“Quit coming up with reasons why it won’t work between us.”
“What makes you think that’s what I’m doing?”
“Aren’t you? You’re frowning. And you keep looking at me funny.”
“You don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Mary Bliss said.
“Fine,” Matt said. “You’re a woman of mystery. I like that. In fact, I love it. It’s a major turn-on for me.”
“You’ve got to stop talking like that,” Mary Bliss ordered. “And stop looking at me that way too.”
His lips twitched. “What way?”
“Like you’ve seen me naked.”
“That’s asking too much. I’m gonna carry you naked around in my head for a long, long time. And there’s nothing either one of us can do about that.”
“We’ll be in Waycross pretty soon,” Mary Bliss said, blushing. “It’s going to be bad enough explaining to Erin why you’re with me. If she sees you looking at me like that, she’ll know.”
“I don’t mind her knowing,” Matt said. “I’m not ashamed of how I feel about you. Are you ashamed of me?”
Mary Bliss bit her lip. “It’s complicated. Right now, I need to concentrate on Erin. On fixing things between us.”
“And what about us? You and me?”
She sighed. “Just let me get my child out of jail. All right?”
72
The Ware County Jail was a squat, buff-colored concrete block box. Matt had called his deputy friend from the car. Her name was Olivia, and she was Hispanic, in her early thirties. She buzzed them back into the booking area, where she and Matt talked in low whispers, and then Olivia took her to a buff-colored visitor’s room, where Erin sat alone on a plastic chair, in a bright-orange jumpsuit. Her hair was dirty, matted to her head, and she needed a bath.
“Mama!” Erin jumped up. She looked so small, like a little girl.
Mary Bliss wrapped her arms around her daughter and held Erin tightly, afraid her little girl might turn back into the sullen teenager who’d stolen her credit card and run away from home just twenty-four hours earlier.
“I’m sorry, Mama,” Erin said, starting to weep.
“You better be,” Olivia said. She touched Erin gently on the shoulder. “Come on, now, let’s get you out of orange and into your own clothes.”
Matt was waiting in the lobby when they emerged, Erin dressed in the clean clothes Mary Bliss had brought her.
Erin scowled and looked from her mother to Matt, a question in her eyes.
“This is my friend, Matt Hayslip,” Mary Bliss said. “My car quit. Matt was driving me down to Key West to look for you when we got the word that you were here. He used to be in the GBI. He’s been a big help to me, tracking you down.”
“A big help,” Erin said, letting the words hang there. “Your friend.”
“Hi, Erin,” Matt said, extending his hand to shake Erin’s. She kept her fists clenched, at her side. “You had us pretty worried,” he said.
“I’m fine,” Erin said. “It’s no big deal.”
Mary Bliss put an arm around Erin’s shoulder. “It would be nice if you thanked Matt for bringing me to get you. So you didn’t have to take the Greyhound bus back home.”
Erin shrugged. “Whatever. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Matt said, ignoring Erin’s rudeness. “Olivia has to take a class in Atlanta this weekend. She’s offered to drive Erin’s Honda up for us, and she can catch a ride back with one of the other deputies. So Erin can ride back home with us. I’m guessing she’s pretty tired.”
“I can drive,” Erin said.
“No,” Mary Bliss said, surprised at the firmness in her own voice. “You’ll come back with us. You gave us a terrible scare. I don’t want you out of my sight for a while.”
Erin folded herself into the backseat of the Explorer and fell asleep almost immediately. She slept the whole way back to Atlanta, even while they stopped for lunch in Warner Robbins.
It was late afternoon by the time they pulled into Mary Bliss’s driveway in Fair Oaks. Mary Bliss saw a flicker of movement in her downstairs window and wondered, idly, if Parker might be waiting for them.
She turned to Matt, covered his hand with hers. “I’d better go in. We’ve got a lot to do.”
She leaned across the console and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Everything?” He smiled despite himself.
“All of it,” she said. “I’ll call you.”
“You better,” he said.
Mary Bliss shook Erin awake and walked her still-woozy daughter into the house and upstairs to her room. Someone, Katharine, she guessed, had straightened up. Erin tumbled into the bed without a word.
