by Gen Griffin
“You're voluntarily going back to Baker Memorial?” Loretta eyed him doubtfully.
“Katie's in labor. I've got to go track down Ian and drag him to the hospital.”
“Oh Lord have mercy. That poor girl.” Loretta clucked her tongue.
“I'm not going to be real nice to Ian when I find him.” Addison played with the steering wheel cover on the Cadillac. “Assuming, of course, that you're not taking your car back from me. We're kind of running low on cars, believe it or not.”
“I noticed the car issue yesterday when Cal asked if he could have this one because David took his,” Loretta said. “You can take the car. I'd appreciate it if you returned it in one piece, but the survival rate for vehicles hasn't been very high lately. I'm not going to get my hopes up.”
“Thanks.” Addison gave her his most charming smile. “I need to get going.”
Loretta waved him away. “Drive safely. Behave yourself.”
“Always.” Addison waved once more and then drove away.
“Where are Cal and David?” Loretta asked.
“Long story,” Gracie said.
“My house,” Trish said at the same time.
“Long story at your house?” Loretta began walking back up the steps that lead to the front door. Gracie followed after her. Trish hesitated but then realized she had nowhere else to go.
“Someone broke into Trish's house and destroyed it while we were in Baker County today,” Gracie explained. “We got back and discovered the house was trashed. David told Addy to bring us home. He and Cal stayed behind to deal with the police report and the mess.”
“The mess?”
“Its bad,” Trish said quietly. “The house was destroyed and my mom and step-dad are supposed to be here in the morning for Grover's funeral.”
“If Calvin said he'd handle it, he'll handle it.” Loretta held the front door open for Trish. “You look rough, sweetheart.”
“I feel rough,” Trish acknowledged. The house was too dark to see much but what Trish could see was a hallway full of heavy, high end antique furniture and civil war antiquities. Fancy furniture to match a grandiose house.
“Why don't you go upstairs and take a shower?” Loretta suggested. “Have either of you eaten?”
“We had dinner in the mall food court,” Trish said.
“Trish didn't each much,” Gracie tattled.
Loretta turned her kind, dark eyes on Trish. “Would you like a sandwich honey?”
“No, thank you. I haven't had much of an appetite lately. I don't eat much when I'm stressed.” Trish tried to return the smile.
“Go upstairs and get a shower. Gracie can show you to David's room. I'm assuming you don't mind bunking with him?”
“I don't mind at all. If he even comes back tonight. That house was horrible.”
“My boys said they were going to clean up the house?” Loretta raised one eyebrow at her. “The whole house? By morning?”
Trish nodded.
Loretta laughed softly. “Calvin's idea of cleaning is rinsing the dishes before they go into the dishwasher. Wonder who he called to come deal with the mess?”
“A better question is how much is he paying them?” Gracie asked with a smirk.
“Oh gosh. Y'all think he's paying someone to clean the house?”
“Absolutely,” Gracie said. “We're talking about Cal.”
“He shouldn't have done that. I could have stayed to clean that house. It's my house. My ex-husband is the one who did the damage. No one else should have to pay for-.”
“You're exhausted and you have a broken arm,” Loretta cut her off mid-sentence. “Cal and David both have more than enough money to pay someone to clean a house. It would be a better use of the cash than some of the other things they've purchased in the past.”
“Ain't that the truth,” Gracie muttered. She held out her hand to Trish. “Come on. Let's go upstairs and get cleaned up. I'll let you borrow one of Cal's t-shirts to sleep in. I'd lend you some of my pajamas but I don't um....I don't wear pajamas.”
Trish couldn't help laughing at that. “I'm thinking I need to go buy myself a couple of cute pairs. Ever since I moved to Possum Creek, I keep winding up at awkward sleepovers. Entirely too many people in this town have already seen me naked.”
“You should have said something while we were at the mall today.”
“I wasn't thinking about my sleeping arrangements while we were at the mall today. I thought I'd be home in my own bed right now. Or, at least, home in what used to be a bed.”
