Through the Darkness, Chapter Twenty Eight

CHAPTER 28

August, 2013

“Well,” an all-too-familiar voice said as Todd and Starr walked towards The Palaces’ restaurant, “Look what the cat dragged in.”

Todd blinked and grimaced.  He never had a good experience encountering Renee Buchanan.  “Good afternoon, Renee” he responded as politely as he could.  “I have a lunch reservation for my family.  Are Blair and the boys here?”

“No, not yet,” the owner replied.  “But I saw Dani in there with her friend.”

Todd’s eyebrow arched at that comment.  “Her friend?  This is the first I’m hearing about a friend.  Or do you mean your grandson?”  At her look, he returned her confused look.  “Matthew Buchanan?”

Before he could get an answer or check on the friend himself, he heard Blair.  “You got here already,” she said, sounding surprised. 

He gave her a too-short kiss as they all went in.  “Yes, Renee here was just telling me that all my kids are here.”

“All?” Blair asked, sounding confused.

“Yes, Dani and the man she brought to the Man of the Year dinner, Arturo Bandini.  They’re lunching here as well,” the proprietress told Blair.

Blair’s eyes slide to Todd.  “You know what, I think we should go to the Buenos Dias for lunch,” Blair announced, too chipper as she kept her gaze on Todd.

Todd didn’t like the look his wife was giving him or the tone of Renee’s voice.  He looked to Jack, who also looked like a deer caught in the headlight.  “I think I’d like to meet this Arturo Bandini,” Todd announced as he headed in.  Despite the crutches, Todd made inside the restaurant quickly, with the the rest of his family trailing after him.  His eyes scanned the room until her saw his daughter and…

“Afternoon, Danielle,” Todd said appearing seemingly out of nowhere beside their table.

Dani almost choked on the wine she was swallowing.  “Todd, what are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Well, I was just going to have lunch with Blair and my kids and, as luck would have it, they’re all here,” Todd answered cheerfully.  “Why don’t you join us?”

“I’m having lunch with my friend, actually, as you can see,” Dani replied snidely. 

Todd attention turned to her companion.  “Todd Manning, publisher of The Sun.  I’m sure Dani’s told you all about me,” he said.

“Arturo Bandini, Mr. Manning.  Actually, Daniella has not told me much about you, other than you help her get her apartment,” the other man said.

“Really?” Todd asked sardonically.  “Because, that’s more than I knew about you.”

Dani’s eyes bugged out but Arturo handled it very smoothly.  “Dani, I believe your father wants to speak to you alone,” he said.

“No, really you don’t have to leave,” she answered.

“Yes, I do,” he said, kissing her hand.  “I will call you, though, bella.”  With that, the man left.

Todd said nothing, only watched him go.  When he was out of earshot, he said to Dani, “Come on, join the rest of us.”

Dani grabbed her bag and avoided Todd’s hand as it went for her shoulder.  She collapsed into a chair in a huff.  “I cannot believe you just did that!  Did my mother send you?”

Todd calmly sat down next to Blair as he asked, “Tea knows about Mr. Bandini?”

Dani looked to Blair then back.  “I went with him to the dinner.  After Clint caused his scene, Mom caused one inside Shelter and outside as well…screaming hysterically, forbidding me from seeing him, shit like that.”

Todd’s eyes swung to Sam, but he seemed oblivious to Dani’s language.  “I take it she doesn’t approve, then.”

“Why would she?  He’s charming, intelligent, cultured.  Not really Mom’s taste in men,” she responded tartly.

Todd let the comments roll off his back.  “Dani, he may be the kind of guy I’d want my daughter to date.  But from the looks of it, it looks like an older man seducing a young woman.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

Todd cringed inwardly.  By the way she answered, he figured how far the relationship had gone.  “Just look at it from my perspective.  Even if she had turned out to be mother of the year, Irene Manning was just about your age when she had Tina.  And Victor…Victor liked younger women in general.”

“So, this is all about you?” Dani accused.  But before Todd could even answer, she pushed herself out of the chair and away from the table.

He looked to Blair, Starr and Jack.  “What did I say wrong?”

“She was right about something, though, Dad,” Starr spoke up.  “I understand where it would be uncomfortable for you, but it’s not about you.”

Todd sighed.  “I just get the feeling that she’s going to make the same mistakes that turned my mother into a psychopath.”  He looked to Blair.  “Tea didn’t take it well?”

