Loving Riley: Book 2 of the Celebrity Series by Liz Durano

Author:Liz Durano [Durano, Liz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780986284762
Published: 2017-04-25T18:30:00+00:00

19

Lifeline

The next morning Ashe slept in, awoken only by the ringing of his phone at noon. It was a video call, one he’d expected. Wiping the sleep from his eyes he answered the phone, propping it up on his bedside table.

“Gran’ morning, li’l monkey,” he said softly, his voice shifting to his natural accent as he yawned and lay back on his pillow. Behind Rowan he could see his parents sitting by the dining table, waving to him, and beside her was Will Emerson, Rowan’s father.

“Tell me about your day, poppet,” said Ashe. “Are you going to the park?”

Rowan would turn five in a few months’ time and had been scheduled to visit Ashe in New York in March; that had now been pushed back to April and changed to Paris. Ashe and Riley would meet herself and Will there shortly after Coriolanus made its final curtain call.

His niece was precocious, talkative and looked so like her mother it was uncanny. The mere thought of Rowan always reminded Ashe of what really counted in his life, making him realize how a life in the limelight made it easy to be distracted by things that didn’t matter, like fame. All that was an illusion, he thought, unlike the child who was now gesturing wildly with her little hands and laughing.

She began telling him about her day, her singsong voice a delight to his ears. For the next few minutes Ashe happily listened to her, laughing at her stories about friends whom she’d met at the park, or at the supermarket when Gran would take her along. Then she asked about Riley and told him to thank her for the snow globe she had received in the post, featuring the Manhattan skyline. She named the landmarks in one breath: Statue of Liberty, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building and the Brooklyn Bridge. It was her favorite new toy, she told him.

After a few minutes, Will cautioned her that they would be late meeting her friends at the park. She blew him kisses which Ashe playfully caught with his hand, said goodbye and moved away from the screen. Only his father and mother remained, sitting at the end of the table. They used to make these calls on the computer, but Ashe had given them the latest smartphone and upgraded their WiFi setting to the best that Reeth had to offer, and they’d become used to propping it up somewhere around the house and talking to him as they prepared tea or whatever it was they were doing.

Sometimes they’d forget that he wasn’t physically there, that it was a video call, and he’d have to remind them to move in front of the camera to where he could see them. They were always busy, just like Ashe, though their work and motivation differed. That was the thing about generations: everything changed, but at the same time it remained the same.

The mood changed after Rowan left. The absence of the child’s laughter reminded Ashe that there were other things which had to be discussed.

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