by Scott, S. L.
We have to clean before that cake is served, though, so the band gets busy in the kitchen. I finish clearing the table and start drying a pot when Helen says, “Robert?” and then nods toward the hall when I look her way.
I go to her, wondering why she needs privacy since we’re usually fairly open as a family. Taking hold of my arms, she rubs them, and says, “Forget about the past twenty-four hours. Don’t let that get in your head.”
“I’m trying, but I have a feeling that this could end up being something I can’t get out of this time.”
“Things will work out. I’ll help you however I can.”
Hugging her, I say, “Thanks, Helen.”
“You’re more than welcome.” She tucks her hair behind her ears, and asks, “While I have you here, do you mind getting a box on my bed?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
We go in opposite directions; her back to the kitchen and me to her bedroom. When I open the door, the box is on her bed just as she said, but Weatherly is stealing my attention. In shock, the doorknob remains in my hand.
She stands, her hands fidgeting, looking awkward. I’m not sure if she wants to run to me or away by the wide-eyed look of her eyes. As soon as I close the door, she throws herself into my arms, and I hold her, my soul returned.
It’s been less than twenty-four hours since I held her, but it feels like an eternity. I kiss the top her head, and not wasting another second, I say, “I love you.”
“I love you so much.”
With our arms still wrapped around each other, our eyes find each other. Tears stream down her face, and she adds, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Dare. Please forgive me.”
“You didn’t do this.”
“I didn’t know they would go to this extreme because I said no.”
We release each other, and I walk to the window, peeking out through the sheers. “You told your father no?”
“I did. He gave me no choice.”
I return to her and cup her face, just happy to be seeing her again. “Bold and brave. But you didn’t toe the family line, so that left them no other choice than to hurt you by trying to hurt me.”
“He kicked me out of my apartment as well. I found out it’s a corporate apartment.”
“Where are you going to live?”
“I have savings and credit cards. Even my trust fund. They can’t take that away. I’ll be fine staying at a hotel until I figure out what to do next. My bigger concern is you. I feel terrible. I’m so sorry for what’s happened to you.”
“So am I.” I release her and sit down. “I’m charged with assault and battery, my guitar is broken, and then I was hit with this restraining order.”
Sitting next to me, she says, “I’ll fix this. I promise I will.”
“I don’t know how you can. They don’t listen to you. Don’t you see? You were good for them when they could control you, but that’s not who you are. So they have to blackmail you into submission.”
“They can’t. You’ve made me see that my complacency has allowed them to walk all over me, as if I’m trapped in winter, and suddenly, it’s spring. A new season of rebirth.”
“There’s freedom in that.”
“For the first time in forever, I’m taking charge. They can put a mountain in our way, and I’ll move. They can sanction orders and enact laws to keep us apart, but I’ll fight every step of the way to get to you.” She cups my face. “I love you, Robert Marquis.”
It’s momentarily jolting to hear my first name come from her lips. “I remember. I remember everything from that day.”
“You do?”
“I do.” She asks, “Did you know you once told me your name was Rob?”
“Yes, and you told me it was short for Robert.”
“I was a know-it-all back then, dying to talk to anyone who would listen. You listened.”
“You talked a lot.”
“I’ve changed some since then.” She takes a deep breath, a weight lifting. “You told me not to talk to strangers. But strangers were better than the monsters surrounding me.”
I hold her to me again. “I wish I knew then.”
“Dare?”
“Hmm?”
“Your mom was a beautiful human.”
My body wrenches around her from the realization, and tears flood my eyes. Squeezing them closed, I try not to let them fall, but as soon as I catch Weatherly’s blues on me, they do. “You met her.”
“I did.”
How did I forget that? She met my mom. Something about that brings a small wave of peace to my heart. She kisses the bottom of my chin and lifts up to rest her cheek against mine. Holding my head to her, she whispers, “She was so sweet to me. Asking me about my favorite things when I was bugging you.”
“What’d you tell her?”
“Peanut butter sandwiches.”
A laugh bursts from my chest. “Peanut butter sandwiches? You told me they were your favorite because you never got them as a kid.”
She shrugs. “I didn’t. That’s why I love them so much now. They feel like a treat. But back then, I wanted your mom to like me. And to my nine-year-old brain, peanut butter seemed like an in.”
“It was. She loved peanut butter sandwiches, but you know what she loved more?”
“Honey,” we say in unison and then laugh.
“That was your mom’s secret,” she adds.
“Adding honey?”
“Yes, because it makes life so much sweeter.”
I’ve been choked up all day, but seeing how life loops around in mysterious ways gives me hope. “That’s what you made for me the first night I stayed with you.”
“Imagine how boring those sandwiches would have been if I’d never met your mom.”
“Imagine how boring my life would be if I’d never met you?”
She smiles, the light filling in the cracks of my heart. I kiss her because it’s been too long since I’ve had my lips on hers. She says, “You know what else she did?”
“What?” I ask.