Blair shook her head.  “Arturo was involved with a young woman…the one who sold Dani the drugs…” She stopped when Todd’s eyes grew wide.   “Todd, I think right now, it’s best to leave her.  The more you and Tea push against it, the more attractive it will be to her.”

Todd shook his head in disgust but realized she was right.  “What it it with my kids and potential significant others though?”  He looked to Jack, Starr and Sam.   “What’s going on with your love lives?”

“What love life?” Starr asked.

“No one in mine,” Jack answered too quickly.

“Girls are yucking,” Sam informed them.

Satisfied with the responses, Todd moved onto one of the reasons he wanted to have lunch with his family.  “Now, why I thought we should all do this,” he said, circling his finger around the table.  “Look, I love that Viki was so generous to open her home to you and the kids, Blair when Dorian was on her broomstick, I don’t much like the idea of living at Llanfair.”

“So we’re not going back to La Boulaie?” Starr asked.

“As much as I love the idea of buying it out from under Dorian and throwing her out of it…” Todd began, “I know your mother was going to start looking for places.”

“And unfortunately, I didn’t get far,” Blair replied.  “But at least it was for a good reason.”  She smiled at Todd and was about to lean in to a kiss when two different gagging sounds could be heard. 

Starr looked at her brothers and shoved her shoulder into Jack so forcefully, he crashed into Sam.

“Hey, hey!” Todd called out.  Before it could dissolve into chaos, Todd managed to get everyone’s attention.  “Well, Blair, I actually think I may have found a place.  Nice, centrally located, gorgeous views. We’ll take a look at it after we eat.”

Blair raised her eyes to Todd, trying to figure out what he had planned.  But when he remained Sphinx-like after repeated questions from her and the kids, she let it drop.

They finished lunch and Todd told Blair to leave her car at The Palace.  “Don’t worry, it’s not that far.  And it’s just a possibility.  I haven’t made any final deals for it.  I want to make sure you’re okay with the place.”  With that, they all piled into a waiting limo.

“Now, you really have me intrigued,” Blair said.

“And I figure that after we’re done with the place, you can help me put the paper to bed,” Todd told her.  When she gave him a surprised look, he reminded her, “I want us to be partners in The Sun.  I meant that in my note to you.  You can keep the club, hand it off to someone else, but it’s not you.  At least, not something like that.  You had Capricorn, right?  That was more your taste.  But the crowd you have there now?  Not you.” 

Blair smiled at him.  “I have to say, I did enjoy running the paper for the past couple of weeks.  I was a long time since I did it last, but I remembered how like that,” she said with a snap of her fingers.

The limo stopped then and the Mannings got out.  It was Starr who recognized the building first.  “This is where the penthouse was,” she said in a curious tone.

Todd didn’t say anything, but took Blair’s hand and led her in.  When they got into the elevator, Todd pushed a button and turned to the kids.  “You know how I came to own the penthouse?  Bought it from Alex Olanov.  And she didn’t want to sell it.  She figured her new husband would have a fit that I bought it for me and my wife.”  As the door pinged, Todd turned to Blair.  “If they could see us now!”

Starr dashed out of the elevator with Jack just behind her.  Instead of opening to the hallway just outside the penthouse, like it had throughout her childhood, it opened directly into the penthouse.  Todd stood back and smiled, seeing the childhood wonderment Starr always seemed to wear when she was younger.  The look was mirrored in Jack and Blair’s faces.

“Well, what do you think?”  Todd asked.

“I thought someone else bought this place?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, they did and enlarged it a bit.  I spoke to the realtor earlier today and when she told me about this listing, I just couldn’t not look at it, at least.”  He walked around, coming to stand by the windows that had always been there.  Then he turned back to Blair.  “So much of our lives, our memories, are in this place.  Those were the memories that kept me going through so many dark days.  Having fun at Alex’s expense.  Filling it with stuffed animals.  Leaving a saddle as a tease for a birthday present.  Bringing my bride home.”  He walked over to Blair, taking her hands in his.  “Even the bad memories are good one.  Coming and finding it filled with gold balloons.  Hiding our handcuffed wrists under a blanket from Bo.  Fighting and kissing.”  At that moment, he didn’t care what his kids’ reaction would be, he knew he had to kiss Blair right then and there.  It was a long, slow kiss, one there they were lost in the closeness of it, as if they were the only two people in the room, in the world.

When they pulled apart, they found that they were the only ones in the room.  “I think the kids went exploring their new home,” Blair said to him.

Home.  What a beautiful word.