Lindsay, she was so beautiful. Any father would be proud to have her for a daughter-in-law.”

Brian felt Justin nod in agreement.

“Gus was such a beautiful baby. He had one of those stupid caps on his head. You know how the girls used to dress him.”

Justin giggled softly.

“The old man held Gus in his arms like he had been handling babies all his life.”

“He did have two kids.”

“Yeah, well, sometimes I wish we had more time. Maybe he’d...”

Justin turned in Brian’s arms then gently took the snifter out of Brian’s hand to place it on the coffee table.

“He loved you, Brian. Just as I know Craig did love me, your father loved you. He was dying and you gave him the most precious gift you could. You gave him life, Bri.”

Justin hugged Brian hard, wrapping his arms around Brian’s waist as he laid his head down on Brian’s chest. Brian said nothing as he held onto the love of his life.

 

*****
 

“Hey, Curtis,” JR waved as the young man strolled into the lunch room. He took a seat next to his friend. “How’s your assignment going?”

“Okay, I guess. It’s not so easy writing about someone I hardly know.”

“But you do know him. He’s kind, very handsome and can be very funny.”

“He’s also scary.”

“Yeah, he can be but not all the time. And only when it really counts. All that shouting he does sometimes, he doesn’t mean it. He just...”

“Just what?”

“Feels things, really deep. Sometimes my mom would say some bad things about him,” JR admitted, blushing with embarrassment. “They didn’t know I’d see the look on Uncle Brian’s face. He’d be hurt and I wished that...”

“What?”

“I wished I had the balls to tell Uncle Bri that I think my mother was wrong for always putting him down.”

JR was trying to hold back the tears in her eyes. She didn’t want to make a spectacle of herself in the middle of the school lunch room. That was so uncool.

“Mr. Kinney’s really smart, right?”

“He sure is,” JR said as she wiped her eyes.

“I’m sure he knows that you’re on his side.”

“I don’t take sides.”

“But you love your uncle, don’t ya?”

“Yeah, I do. A lot.”

“Then I’m thinking a smart man like him, knows how much you love him,” Curtis said with a big smile.

“Yeah?” JR said wiping away an errant tear.

“Yeah. You better eat up, lunch is almost over,” Curtis said as he took a big bite out of his sandwich.

“Yeah!” JR said with a smile as she bit into her own sandwich as well.

 

*****
 

“Bobby Morrison.”

“Hey, Bobby, how’s the law life in Harrisburg?” Melanie asked.

“About the same as Pittsburgh. How can I help you?”

“I don’t know if I told you but I’m taking a creative writing course and my first assignment is to write about the one person I dislike the most but who had the deepest impact on my life.”

“And you’re calling me because?”

“Because I really need to know the facts about that trust fund the ass...”

“Mel.”

“That Brian set up for my kids.”

“He is the father of one of those kids.”

“I know.”

“And you have no business asking. You of all people know that I’m bound by client-lawyer...”

“Blah, blah, blah. Bobby, I just want to know how much.”

“Enough.”

“Enough what?”

“It’s enough. I’m not giving you a figure.”

“Bobby!”

“No, Melanie. I could go before the board of professional ethics if you push this.”

“Fuck you!”

“Fuck you too, Mel! Drop it.”

“Please, Bobby, I have to know. Are my kids really going to be provided for?”

“Melanie!” Bobby shouted into the phone. He felt like slamming down the receiver, instead he put it down on the desk then took a few deep breaths. “Mel, all I can tell you, all that I’m allowed to tell you, is that at the age of twenty-five Gus and JR will have enough that if they didn’t want to earn a living on their own, they could live comfortably off the interest of the fund. He set the same thing up for Bree and Patrick, much to my objections. But he insisted, saying what good is all his fucking money if he couldn’t do what the fuck he fucking wanted to. And that’s a direct quote.”

“Shit!”

“Tell me about it. John was livid but he understood Brian’s need to do it. Brian wanted the kids to be able to tap into the fund when they reached twenty-one. John was pushing for thirty.”

“So they compromised.”

“Yes. Now why the interrogation?”

“Because I’m writing about him,” Mel said through gritted teeth. Bobby cracked up with laughter. “Fuck you, Bobby. This is serious,” Mel shouted over Bobby’s laughter.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“I wish I was. I really wish there was someone else in my life that irritated me more than Brian but there isn’t. He’s the most aggravating, the most arrogant fucking bastard that I know. And yet he’d shelled out god knows how much money to fix my house. Not to mention all the times he arranged to fix my marriage, and he sets up a trust fund for a kid who isn’t his. God Bobby, I hate him so fucking much that I love the asshole.”

“I know what you mean.”

“You? I don’t understand. You and he are so close. He loves you.”

“And I love him. Mel, you just don’t know.”

“Wait a minute. You don’t mean to say. You and he haven’t...”

“God, no. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it. He’s fucking gorgeous.”

“I guess, for a man. But you haven’t.”

“I have never ever broken my vow of fidelity to John. But that doesn’t mean that a hundred years ago if we had met before I made my commitment, that if I had met Brian Kinney in some club or bar, I wouldn't have dropped trou in a heart beat.”

“TMI, Bobby.”

“You know what I mean. But there’s a helluva lot more to Brian Kinney than sex.”

“I’m beginning to realize that. Thanks, Bobby.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Are you going to report me?”

Bobby chuckled. “No. The big guy gave me permission to speak in generalities if I was pushed by you or Lindsay. I haven’t violated his trust.”

“Good. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

After Bobby terminated his call with Melanie, he called the house.

“Kinney.”

“Hey, big guy.”

“Red! How’s it hanging? You going to be late for dinner? I’m baking some fish.”

“I’ll be home on time. I just wanted to let you know that Mel called me asking about the terms of the trust fund. I let her know just what we agreed upon.”

“Did she go for it?”

“Hook, line and sinker. Brian, the kids...”

“Will never have to worry if they have enough for their next meal or to pay their mortgage. We made sure that they can’t spend it frivolously or be taken for a ride.”

“Yes, Brian, we made sure.”

“Then I’ll see you at dinner.” Brian terminated the conversation. Bobby went back to work so he could be home on time for dinner.
 

Return to All About Brian