Keeping the Pieces

by Brenda Lowder

  “I’m glad I could help, Cam. Especially since it worked out so well for me.” Her voice was falsely bright. At least she was attempting a recovery. “I’d never have met Derek if I hadn’t gone to your party.”

  There was a pause and Derek squeezed the monitor where he held it. Luckily, Emma caught her mistake before Cam called her on it.

  “I mean, met him again. After the six months of almost...” She giggled softly and Derek’s blood stirred.

  Cameron coughed. “Yeah, about that, Emma. I think I should warn you. From what Honey tells me, Derek doesn’t seem right for you. He’s had a rough life. He’s tough. Like I told you before, he’s not a steady, reliable guy, like you need. You’re making a big mistake with him.” There was a weighted pause. “If you really are with him.”

  Really? Derek could show this guy how reliable he was. He bet he could reliably punch Cam in the face nine out of ten times. The tenth would be in the nuts.

  He dialed Emma’s number.

  “I assure you, Cam,” Emma talked over her phone’s ring, “I really am with Derek, and he is exactly the right kind of guy for me. If you’ll excuse me. Hello?” She answered her phone and suddenly her voice was in his ear. Before he’d thought of something to say, she was speaking to him.

  “Of course, Dad. I’ll be right over.” She ended the call and Derek could hear her on the monitor telling Cam her father was having a breakdown. She told him about her mother leaving and said she had to check on how her father was holding up.

  “I’m so sorry to hear that, Em. That’s tough. Let me give you a hug.”

  There was rustling longer than Derek wanted to hear it. He wished they were near one of the bugs that had video so he could see what was going on, but eventually Emma and Cam said goodbye and Emma exited the apartment. Derek stayed back until Cam closed the door. Ducking out of his stairwell hiding place, he waved to her. She hurried over, and they walked down to her car together.

  When they hit the parking lot, Derek took her elbow as they paused for a car to pass in front of them.

  “You handled that well in there.”

  Emma swiped at her eyes. “You could hear us?”

  “Yeah. I tested the equipment.” He indicated the bag hanging from his shoulder. “It works.”

  “Great.” She sniffed. “But I don’t know what good it’s going to do. At this moment I’ve never wanted to see him less.”

  Derek cocked his head at her. “So this little adventure was a waste.”

  Emma exhaled heavily. He waited while she pulled herself together. He could see her slotting her emotions into familiar places behind those big, expressive eyes.

  “No. We need to see what they’re up to. I can handle it.” She rubbed her nose and pushed her shoulders back. “Sorry, it’s just been a long day already.”

  “No problem.” He felt like hugging her but didn’t know if he should. The moment passed before he could decide.

  “Do you want to come over tonight after I get back from my dad’s house? We could watch them on the monitor together.” She pulled her car keys from her purse. “I think I could handle it if you were there. For moral support.”

  Derek smiled. “It’s a date.”

  Chapter Nine

  Her parents’ house was a disaster. Emma stood in the middle of the living room of her childhood home and surveyed the overturned couch cushions, the spilled coffee drying on the mahogany end table, and some of both her mother’s and her father’s clothes strewn around the room.

  Baxter barked at her heels, circling her while she stared at the wreckage. She absentmindedly bent down and scratched him behind the ears. Her mom had left them only that morning, hadn’t she? What had happened here in the meantime? And where was her dad?

  She went from room to room and finally discovered her father huddled on the floor of her mother’s closet, crying. She was halted in place by the soft notes of her mother’s perfume, Chanel No. 5. “That’s their highest number,” her mother would parrot from the TV ads back in her day. Back when the commercials made her mother want a perfume she couldn’t afford to buy for herself.

  Dad looked up at her pitifully, tissue clutched in his hand.

  “Hi, sweetie,” he managed. He held his arm up, inviting her to snuggle beneath it like he did when she was a child. But she didn’t want to sit on the floor of the closet that smelled like her absent mother’s perfume, and she wasn’t a child anymore. One of her parents had decided to forfeit her parental role, perhaps for good.

