by Cora Brent
“Con’s going to try to make it too. He’s taking care of some issues at the north location so he’s not sure he’ll wrap it up in time but he wanted me to tell you he’s impressed with the way you handled yourself.”
“Good to know,” I said and looked around. “Where do you want me to start?”
Stone took the hint that I didn’t want to discuss Super Q right now. “Take it easy today. There’s a couple of oil change appointments first thing so just grab the keys from Gina when they get here.”
“Sure thing,” I said, hauling my toolbox toward the garage bays.
Conway and Stone Gentry were half brothers, quite a bit younger than my dad. I always forgot what the age difference was. Like my dad and his brothers, they were also from a crappy town sixty miles away. Emblem was a place everyone talked about but no one really wanted to visit. The only time I’d ever spent there was inside a prison cell and I had no plans to return. Conway and Stone’s mother had been a busy lady at one point because thanks to some sordid affairs in the past Con was also my dad’s half brother and Stone was a cousin who was also half brother to Uncle Deck, another of my dad’s cousins. I didn’t really think about the details of my family until I heard someone trying to explain it out loud the way Kellan was trying to enlighten Paige last night. Then we kind of sounded like a pack of hillbilly television characters.
Not that Paige had seemed bothered. In fact she’d been downright charmed by everyone in my family.
While I got up to my elbows in oil and grease I found myself wondering what she was doing today. She hadn’t mentioned her plans but then again I hadn’t asked. We hadn’t established when or if we were going to see each other again and now I wished we had.
Stone came around to collect me promptly at noon. “Con can’t make it after all,” he said. “He says he’ll owe you a lunch sometime next week. Where do you want to go?”
I could only think of one place. “How about Esposito’s?”
He nodded. “Great pizza. The one downtown or the one by the college?”
“Let’s go to the one by the college. It won’t be crowded. The kids are all on spring break.”
“You got it.”
Stone drove and when we pulled into the parking lot at Esposito’s I scanned the cars for any sign of the silver Honda I’d seen in front of Paige’s house but she might have parked in the street or in a neighboring lot.
I was wrong about the place not being crowded. Apparently anyone who hadn’t run off to go wild on spring break was having lunch at Esposito’s. Luckily, most of the diners preferred eating at the long counter or out on the patio so we got the next booth that opened up.
A pretty waitress whose nametag said ‘Abbie’ came over to take our order and I could tell she’d be game for flirting if only I was in the mood to be flirted with.
“You looking for someone?” Stone wanted to know after Abbie departed.
I must have been rather conspicuous about craning my neck around. “Nah, I’ve just got a friend who works here.”
Stone squeezed a slice of lemon into his water. “So how are you handling your new celebrity status, Derek?”
I gave up on searching the polo-clad staff for a glimpse of Paige.
“It’s weird,” I admitted. “I don’t regret stepping in the other night but I’m not into all this hero bullshit.”
Stone mulled that over. “People appreciate a show of courage, that’s all. It’ll die down.”
“The sooner the better,” I grumbled.
Stone cocked his head. “Is it really bothering you?”
Abbie delivered our pizza slices and flashed a cute smile. I didn’t respond, wasn’t interested.
“I could do without the attention,” I said. “And frankly I prefer to let the hero label stick with those who really deserve it. I don’t.”
Stone was watching me instead of diving into his pizza. While I was incarcerated he came to visit twice a month even though setting foot inside a prison surely wasn’t something he ever wanted to do again. He was only eighteen when convicted of manslaughter and ended up serving four years. A girl died, a passenger in his car. He was accused of drag racing another car, resulting in the fiery crash that killed the girl. To this day Stone insists that he was never racing at all. The other driver was being all kinds of reckless and he was just trying to get away when the unthinkable happened. It seemed unfair that he’d lost four years when I only lost five months. But the justice system was a fickle beast sometimes.
“I get it,” he said, nodding. “Just don’t be too hard on yourself, okay? You’ve been doing great ever since you got out. That means something.” He smiled at me, confident that everything he’d just said was true.
Stone only knew that I showed up at work and did a good job. He wasn’t aware of lapses in my sobriety or drunken party fucks. But that was hardly good lunch conversation.
“I’m trying,” I said and that was no lie. I was trying. I wasn’t always successful but I was trying.
“That’s all you can do, Derek. At least for tonight.”
Paige’s words echoed back to me as I chewed on my pizza. She wasn’t the only one who’d found something to hold onto last night. In fact I was having trouble thinking about anything else today. There was something innocent about the way we were when we got together and I hadn’t done anything innocent in a long time.
Abbie had returned. “How’s the pizza tasting?” She winked.
“Excellent,” Stone said but Abbie’s eyes were on me.
I swallowed. “No complaints.”
She smiled. “Great. Let me know if you need anything else at all.”
“Actually there is,” I said as she started to walk away. She turned and looked at me eagerly.
“I was wondering if Paige was working today,” I said.
“Paige?” Her mouth twisted. “No, I’m pretty sure she’s not here today.”
That was too bad, although now I remembered her saying something about her boss giving her some time off to recover from her ordeal.
