“I think you’re ready to take a chance, too. It just had to be the right person and the right time in your life. Chloe’s getting older. She doesn’t need you as much as she once did. You spent your whole life taking care of her. Now you need to take care of yourself. You might not get another chance.”
I knew Gina was right. But I was still scared. Scared of where loving and taking chances would lead me. At the same time, I knew where I was headed if I didn’t, and it was a lonely place to be.
***
Tom
Fuck! There never seems to be enough check-out lines at the grocery store. Even the express wasn’t express. I got in the shortest line, behind a woman in spandex that had no business being in spandex, holding a wad of coupons that would make any serious coupon clipper salivate.
The worst part? She was uber organized. Normally, I’d be amused watching someone group items together—cold with cold, boxes with boxes, cans with cans. But Spandex Mama took it a step further and had to make sure all of the barcodes were facing the cashier. No shit! While this lady was a wet dream for cashiers, she was pissing me off. The shortest line ended up being the longest line and by the time I got out of the store, I couldn’t get to Gina’s fast enough.
Good thing I remembered my recent traffic ticket, though, because a cop was hiding around a curve, trying to catch speeders, and I didn’t see him until it was too late.
I had thought about calling or texting Gina to make sure she kept Sue at her house. I didn’t want to get there and not find Sue. But I didn’t.
My heart raced and my palms felt sweaty. Funny how sometimes things pop into your head that you haven’t thought about in years. For some reason I remembered a bunch of us going skiing. It was cold as hell and we took a break inside the lodge in front of this big stone fireplace. Gina, Sue, Cookie, and Lynn were there. And most of the guys who were at my house last night. It was our senior year and Sue was seeing some guy from St. Francis Catholic High. He wasn’t there.
Anyway, the fire was roaring and it felt so good to be next to it. I remember looking over at Sue and thinking how beautiful she looked. Her cheeks and the tip of her nose were red and she wore a striped beanie. Her blonde hair fanned out across the back of her blue ski jacket. She rubbed her hands together in front of the fire. I remember thinking how I wanted to warm her up. How I’d give anything for her to like me and not that guy from St. Francis.
Chapter 18
Sue
“Do you want something to eat?” Gina asked.
“I’m not hungry. I can’t eat when I’m upset. Think I should call Tom?”
“What do you want to do?” asked Gina, sipping her tea.
“He’s supposed to make me dinner tonight. Lasagna.”
Gina smiled. “A man who cooks dinner for you? He’s a keeper, Sues.”
“Thing is, he’s not coming over until 3, and I’d kind of like to see him before that.”
Gina handed me her cellphone. “So call him. I’m going to get more tea.”
Gina went to the kitchen to make another cup of Earl Grey. There were so many thoughts flying through my head and they were all hitting each other, sort of like bumper cars. I’d be thinking about something and just when I’d settle on that thought I’d get hit by another thought that turned me around and pointed me in another direction. Then I’d get stuck, unable to shake the thought or fear of getting hurt—again.
I looked down at Gina’s cellphone and smiled, realizing the significance of her wallpaper.
Gina had told me that Mike and she had returned to their old making-out spot in the woods. They wanted to see if they could find the old oak tree they had carved their names into more than twenty years ago.
Gina said they found the tree and that Mike, using the same pocket knife he used when they were teens, carved that day’s date in the bark, below the heart.
Gina had apparently taken a photo of it afterward and saved it as her phone wallpaper. Seeing it on the phone reminded me of how sometimes love can be as strong and straight as an oak tree, but you had to plant it first.
I punched in the number I had grown to know by heart.
***
Tom
I must have hit every red light there was on my way over to Gina’s. If I were superstitious I’d have thought something was trying to stop me from getting there.
Just as I pulled up to the curb in front of her house, my cellphone rang. It was Gina.
“Hi, Gina.”
“It’s not Gina,” Sue said. “I’m using her phone.”
My heart thumped. I wasn’t sure if I should let on that I knew anything had happened. “How was the sleepover with the girls?”
Sue sniffed. “I remembered.”
“Uh, Sue,” I said. “Are you inside Gina’s? Cause I’m outside.”
I could see Sue peek out the living room window.
“Can I come in? I think we need to talk.”
Sue opened the front door and I walked in to find Gina standing there with her purse. She bit her lower lip. “Hi, Tom. Mind if I go run some errands while you two talk?”
I shook my head. “No, of course not.” I held up a grocery bag containing the meat and other items that needed to be refrigerated. “Mind if I put this in your refrigerator? It’s the stuff for lasagna. I don’t want to let it sit in my car.”
Gina took the bag and swapped cellphones with Sue. I sat on the couch beside Sue. Her face looked red and blotchy. She wrung her hands. I wanted to put my arm around her, but I couldn’t tell if she wanted me to.
I look into Sue’s eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?”
***
Sue
I sniffed. “I remember everything except right before the accident and being in the coma.”
“So you remembered finding Rachel in my house?”
