3 Weeks Later
There was no way to prepare for a loved one’s death. As time passed and Earl became weaker and sicker, Thea felt herself fading as well. It was not just that Thea would lose Earl, but even more so the fact that the world wouldn’t be the same place without him. Earl had breathed life into so many people that Thea thought it a crime for him to die.
However, when the time came and the coroner laid the red velvet cover over her Paw Paw, Thea felt a sense of calm she hadn't in months. No longer was he suffering, and God-fearing man that Earl was, she knew for sure that he’d been reunited with the ones he loved who passed before him. After the wake and funeral, and the community had returned to their lives, Thea and Lex now sat in a near empty house packing Earl’s memories away.
“You’d think they’d give you more time to get out of here,” Lex called from the bathroom. It was the final room they’d planned to pack before heading back to the hotel.
Thea wrapped a picture frame and placed it into a box. Standing, she glanced around Earl’s bedroom one last time. It was hard not to imagine the pill bottles, respirator, and his hospice bed, all echoes of a sickness that took him away from her. No, cancer didn’t just sicken and destroy its host, but it also devastated loved ones, too. But Thea hadn’t allowed the cancer to take from her more than she was able to save. Her grandfather died, yes, but Thea still lived. She still had dreams and a life to live and she would do just that.
“They only gave us a week because there is an elderly gentleman ready to move in,” she called back. Another family was about to possibly go through what Thea had just endured, and while she felt sorry for them, as selfish as it was, she envied them a bit, too. There was still time for them to love him, but her time was long gone. She could just imagine her Paw Paw telling her how silly it was to feel that way and that a good girl wouldn’t be so selfish. Thea laughed inwardly as tears filled her eyes.
Lex entered the room with a box in hand. “Want to load this up?” Thea wasn’t sure what it was that had him dropping the box and making his way to her. Maybe it was that he felt her heart breaking again because it sure as hell ached as if someone had reached in and squeezed her heart in her chest. “Hey, baby. It’s okay.”
She looked up to him with tear-filled eyes. “I know. I just miss him again. It’ll happen every now and then.”
Leaning in, he kissed her. “Tears are okay, but if you feel yourself slipping into that dark hole, you come find me. I’ll always catch you and pull you back into the light.”
Thea smiled up at him. “Thank you, baby.”
“Do you want to head over to Paris today, still?” Swiping at a tear, Lex kissed the wet trail it left on her face.
“Yeah, we need to get it done so we can get into a place. The hotel is great, but I want to go home, Lex. With you.” Thea picked up the last box.
“Let’s do this then.” Leading her to the door, Lex grabbed his box and headed to the U-Haul they rented. After loading it up, he and Thea got into Earl’s old truck and headed to Paris, Kentucky.
Lex had passed through Paris on his way home to Blackwater. Though the area he and Thea were in now was similar to his dump of a hometown, Lex noted several differences. The first and most important was the amount of open and operating businesses. The second Lex pulled up to the shop and parked, Thea bounded from the truck.
Opening the door, Lex stepped out. “Damn, Thea. Get over here. This ain’t the damned park.”
Thea turned to him and met his eyes. “A park? What do you think is gonna happen?” She sauntered around the truck. “You expecting storm troopers to converge?” Thea rested against the truck. Both their heads swiveled around as a large man made his way from the shop and in their direction. The blond-haired giant’s eyes did a cursory glance at Thea and then aimed in on Lex as if sizing him up. Lex did the same thing. The man was at least six-four and his arms and what was visible of his chest were covered in aged ink. Lex covertly moved in front of Thea, and watched as knowing eyes met his. Whether Earl trusted this man or not was a non-issue when it came to Thea’s safety.
Wiping oil from his hands, the man lifted his chin in greeting. “You Lex and Thea?”
Thea quickly moved around Lex and shoved a hand in the man’s direction. “Yes! Before he passed, Earl told us to talk to you about a job for Lex.”
Lex grumbled under his breath. He didn’t know this man and wasn’t sure he even wanted to work as a mechanic.
