“Oh.” He was eternally confused by her.
“Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Adams?”
“Yes. Are your parents out of the house?”
“Naturally.”
“Good.” He let out the breath he’d been half holding. Everything was going to be okay. “Do you think you can get Zellie to come over? I need to see her.”
“I suppose I could, but why don’t you just wait a few hours and then sneak over to her house? I hear that you’ve been oh-so-romantically showing up at her window in the middle of the night, Romeo,” Claire teased.
“I need to see her now. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,” Avery pleaded.
“Got it,” she said, all trace of teasing gone from her voice, “Give me half an hour.”
“Thanks. You’re a good friend.” Avery let his breath out the rest of the way.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m extremely familiar with the “F” word. See you in a few.”
The phone rang in the kitchen. Melody and I both jumped up from the dinner table to answer it. She got to it first.
“Hello, Wells residence, Melody speaking.”
I could hear Claire’s voice. I tried to grab the phone away, but Mel hunched over it holding it to her chest.
“And who may I ask is calling?” she said with faux politeness.
Claire went off, yelling loud enough I could almost make out what she was saying. Something about Avery? I pinched the back of Melody’s arm as hard as I could.
“Ow!” She yanked her arm away from me. “I’m sorry, we’ve just sat down to dinner. May I take a message?”
“Melody!” I yelled, exasperated.
“Fine!” She shoved the phone at me. “It’s Claire.”
“Yes. I know.” I stared her down until she left the room. “Hey. What’s up?”
“Hey. Listen, Avery just called me. He needs to see you and wanted me to get you over to my house somehow.”
“Really?” I lowered my voice. “You know my parents won’t let me go out on a school night.” I paused. “Are you under your bed again?”
“Yes,” Claire sighed. “Tell them that my dog died and I need some comforting,”
“You don’t have a dog.”
“They don’t know that, do they?”
“No. I suppose not. Hold on, let me ask them.”
I put the phone down and went into the dining room. Mom and Dad were fussing over the red welt I’d made on Melody’s arm. Whoops. I cleared my throat to get their attention and slipped into my best good girl voice. “Um, may I please go over to Claire’s house for a little bit this evening? Her dog died and she’s really sad about it.”
Mom looked at me weird. With sadness? Anger? I couldn’t tell. “Are her parents home?”
I ran back to the phone. “They wanna know if your parents are home.”
“Tell them that they went out to pick up some Chinese food and will call them as soon as they get home.”
“Good one.” I set the phone down, lied to my parents about Chinese food and then returned quickly. “Okay. I’ll be over when we’re finished with dinner. Dad’s going to drop me off. He says he’s sorry about your dog.”
“Yes, um, tell him thanks and that Rover will be missed. Okay, I’ll make sure there are no signs of Avery. Over and out.”
“Thanks, Claire.”
“Whatever girl, just get over here, that boy needs you.”
While I waited for Dad to finish off his eighteenth helping of scalloped potatoes, I searched for something cute to wear. Only problem? Nothing cute to wear. My like, two semi-flattering tank tops weren’t in my dresser or the laundry basket. Maybe Mom knew. She’d gone to lie down right after Claire called and I probably should leave her alone, but it was a cuteness emergency.
I knocked softly on my parents’ bedroom door, peeking around it. “Can I come in?”
“Sure honey, come in.” Mom sat up on the bed and wiped her eyes. Had she been crying?
I stuck my head into the room. “Do you know where my yellow tank top is, the one with the little daisies on the straps?”
“I think it’s in the dryer, Zel, I washed it yesterday.” She rubbed her face.
“Cool, thanks.” I started to shut the door.
“Tell Claire I’m sorry about her dog. Love you, honey.”
“Love you, too.” I closed the door. Avery needed to see me and Mom was hiding out in her bedroom crying? Not a good sign.
Chapter Eight
I climbed into the minivan, anxious to get to Claire’s house. Thank God the drive only took ten minutes.
