Familiar Ground

by Michelle Lynn

  Copyright ©2014 by Michelle Lynn

  All Rights Reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in whole or in part by any means.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events portrayed in this book are the product of the author’s imagination or are either fictitious or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Editor: Book Peddler’s Editing

  Cover photo: ©Shutterstock.com

  Cover Design: by Sommer Stein with Perfect Pear Creative Covers

  Interior Design and Formatting: by Perfectly Publishable

  To my incredibly caring parents whose love for

  their children has no bounds.

  Good memories

  Long forgotten

  Good laughs

  So long…ago

  Call me for bail

  Call me for a lawyer

  Call me for wants

  Call me to chat…never

  Take my money

  Take my car

  Take my faith

  Take my love…always

  Missing cash

  Missing jewelry

  Missing good times

  Missing you…forever

  I can’t help but think it’s Cassi’s doing that the sun shines down on such a crap filled day. Watching my mom’s tears fall down her cheeks while my dad holds her close to his chest, I’m thankful they at least have each other. I stand two feet away, dressed in the only black suit and presentable tie I own. The brown box, bearing a spray of pink flowers is slowly being lowered into the ground. A mixture of relief and sorrow begin to conflict inside of me, but no tears escape my eyes. There’s probably still too much rage lingering above the grief to allow them to break through.

  Then my eyes land on the man who called the wake of fury to the surface. That night will never leave my mind until the day I join Cassi in the ground.

  I was asleep after a grueling twelve-hour workday when my phone starts ringing. Startled awake I glance down at my phone. Cassi’s name flashes across the screen. I contemplate not answering it, since more than likely she just wants some money. This was an all-time low for her to call me at two in the morning. Knowing if I don’t answer and find out what’s wrong, I’ll lay awake all night wondering what she did in order to get the money I answer the call.

  “Hello,” I say, placing the phone to my ear.

  “Um… Adam?” A man’s voice comes over the line, and I bolt up in bed.

  “Yeah, who’s this?” Possibilities stream through my mind. The police, a drug dealer, or maybe just some random guy who found her dead in an alleyway.

  “My name is Shane Thomas. I’m Cassi’s boyfriend.” His shaking voice sounds terrified.

  “All right. Where’s Cassi?” I question, already shrugging on my jeans, getting ready to go.

  “That’s why I’m calling…” He hesitates, and I prompt him to continue.

  “Where?” I demand.

  “Cook County Hospital.” I slip my bare feet in my gym shoes, grabbing my jacket and keys.

  “I’m on my way,” I inform him, locking up my apartment door. “Emergency?”

  “No, um…”

  “Okay, give me the room number,” I impatiently instruct. How high is this guy that he can’t even remember where she is?

  “I’m really sorry. The morgue,” he finally reveals, and the phone drops out of my hand, cascading through the air until it lands with a thud onto the floor.

  Twenty minutes later, I walk with a steady pace through the Emergency Room’s sliding doors. Passing a waiting room full of people to a very overworked nurse I ask for directions. She guides me where I need to go, and I mindlessly follow. My heart races, and my hands shake. Please, tell me this is some form of mistaken identity or some cruel joke, anything but that my worst fear is now my reality.

  Ten hallways and two elevators later, a big black sign glaringly declares I’ve reached my destination. The way the words make me wince, it’s like it’s lit up in neon lights. I’m just about to cross the threshold of death when I catch sight of a guy standing up by the lone bench in the hallway. The way the blond haired guy is walking my way, I’m pretty sure he’s the guy who called me.

  “Adam?” he asks, and I take in his whole appearance. Worn jeans and t-shirt, dirty shoes. Hair way outgrown, but doesn’t scream low life druggie. Trust me, I’ve seen the type.

  “Yeah,” I say, not even offering my hand. “Shane?”

  “Yeah.” He rocks back on his heels, and my eyes dart to the entrance. “I guess we should go in.” He walks in front of me, and I follow.

