Back to Us by Julia Gabriel

Author:Julia Gabriel [Gabriel, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Serif Books
Published: 2016-12-01T08:00:00+00:00

* * *

The doorbell rang just after six in the evening. Colt was helping Zee set the table while Max finished up the stir fry he was making for dinner.

“Why does your mother ring the doorbell like she’s never lived here?” Max mused, holding out the wooden spoons to Colt. “Take over for me, please.” He rubbed at a smudge of soy sauce on his black apron and went to answer the door. Zee followed. Colt tossed the stir fry a few more times, giving them the chance to greet Ginger Moon alone. He wasn’t even sure Zee had told her mother that he was back, let alone staying in her apartment.

He turned the burner off beneath the wok and listened intently to the voices drifting in from the foyer.

“Portia, you made it.” That was Max’s voice, and Ginger Moon’s given name. Portia Malisewski, a mouthful of a name and one she had thrown over for a sexier stage moniker. Of course, Portia hadn’t given her own daughter any less of a mouthful of a name, although Colt had often wondered how much influence Max had wielded in the naming of his granddaughter. F. Scott Fitzgerald and all that.

Colt heard Zee’s voice, then Max’s again. And then an unfamiliar male voice. Colt’s territorial instincts kicked in, and he headed out to the foyer to join Max and Zee. Right away, he saw that Max was tense. Normally, Max was supremely comfortable in his own skin, more so than any person Colt had ever known, which made the stiffness of his posture all the more obvious. Ginger’s eyes flicked over to Colt but whatever she was thinking about his presence remained hidden behind them.

Ginger looked the way she always did, at least in Colt’s memory. She was taller than her daughter by a good eight inches but it was clear where Zee had gotten her easy, old school glamour from. Ginger’s dark hair fell in loose waves over the wide lapels of her camel colored jacket. Her navy pants were wide at the legs and made of some silky fabric that flowed like water around her as she crossed the room. She looked as though she had stepped right out of a World War II newsreel.

He watched as Ginger pulled the strange man around to her side. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought a guest, dad.”

The other man extended his hand to Max, who hesitated a moment before shaking it. Then the man turned to Colt.

“Eric Roman.” He gave Colt’s hand an energetic pump. “Nice to meet you.”

Colt was about to offer his own name, but Zee jumped into the conversational breach.

“You’re the Eric Roman?” Zee turned to her mother. “Mom, you didn’t tell me the Eric Roman was directing your new movie.”

“Oh goodness, I’m not,” Eric Roman said. “I was scouting locations in Iceland for a new project and stopped by the set.” He looked over at Zee’s mother. “Portia and I go way back.”

“You do? Mom, seriously. You never told me you knew Eric Roman.

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