“Sorry I took so long eating dinner. You know how I love those scalloped potatoes that come in the box. They must have an addictive drug in them or something,” Dad said, a devilish grin on his face.
“That’s fine,” I turned to look out the window. Whatever, Dad! Let’s get a move on. Something was up with Avery and it was killing me not to be there with him. “I just hope Claire isn’t distraught. She really loved that dog.”
“What was its name again?” He slowed the minivan down, having chosen to drive through the only school zone in town.
“Uh, Rover.” Crud. I was such a sucktastic liar when it came to him.
“Interesting. Y’know, Zellie, you’re a really bad liar.”
I turned to him, my face burning red. I’d been found out. Oh God, where was he taking me? Surely not to Claire’s? No. He was taking me to a nunnery! Wait, we were Lutheran. What was the equivalent? Was there an equivalent? Ugh. Be cool, just be cool. “What? What are you talking about?”
Dad chuckled. “I know Claire doesn’t have a dog, her mother has horrible allergies to all sorts of things. Give me a little credit. It’s my business to know about my congregation.”
“Then why are you letting me go to Claire’s house?” We were going to her house right? Please, God, I swear I will dial down the making out, just please let us be really going to Claire’s.
“Well, I’d rather have you hanging out with Avery at her house than sneaking out with him in the middle of the night.”
I sank down in my seat, shocked. “You know about that?”
Dad steered the minivan over to the side of the road and put it in park. I put my hand on the door handle in case I had to make a quick getaway.
He turned to me. “A long time ago before I became a pastor, I was a fifteen-year-old boy. I snuck out of my house to go see Roselyn Finn at least three times a week one summer. My father, at the end of that summer, let me know that he knew what I was doing too.”
I was starting to see his angle. “And I suppose you were grounded until you met Mom?”
He shook his head. “Zellie, since the beginning of time, teenagers have been sneaking out and inventing reasons to spend the night at their friends’ houses. If we had a second story on the house I have absolutely no doubt that Avery Adams would be climbing up trees or hiding a ladder in the bushes so that he could scale up it and appear at your window. I have decided not to fight against the inevitability that you will act like a teenager.”
I straightened up a little in my seat. Dad was being really cool. That must mean... “Does Mom know?”
“No, she doesn’t know for now. I thought we could keep this between the two of us and not worry her. Your mom was a bit of a wild child when she was your age. I think she’s afraid that you’re going to pay her back, karmically speaking. But your mom lost both of her parents at fifteen. She had a lot of anger and sadness to get out of her system. I think you’re more like me, more interested in the romance of sneaking out of the house than the thrill or the defiance of it. Your conscience will prevail. Now with Melody...” He gave me a wink.
“Wow, Dad, that’s really cool of you.” I blushed. I was seven kinds of guilty. If he only knew.
“Yes. I know.” He put the car in drive and pulled away from the curb, checking his rearview mirror for oncoming traffic. “That being said, I will be back at eleven to pick you up. It is a weekn
ight after all and you have school in the morning. Also, I’m fairly certain that Claire’s parents aren’t home. Please have them give me a call when they do get back. See how this is gonna work, Zel? I give a little, you give a little.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“No problem, sweetheart.”
Dad came to a stop in front of Claire’s house. “Here we are, Madame. See you at eleven.”
I leaned over to give him a hug goodbye. As I wrapped my arms around his neck I got a sickening feeling in my gut. He smelled of pine.
A vision flashed through my head. I saw him wrestling with a woman, her hair covering her face. She had a gun in her hand. Dad was trying to shake the gun from the woman’s hand, banging her arm against the side of a black leather couch. There was screaming, but I couldn’t make out the voices or the woman’s face. I could see Dad’s hand slip from the woman’s arm. Then she regained her grip on the gun and aimed it at his face and shot.
“Okay, honey, I get it, you love me. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
I snapped back into the present. I was almost strangling him in my embrace. I let go of him and looked into his eyes. He smiled at me. “I’ll see you soon, Dad. Thanks for driving me and everything.” I opened the minivan door and hopped out. As I walked up Claire’s driveway, he honked the horn at me and waved. I turned and waved back.