She found Josh Bowden downstairs, a look of anxiety on his face.
“She’s exhausted. She slept the whole way back,” Mary Bliss said. “We haven’t really had a chance to talk.”
“Tell her to call me,” Josh said. “As soon as she wakes up.”
“I will,” Mary Bliss promised. “Were there any phone calls for me?”
“Just Jessica,” Josh said. “No word from Mr. Mac.”
She gave him a quick hug. “You’ve been a good friend to her, Josh. And I’ll never forget that.”
She called Katharine, got her answering machine, and left a quick message. “We’re home. We’re all right. I’ll call you later.”
When Mary Bliss looked in on Erin two hours later, she found her daughter awake, flopped facedown on her unmade bed, listening to a country music CD.
Mary Bliss walked over to the stereo and turned the sound down. Erin sat up and frowned.
“I was listening to that,” she started.
“You can listen to it later,” Mary Bliss said. “We need to talk.”
“I don’t feel like talking,” Erin said, rolling over again. “There’s nothing to say.”
Mary Bliss sat down on the bed beside Erin. She ran her fingers through Erin’s fine brown hair. Touching her child seemed to help her find the words she needed.
“I’m sorry,” she started. “Sorry I lied to you. I was wrong. But I was scared, and I didn’t know what to do. I should have told you the truth. About Daddy. And me. I thought you were too young to understand, but I was wrong about that too. I underestimated you. You’re a young woman now.”
She felt her daughter’s shoulders shake, heard muffled sobs. Mary Bliss stroked Erin’s arm.
“You’ve made some mistakes, sweetie,” Mary Bliss continued. “I wish I could have talked to you about that, but we were both hurting. Instead of trying to help each other, we’ve just been at cross-purposes all summer. I wanted to help you, and all I’ve done is hurt you.”
“It’s not all your fault,” Erin said chokily, lifting her face from her pillow. “I was a bitch. Mama, I was awful to you. It was like I wanted to hurt you as bad as I could. I was mad at Daddy, but it was like, if I hurt you, I could get back at him.”
“I know,” Mary Bliss said, her voice even. “But that’s all done with now.”
“I know where he is,” Erin said, sniffing. She sat up, scrunched the pillow in her lap. Her face was red and tear-stained. “Mama, he’s down in Key West. Meemaw knew it all along. She kept telling me he wasn’t really dead. She even showed me postcards she said he sent her. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t want you to be a liar, but I didn’t want Daddy to be dead. She gave me his phone number. I talked to him. Only for a minute. He told me to be nice to you.” She sniffed loudly.
“Did he?” Mary Bliss got up and went to the bathroom and got a handful of tissues. She handed them to Erin. “Blow, baby.”
Erin blew her nose loudly.
“I wanted to go live with him,” Erin said. “At the beach. But Daddy said I couldn’t. He said there was no place for me to stay. I went anyway. I can’t go back to school, Mama. Isaac’s there. Everybody will know.”
Mary Bliss felt a familiar stabbing sensation in her rib cage at the mention of Isaac Brownlee’s
name. She took a deep breath.
“We’ll figure out what to do about Isaac. But running away from your problems won’t fix them.”
“I loved him,” Erin said tearily. “I loved him so much, Mama. I would have done anything he wanted. He said I was special. Not like anybody else. I told him about Daddy. He was the only one I could talk to. He treated me like a woman, not like a little kid.”
Mary Bliss took one of the tissues and dabbed at Erin’s chin. “He let you down, didn’t he? I could kill him. For what he did to you. A grown man. Sleeping with a teenager.”
Erin shook her head. “It wasn’t all his fault. I wanted to have sex. With him. It was my idea, to go down to Jekyll. Just the two of us. And then, I thought…I was late. And I was so scared. I kept calling him. I left messages on his cell phone. I called his house, but his wife kept answering, so I hung up. I even called him at school, in his office. He never would call me back. And I was so scared! One night, when I was supposed to be at Jessica’s, I slept in my car. Outside his house. And when he came out in the morning, I followed him. I followed him all the way to the soccer field, honking my horn at him, trying to get him to stop. I just wanted to talk to him. Finally, he pulled into this gas station. He got into my car, and he was so mad, he was shaking! He screamed at me, Mama! He said it was over, and I better stop bothering him. I told him I was late, and he was so mean. He said I was making it up, to try to get him back.”