Suddenly Abbie’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, I know who you are. You’re that guy. The one from the Super Q.”
“The what?” Stone asked, playing dumb. “The Super Q?”
“Aren’t you?” Abbie pressed.
“Sorry,” I said. “But no, that’s not me.”
She glanced down. “What happened to your arm then?”
“Got scratched by a cat.”
“Oh.” Abbie was disappointed.
“Don’t feel bad,” I assured her. “You’re not the first one to make that mistake this week.”
Her lips stretched into a vague smile. “Well, enjoy your lunch. Let me know if I can get you anything else.”
Stone mopped up some pizza grease with a napkin. “Who’s Paige?”
“Just a girl.”
“I figured, with a name like Paige.”
“She’s a friend,” I said, hoping that would be the end of it.
But Stone knew more than I thought. “The same friend you took to your parents’ house for dinner?”
“What the fuck? How did you know that?”
“Truly and Evie were chatting online last night. Evie had her laptop in bed so I peeked over her shoulder and saw the whole conversation. Truly said the girl was a doll who seemed quite taken with you.”
That sounded exactly like something my aunt would say.
“Is that right?” I muttered.
Stone grinned. “That’s right.”
I shook some red pepper onto my pizza. “Shit, does nothing escape notice in this family?”
“Nope, nothing.” Stone took a drink of water. “So tell me about Paige.”
“I hardly know her.”
He shrugged as if that didn’t matter. “You brought her to meet your folks so that must mean she’s a big deal, right?”
I hadn’t thought of it that way when I brought Paige to my parents’ house. In fact the idea hadn’t even been mine to begin with. It was Kellan’s. Ye
t thoughts of Paige kept sticking in my head and even if I couldn’t put a name to it I already knew there was something different about the way I kept thinking about her so I decided to answer Stone’s question honestly.
“She might be,” I said and then took a big bite of pizza. That was going to have to be a good enough explanation for now.
Chapter Eleven
Paige
I’d barely closed the door after waving goodbye to the Gentry brothers when I heard my phone ringing, which was weird because it was still really early. If it was Aunt Maddie the thing was going straight to voicemail.
The caller wasn’t Aunt Maddie.
“How’s the lake?” I asked.
“PAIGE!” Samantha shrieked.
“Put her on speaker,” Ric demanded in the background.
“Hey guys,” I said, thinking I was about to have some explaining to do.
“Why the hell didn’t you call us?” Sam wanted to know.
“People have been talking about that whole Super Q Hero business,” Ric said. “Since it happened so close to school. But we hadn’t watched the video.”
“Until Mom sent it to us this morning,” Sam added. “Asking ‘Gosh, isn’t this that best friend of yours?’ And then I just about fell off the houseboat.”
“I’m glad you didn’t fall off the houseboat,” I said, finally able to get a word in. “Be careful though. I’ve heard the lake can be dangerous.”
“Never mind.” Sam was impatient. “You’re not allowed to change the subject.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Ric asked, sounding bewildered, maybe a little hurt.
I sunk down into my favorite armchair. “You guys would have been worried. There was no need to bother you on your vacation. And anyway, I’m fine.”
“Paige,” Sam sighed. “I really wish you’d called. God, you must have been freaking out.”
I tried to sound upbeat. “Nah, I mean at the time it was scary as shit but then it was over and like I said, I’m fine.”
“Are you?” Ric asked, a lot of meaning behind her quiet question. My friends knew too much about me.
“That hasn’t been a problem for years,” I insisted. “I’ve told you that before.”
“Yes, you did,” Sam said, sounding unconvinced.
I could picture them glancing at each other, coming to their own conclusions. They wouldn’t have been wrong.
“We can come home,” Ric offered. “I can’t stand the thought of you dealing with all of this alone.”
“Actually,” I said. “I haven’t been alone. I was hanging out with…um, some friends last night. They even stayed over to keep me company.”
I deliberately avoided the name Derek Gentry. It would only have launched a tsunami of questions that I was unprepared to answer.
But Sam and Ric sounded relieved to hear that I had some friends other than the two of them. They once again offered to come home but it wouldn’t be cool for them to sacrifice their leisure in order to run back down here and hold my hand. Before they ended the call they made me swear to check in every day.
“And Paige?” Ric said, sounding tentative. “You know there are always support groups out there if you decide you need them.”
“I don’t,” I said flatly. “I don’t need them.”
One of them sighed on the other end. I didn’t know which one.
“We love you, Paigie girl,” Sam said.
“Love you guys too. Now get back to your boat and your boys. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
The phone remained in my palm as I looked around the living room. I could swear the house itself had cheered up after hosting Derek and Kellan for one night. The thought was ridiculous of course. Houses didn’t have feelings. They only reflected the attitudes of the people who lived in them.
I wandered back to the room down the hall. The room Derek and I slept in last night had been my mother’s while she was growing up. Later on when she came back she preferred to stay up on the third floor but this room was always kept in its original state, just as it had been when she left home at age seventeen. Every once in a while I found my way in here, perhaps seeking a connection to the girl Sara Morrissey had been before her addictions destroyed her.