Dazed, I rang the doorbell instead of walking into the house like I normally would.
Claire answered the door. “Oh crap, not you too.”
“Me too, what?” I said as I entered the house.
“Something bad happened to you too, you don’t look so good.” Claire shut the front door behind us.
“I’m fine, really. Where’s Avery?” I started off down the hall towards the kitchen.
“He’s--” Claire started to say.
“Zel, I’m up here,” Avery called from the top of the stairs.
I backtracked and ran up the stairs, Claire following behind me.
At first Avery looked relieved to see me, but then his expression changed to worry. I went right for him, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him.
He squeezed me tightly “Are you okay?”
I pulled away from him and looked over my shoulder at Claire. “What’s up with you guys? I’m fine.” There wasn’t anything I could do about anything right now. I didn’t know what I would do if I could. We had to get Avery’s problem figured out first anyhow. I studied his face. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not.” He took my arms from around his neck and led me into Claire’s room. He sat down on the floor with his back against the bed, pulling me down next to him. Claire stood in the doorway.
“Do you want me to leave you guys alone? I can go watch TV downstairs or something.”
“Yeah,” Avery said, “maybe you’d better. Thanks again.”
“Okay, you two, holler if you need anything.” She shut her bedroom door.
Avery turned to me and took my hands in his. “Things are bad. My dad served my mom with divorce papers today.”
I squeezed his hand tighter. “What happened? Why?”
He looked down. “I should have told you this. I’ve been meaning to, but it’s embarrassing and really, I don’t know...hard to admit? My mom’s sick and she um, kind of goes crazy when she doesn’t take her medicine.”
I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him to me. Well that just plain sucked for everyone. “Your poor mom, what’s going on?”
He laid his head in my lap. I stroked his hair while he told me about it. “Once or twice a year she does this. The last time was really bad. She, um, cut my dad’s head off in every picture that we had of him and locked herself in the bathroom for a whole day. She wouldn’t talk to anyone, she just kept passing me notes under the door that didn’t make any sense at all.”
“Oh, Avery, I’m so sorry. That’s horrible.” I had to lean away from him a little. The smell of pine was itching its way into my nose.
“Anyway, after the last time, Dad threatened to have her committed and divorce her if she ever stopped taking her medicine again. I guess she did. I mean, I know she did so...” He looked up into my eyes like he was checking to make sure I wasn’t about to run from him and all of his crazy mom baggage. As if. I pulled it together and gave him a comforting smile.
He started again. “Well, there’s more. When I went to my dad’s office after school today, she was standing outside freaking out. I took her home and gave her medicine and everything but the divorce papers...my dad said she’s crazy and he’s suing for sole custody of me. He’s taking me away, Zellie. He’s making me leave with him. I don’t know what to do.”
I held his face in my hands, forcing him to look at me. “Listen, we’re going to figure this out. Let’s call my dad and see if he can help us. Y’know maybe he’ll let you stay with us while your mom gets herself together.”
He sat up. “Your dad is not going to let his daughter’s boyfriend that he doesn’t even know about crash on the couch. That is not going to work.”
The bedroom door opened a crack and Claire spoke from out in the hall. “You can stay here, I’m sure my parents wouldn’t even notice.”
“Thanks for the privacy Claire!” I said a little too harshly. “Look, my dad knows about us, he will help you, I promise.”
“Since when does your dad know about us?” Avery said, taken aback.
“He just told me on the way over here. I know it seems like a long shot, but he could help your mom too, he could--”
My eyes snapped shut, automatically blocking out Claire’s room and Avery, forcing me to focus on the scene playing out in my mind.
I watched as Mrs. Adams parked her car in the lot behind Adams Insurance and turned off the ignition. She popped the trunk, got out of the car and walked around to the back of it. Lifting the lid part way, she eased a black duffel bag from the inside, scanning the street to see if anyone was looking at her. Downtown was deserted.