  A friendly tech dressed in lime-green scrubs printed with cheerful, smiling aliens escorts us into a stale room, empty except for the metal table in the center. That’s her body under the sheet, lying on top of a cold slab of metal. The employee goes about his daily job responsibilities and places his hands on either side of the sheet. My feet are itching to flee. Maybe if I don’t see her, she isn’t really there, and it didn’t happen. I can go back to my apartment and curl into my bed, thinking that she’s still alive out there somewhere. But I stay put, leaving a safe distance between me and the outward shell of her former self.

  The tech lowers the white fabric just past her shoulders, and my body begs me to let it crumble. Her eye sockets are sunken in, and her body is pasty white. The biggest thing I notice is, how at peace she appears. Like some sleeping angel that didn’t live an out of control life. “Is this your sister, sir?” the deep voice asks, and I nod my head.

  “That’s—her,” I stutter. Shane goes closer, pulling her hand out from under the sheet and holding it with his own.

  He kisses the back of her hand, and I have my answer to what killed her. The needle marks up and down her arm. She got into heroine, and with that discovery my blood pumps through my veins full of red hot rage. As mad as I am, I see how much Shane must have loved her, considering the amount of tears falling from his eyes onto the linoleum floor. The tech leaves us, and I actually step back a few feet to give him alone time with her. Eventually, he falls to his knees as sobs ricochet off the bare walls. The urge to comfort him too much to hold back, I walk up and place my hand on his shoulder. His body jerks, and he looks up to me as though he was lost in memories and forgot where he was. After a few minutes go by, he slowly rises to his feet. “I’ll always love you,” he whispers and kisses her on the cheek before he turns around and walks out of the room.

  My eyes follow his back until it disappears through the doors, then they gradually come back to her body in front of me. So close I could touch her. A million questions swarm around my brain. Do I call my parents? This could kill my mom seeing her like this. They should be able to say good-bye. “Oh, Cassi.” I exhale a deep breath, pushing every prick of tears I feel behind my eyes back, so I don’t fall apart. “Bye, baby sister. I’ll see you again. I love you.” I bend down and kiss her forehead. Not being able to be in that room of death any longer, I make my own escape into the hallway.

  His gaze finds mine, and although I see his apologetic eyes, it does nothing to help me heal. I know Cassi’s death isn’t his fault; it was her choice to do the drugs. Well, not exactly. If blame is to be placed, the finger should probably be pointing in my direction. I’m removed from my guilty conscience when my mom grips my arm and pulls us into a family hug. She sobs between my dad and me, not containing her feelings in the slightest. When she releases us, we find Shane walking down the grassy slope.

  We thought that would be the last time we’d have any contact with Shane, but he calls me several days later to give me news that might just lift the canopy of death shrouding
my family. That a piece of Cassi was left behind—a niece I never knew existed.

  My hand smacks the snooze button on my alarm clock, and I roll over, attempting for a couple more precious minutes of sleep. Seven minutes later, I hit the snooze again. Fourteen minutes later, my hand slams down on it a third time. After twenty-one minutes my blurry eyes squint to make out the glowing blue digits, and I scream, “OH SHIT!” I swing my arm around, slapping the six foot-three inch, two hundred and twenty pound rock sprawled under my covers.

  “Get up, you have to get out.” I kick him in the side with my foot.

  “Jesus, Leah, give me a second.” He clears his throat while rolling over to the other side of the bed.

  “Shh—I don’t want her to hear you. Seriously, you have to disappear before she wakes up,” I say in a panicked voice, placing both hands on his muscular bicep, shaking him back and forth.

  “Leah, this is ridiculous. What does it matter that I spend the night?” he asks, sitting up and leaning against the black wire headboard.

  “The poor girl has enough going on right now than to see you in my bed. Please, Jason just get up,” I plead.

  “Okay, okay. You don’t plan on doing this for the whole time, do you?” He places his large feet on my wooden floors, finally standing up.