Dark eyes met his woman. “I’d shake your hand, beautiful, but as you can see,” he lifted his oil-stained hands, “I wouldn’t want to get you all dirty.” Though his tone implied he was seriously worried about dirty hands, Lex could think of nothing other than this blond behemoth caressing his woman’s smooth skin. Breaking free of the nightmare that was Thea with any man other than himself, Lex reached out and took the hand Thea had extended to the stranger.
Threading his fingers through hers, Lex pulled her hand to his side. “Earl sent us to talk to you about the possibility,” he looked at Thea as he said the word, “of my employment here.”
Thea’s brows rose. “Possibility?” Her tone inferred Lex was about to hear all the reasons he needed to have gainful employment and a stable income. He knew all this to be true, but damned if he was going to let Thor over there know he was jobless and homeless. Hell, this dude owned his own business, had bought Earl’s old house, and as a favor was selling it back to Thea and Lex for less than what he’d bought it for. Lex felt about an inch tall right now. Saving him from having to reply, the tall, tatted man spoke.
“I’m Trent, and it’s hot as hell out here. Want to come into my office?” He turned without waiting for a response and headed toward the shop. Thea followed, pulling a reluctant Lex right along with her. Inside the shop—drowning amidst a desk covered in papers, and phone blinking with callers—sat a frazzled, dark chocolate skinned woman. In some sort of wrap around her chest and midsection, bundled up in a pink blanket was a small, pink cheeked, blonde-haired sleeping baby. One hand on the phone and the other patting the baby’s butt, the woman gave the group a panicked looked before schooling her features once her gaze met Trent’s. She offered him a cool, yet weary smile and returned to talking on the phone about what she called a catalog converter. Positive the woman knew nothing about cars, Lex opened his mouth to ask who she was and why she was at the phone when Trent introduced her.
“That’s my wife, Teal. She thinks she can work here and watch our baby at the same time.” Lex heard the hint of frustration in Trent’s voice, but saw the adoration in his eyes as he watched her struggle. “My secretary is out on maternity leave and she is taking over until I find a replacement for her.” Trent started walking again.
“Wow, she is pretty awesome if she is raising your daughter, working fulltime, and holding down the fort at home.” She offered the woman a wave and a comforting smile. Thea stopped and tapped the man on his shoulder. “Mr. Reed,” he turned to face her, “maybe I can help her out a bit while you two chat?”
He crossed his large arms over his chest and his expression went cold. “What do you know about—”
“I know that your wife is talking to someone about a catalog converter, and while that may exist somewhere in the world, it surely doesn’t exist in a vehicle. She meant catalytic converter, you know, the emissions control device that transforms toxic gases in exhaust gas to less toxic pollutants by modifying a redox reaction.” Thea pointed to the area his wife was drowning in. “Shall I go over there and convince that customer they didn’t call the wrong place, or what?”
Trent’s emotionless countenance didn’t change as he eyed Thea, but Lex patted Thea on the back. She was a smart damned woman and if this Trent wanted to ignore the help she could offer that was his problem. All it took was a lift of his chin in his wife’s direction, and Thea was off. Lex watched her go introduce herself and gently pull the phone from Teal’s hands. The weary woman looked over to Trent in relief as Thea expertly spoke w
ith the customer.
“My wife has a million qualities, but knows absolutely nothing about cars,” Trent confessed.
“Hell, I’m trying to figure out if there is anything my woman doesn’t know,” Lex admitted.
Trent chuckled. “If there is, and she is anything like my woman, she’ll never admit it. Follow me.”
Trent led Lex into a small, clean office and sat down behind his desk. Lex made himself comfortable on the threadbare sofa and waited. Earl’s admissions had surprised him. It seemed he’d been planning for Thea’s future without him even when he thought beating the cancer was a possibility.
“Old Earl called me a while back.” Trent placed his elbows on his desk and leaned in. “Sorry for your loss.”
Lex nodded, accepting the condolences.
“I owe that man far more than he has ever asked of me.”
Lex didn’t know what Earl had done for the man, but assumed from the fondness in Trent’s eyes as he spoke about Earl that the favor had been a good one.