She slung the duffel over her shoulder and walked to the back entrance of the building. She tried the knob. The door was locked. Looking around again, she dropped the bag to the ground and unzipped it. She pulled out a crow bar. Wedging it in between the door jamb and the lock, she anchored it back. The metal of the door jamb bent and the lock popped open. She slid the bag into the hallway and went inside, closing the door behind her. She put the crowbar back in the bag and pulled out a gun.
Tiptoeing down the short hall, she came to two saloon doors and looked over the top of them. Mr. Adams was asleep on the couch.
She crept up to him, aimed the gun at his forehead and cocked it. “Get up.”
Mr. Adams eyes shot open and focused on the gun aimed between them. “Becky?”
She reached down and grabbed her husband by his shirt collar. “I said get up!”
He put his hands up in front of him and stood. “Becky, what are you doing? Let’s talk about this. We can talk about this. I didn’t know you were off your meds. That was a definite bad on my part.”
She waved the gun at him. “Oh, now you want to talk to me? That chance has passed. You are finally going to get what’s coming to you.”
“Don’t do this. You’re not thinking straight.”
“I’m thinking more clearly than I have in a long time. Here’s the plan. You’re going to sit in the chair behind your desk and then I’m gonna blow your brains all over the back wall of your stupid office that you couldn’t even give me a key to.” Her hand that was holding the gun began shaking. She steadied it with her other hand and took a deep breath. “Then I’m going to get in my car and go pick up our son at his little girlfriend Claire’s house. We are going to get the hell out of this miserable town and never ever have to think about you again!”
Mr. Adams sat down in the chair, his hands stayed raised, the gun still pointed at his head. “Claire isn’t his girlfriend, Zellie is, and she’s just like Grace.”
“What do you mean? She has visions too?” Mrs. Ada
ms narrowed her eyes at her husband. “I don’t believe you, Avery wouldn’t...he knows that would hurt me.”
“It has nothing to do with you. Avery went and fell in love while neither of us was paying attention. We’ve been awful parents to him. I’ve neglected him and you’ve treated him like an adult since he was ten! He needs to get away from Rosedell and I’m going to take him.”
He stood up. “Now, you’re going to put down that gun and you’re going to let me drive you to the hospital. You need some help.”
His cell phone began ringing from the front pocket of his jeans. He let it ring.
Mrs. Adams waved the gun toward his pocket. “Take it out and slide it to me across the desk.” She pointed the gun back at his head. “Sit down, we’re not going anywhere.”
He pulled the phone out and slid it to her, she flipped it open, and shut off the phone, tossing it on the floor.
Mr. Adams sat down and put his hands out flat on the desk. He looked his wife in the eye. “Just tell me what I can do.”
She backed up, continuing to aim the gun at his head, and slumped down on the couch.
“Grace knew that Erin was going to die, Mike. She knew that Avery wouldn’t save her.”
He started to get out of the chair, rising slowly. “I know that and I also know she feels just as horrible about it as either of us. There wasn’t anything she could do. She--”
“Think about it!” Mrs. Adams got up from the couch and paced back and forth, keeping the gun trained on him. “She knew that my mother was going to have a stroke, that your mother would get breast cancer. Hell, she probably knows how your father, who’s all the way in freaking Florida, is going to die and you still love her. You think I’m crazier and more messed up than she is? You’re a fool.”
“Becky, we never should have gotten married. We had no foundation to build any kind of relationship on, and that’s just as much my fault as it is yours. Erin’s probably the only thing that could have made us both happy and willing to want to stay together.” He had tears in his eyes. “But she’s gone. I should have realized that I couldn’t be happy without Grace. I don’t care what she knows, what she could or couldn’t have done. I know that’s not fair to you, just like it’s not fair to expect Avery to fill the void that Erin left.”
Zellie Wells Trilogy Page 8