“Used to be a bed?” Loretta asked.
Trish blushed. She'd honestly forgotten the older woman was standing there.
“David and Trish broke the bed,” Gracie said without the slightest hint of shame.
“It was an old bed,” Trish offered.
“I bet it was. Tell David to buy you a new bed. He's going to have to buy all new furniture eventually.” Loretta rolled her eyes and then smiled. “You girls go get your showers and get ready for bed. Tomorrow promises to be a very long day.”
“You have no idea,” Trish said.
Chapter 37
“I'm going to confess to killing Casey,” Ian announced as Addison climbed onto the deck of his ancient houseboat.
“You're an idiot.” Addison walked across the creaking deck, kicking beer cans and liquor bottles out of his path.
“Addy?” Ian turned around and stared blearily up at Addison through bloodshot red eyes. He was holding a fishing pole in his right hand and a can of cheap beer in his left. “I thought you were David.”
“You thought I was David?” Addison kicked three of the beer cans off the side of the boat. “I don't even look like David.”
“You were driving his...”
“His?”
“His Momma's car. The caddy.”
“I am driving Miss Loretta's Cadillac. She is probably going to murder me when she sees how many scratches I got in the paint while I was driving it down the miserable little pig trail I had to take to get back here to you.”
“Sorry dude.” Ian burped.
“You've got to pull yourself together, get cleaned up and come with me. Katie's at the hospital. She's having the baby.”
“I'm not going,” Ian said.
“Excuse me?” Addison narrowed his eyes at Ian. “You're her husband. She's giving birth to your little girl.”
“I ain't ready to be no little girl's Daddy,” Ian slurred. “I've been sitting out here all week and that's the conclusion I've come to. I ain't ready to be a Daddy.”
“No offense, but its too late for you to change your mind.” Addison tried to cross his arms over his chest but his entire side was throbbing. “Look, Ian. I'm not even supposed to be out of the hospital. I talked David into helping me get out early because a lot of things have gone badly wrong lately and I was afraid my friends would need me. The painkillers wore off hours ago and I didn't exactly stop to grab a prescription on my way out the side exit. My entire right side is a hot burning mass of pain. I'm exhausted and incredibly ready to be in my own bed.”
“So go home.”
“I can't go home. Katie is in the hospital having your baby and she wants you there. Her sister called me and asked me to find you.”
“Kristy's a meddling bitch.”
“Kristy is worried about her little sister and she's trying to take care of her. She told me that she tried to call you herself for over an hour before she called me. Katie is in the hospital and she needs your support. She needs you to sit there and hold her hand. Tell her you love her and your little girl. Be there for her.”
“Are you my friend or Katie's?” Ian asked abruptly.
“What?” Addison frowned at him.
“Are you my friend or hers?”
“What kind of a question is that?” Addy demanded.
“All I've heard out of your mouth is how I need to get up and go because Katie needs me. You want me to stop what I'm doing and go somewhere that
I don't want to go to because you want Katie to be happy, right?”
“You're her husband.”
“Who cares?” Ian chugged half his beer in one gulp. “Katie's birth control failed, Addy. You know that. You were the first person I told.”
“Ian-.”
“We didn't plan this baby and the closer we get to having her, the less prepared I am to have her. I can't be a daddy.”
Addison took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. His patience was only a hair's breath away from dissolving completely. “Fine. You don't want to be a daddy. You don't want this little girl. Explain to me how confessing to killing Casey would improve the situation?”
“It won't,” Ian acknowledged. “But it will get Kerry off of David's back.”
“David can handle Kerry.”
“Katie knows about Casey.”
“I know,” Addison replied. “The girl's not stupid. She's always known about Casey.”
Ian's jaw dropped open in surprise and then he shut his mouth again. “You knew that Katie knew?”
“You'd be surprised by what I know.” Addison sat down on the edge of the dock because he was too tired to keep standing up.