“He was in love with my buddy’s Aunt Elma.” Trent looked away from Lex and to the wall.
Lex followed his gaze to a picture like the ones on Earl’s nightstand. This time, instead of Earl on the bike there was a woman. Bright smile and wide eyes bore up at Earl as he stood beside her peering down at her as if she were the love of his life. Lex had been gone so damned long that he didn’t recognize the woman as anyone he knew.
Trent stood and went to the photo. “That was about thirty some odd years ago.” Lifting it from the wall, he headed over to Lex and handed it to him.
“Thirty?” That was before Thea and Earl had entered Lex’s life on a permanent basis. Lex took in the photo. Earl with his slicked back hair, leather vest, and silver rings on every finger. The woman looked more reserved, as if she might have come from money, and was extremely young.
Trent thrust his hand through his hair. “Shit yeah. They were both engaged to other people at the time and she was just barely out of her teens, but Elma had been promised to some rich guy. Fuck, man. Can you imagine living in a time where you had to marry for family gain? I guess shit like that still happens, but hell, I’d off myself if I had to let my mother pick out my wife.” He shoved aside some papers on his desk and sat. “Earl told me he tried to get Elma to leave her fiancé and run away with him.” Trent knocked his hand against his desk. “Old hound dog. She denied him, and it damned near broke the man. Turns out she was pregnant, and since without her new fiancé she couldn’t support her child, she stayed with him. I get it, though, you know.”
Lex flipped the frame over. “Get what?”
“Loving someone the world is telling you to leave behind, yet being willing to give it all up for them.”
The emotion in Trent’s voice caught his attention and Lex glanced up at him as Trent gazed at his wedding band, reverently touching the black and silver band. Earl had a habit of taking broken people and helping them mend. Was Trent one of those men who owed his life and where he was today to Earl? Because that sure as hell would explain Trent owing Earl this huge debt. While Earl hadn't placed Lex’s name in his ledger, it sure as hell belonged there amongst men who’d needed guidance. He’d saved his life, taught him about emotions other than fear and hate, and introduced him to the woman he planned to spend the rest of his life with. He owed Earl the future he would share with Thea, a future Earl didn’t live to see. That hit Lex in the chest like a damned boulder.
Trent added, “And then along comes that little voice in your head, some like to call it your conscience while I like to call it the asshole, who tells me to do the right thing.”
The same voice had spoken to Lex as he boarded the bus ten years ago, only it had been begging him to stay. Even back then, Lex’s heart had belonged to Thea. Getting on that bus had taken all the courage and strength he’d possessed.
“That what happened with you and your wife?”
Trent shrugged a shoulder. “Something like that. I’m not sure what Earl told you about me. I’m guessing not much since you brought your woman here with you.”
Lex tensed. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Had he placed Thea in a dangerous situation? It didn’t seem like Earl, but it didn’t seem like him to have pull with a motorcycle gang either.
“Calm down, man.” Rising, Trent straightened his coveralls. “Earl respected my privacy, but you have to know he wouldn’t tell Thea to come here with you if I was a danger to her.”
Lex calmed a bit. “True, but want to explain that comment?”
Trent’s cell rang, and he pulled the phone from his pocket. “I was a liar and a fool.” He glanced at the screen.
“Shit, aren’t we all sometimes?”
“Some more than others.” Holding up a finger, Trent answered the phone and spoke lovingly to his wife. When he turned his back, Lex opened the back of the frame and read the inscription. There was no date written, just the names Elma Mae and Earl Clay. He knew that handwriting anywhere; it was the same neat scroll he’d seen in the ledger and the letter Earl had sent him.
“All right, baby. Love you, too.” Trent finished up on the phone with his wife. “You and me are the same to Earl, I guess.”
“How so?” he asked. Lex closed the picture up and handed it to Trent when he made his way around the desk and held his hand out for it.
Dropping his phone on his desk, he expelled a breath. “We both needed a push in the right direction.” Trent re-hung the picture on the wall. “I’m gonna tell you something not even my wife knows.” Lex’s shock must have been adamantly displayed on his face. “Yeah, I know. She should know this, but I am saving this news for a day she is royally pissed at me, sort of like a get out of jail free card.”