I nodded. “And I remember what she was wearing. The lacy thong and nipple covers with tassels. She looked so sexy and sure of herself. I just kept thinking it was happening to me all over again. And I couldn’t take it. I had to get out of there.”
I looked down at my lap and felt Tom’s fingers beneath my chin, gently lifting it.
“I understand,” he said. “But you’ve got to know that I had no idea Rachel would ever pull a stunt like that.”
“Did you see her?”
“Yes, when I got home, expecting to find you, I found her. I flipped out when I realized what had happened. Told her to leave and never come back. I even had a locksmith change the locks the next day. I’m sorry. I wish I would have remembered that Rachel had a key. It completely slipped my mind.”
I raked my bottom lip with my front teeth. “It’s okay. I probably overreacted. My brain was telling me one thing but my eyes were telling me something different. It’s just that seeing Rachel there dressed for sex when I had gone out and bought something special to wear that night to welcome you home was too much for me. And then the way she acted. Like of course she was waiting for you, and of course you were going to screw, and of course you were going to laugh afterward at my gullibility.”
I started sobbing and Tom’s arms wrapped around me. “I’m sorry,” he said. “After the accident, I went to see Rachel.”
I pulled back from his arms. “Why?”
“Because I wanted her to know that I personally held her responsible for your accident.”
“But it wasn’t Rachel’s fault,” I said. “She didn’t make me go off the road.”
“Indirectly it was her fault,” Tom said. “The accident and none of this other stuff would have happened if Rachel hadn’t pulled that stunt.”
Tears pooled in Tom’s eyes. “If I had lost you, I don’t know what I would have done.”
“I mean that much to you?” I asked.
“Yes,” Tom said. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
My heart beat faster. I wondered if it was the same thing I wanted to tell him. But my cellphone rang and by the ring tone, I knew it was Chloe. Sh
e was probably wondering where I was. She had spent the night at her best friend Robin’s house.
***
Tom
“I’d better get that,” Sue said. “It’s Chloe. She’s probably wondering where I am.”
“Chloe! What’s wrong? You’re crying. Where are you?”
Sue eyes widened. “Omigod. I’ll be right there.”
Sue looked at me. “Can you take me to the hospital?”
I jumped up from the couch. “Of course. Is Chloe all right?”
“I’m not sure. She said something about an accident and Rob driving her to the hospital.”
“Who’s Rob?”
“The boy down the street.”
“The one whose dad was transferred here from Texas?”
“Yeah, that one. Remember I told you he’s 17 and asked Chloe out? Of course Steve and I both said no and Chloe’s been sulking about it ever since.”
Sue ran to the bathroom and I called Gina to tell her what was going on. She said she would meet us at the hospital.
“If anything happens to her…” Sue shook her head.
“She’s going to be okay,” I told Sue. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
I hoped that I was right.
Chapter 19
Sue
“Sorry we didn’t have the chance to finish our talk,” I told Tom.
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll talk. First things first.”
We couldn’t get to the hospital fast enough. The last time I had been in the emergency room, I was the one on the gurney. And as much as I hated hospitals, I’d change places with Chloe in a second.
I swung between two extremes. One minute I was convinced Chloe was fine because she called me on her cellphone on the way to the hospital. Then the next minute I was convinced she was really hurt.
I had no idea what Chloe was doing and how she got hurt. She was supposed to be at her best friend Robin’s house. What was this about Rob?
I called Steve while we were en route and couldn’t reach him so I left a message. I called Robin’s house, thinking that maybe Robin’s mom, Tammy, would know what was going on. Chloe hadn’t said anything about Robin.
Tammy answered the phone.
“Tammy, it’s Sue. Is Robin there?”
“No,” Tammy said. “She’s out of town for the weekend.”
A lump the size of a watermelon formed in my throat. “All weekend?”
“Yes,” Tammy said. “She went with her cousin on a church retreat. She’ll be home tomorrow. Is everything okay?”
I swallowed. “I thought Chloe was going to spend the day with her. Guess I was wrong.”
“Haven’t seen Chloe since last weekend. Are you sure you’re okay, Sue?”
“Yeah. Gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.”
Tom looked over at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Robin’s been away all weekend. Went with her cousin to a church retreat.”
“But I thought you said she spent last night with Chloe and that they were spending the day together?”
I looked at Tom and mashed my lips together and let out a heavy sigh. “That’s what Chloe told me.”
***
Tom
Sue’s leg shook like a rattlesnake’s tail. She twisted the tissue in her hand and stared out the car window.
“I am so freaking mad right now I feel like I’m going to explode. Chloe has never done anything like this before. It’s got to be that boy. Rob. He put her up to this.”
“Whoa, Sue,” I said. “Don’t blame the boy.”
“Well, of course,” she said. “Of course you’d take up for the boy.”
“Come on, Sue. I’m not taking any sides here. All I’m saying is that you don’t know what happened, if anything. First things first. We need to make sure Chloe’s okay.”
She crossed her arms and sighed.
“Remember,” I said. “Things aren’t always what they appear to be.”
