by Claire Adams
"Don't worry," I said. "I'll make sure I'm getting enough rest and eating well."
"You better," she said, and then she kissed me. "I care about you very much, you know."
My phone rang as I was leaning in to kiss her. I got it out and saw that it was the hospital.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Mr. James. Dr. Alvarado has recommended that your daughter be discharged, so you can come pick her up now if you're able to."
I smiled. "I'll be right over. Thanks."
Vivienne looked at me with a hopeful glint in her eyes.
"Good news?"
"Excellent news. Jane can come home."
She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly.
"Finally! You must be so excited! Well, come on, let's go pick her up right now. And we can watch a movie with her when she gets back. If you'd like to, of course."
"I would like that," I chuckled. "I think you're more excited than I am. But she can come tomorrow. I’m going to settle into my usual chair here by her bed and I’ll call you in the morning."
***
We pulled into my driveway, and Jane's face lit up, beaming a huge smile. "Daddy! We're home! We're home!" She was still sick but was much better than she had been.
Vivienne was waiting for us on the front steps when we got out of the truck. It was wonderful to see her so happy, and from the broad, warm smile on Vivienne's face, I could tell she was feeling the same thing.
"Yes," she said to Jane. "Welcome home! Are you happy?"
"Very, very, very, very happy!" exclaimed Jane, still gushing with joy. "I don't like the hospital. I don't want to go there. I want to stay home! I like home!"
Vivienne hugged her. "Don't worry, sweetheart," she said in a soft, reassuring tone. "You won't be going back there. You'll be staying at home."
"Will you stay here, too, Vivienne?" asked Jane.
Vivienne and I exchanged a glance, and we both smiled.
"I will tonight if it’s okay with your dad," she said.
"And tomorrow night?" asked Jane excitedly. "Can we have ice cream? And will you stay here again?"
Vivienne laughed warmly. "Well, maybe! We'll see. Now come on, let's go inside. You want to watch a movie, don't you?"
"Yeah! I wanna see a movie!"
Vivienne turned to me. "I'll take her in while you put your truck away."
"Thank you," I said, handing her the spare house keys.
She leaned across and gave me a quick peck on the lips, and then picked Jane up and took her to the side door.
Things felt like they were finally falling into place. I parked the truck and killed the motor. As I was about to grab Jane's bag and get out, my phone buzzed with an incoming text.
It was from an unknown number, so I opened the message and started to read.
"Hi, Ev. It was great to see you again yesterday. Ever since I saw you, I haven't been able to get you off my mind. I hope we can see each other again soon. Really, really soon, actually. XXX – Liza."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Vivienne
“Have you ever seen The Little Mermaid, Jane?” I asked as I settled her on the couch with a blanket.
“What's a mermaid?” she asked, looking perplexed.
I chuckled. “I guess that's a 'no,' then. Well, sweetie, a mermaid is like a fish, but also like a girl. She lives in the ocean.”
“She likes swimming?”
“Yes, she does. She spends her whole life swimming under the sea.”
“Ooh! I like swimming, too! I wanna be a mermaid,” she announced.
I laughed and gave her a hug. “You'd make a lovely mermaid, Jane. Well, since I've told you what a mermaid is, would you like to watch a movie about one?”
“Is the mermaid pretty like you?”
I laughed. “You're such a lil' sweetie, aren't you? Thank you for the compliment. Yes, the mermaid in the movie is pretty, very pretty.”
“Yeah! I wanna watch it! Let's watch The Little Mermaid.”
“Just to be courteous, we'll see what your daddy says about it.”
“Daddy always lets me watch whatever movies I wanna watch. He'll say yes, I just know he will.”
“I think if you and I both ask him very nicely ... then yeah, he'll say yes.”
Just then Everett came into the room. I saw immediately from the expression on his face that something was bothering him, but as soon as he saw us, it seemed that he did his best to put on a big smile. I could see, however, the worry lurking behind his eyes. Still, it seemed that at this moment he didn't want to discuss it, so I didn't push it.
“Here's your medicine, sweet pea,” he said to Jane and knelt down next to her with a spoonful of medicine. “I don't know how it's gonna taste, but you have to have it, alright? You can have a piece of chocolate after you have it. So, open wide, and drink all of it, okay?”
Jane nodded, and he gave her the spoonful of medicine, which she swallowed without complaint.
“Good girl,” he said, and he handed her the chocolate, which she took with a smile and popped into her mouth.
“The medicine was a little yucky,” she remarked. “But this chocolate is very yummy!”
He ruffled her hair playfully. “Have we reached a consensus about what we're going to watch?” he asked.
“Well, both of us agree The Little Mermaid would be an ideal choice,” I commented.
He laughed. “Alright, alright, I'm sure we can find that on the smart TV.”
“Yay!” exclaimed Jane. “We're gonna watch The Little Mermaid!”
“Since when do you know what The Little Mermaid is, sweet pea?” Everett asked, looking amused.
“Vivienne told me all about mermaids, Daddy! They're real pretty, they live under the sea, and they're like girls and like fish! I wanna be a mermaid!”
He looked at me, and a deep affection glowed with warmth in his eyes.