  If her parents weren’t going to act like adults, then she’d have to. Emma resolved to come up with a plan. She didn’t know what that would be yet, but wallowing in misery on the floor of her mother’s closet was not going to accomplish anything.

  “Come on, Dad.” Emma reached down and pulled her father up by his arm. At first he was dead weight, but she continued pulling, and eventually he rose to join her.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To the living room. It’s a mess in there. Mom would be furious.”

  At the mention of her mother, her father burst into new tears. Emma ignored them and half pulled, half dragged him to the front room and deposited him on the couch. She picked up a silk throw pillow, hit it a few times to fluff it, and arranged it on the couch the way her mother always did. She could have produced the entire room—every pillow angle—from memory.

  “Dad…why does the house look like it’s been burglarized?”

  Her father paused his sniffling to answer. “Your mother left a very short note that was completely incomprehensible to me. After thirty-two years of marriage, I would have thought a conversation would at least be warranted, but she’s not even answering her phone. I thought perhaps there’d be a clue. Somewhere in the house. As to why she would do this. Why she would throw away a perfectly happy marriage to run off with a twenty-one-year-old surfer.”

  Emma picked up the coffee cup on the end table. World’s Best Dad. “Did you find anything?”

  “No.”

  “Can I see the note she left?”

  Her father nodded and gestured with a weak hand toward the kitchen. “It’s on the counter.”

  Emma went and put the coffee mug in the dishwasher before looking for the note. She found it next to the blender.

  Jason--

  I can’t go on any more this way. We make each other miserable. You’d never leave, so I have to. Don’t follow me to Mexico. Draxton makes me happy. Be free and live your life. I’m not your idol anymore.

  --Jennifer

  Emma read the note through five times. Each time it made no more sense than the last. Surely her mother couldn’t be thinking that twenty-one-year-old Draxton would make her happy. Was she insane? And what did she mean about not being her father’s idol anymore? Her father had always been deeply in love and respectful of her mother. It’s true his admiration bordered on worship, but that was true love, wasn’t it? It didn’t matter if one person loved the other a little more. Her mother had loved her father, too, hadn’t she? They’d been married for over thirty years. Of course they were in love. And committed. They’d certainly been committed. Until her mother had pulled this too-late-for-a-midlife-crisis stunt.

  Emma crumpled the note.

  “Wait! Don’t!” Her father grabbed the wrinkled paper from her with shaking hands. So intent on the letter, she hadn’t even heard him enter the room. She watched as he laid the page flat against the granite, held it taut, and ran it back and forth over the edge of the counter.

  “What?” he asked, when he noticed her watching.

  “That’s the note she wrote telling you she’s leaving you.”

  He stopped the straightening. “It’s the last letter your mother ever wrote me.” Tears welled up in his eyes, and he moved his hand to brush them away. Halfway through the motion, he sobbed and collapsed onto the counter.

  Emma hugged him while he continued to water the kitchen with his tears. She thought about the high cost of love. Unbalanced lo
ve? Sincere devotion was the deepest kind of love, the foundation for a lifetime together.

  Really, what was wrong with loving someone more than they loved you?

  Chapter Ten

  Derek rang Emma’s doorbell, wondering what her house would look like inside. The outside was a modest ranch-style home in Norcross with a neat, well-kept lawn, window boxes full of flowering petunias, and orange and yellow chrysanthemums in the yard. He didn’t think she was rich like Cam—she’d never mentioned owning a yacht—but he’d bet her house was nice and cozy. And a little quirky and exciting. Like she was.

  He didn’t have long to wonder. Emma opened the door ten seconds after he rang. She was cute in her distressed jeans and snug T-shirt that stretched across those lovely breasts she had trouble containing.

  She invited him in, and he followed her, noticing without trying how the denim of her jeans perfectly hugged her bottom.