  “Oh God, JASON! Put your boxers on,” I shout before putting my own hand over my mouth. With all this commotion, I’ll be the one who wakes her up.

  Jason laughs looking down. “Oh yeah…sorry.” He chuckles.

  “I guess when I agreed to do this, I didn’t realize how much my life might change.” I knot the belt of my blue terrycloth robe tighter around my waist.

  “I told you. You should’ve said no. Right now we could be alone and naked.” He starts fiddling with the belt on my robe.

  “I’m sorry, Jason. It’s only a few weeks. Maybe I can get my grandma to come down for a night.” I push him away with my hand while securing my belt again.

  “What about tonight? Everyone is meeting at Rumors,” he asks, zipping up his dark jeans.

  “Jason, you know I don’t have anyone to watch her. Plus, I want her life to start becoming as normal as possible. She deserves that after the hell they put her through,” I reply, sitting on the edge of the bed.

  “You don’t owe him anything. He’s made your life hell. You deserve to have a normal life too.” Jason pulls his thermal over his head and pushes his sleeves up, exposing his strong forearms.

  “My life will go back to normal once he gets himself better.”

  “I don’t understand you, Leah. Last year you swore him off and told him to never contact you again.”

  “Things changed,” I respond, starting to become irritated with his impatience at this unusual situation.

  “What about her grandparents or that uncle…why can’t they take her full-time?” he questions, waving his hand in the air. He’s just like his father, all political, as though someone is always filming him.

  “He gave me temporary custody, he asked me to take care of her while he takes care of himself, and I agreed,” I say curtly, trying to put finality to this conversation that is none of his business.

  “Well, I don’t remember being asked to have my life turned upside down because the two of them screwed their own life up.” His irritated voice evident while he stands in front of me with his hands on his hips.

  I look up from the floor and meet his angry brown eyes. “That’s because he is my brother, and she is my niece. If your life can’t be interrupted, then by all means…” I spat, the insinuation of where he can go clear. He quickly falls down on his knees, placing his hands on my hips.

  “Oh, baby, that’s not what I meant. I just hate all the crap he continues to throw at you, and now he leaves you with his daughter to take care of, knowing everything else you have on your plate.” His hands cup either side of my face.

  “I know, but she’s three, Jason. I am doing this for her, not him.” My emerald green eyes stare at his now relaxed dark ones.

  “I know, I know. That’s why I love you, your heart is so big—maybe too big at times.” His lips touch mine, and he instantly pushes me down on the bed, climbing on top of me.

  The kiss quickly goes from slow and steady to urgent and demanding. Jason leisurely opens my robe, and it falls to my sides. His hand moves across my bare stomach to my breast in point zero one second, firmly cupping it while his lips travel down my jaw to my neck.

  “Stop, Jason.” I push him off me and stand up to tie my robe around my body again.

  “Leah, in a few weeks…” he drops off the end of his statement, leading me to probe for the rest of what he is thinking.

  “Yes?”

  “I don’t want to hear stop, get out, or leave,” he says, standing up to kiss me good-bye.

  “What about get up?” I smirk.

  “Believe me, you won’t have to say those two words together.” Jason laughs and wraps me in a big bear hug.

  I quietly open my bedroom door, walking past the two doors to my left. A blast of cold, fall air hits me when I open the front door.

  “Bye, baby. Love you.” I give Jason a chaste kiss on the lips.

  “Bye. See you tomorrow.” He winks at me and walks down my front steps, when he reaches the bottom he looks back and waves one last time.

  “Aunt Leah?”

  A small voice says from down the hall. When I turn around, I find the little blonde, curly haired girl rubbing her warm brown eyes as she walks toward me in her pink princess nightgown. Her hair sticks out in a zillion directions, entwined together, resembling a bird’s nest. The result, from what I assume, of going to sleep with her hair wet last night. The tan that her olive skin tone soaked in this past summer has begun to fade.

  “Hey, honey.” I shut the door and fasten the three locks my brother was insistent on getting installed before he left her with me. I kneel down to give her a hug.