“She tied the yellow ribbons in my hair into bows, held my cheeks in her palms like you do, and told me I was as pretty as a daisy. We were always meant to find each other again.”
“It was only a matter of time. And the first night we met, I untied yellow ribbons from your ankles.”
“Some call that kismet.”
“I call it meant to be.”
“I like your version better.”
Kissing her forehead, I say, “Me too. Now about you being here . . . that could get me arrested.”
She steps back and says, “I’m going to get the charges dropped. I swear to you, Dare. I’ve been sick to my stomach since the moment you left the party.”
“You didn’t come after me.”
“I was locked in the office until you were gone.”
“Why would they do that?” I know the answer, but I still can’t believe the lengths they’ll go. “You should press charges for that and for Lloyd’s attack.”
“I can’t because I’m trying to get them to drop yours.”
“Fuck mine. I’ll work it out. You need to be free from those monsters.”
She’s shaking her head. “I’ll be fine, but I swear I will get every last one of yours dropped before the hearing.” Sadness invades our happy space, and her expression falls. “I need to sneak back out before I’m caught.”
I hold her so tightly to me, and then we kiss hard like I like it and soft like she does. It’s perfect. Like us.
I return to the kitchen table and set the box down. Lennox says, “About time.”
When I see they’ve finished the kitchen, I return to the bedroom. The window is open, and the curtains are blowing. I shut it and lock it down. Standing in the doorway, Helen asks, “How’d it go, Rob?”
“Great. I’m not sure where we go from here, but wherever it is, we decided it will be together.” As it should have always been.
“I’m glad. She’s a lovely young woman.�
��
“She is. Thank you, Helen. Thanks for never giving up on me.”
“Not a chance, kid. I would never give up on you.”
In the living room, English’s face scrunches. “Is that lipstick on you, mate?”
I laugh. “It sure is.”
36
Weatherly
“Where will you go?” Stascia stops with a box of tampons in her hands and looks up from the floor where she sits.
I pull a drawer from my bathroom cabinet and dump it into a large box. “Anywhere but to my parents’ home. I can’t forgive them for what they’ve done. My father actually thought he could hold a job over my head when it was never in my best interest, but his. I will never let him, Lloyd, or anyone control me again.”
She nods in agreement. “You can stay at my house.”
“Thanks, friend, but that hits awfully close to where they live.”
“I know. I just wish I could help.”
I sit on the floor next to her and open another cabinet. “You are. You’re helping me pack and clear my stuff out of here.” I pull a tray out and set it in the box. “At this rate, I’ll be out by tomorrow.”
“We’ll work until it’s done.”
We move steadily through the bedroom over the next few hours, leaving the closet for last. Two hours after that, we’ve almost packed the kitchen.
“You’ve never talked about what happened at the party,” she says.
“You know what happened.”
“I’m talking about with Lloyd . . . when he hit you.”
My hands still with a can open, but then I squeeze the cold metal, remembering more than I want to. “He . . . I’d left Dare out front. I should have never left him . . .”
The paper crinkles as she wraps it around the stem of a wine glass, so she stops. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay. It just happened so fast I haven’t really allowed myself to process it.” My cheek heats from where he slapped me. “I went in, and he pulled me into my dad’s office, trapping me. Threw me against the bookcase and told me I owed him what I’d given my boyfriend.”
“Oh Weatherly, I’m so sorry.”
“He hit me when I told him if he raped me he’d still never have my heart. That only belonged to Dare. He squeezed my cheeks so hard I thought he’d bust my teeth. Kissed me roughly.”
“How’d you get free?”
“There are books at the top of the bookcase. We must have loosened them because one fell and hit him. He grabbed me when I tried to reach the door, so I scratched the hell out of him and escaped.”
“That’s horrifying.” She comes to me and hugs me so tenderly, warm, and comforting. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m okay. As soon as I figure out to help Dare and the band, I’m pressing charges against him.”
“If you need my help in any way, just tell me.”
“Thank you.”
We’re exhausted by ten p.m. With a bottle of water in her hand, she stares at a bottle of champagne we left on the counter. “April chose Lloyd over us.”
“Good. We no longer had enough of a bond to keep us together as friends.”
“Will you miss her?”
I know the answer. I can say it, but I don’t. I hold it in and mull it over, looking for the wounds she inflicted instead. This time when I answer, it’s the truth instead of what I’m supposed to say. “No. I imagine she feels lighter like I do. One less thing to concern herself with.”
“We’ve been friends since we were little.”
“Our parents were friends. It was circumstantial. Now we get to choose who we let into our lives.” Leaning on the bar, I say, “I choose you.”
She grins. “I choose you, too.”
Still leaning forward, I say, “I heard from April. One nasty voicemail the day after the party.”
“Are you kidding me?” Disgust is heard in her words.
I pull out my phone and find it. Pushing play, we both listen. “You are not special, Weatherly Beck. You may think you are, but you’re not. Are you really going to destroy years of friendship over some guy from the east side? Trust me, he’s not worth it. I’ll give you twenty-four hours to make your choice. The loser or me, your lifelong best friend.”