  He sniffed the air. “Popcorn?”

  “It’s like a movie.”

  He smiled. “If you say so. Any excuse for popcorn, I guess.”

  “Right.” She closed and locked the door behind him.

  “Nice house.” He looked around at the comfortable room, made homey by domestic touches like a crocheted blanket and colorful throw pillows, the kind of stuff his mom had always cared about.

  “Thanks.”

  “Yours or your parents’?”

  She looked around the room with a quietly proud smile. “This is all mine. I figured my own house was a good investment. Come in. Make yourself at home.”

  Emma disappeared into the kitchen, and he sat down on the couch, moving several pillows to do so. He never understood why women had to have so many pillows. No one ever actually used them. You had to move them to sit down.

  She returned carrying a tray with bowls of popcorn and drinks.

  “I made some sweet tea, if you’re interested.” She held a frosty glass out to him.

  “I’m interested.” He took the drink and the small bowl of popcorn she offered. “Have you watched it yet? Did I miss anything?”

  She shook her head. “No. I didn’t want to start it without you.” She glanced at him. “And I’m having my computer record the feed so we won’t miss anything.”

  He smiled. “Sweet. We’re in this together, huh?”

  She smiled back. “You earned it. Helping me over at Cam’s today.”

  “Anytime.”

  “Should we get started?”

  “Absolutely.” Derek grabbed a big handful of popcorn and stuffed it in his mouth. He hoped she had more.

  Emma picked up the remote. “This is weird, right?” She was looking at him with her big eyes. “It’s such an invasion of privacy.”

  Was she having second thoughts? Or just looking for permission?

  “Maybe we shouldn’t do this.” She brought her thumbnail to her mouth and put it between her teeth but seemed to think better of it and put her hand down.

  He nodded and stretched his legs out. “But it’d be a shame to waste the equipment, right?”

  “Right.” Her brows drew together. He could almost see her brain running its calculations. “And it’s almost like a scientific experiment.” Her inflection went up at the end like she was asking a question, but she continued. “To see how Cam and Honey behave out there—in the wild—when we’re not around.” Her head bobbed up and down like she was agreeing with herself.

  “Sure. Okay.” Did being her enabler make him crazy too?

  “And use that information against them. Only if we have to.” With that she pushed play on the video. Cam’s living room sprang to the screen.

  He was bored already. “Are we going to have to watch three different videos for the three different cameras you installed?”

  “No. Each camera has a motion sensor so it’s not on unless something moving activates it.” She took a sip of her sweet tea. “I guess it’s good that Cam doesn’t have any pets or else we’d have a lot of useless footage to watch.”

  “Oh, huh. Here you are.” Derek pointed to the screen where Emma was standing, waiting for Cam to enter the apartment. “Turn it up.”

  Emma complied, then cringed when onscreen Emma started talking. “Ugh. Do I really sound like that?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Your voice is richer than that. The sound is just tinny. Don’t worry about it.”

  Emma smiled. “Thanks.”

  “No problem.”

  They watched as Emma dealt with Cam and then snuck Derek out of the apartment. A few minutes later, onscreen Emma got Derek’s phone call, made her excuses to Cam, and left.

  Derek put his popcorn bowl on the coffee table and leaned forward, rubbing his hands. “Now comes the good part. Cam thinks he’s alone. What’s he going to do?”

  “My bet? Nothing interesting. He’s got a presentation tomorrow. He’s going to sit there and work on it. We can fast-forward until he calls Honey, or she comes over or something.” She leaned forward for the remote.

  “Not yet. Let’s watch for a while.” Even though Emma and Cam had been friends for years, Derek felt he had a better handle on Cameron’s work ethic than Emma did. He had a sneaking suspicion just what they’d find him working on when Emma wasn’t there to help.

  Emma glanced at Derek. “What?”

  “Just watch.” He picked up his bowl of popcorn again and tossed a handful into his mouth.