“Damn, must be a big one if it’ll stop her from kicking your ass.” Leaning back, Lex rested his head on the wall behind him. Trent and his office had a comforting atmosphere. The office was filled with secondhand furniture, and unpretentious family pictures adorned the old, chipped paneled walls. And then there was Trent—a man who bled and sweat to take care of his family. From his grimy hands to the reverence in his voice as he spoke about his wife gave voice to the honorable man Trent seemed to be.
Trent laughed. “Yeah, it’s how I found out my ex wasn’t really pregnant with my kid.”
“Oh yeah? What did he make her do? Take a pregnancy test?” Seems that would have been the easiest way.
“Nah.” He lifted his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Earl found the proof that she’d bought a few positive pregnancy tests online.”
“Well, damn. Resourceful little minx, wasn’t she?”
“She was something all right,” Trent muttered under his breath.
Lex wasn’t sure how much of his life he wanted to share with Trent, but if he planned to work for the man, he might as well get to know him.
Perhaps sensing Lex’s reluctance to talk, Trent spoke, “Don’t worry about spilling your guts to me, man.” Trent rustled around with papers on his desk until he found the one he was looking for and handed it to him.
“What’s this?” He reached for the paper.
There was laughter in his voice as he spoke. “This is to discuss the possibility of you working here.” The words ‘application for employment’ were scrawled across the paper in big black letters. With Thea’s idea to start a low-income clinic in Blackwater and their limited funds, Lex figured he’d need to pitch in as much as he could … shit, he couldn’t wait. He loved the idea of helping people who were once like himself and family, but more than that he couldn’t wait to start a life with Thea.
Lex grabbed a magazine and placed the application on top. Glancing at Trent, who had a shit-eating grin on his face, Lex asked, “Got a pen?”
Thea hung up the phone after setting up an appointment for another customer. Trent and Lex came from the office, and in Lex’s hand was a set of overalls. Trent’s wife had left for lunch after thanking her over and over and even inviting her and Lex to a birthday pa
rty for a man named Poe.
Thea stood and rushed to him. “You got the job, baby?” she squealed as she landed in his arms. Kissing his neck, she glanced over and winked at Trent. Offering her a soft smile, he wiggled a white envelope in his hands. “What’s that?” Releasing Lex, she moved around him and took the envelope offered to her.
Trent gave an unconcerned shrug. “Just something I owe Earl. He didn’t want it, and he said it goes to you now.”
Thea pulled the thick envelope from his hands. “He didn’t say anything about this. He just said you’d offer Lex a job and let us buy his old house—”
“At a reasonable rate,” Lex interrupted.
Thea playfully bumped Lex’s shoulder. “Anyway …” Peeling back the masking tape, she lifted the flap and peeked inside. “Oh my God.” Thea fumbled with the envelope, shock causing her to drop the thing. Hundreds, fifties, and twenty dollar bills fluttered to the ground and spilled onto the floor.
“Damn, baby!” Lex called as he knelt down and cleaned up the money. Thea didn’t make a move; frozen in disbelief, she stared at Trent who looked back at her like she had two heads.
“You okay?” he asked, taking a couple steps closer to her. Trent tentatively reached out and touched her shoulder. “Thea?” Thea shook out of the haze the sight of all that cash put her in.
“Um …” Lex stood up, stuffing the bills back into the envelope. “What is this for?” Taking her hand in his, Lex placed the money on her palm.
Trent groaned and scratched the back of his neck. “Back when the old owner nearly drank this place into the ground, Earl loaned me the money to get shit straight again. I told him I’d pay him back. Been waiting years to give him the money.”
“He wouldn’t take it?” Thea gripped the wad of cash firmly in hand. Shock didn’t even begin to explain what she felt.
“Nah, told me to hold on to it, that it was his rainy-day cash. Guess today was his rainy day.” Trent shrugged. A phone sounded in the distance. “I gotta get this. You two have a good day, and see you Monday morning, Lex.”
Rogue In Love: Thea and Lex: Love Against the Odds Page 11