“Looks like you're a good influence on this one,” he said to me.
“I try,” I replied with a smile. “But you only need to go look in a mirror to see where the best influence in her life is coming from.”
He smiled at me.
“I try, too,” he said. “Come on, I got some chips and soda, let's settle down and enjoy the movie.”
TWO HOURS LATER
“How much of the movie do you think she saw?” I asked.
“Maybe half. Then it was lights out. Come on, let's put her to bed. She's still running a bit of a temperature, and the doctor said she's going to need a lot of rest.”
He picked up the sleeping form of Jane and gently carried her to her room. I trailed behind them and watched as he lovingly slipped her under the covers, pulled them up over her, and then gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead.
“Good night sweet pea,” he whispered. After that, he tiptoed out of the room and took my hand.
“I don't know about you,” he said as he pushed the door gently shut. “But I don't quite feel ready for bed just yet. It's only 7:30.”
I kissed him and smiled.
“Well, I'm feeling a little peckish. Why don't we order a pizza or something, and maybe watch an adult movie?”
“Oh, kinky huh?” he joked. “I didn't know you were into that kind of stuff!”
I jabbed him playfully in the ribs.
“I'm not!” I exclaimed. “Come on, you know what I meant!”
“I know, I know,” he said with a laugh. “You know I'm just teasing. Alright well, I'll order a pizza, and you go look through the latest releases to see if there's anything worth watching. Oh, um, any preference regarding what kind of pizza you'd like? I don't eat pizza that often, and when I do I'm not real fussy about the toppings.”
“Hmm, well I always do enjoy a good Hawaiian.”
“Pineapple on pizza, huh?” he said with a grin. “Good choice. I'll go place the order, you see if there's anything worth watching.”
I went back to the living room, but before I sat down on the sofa, I pulled the drapes
back a little and peered out of the window, looking across the street at my house. I shuddered, and a cold jolt of fear rippled through me as I thought of what had happened earlier with Simon. That was the closest he had come to physically getting to me in a very long time, and the thought of what he could have done to me had the cops not showed up terrified me.
It also depressed the hell out of me. I had gone through so much trouble to be free of him—uprooting my life, cutting my ties with the past, moving hundreds of miles away, going through all the bureaucratic hassles of legally changing my name and getting a whole set of new official documents. And after all of that, he still found me. What had I done to deserve this? And would I ever, ever be truly free, or would I have to spend the rest of my life running and hiding, looking over my shoulder all the time and sleeping with one eye open?
This last thought was really crushing, and I almost broke down and started weeping right there and then, but I summoned up all the strength and willpower inside of me to do my best to hold everything together. I had to be strong now, not just for me but for Everett. He had an immense amount of pressure on him right now, and he didn't need me to add to all of that.
“Hey,” said Everett, interrupting my thoughts. “The pizza has been ordered. Did you find anything to watch yet?”
“No, to be honest, I haven't even looked at what's available.”
“Ah. Something on your mind?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, since you're standing by the window there looking out, I imagine I know what it is.”
He walked over to me and put his arms around me, giving me a warm, reassuring hug.
“I know that you must be scared. I mean, who wouldn't be?”
“It's not just that,” I said. “It's the fact that... That I'm stuck, that I'm like a prisoner now. I have to look over my shoulder, I have to worry all the time about where he is, whether he's about to pounce. It's horrible Everett, it really is. I can't live like this.”
He squeezed me tightly.
“I know it is, and I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Nobody deserves this, nobody. But rest assured, I won't let that creep get within a hundred yards of you.”
“I know that, but you can't be around me 24-7, Everett. And even if you could, I would want my independence anyway. But that psycho, that evil asshole, he's robbed me of that!”
Again, I felt like crying, but Everett stroked my head gently and hugged me, and I drew strength from him and managed to keep myself together.
“He'll eventually get caught, you know. I don't know how he wiggled his way out of a jail sentence before, but now he's committed a serious crime. Breaking and entering with the intention to do someone harm is not something that the courts will take lightly. And on top of that, he was breaking a restraining order, multiple times – Mrs. Dobbins will surely testify that she's seen him hanging around your house a few times. And he can be tied to the break-in and threatening message left at your daycare. When all of that is added up, he'll be looking at some serious prison time.”
“I just hope they can catch him. I really hope they can.”
“He's going to slip up eventually. They always do.”
“I just hope that it's soon. Like I said, I can't go on like this. I really can't.”
“Come, let's not dwell on this too much. Let's go sit down and scroll through things to watch. It'll be a good distraction to get your mind off all this stuff.”
I nodded and took his hand, and then we went over to the sofa and sat and scrolled through Netflix's offerings.
“Oh, there's that movie The Hurt Locker,” I said as the image for the film came up. “About the war in Iraq. It won a few awards, didn't it?”
A strange expression immediately came over Everett's face. This time, though, I didn't let it slide.
“And I can see that any mention of war makes you clam up and get all weird,” I continued. “You don't have to talk about it if you really don't want to, but... Don't you think that you and I know each other well enough now to talk about this? I mean, how much longer do you intend to keep me in the dark about your past? If we are going to give this a go, don't you think I deserve to know these things?”