“How can I be a little girl's daddy when I killed some other man's little girl?” Ian opened a fresh beer for himself. He held a second one out to Addison.
Addy waved it away. “Confessing to an accidental homicide won't change the past. All its going to do is cost you your badge.”
Ian sighed and set down his fishing rod. “The day Casey died, you offered to confess to killing her to protect me. Would you still do that for me?”
“What?” Addy did a double take.
“If I asked you to confess to killing Casey, would you do it?”
“No,” Addison said. “For starters, Casey's death was an accident. Secondly, it's been eight years. We've walked away clean, Ian. We all have damn good lives. Why the hell would you throw away a good life with a great job and a beautiful wife because of a mistake you made as a drunk teenager?”
“Maybe my life isn't as great as you think it is,” Ian said softly. “Katie talked me into going into therapy with a counselor over in Canterville. Our insurance pays for it.”
“Okay.”
“My therapist says I need to take ownership of my mistakes.”
“Tell me that you didn't tell your therapist about Casey,” Addison said.
“No. I haven't. At least, not yet. I did tell her that I'd made a big mistake a long time ago and that people were still being hurt by that mistake. She said I needed to own up to it. She said I'll feel better after I do.”
“You'll be unemployed after you do,” Addison said.
“Katie said she'd stand by me.”
“Katie's that kind of girl.” Addison threw several more of the beer cans into the water. “You'll destroy her. Do you have any idea how people are going to look at you after you confess to killing Casey? Do you have any idea how they're going to look at Katie? They'll think she knew the whole time.”
“I can't afford to worry about what people will think,” Ian said. “And if you're worried about your own hide, don't. I'm going to tell them that I was alone when I killed her.”
“Ian-.”
“Stop trying to argue with me, Addison. I've made up my mind.”
Addison opened his mouth to argue and then decided it wasn't worth the effort right now. Ian had drunkenly decided to confess to murdering Casey on more than one occasion. He always lost the urge once he sobered up. “Fine. Confess. Ruin your life. I don't care. You still need to get up, get showered and go to the hospital to meet your little girl.”
“No,” Ian said.
“No?”
“My therapist says that I spend too much of my time worrying about whether or not my actions please other people. She says I need to focus on myself and doing what makes me happy.”
“I'm getting a headache,” Addison informed him.
Ian laughed bitterly. “Katie has her people with her at the hospital. I'm sure her mom and Kristy are already holding her hands.”
“You really don't want to see your daughter born?” Addison couldn't wrap his head around Ian's drunken logic.
“All I want is to sit here on my boat and drink beer until I black out,” Ian informed him. “Unless your plan is to physically force me into the shower and then drag me down to Baker Memorial by the scruff of my neck, I ain't going.”
“If I weren't hurt-,” Addison started.
“If you weren't hurt, you'd drag me down to that hospital by the scruff of my neck. Yeah. I get that. I know you. But your entire arm is fucked up and you've got stitches in your chest. For the first time in our lives, you can't take me.” Ian gloated at Addison through his bloodshot eyes. “If you're so worried about Katie, why aren't you sitting at the hospital?”
“It's not my place.”
“In other words, you don't want to be there either. You care about Katie, but not enough to actually do the same thing you want me to do.”
“I'm not her husband.”
“Like I said, you don't care about her. She ain't nothing to you.” Ian shrugged at Addison. “She thinks y'all are such good friends, but I bet she ain't nothing more than just another pretty face to you. I bet you wouldn't even care if she died having that baby. I'm kind of hoping something goes wrong, myself. The doctor said it was a possibility. He said the baby was turned wrong during her last appointment. Katie was scared that she might die. That happens sometimes you know? Girls can die when they have babies. Maybe it would be alright if Katie died having the baby, you know? It would be like fate. Karma paying me back for killing Casey.”