She was sobbing now. “He said if I got pregnant, it was my own fault. He said it probably wasn’t even his kid! And then he said if I told anybody about us, he’d get me in real trouble. And then he left! He went to the beach. Josh called the school and asked, and they said he went to the beach with his wife.”
Mary Bliss wrapped her arms around Erin. Her whole body convulsed in sobs. “It hurts so much. I can’t stand it. I wanted to die. And then Meemaw told me where Daddy was. And I stole your credit card, Mama. I stole money from you too, out of your pocketbook. I’m sorry, Mama.”
“Hush,” Mary Bliss said, rocking her daughter back and forth. “Hush now. You were scared. Everybody you loved let you down. You didn’t know what else to do.”
“Not you,” Erin said, hiccuping loudly. “You tried to help me. But I wouldn’t listen.”
“Shh,” Mary Bliss said. “Stop crying now, can you? I need to tell you some things.”
Erin blew her nose again. She pushed her soggy hair out of her eyes. “I’ll be all right. What do you want to tell me?”
“It’s a lot,” Mary Bliss said. “Can you handle all this right now?”
“Sure. I thought I was pregnant and I wasn’t. I thought my dad was dead, and he’s really alive. My boyfriend dumped me, and I ran away and got arrested,” Erin said shakily. “I guess I can handle anything now.”
“All right,” Mary Bliss said. “Here it is. Meemaw died.”
Erin’s face crumpled. “What happened?”
“I don’t really know,” Mary Bliss admitted. “She’d gotten pretty sick in the last few weeks, you know. Her kidneys weren’t functioning properly. And then she got much worse Sunday. The doctors moved her to the hospital early in the morning. I’m so sorry, sweetie. She died Sunday morning.”
“Poor Meemaw,” Erin said. “I knew she was sick. Saturday night, I made her a martini, and then I got into bed with her and we watched Love Boat. And she kissed me. Meemaw hardly ever kissed me.”
“She hardly ever kissed anybody,” Mary Bliss said. “You were pretty special to her, you know. She was worried about you.”
“Do you think she knew she was gonna die?” Erin asked suddenly.
“Maybe,” Mary Bliss said. “Maybe that’s why she told you how to reach Daddy.”
“Daddy!” Erin exclaimed. “Poor Daddy. Do you think he knows about Meemaw?”
“He knows,” Mary Bliss said. “The nursing home called him to tell him she was going to the hospital. And the hospital notified him…later.”
“Where is he?” Erin asked. “Have you talked to him?”
Mary Bliss shrugged. “He called the house while I was gone, trying to catch up to you. Josh was here. Daddy told Josh to tell us Meemaw was dead. And that he was alive.”
Erin’s brown eyes searched her mother’s face. “What’s going to happen now? With you and Daddy? Will you be in trouble?”
Mary Bliss lay down on the bed beside her daughter and looked up at the ceiling.
“I don’t know what will happen,” she admitted. “Remember how scared you were when you thought you might be pregnant? That’s how scared I was when I found out Daddy was gone. He took all the money. We were so broke, and I was so scared and ashamed. I didn’t want anybody to know the truth. I was afraid we’d lose the house. And I couldn’t pay your tuition. And everything just seemed to pile up on top of me.”
“And I was being a bitch,” Erin added remorsefully.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Mary Bliss assured her. “I’m a grown-up. I’m supposed to be able to handle all this stuff. But I’d never been alone before. Ever. I didn’t know what to do. So I told a lie. And when that lie seemed to work, I told some more. And then I got so I couldn’t tell the truth. Not even to myself.”
“That’s the thing about lying,” Erin said. “The first time I lied to you, about staying late for soccer when I was really with Isaac, I was so scared, I threw up. But the next time, it was easy. And then it was easier to lie than it was to tell the truth.”