  Onscreen, Cam checked out Emma’s backside as she left. Derek caught Emma’s eye at that, but she shrugged. After that, Cam stood in place in the empty room for several seconds, then raised an arm behind his head and pushed down on his elbow with his other hand, stretching out his shoulders. He did the same on the other side.

  Derek snorted. “Good way to pull something. His muscles aren’t even warmed up.”

  Cam walked a slow circle around his living room, eyeing his presentation materials on the coffee table, then exited the frame to a room on the left.

  “Where’s he going?” Emma scooted forward.

  The living room camera switched off and another switched on as the screen now showed Cam entering the workout room. Cam looked like a giant. Derek could see up his nose.

  “Where did you set the camera in there?”

  “Behind the heaviest weight on the rack. I figured he wouldn’t be working out with the maximum weight in his collection.”

  “Huh.” Derek was impressed. It was true that the heaviest weight would likely be the one least used.

  They watched Cam wander around the room, stretching his arms behind his head.

  “Why did we need a camera in the workout room, anyway?” Derek asked.

  Onscreen, Cam faced the invisible camera and tore his shirt off, then tossed it over his shoulder.

  Emma sighed. “That’s why.” She grabbed a handful of popcorn without looking and shoved it into her mouth, crunching loudly.

  Derek rolled his eyes and gestured to the screen. “He’s pudgy! You know that, right? Look at those love handles.”

  “He looks great to me.” Emma didn’t take her eyes off the screen.

  “Seriously? I mean, really? Come on. I’m a professional here, and I’m telling you the guy is flabby.”

  Emma still didn’t take her eyes off Cam. “Not from where I’m sitting.”

  Cam picked up two small barbells and did alternating bicep curls. A small smile touched Emma’s lips.

  “Okay. Enough. This is just embarrassing.” Derek made a grab for the remote, but Emma held it out of reach before he could take it. Finally she looked at him.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “What’s the problem? Really?” Derek gestured at the screen. “He’s supposed to be working. On the project he was trying to pawn off on you. And instead he’s lifting weak-ass weights.”

  “But you just said he was flabby and needed to work out.”

  “He does. And should. But not when he’s supposed to be working on his marketing presentation for tomorrow. Didn’t you te
ll me he’s the one getting the promotion? It seems to me you’re the creative one.”

  “Yeah, but he’s the public speaker. You should see the way he can work a room.” She sighed, eyes shining. Derek suppressed an eye roll.

  “I’ve seen it, and I’m telling you you’re the one who deserved the promotion.”

  Emma shook her head, a frightened look lifting her eyebrows. “No way. I couldn’t do what he does.”

  “I think you could.” He gazed at her steadily, letting that sink in.

  She tilted her head and studied him, speculating. “Thanks, but I think that’s what makes us such a great team. I run the background, and he’s a great front man. We’re partners.”

  “Not equal partners.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ten bucks says he doesn’t work on it at all and cons you into coming up with something for him to present early tomorrow morning.”

  “Deal. He wouldn’t do that.” Emma was quick to assert Cam’s innocence. Too quick. She must have her doubts.

  “Okay then. Deal.”

  “Yeah, okay. It’s a deal. ‘Cause I’m right.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Yes, we will.”

  “Okay. We agree there’s a deal and now we can fast-forward through the workout.” Derek reached for the remote again, but Emma withheld it.

  “No.”

  “No what?”

  “No to fast-forwarding.”

  “Why?”

  Emma’s voice was low, and her hazel eyes twinkled warmly. “Maybe some of us want to watch the workout.”

  Derek didn’t know why her attraction to the giant oaf was bothering him more tonight. “Oh, okay. Let me go get your vibrator and you two can be alone with Cameron’s workout video.”

  The color rose in Emma’s cheeks. “Shut up.”

  On the monitor, Cam finished with the barbells and put them up. He dropped down onto the floor and did push-ups, alternately falling below the level of the monitor’s frame and popping back into view with every rep.