Matter of Trust by Sydney Bauer Page A

over the past four years.
    â€˜I suppose you could say David is your typical middle child – a combination of his sunny schoolteacher mom and determined dock-worker dad. David speaks freely of his affection for his mother, but he has always found it hard to talk about his relationship with his dad. It’s almost as if the two never quite got each other; David at pains to comprehend how a man such as his father – resilient, stoic, smart – didn’t want more from life than what he already had, and his father frustrated by his son’s restlessness and his need to seek more.’ Sara took a breath.
    â€˜The differences seem to have been exaggerated by David’s older brother Sean – who seems set on replicating his father’s existence – marrying early, having three kids, and taking pride in being his father’s apprentice in a shipping business he now runs. You’ve met Sean,’ Sara continued after a pause. ‘He’s a good man.’
    Nora nodded, obviously remembering David’s stockier, dark-haired, somewhat reserved older brother from the night he had visited their offices a few years ago.
    â€˜But he is just so . . .’ Sara searched for the right word to describe her brooding brother-in-law, ‘. . . rigid. I don’t think a day goes by without him silently cursing David for leaving Newark – for turning his back on the family business, for leaving their mom. And despite the fact that I know David is sure he did the right thing, in many ways I think he lives in the shadow of Sean’s disappointment, a dissatisfaction that grew tenfold when their father died almost a decade ago.’
    Nora nodded again. ‘And Lisa?’ she asked, referring to David’s younger sister.
    â€˜Is fantastic,’ smiled Sara. ‘She totally understands the friction between her brothers, but accepts them for who they are. I think she spent the bulk of her first nineteen years acting as a buffer between them. But then she followed David to Boston which, of course, gave Sean another reason to blame his brother.’
    â€˜So where do David’s old friends fit in to all this?’ asked Nora. ‘You mentioned they were a mischievous band of three. If David has always felt uncomfortable trying to live up to the demands of his older brother, perhaps these boys were his way of . . .’
    â€˜Escaping?’ finished Sara. ‘I think so. By the sounds of things, Chris Kincaid and Mike Murphy were nothing like Sean. I think all three of them were dreamers who spent every day trying to push at the boundaries – to seek, to reach, to explore.’
    â€˜Which, in all fairness, Senator Kincaid has done,’ said Nora. ‘But what about the other boy – the one named Mike?’
    â€˜I’m not sure,’ said Sara, her brow now twisting into knots. ‘Like anything to do with Newark, David doesn’t talk about him much. The only new piece of information about Mike or Chris that I managed to extract from David before he left was that Chris’s mother was one of those relentless, domineering types. Chris’s father was Governor of New Jersey, the family came from money, and, from what I can gather, Chris’s mom is driving her son’s career.’
    â€˜Does David think the mother knows about this other woman?’
    â€˜Reading between the lines, David believes there is little Chris’s mom
doesn’t
know.’
    They sat in silence for a while, finishing their drinks.
    â€˜Listen, Sara,’ said Nora then. ‘David’s a big boy and he’s probably spot-on when he says he’ll be down and back in a jiffy. He’s told you he’s committed to staying at home, to playing things a little on the safer side now that he’s got you and Lauren.’
    â€˜But what if he can’t help himself?’ Sara asked the inevitable.
    Nora took Sara’s hand.