“We made a big mess of things, didn’t we?” Mary Bliss asked, reaching for her daughter’s hand.
Erin’s fingers curled around hers. “We screwed up. Big-time.”
73
The phone rang most of the day Wednesday. She let the answering machine pick up, or Katharine.
Erin slept until noon. When she came downstairs her face was pale and swollen. She wore an old soccer T-shirt over a pair of faded blue shorts and she was barefoot. She poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat at the kitchen table, staring at the cereal box.
“Has Daddy called?” she whispered.
Mary Bliss shot Katharine a panicky look.
“No, baby,” Katharine said, ruffling Erin’s hair. “But he’s probably had a lot to do, arranging the service for your grandmother.”
“Will he be there?” Erin asked. “Can I see him?”
“I hope he’ll be there,” Mary Bliss said. “He loved Meemaw very much. I’m sure he wants to be at her service. But your daddy’s in some serious trouble, Erin.”
Erin’s face clouded. “He is?”
“Business trouble,” Mary Bliss added. “He made some bad decisions and he broke the law. Some of his former clients are really angry with him. I don’t understand all of it, but I think that’s one reason he went away down to Florida, without telling anybody.”
“I thought he just hated us,” Erin said, propping an elbow on the table.
“No,” Mary Bliss said. “I don’t think he hates us.”
“Will he have to go to jail?”
“Honestly? I don’t know.”
Later in the afternoon, Katharine took Erin shopping for a dress to wear to Eula’s funeral. Soon afterward, Charlie arrived at the house with a briefcase full of papers.
“Have you talked to him?” Mary Bliss asked, seating Charlie in the den.
“I have,” Charlie said, his face grave. He didn’t have to ask to whom Mary Bliss referred. It was understood that they were talking about Parker McGowan.
“What’s going to happen?” she asked. “Now that he’s back? Have you talked to the insurance company people?”
“Nothing’s going to happen right away,” Charlie said. “You know I’ve been negotiating with the insurance people. They’re aware that you’ve withdrawn your claim on Parker’s life insurance. And I think they’re inclined to let the whole thing drop.”
“Really? That’s the best news I’ve had in weeks.”
“There’s some paperwork,” Charlie said, opening his briefcase and slidin
g out a sheaf of paper. He fanned the documents out on Parker’s desktop. There were yellow Post-it notes attached to all the documents. “They’re waivers,” Charlie explained. “You’ll be waiving your right to ever make a claim on those policies, in exchange for the company’s agreement not to prosecute you for fraud.”
She scribbled her name on every document he presented. Satisfied, he clipped the papers together and put them back in the briefcase.
Mary Bliss put her arms around Charlie’s neck and hugged him. “You’re a good old bear,” she told him.
“Stop,” Charlie protested. “You’ll ruin my reputation as a curmudgeon and a rake.”
“You were never a rake,” Mary Bliss said, straightening the collar on his golf shirt. “So, it’s all over?”
“For now,” Charlie said.
“What next?” Mary Bliss asked. “What do I do about Parker?”
Charlie looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I can’t advise you about Parker,” he said finally.
“Is he in town?”
“I believe so,” Charlie said. “I talked to him on the phone, but I haven’t seen him.”
“He’s afraid he’ll be arrested,” Mary Bliss said, guessing.
“That remains a distinct possibility,” Charlie agreed. “Matt Hayslip called me. He wanted me to set up a meeting with Parker.”
“Did you?”
“No,” Charlie said. “I respect that Matt has a job to do. But I’m not going to help him get one of my oldest friends arrested, and I told him that. Anyway, I’m not representing Parker.”
“So. The police are involved now?”
“I assume so,” Charlie said. “I’ve advised Parker to hire a criminal attorney. From what Matt’s told me, he’s going to need one.”
“Katharine says you made the funeral arrangements for Eula,” Mary Bliss said.
Charlie nodded. “She left very specific instructions on what she wanted. Right down to the Beefeater’s gin at the funeral luncheon.”
Mary Bliss gave him a funny look. “You talked to Eula?”
Little Bitty Lies Page 39