The faded bed quilt was still rumpled. We’d slept on top of the covers last night, so close yet somehow never crossing into sexy territory.
I sat on the edge of the bed and smoothed my hand over the surface. Last night I’d been grateful for the opportunity to get some rest. Today I was remembering lying half naked beside the hottest guy I’d ever been in the same room with and thinking it all seemed surreal. The reality of Derek Gentry was proving to be far different from the myth. And I was starting to like the real Derek Gentry. A lot.
After tidying up the room my stomach started growling so I found a box of cornflakes in the kitchen and scooped dry handfuls into my mouth while considering what I should do with the long day that stretched ahead. My boss wasn’t expecting me back at work, my friends were out of town and I was still feeling a little out of sorts so I didn’t want to just sit here at home and brood.
When I leaned against the kitchen counter a tender spot on my backside scraped against the hard surface, reminding me that I had scored a few bruises when I crashed to the floor atop the Super Q postcard rack. I pulled up my hem and twisted around to inspect the faintly discolored skin. It was nothing, not a big deal at all. Absolutely insignificant compared to say, getting stabbed.
I was thinking of Derek and his forty-six stitches but I was also thinking about Chris, the clerk. He was still in the hospital recovering from the surgery required to repair the internal damage suffered in the attack. He’d been the first to step up and come to my defense before Derek took care of Candy Man for good. He deserved some gratitude for that.
One final handful of cornflakes made its way into my mouth. All of a sudden I knew what I was doing today. I was going to the hospital.
According to the hospital website visiting hours began at ten so I showered, dressed and stopped at a flower shop.
“What’s the occasion?” the sole employee in the store asked. She wore cats eye purple-frame glasses and there were hanging baskets of greenery over her head, giving the impression she had leaves for hair.
“I’m visiting someone in the hospital,” I said.
She produced a cheerful arrangement of white and yellow daisies accessorized with a tiny balloon that said, ‘Get Well Soon’.
Once I reached the hospital I started to have doubts. Maybe I was intruding. Maybe the man didn’t want to be reminded how he received two bloody holes in his stomach.
There was no reason to worry. Chris recognized me immediately and welcomed me with a smile, followed by an introduction to his wife, Lisa. She jumped up from her chair and greeted me with a hug as soon as her husband explained who I was. If I tallied up all the hugs I’d received in the last two days they probably exceeded all the hugs that had come my way over the past year.
I added my Get Well Soon flowers to the collection of similar arrangements decorating the room. Chris and Lisa held hands and urged me to sit down for a few minutes. Chris was still connected to a variety of tubes and instruments but he assured me he was on the mend.
“We’re hoping to be out of here by the end of the week,” Lisa said and turned to her husband with a loving smile.
Chris and Lisa were a very chatty pair. In no time at all I learned they’d been married for fifteen years, had a twelve-year-old daughter and as a family they enjoyed riding dune buggies in the famous sands of Glamis.
“Do you know Derek well?” Lisa asked and the question kind of caught me off guard.
“Well, I know him, so yes, but I’m not sure how well I really know him but I do know him,” I stammered, suddenly thinking of his broad shoulders, his muscled arms.
Lisa wasn’t bothered by my incoherence. She simply smiled. “He called here. Seems like a really great guy.”
I bobbed my head. “Yes.”
>
“I don’t know what would have happened without that kid,” Chris said, looking down at his network of medical attachments and grimacing.
“Oh,” I said, remembering what I’d wanted to say in the first place. “I wanted to thank you for the other night, for getting in that creep’s face when he grabbed me.” I swallowed and firmly crossed my arms over my chest to dispel the memory of vicious fingers digging into my skin. “I’m just really sorry you got hurt because you tried to help me.”
Chris and Lisa were now gazing at me with soft, pitying expressions.
“There’s no need to thank me,” Chris said. “I’m just sorry there are people around who make the world an unsafe place.”
“Are you all right, Paige?” Lisa asked, her voice soft and motherly. I imagined her speaking to her daughter in exactly the same voice.
“Of course.” I let my arms fall to a more natural position and smiled. “I’m not even hurt.”
“Look who’s here!” Chris called and waved. I realized he was talking to someone who’d walked in behind me. When I turned I was surprised to see a familiar face.
“Hello again,” said the woman I’d seen for the first time shopping in a convenience store with her sleepy child in her arms. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied up in an efficient bun and she wore different scrubs than she’d been wearing the other night.
“Turns out Julianne’s a nurse’s aid here,” Chris explained. “Fancy that.”
“I wondered about you,” Julianne said after we got introductions out of the way. “I hoped we’d run into each other again.”
I smiled. “How’s Noah?”
“He’s good. He’s only three but he understands there was a bad man and that the good men fought and won.”
I shuddered. “It must have been terrifying for you. Being in the middle of all that while trying to protect your son. But you were so calm. And you knew exactly what to do to help Chris.”
Julianne gave me a gentle smile. “I’m sure it was terrifying for you too. Oh, and Noah’s not my son, he’s my nephew.”
“He’s adorable.”
“Thank you. I’m really lucky to have him.”
