“I told Greg something about you. Greg said I had to tell you, or he would. I’m a little afraid of how you’ll take it.”
I just looked at her, which made her smile.
“You Dawsons really are all alike,” she said, then got serious. “When you and Tami were working things out, I told her what I thought of the whole situation. My advice to her was that she shouldn’t be in a hurry to settle down. Looking back, it probably wasn’t what you wanted me to say.”
I could guess, and really didn’t want to hear it. My relationship with Tami hadn’t turned out how I wanted during the summer.
“Why did you do it? And not just back then, but with the interview? I thought you were part of the family,” I said.
Angie looked away and took a moment to gather herself.
“Leave it to you to get to the heart of the matter. I didn’t set out to be mean. The interview just popped out, but since then I’ve had to face myself, if for no other reason than I think Greg is ready to kick me to the curb.
“You know my family life. When I got pregnant, they turned their backs on me. What I saw in your family was something I didn’t even realize was possible to have. You all are closer than is probably healthy. You talk about stuff that would have had me run screaming from the kitchen table in embarrassment if it had happened at my home. What amazed me was that you all took me in, as if I’d always been a part of your little clan. In many ways, I sympathized with Tami when you wanted to push her out. She’d been a part of something unique, and suddenly it was gone.
“One of my fears is that you all will find me out. I’m not like you, I need to have some things secret that I can’t tell the whole family. What I need to tell you to make this right, I can’t, for fear you’ll tell Greg,” Angie said as a tear formed at the corner of her eye.
“What you don’t know is that I’ve had the same issues recently. I was upset that my mom wouldn’t tell me why she was upset with Dad concerning Phil. I have my own secrets now, because of that. If you need me to keep something just between the two of us, all you have to do is tell me,” I said.
“Do you mean that? I’m serious here. Can I trust you?” she asked.
I didn’t answer right away, because my first loyalty was to Greg, just as I had found out that Uncle John’s loyalty was to my dad. What if Angie told me she was having an affair, or something worse? This all would go to my character. Was I really a man of my word? If I told her yes, I would have to mean it. The only way I would break my word would be if it put someone in danger or it would hurt the family.
“Yes, you can trust me. The only thing I ask is that you don’t abuse that trust,” I said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Come on, Angie, use some common sense. If you tell me you’re banging your college professor, it would be pretty shitty to tell me and force me to stay quiet.”
She nodded and told me what was up.
“When I first met Greg, he was my ideal man. Self-assured, loved me, and made love to me better than I ever imagined anyone could. He was someone I felt I could make a life with. The only problem was Greg only dated someone for a couple of months, and then moved on. I decided to keep him,” she said, and let me take that information in and put two and two together.
“Shit, Angie! Does he know?” I asked.
“No.”
Then something struck me about what Angie said. Tami always called me a ‘stupid boy’ because I missed the obvious concerning relationships. Well, she called me a ‘stupid boy’ for many reasons, but in particular, I was terrible at picking up a secret crush. Once Tami pointed it out to me, then it was obvious. What Angie had said was when she first met Greg, he was her perfect man. That meant she had found someone else; or did it?
“There’s more, isn’t there,” I stated.
“You started to grow up,” she said, which made me take in a sharp breath and step back.
“I’m not going to jump you,” Angie teased.
“But, but, I would never …”
“Therein is my problem. Let me lay all my cards on the table. When I first met Greg, you were a little dweeb. A lovable dweeb, but I looked at you like his little brother. Then I saw you after Cindy had done her makeover. Cindy was a real bitch because she gave me every detail about how you were in bed. It wasn’t only the sex. I had Greg, after all, and could get him to up his game just by teasing him that someone told me you were better in bed than he was.
“What made me start to doubt my choice was when you started to model. It became apparent that you’d surpass your brother professionally. Then you became an actor, and then out of the blue, you were asked to buy into the farm. While Greg never said anything, I knew he envied your success.
“The final thing is how you treat my kids. They love their Uncle David, and I know you love them. You’ll make a great father. I just wish you were older. You’ll have to do a whole lot of growing up, and way too soon. It makes me sad to think of what you’ll face in a few months,” Angie said.
“I’m confused.”
“Me too. I would never trade Greg in for you, but somehow, I felt I’d been cheated when you began to blossom. All I can say is I’m sorry for what I said to Tami, and to the press. I think I just wanted to take you down a notch or two and make you normal like the rest of us. I didn’t intend to mess anything up for your dad. Greg is furious that I did it in such a public way. I knew your mom didn’t take the revelation of Phil well. I should’ve known better,” she admitted.
“Do you need me to talk to Greg?” I asked.
“No. All I have to do is hand him one of the kids if he gets too mad. We’ve gone through too much to chuck our marriage away because I said something stupid. Of course, I did do it on a grand scale.”
“Yeah, thanks, by the way.”
Angie just rolled her eyes at me. What she didn’t know was that I had already made a decision to be more careful when I was around her. She really wasn’t a Dawson in the true sense. I no longer had any idea how much I could trust her. The whole jealousy bit sounded like an excuse to me. I was also pissed she had laid on me that Kyle was her way to trap my brother. I think that was worse than if Angie had told me she had a lover. What was I supposed to do with this?
◊◊◊
The press conference was a success. I was a little irritated that Ms. Dixon used Mr. Fox’s class standing and the fact it took him six times to pass the bar. She did do it in a clever way, though.
“What evidence do they have concerning the rape of the mother of David’s child?”
“I’m afraid I can’t comment on that out of respect to Detective Kitchens and State’s Attorney Mason. What I can do is give you my opinion about the quality of the accusation. We are dealing with an enraged parent who is an attorney. He found himself a young attorney who’s desperate to make a name for himself but isn’t smart enough to figure out what to do on his own, so he’s let the father of the young girl talk him into making a fool out of himself,” Ms. Dixon said.
I thought we’d all agreed not to throw Cal under the bus, but I couldn’t exactly step in front of her and drag her off stage.
“Those are serious charges. Do you have any specifics?” was the follow-up question.
“Without getting into specifics, I want you to follow what has been released to the press. Someone had to leak the picture of the alleged abuse. It wasn’t the police or the state’s attorney’s office. The only thing he could think to do was smear a seventeen-year-old boy who’s a role model in the community. Then the genius decided it would be a good idea to get a restraining order, which prevents the same young man from playing football. I bet the community will be up in arms if they’re unable to win another state championship this year.
“This is the same mental giant who filed a motion to freeze my client’s assets so he could try and get his greedy little hands on them. Why would my client try to hide his funds, when he’s admitted to being the father? He’s willing to support his child, within reason. I can’t wait to see what someone who graduated 330th out of 342 in his law school class thinks is reasonable. For those of you who are math-challenged, that’s in the bottom four percent. It’s no wonder he had to set up shop by himself, no one would hire him. On top of that, he had to take the bar six times. That’s right, six times!