Sue hit her lap with her hand. “I know. You’re right. I just remember what I was doing when I was her age and I’ll kill her if she was doing what I was doing.”
“I’m sure she wasn’t. Not that you were bad. I mean, none of us were bad. We just did normal teen things.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Sue said. “It’s the normal teen things that scare me. Remember the time we all slept out in the woods?”
I smiled. I had forgotten about the Great Sleep-out, as it had become known.
“That smile. That’s what I’m talking about. I got grounded for a week, and Gina did, too, when our parents learned we had lied to them about where we were. I told my parents I was sleeping over at Gina’s and she told her parents she was sleeping over at my house. We thought we had gotten away with it until our moms ran into each other at the grocery store.”
“Uh-oh!”
“Uh-oh is right. Cost me big time. And I always thought that Chloe would never do something like that. Guess I expected too much.”
I looked at her and shook my finger.
“I know. I know,” she said. “Don’t jump to any conclusions.”
“I have to admit,” I told her. “It’s times like these when I’m glad I don’t have kids, especially teenagers. I’m not sure my heart could handle it.”
Sue smiled at me. “Don’t sell yourself short, Tom. You would have made a great dad. Just look at how you are with Klondike.”
“He’s different. He’s a dog.”
“Well, don’t tell him that,” Sue laughed. “I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s human.”
It was great to see a smile on Sue’s face, but it didn’t hang around for long. I turned into the hospital and the smile sprinted away.
I dropped Sue off at the emergency room doors. “I’ll park the car and meet you inside.”
***
Sue
The nurse led me to the bay Chloe was in, and when I pulled back the curtain, she burst into tears. Her hand was bandaged.
“Mom, I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I did something so stupid.”
I hugged her and brush her hair back off her face. “What happened?”
“I wanted vanilla ice cream, but we didn’t have any. We did have ice cream sandwiches, so I decided to cut off the chocolate wafers, only when I went to do it, the knife slipped and went into my thumb. Blood was spurting everywhere and it looked deep, so I wrapped it in a tea towel and called Rob and he came right over. Did you see him in the waiting room when you came in?”
I shook my head. I was so relieved that Chloe was okay. “You do know that most people like the chocolate wafer, right?”
My comment was meant to make Chloe laugh but she started crying again.
“Mom,” she said. “There’s something else.”
The curtain peeled back and in walked a tall woman with squinty eyes. A stethoscope hugged her narrow neck. “Ready to get those stitches, Chloe?”
The doctor saw me and I held out my hand. “I’m Sue, Chloe’s mother.”
“I’m Dr. Morgan. I’ll be stitching Chloe’s thumb.”
“Bet you never saw this before?” Chloe said.
Dr. Morgan smiled. “You’re right. But I’ve seen a lot of bagel cuts. People hold the bagel in one hand while cutting it and the knife slices their palm.”
Chloe squinted. “Ouch.”
“But a cut from trying to remove the chocolate cookie from an ice cream sandwich?” Dr. Morgan said. “That’s definitely a new one for the books.”
“Chloe,” I said. “I’m going to step out. Let Tom and Aunt Gina know what’s going on. I’ll be right back, okay?”
***
Tom
Gina saw me as soon as she walked into the emergency room. We sat next to a boy who was playing a game on his cellphone.
“That’s all you know?” Gina asked. “Who’s Rob, anyway?”
I saw the gangly teen sit up straight and rub his neck. “Are you Rob?” I asked. “Are you the one who brought Chloe in?”
He nodded.
“So what exactly happened?”
Rob told us how Chloe cut herself and that she had called him because he was the closest.
“Well, thank you for bringing her in,” Gina said. “I appreciate that.”
I stood up and waved. “There’s Sue now.”
Sue came over and hugged Gina and me. “Chloe’s going to be okay. Doctor says she’ll need about eight stitches.”
I nodded to Rob. “Rob here was just telling us what happened.”
“Hi, Rob,” Sue said. “Thanks for bringing Chloe in. She’s going to be fine, like I said. There’s no need for you to wait. We’ll take her home.”
“Are you sure? ‘Cause I can stay.”
“I’m sure. Thank you for all you did, though.”
“No problem.”
Rob left and I looked at Sue. “Guess things weren’t exactly as they appeared to be.”
Sue smiled. “But I still have to deal with Chloe and her lying about being with Robin.”
“What?” Gina said. “She wasn’t with Robin?”
“I think she was with Rob,” Sue said. “And that’s a talk I plan to have with her later.”
Sue left to go back in with Chloe and I told Gina that I would take them home.
“So did you and Sue get everything talked out?” Gina asked.
“Not quite. Chloe called and we never finished. But our talk was going well.”
“Good,” Gina said. “Sue was really upset. I filled in the blanks and that seemed to calm her a bit.”
“Thanks, Gina. When are you heading back to Florida?”
“Tomorrow morning. Early flight. I should be back in a couple weeks, though. Still working through the transition. I thought I’d be able to see some of my cases through, but I can see that that’s not going to work.”
Sue and Tom (The Yearbook Series Book 2) Page 11