Something inside me felt really worked up all of a sudden. Maybe it was all the worry and fear about Simon and everything else that had happened recently coming to a head.
Everett looked at me and sighed. “Yeah. You're absolutely right,” he conceded. “You do deserve to know. Well, here it is – the 'doctor' who helped me, Jimmy, he's a buddy of mine from a very different time. The time when I was a Navy SEAL.”
My eyebrows raised in surprise. I hadn’t seen that coming at all. “Wait, what?! You were a Navy SEAL?”
He nodded. “I was, yeah.”
“Wow. Okay. So many things make sense now.”
“I know. It's pretty crazy when you think about it. I mean, here I am, principal of a high school, it's about the farthest thing from what I used to do that I could imagine.”
“And what made you want to be a Navy SEAL in the first place?” I questioned.
“Well, there was this girl.”
I smiled warmly. “It’s always a girl,” I said trying to lighten the weight of his words.
“Isn’t it?” he said with a slight smile. “Thing is, the relationship we had, it really messed me up. Long story if I were to really get into it, but the short is, she was having a long-term affair behind my back, she was a real piece of work. And when I found out, I just had all this anger and these feelings of betrayal inside that I didn’t know what to do with it all. I had always been someone who had lived for adrenaline rushes, and pushing myself to the absolute limits, so I guess I wanted to do something that would really push me to the absolute limits. And somehow I ended up in a recruiter’s office and eventually signed up to be a Navy SEAL.”
“And then... and then you were sent to Iraq.”
He nodded. “That's right. And I... when I was there, I saw things, things you can't imagine. Things you can’t forget. It's worse than any of these movies show. Way worse. And I lost so many good friends there. Good, good men who died too young, whose lives were cut far too short.”
I squeezed his hand. “I'm happy that you made it back. And I'm sorry you had to go through such a terrible, terrible experience.”
“Thank you,” he said. “You know, no matter how many medals or honors I won for my actions there, it wasn’t enough to mask the experience.”
“You were decorated?”
“Yeah. I keep 'em all in a drawer, hidden away. I moved on from that part of my life, and want to keep it in the past. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but love for my country and my brothers in arms, but my SEAL days are over.”
“I understand. And I'm sorry if I seemed pushy about it,” I added.
“It's alright. I know why you asked. I shouldn't have kept it from you in the first place.”
“Well, now I know, at least, why you don't want to watch war movies. So, rest assured, I won't be suggesting things like that again anytime soon.”
“Thank you. I'm really glad that you're so understanding about all of this.”
I looked into his eyes and then kissed him slowly and deeply.
“Why wouldn't I be? You've been so very good to me, Everett. I'm so, so grateful to have a man like you in my life. Someone honest, someone good. Everything you've done for me... It really means a lot; it does, trust me on that.”
“Thank you. I really do appreciate that.”
“Well, let's put a movie on then,” I suggested.
“That sounds like a great idea.”
But before we could, Everett's phone started ringing. He looked at it and then turned to me.
“Sorry, I have to take this. Bad timing, I know, but it's important.”
“Hi, Ben... uh-huh... Seriously? Right now? Damn, alright... Yeah, I know it's serious. I'll be there right away.”
He put the phone down on the sofa, and I could see from the look on his
face that something serious was going on.
“Drug situation,” he said grimly. “I am so sorry, Viv. I have to go, right now. Do you mind keeping an eye on Janie while I’m gone?”
“Of course not. It's alright,” I said. “I know you have to do what you have to do.”
“Where did I put the truck keys,” he said like a rhetorical question. He placed his phone on the sofa next to me, and he got up and hurried to his bedroom to search for the keys.
His phone buzzed as a message came through. I glanced at it, curious, and as my eyes read the first part of the message, which was visible on the screen without me having to unlock the phone or even touch it, nausea started spreading like poison through my veins.
“Hi Everett, it's Liza again. I just wanted to say that I can't stop thinking about how amazing it felt when you put your arms around me this afternoon, and I've been longing for you…”
That was all I could see – but it was all I needed to see. Everett hurried back into the room, now holding the keys to his truck. He grabbed his phone and stuffed it into his pocket without noticing that there was a message on the screen.
He leaned down and kissed me sweetly and warmly. It was very convincing.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said, and he jogged out of the house.
I didn't reply; I simply stared blankly at the door as it closed in his wake and watched as even more pieces of my world began to shatter around me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Everett
As I jogged out of the house, I couldn't help but feel a strange mixture of emotions. I was kind of annoyed that I had to leave just as I was about to get comfortable and relax with Vivienne. It was an immense relief that I had finally opened up and gotten some things off my chest and told Vivienne the truth about my past. She had handled it with such compassion and care it only reinforced my feelings that she was the right woman for me.
And then, of course, there was the excitement about what Ben had just told me. William Stevens, one of those little punks who had been buying drugs when Kendrick had gotten shot, had been caught trying to sneak back into his house. Weirdly enough, his dad, that slovenly biker with the bad attitude, had been the one who had called us. I guess the news that his kid had been involved in a shooting had forced him to be a bit more proactive in the way he was bringing his son up.