  “I peed in my bed,” the little girl softly admits, staring down at her feet.

  “Oh, that’s okay,” I assure her and wrap my arms around her small body.

  “Really?” she asks with wide eyes.

  “Of course, let’s get you cleaned up.” I lead her by her tiny hand down the hall. I can’t help but wonder why she would be upset to tell me she peed in her bed. She looked almost ashamed, staring at her feet like she just lied to me. I was telling the truth when I told Jason I was doing this for her. She needs a constant in her life, someone she can count on no matter what her future brings. It didn’t bother me that my life was no longer mine, that now on top of my school schedule and teaching, I had to make room for a three-year-old. I wouldn’t make this work for anybody else but her, solely her.

  We walk into my guest bedroom, recently turned Dani’s room, at least for the next thirty days. There’s a futon pulled out with a nightstand and matching dresser up against one wall. The small window’s blinds are shut, since they only look out to the neighboring brick building; the beauty of living in the city. Her small suitcase is tucked in a corner on the floor. It’s open with all her clothes and the few toys she owns neatly stacked inside. Since she showed up with hardly any warm clothes, I’ll be going shopping this weekend. Maybe I could get some wall decals of princesses and flowers for her to put up. Even though her stay is limited, I want her to feel as comfortable as possible.

  “Okay, Dani, let’s get you out of these wet clothes.” I grab the hem of her nightgown and bring it up over her head and then pull down her blue Hanes underwear.

  “Sorry, Auntie Leah,” Dani whispers.

  “Hey, no need to be sorry, it happens.”

  “I want to be a big girl,” she pouts.

  “You are! Even big girls have accidents,” I exclaim.

  “Really?” she asks, her voice surprised.

  “Really,” I assure her. “Now, let’s get you in the bath and ready for daycare.”

  Man, how my relaxing mornings have changed. I scramble around, getting Dani bathe
d and dressed in a nice pink dress and striped leggings that I found in her suitcase. Luckily, there’s a matching sweatshirt to go along with it, so she won’t get cold. After digging in her suitcase more, the need for shopping is a greater necessity than I thought. Handing Dani a bowl of the sugary cereal I bought the day after her arrival, I sit her down in front of the television to watch some kids show in two different languages. I don’t quite understand it, but she can’t tear her attention away, so I’m sold on it too. Having her content and occupied, I escape into my bedroom to finally get myself ready.

  Taking the shortest shower of my life, I shampoo my long hair, barely rinsing all the conditioner out. I soap up my body in record time, rinse, and turn off the water. I quickly dry off, wrapping the towel around my body and peek down the hall to find Dani still intently watching the show. Scurrying, I dress in my skinny jeans with a big brown sweater and brown boots. I pull my hair up away from my face in a tight bun. Brushing a few swipes of mascara on and some blush on my cheeks, I grab my bag and venture back out to the kitchen, already breathless from all the running around. Tossing my peppermint tea K-cup in my Keurig maker, I throw an ice cube in my to-go cup, and grab my keys off the counter.

  “Dani, honey, are you ready?” I grab the empty bowl of cereal, tossing it in the sink with our silverware from last night’s take-out.

  “Yep.” She hops up, taking her princess backpack from my hands.

  “Let’s hit it then.” I pick up the remote and turn off the television, motion for Dani to head out the door.

  We walk the few blocks down the road before coming upon a gated daycare facility. The small sign on the black iron fence reads Kiddie Camp, as though written in crayon with a bunch of kids drawn on the bottom. I hit the small black button, and we’re buzzed in after giving our names to whoever is on the other side.

  I’d found this daycare the day after my brother asked me to watch Dani while he got himself better. It’s close to the dance studio I teach three days a week, so I’d be able to pick up Dani and take her to the studio with me. Since my boss had been a good friend of my mother’s, she’s more than fine with it. Which reminded me I would have to get Dani some crayons and paper before tomorrow. She’ll need something to keep her busy while waiting for me.