Addison shoved Ian off the boat and into the cold, dark water. He grabbed him by the neck and held him underneath the surface. The pain that was shooting through the bullet wound in his chest was unreal, but he didn't care. His fury blurred it into nothing more than a numb pain. He held Ian just under the surface of the water as the other man struggled against him. When the bubbles finally stopped surfacing, he yanked Ian back up into the air.
Ian gasped and gulped in the oxygen. His blue eyes were wide as he stared at Addison and sputtered.
“I'll drown you,” Addison hissed. “Tell me that you want her to die. I dare you.”
Ian choked and coughed. Water bubbled out from his lips. Addison shoved him back under the water and then roughly released him.
He shoved himself back onto his feet. He didn't care if he'd ripped out every single stitch he had. Addison didn't bother waiting to see if Ian made his way back onto the deck of the houseboat. He was so angry that he was seeing red as he walked back to Miss Loretta's truck and climbed into the driver's seat. If he stayed any longer, he would kill Ian. He knew that with as much certainty as he'd ever known anything in his life.
Chapter 38
“Oh great. It's you. Where is Ian?” Kristy was pacing in the hallway outside the labor and delivery rooms. She was mirror image of Katie, except that Kristy was roughly 150 pounds heavier.
Addison opened his mouth and then decided nothing positive would come out of telling Katie's overprotective older sister that he'd nearly drowned her wayward brother-in-law. “How's Katie?”
“They're prepping her for an emergency c-section. She's really hoping Ian will show up before they perform the surgery. Is he coming?”
“Probably not,” Addison admitted reluctantly. He held the fat bouquet of daisies out to Kristy. “These are from Ian.”
Kristy rolled her wide brown eyes at him. “Tell that lie to someone who buys it, Studmuffin. Ian doesn't know that her favorite flowers are daisies.”
“Everyone knows that her favorite flowers are daisies,” Addison said idly.
“Not Ian. He buys her red roses.”
“Oops.” Addison shrugged. “I didn't think she liked roses.”
“She doesn't.” Kristy put one chubby hand on Addison's chest. “Why are you bleeding?”
Addison glanced down at the dark r
ed patch on his shirt. “I probably ripped a few stitches loose earlier tonight.”
“I see.” Kristy looked him up and down once more. “Stay here like a good boy and I'll go see if she wants you.”
“I don't think she'll-.” Cal's accusations from this morning were still a little too fresh in Addison's memory. “I probably shouldn't-.”
“One of the nurses heard you asking where she was when you were at the nurses station. She must have thought you were Ian. The general description does match. Y'all both have somewhat curly blonde hair and blue eyes. You're like a foot taller, but we didn't think we were putting out an APB. The nurse came in and told Katie that her husband was here. I came out here because I wanted to make sure Ian was sober before he walked into the delivery room.”
“He wasn't sober when I found him,” Addison acknowledged with a slight scowl.
“Not surprised.” Kristy patted Addison once on the stomach and then spun on her heel and went back into the delivery room.
Chapter 39
“We're missing something important.” Cal shoved a giant, plushy recliner through the front door of Trish's house. Jimmy Lee had told Cal to help himself to whatever merchandise in the store he needed and said he'd tally up the bill in the morning. The furniture store owner's only condition had been that Cal and David had to haul the furniture themselves. Even Cal couldn't get 2 am professional furniture delivery in Possum Creek.
“Like what?” David asked as he finished dragging the chair across the room. “We got a couch, a recliner, a dining room table, three new bedroom suites and a china cabinet.”
“Like figuring out how Curtis is getting around Possum Creek without anyone seeing him,” Cal said. “I wasn't talking about the furniture.”
“I have no idea how Curtis is getting around town without us seeing him.”
“Exactly my point. You and I can't go to the Gas N' Go and get a case of beer without half the town noticing, but a three hundred pound murderer is walking through the streets without anyone seeing him? Not in this town. We don't get enough tourists for a stranger to blend in.”
“You've got a point, but I don't know what to make of it.”