I look at Stascia, who says, “Wow. She’s delusional. Does she not remember what she said to you? What she did to you? I take it you never called her back?”
“I called.”
Wide eyes reveal her surprise. “You did?”
“I told her I’m choosing the guy from the east side because he has more class than she does.”
After a gasp, she laughs. “What did she say?”
“That Lloyd never wanted me. He only wanted to secure a partnership at the law firm.”
“She’s cold-hearted.”
“Her so-called insult doesn’t hurt. I’d have to care for it to affect me.”
A soft smile works its way onto her face, giving her the slightest crinkles around her eyes. I like her best like this. Real in every way. Genuine. “You’re stronger than I am.”
“No. I just opened my eyes. You have too. I can tell.” I take the rubber band from my wrist and twist my hair up off my neck. “Now you can be who you want instead of trying to fit the mold she wanted to keep you in.”
“Very true.” She leans forward and whispers, “I don’t miss her.”
I grab the champagne and remove the foil. “You know what? We should celebrate.”
“What are we celebrating?”
“Our rebirth.”
I toss the second bottle of champagne in the recycling bin and then take another bite of my pizza. “The Four Seasons has decent room service.”
“I prefer the W,” Stascia replies, lying on the couch. “You’ll be out tomorrow. Where will you go?” She snort-laughs. “Maybe you should move to the east side.”
The bubbles must have gone to my head because I’m not laughing. “Maybe I should.” I look around the apartment that holds nothing personal of mine anymore. “I don’t fit in this world, and I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life. But I do know that my heart lives on that side of the highway.”
“Home is where the heart is.”
Truer words have never been spoken. Dare is my home, and I have a revelation. “I have an idea. I know where I’m going to live.”
“Where?”
Dare
I didn’t know what to expect when it came to Weatherly. I can’t contact her, and we can’t see each other until this order is dismissed. But what I didn’t expect was to wake up the next morning to the sound of an RV beeping as it backs up to make its home on the street in front of our neighbor’s house.
Looking out the window, the thing is a beast. I wander through the living room into the kitchen where English is making breakfast. “What’s with the rig out front?”
“Weatherly.”
“What do you mean?”
He pulls the milk from the fridge and sets it on the counter. “I mean, it’s Weatherly’s RV.”
“I don’t get it. She can’t be here.”
He smells the milk. “She says she has it all figured out, but I can just add that you two move fast.”
“We can’t move at all because of the order.”
“Go tell Miss-I-can-do-it-myself because she’s making a home whether you’re living in it or not. And let’s talk about that. Shall we? I thought for sure you guys were just full of the lust for each other—”
“The lust?”
“Yeah, but now you’re going to jail for her and she’s breaking restraining order laws or rules, or whatever they’re called here in America. You get the drift. If this is how love works, I’m going to be looking over my shoulder to avoid it at all costs. For Christ’s sake, I’ve had this milk longer than you’ve known her and look at the mess you’re in.” Holding the carton up, he says, “Well, fuck. This expired two days ago.”
“See? We’ve outlasted it. Proof that this is more than the lusts. Like so much more
that I’m willing to say we’ll last longer than . . .” Twisting my lips to the side, I delve into deep thought, and then say, “Pasta.”
“Pasta? Does that even expire?”
“Nope.”
“Damn, dude. You have it bad.”
“I do, but guess what?” I point at the door. “She does, too.”
That makes him laugh. “Good luck, mate. You’re going to need it.”
“I don’t need luck. I’m in love.”
He makes a gagging noise while he walks back to his room. “That was so bad, Marquis.”
I’m still laughing when I head out front. Standing on the porch, I try to get her attention. She shifts the big brown beast into park and slides the door open. “Good morning.” She waves.
Making sure there are no cops or spies around, I lean on the railing. “What are you doing, Pepper?”
“Fifty feet. That’s the order. So fifty feet and one inch is the safe zone.” Her arms go wide. “Voila.”
“Didn’t you have to break the order to measure the distance?”
“No. English helped me.”
I grin and mutter, “Sappy fuck.”
She jumps to the curb and twirls in the grass. “I actually have room to play because I parked in front of the neighbors. I’m fifty-five feet away,” she calls loud enough for the neighbors to hear and quite pleased with herself.
“The neighbors will complain. They complain about everything.”
“The neighbors approved.”
“How much did you pay them, Beck?”
“Enough to pay off one year of their mortgage.”
Chuckling, I say, “Damn.” I pull a rickety chair from the corner over to the railing and rest my arms on it. “So how long are you staying?”
“Until the order is lifted.”
“That could be months.”
“I waited fourteen years to find you again. I can wait a few months.”
And just like that, we were in a long-distance relationship . . . across my front yard. Neither of us is breaking the law or order, but toeing the line to be together.
Weatherly moved a mountain to be with me. Just as she promised.
37
