by Cee Bowerman
“Maybe the ticket already brought me luck like the lady wanted.”
“We’re going to find a way to get you that money, Sierra. We’ll figure it out. That’s what I want to talk to Marcus about when we take Holly home. He’s a lawyer and can give us some good information, maybe help figure out how to protect you and Lexi.”
“Okay. You trust him?”
“I do. He’s a good man.” Rowdy smiled and shook his head for a second before he added, “Sometimes good men do bad things to protect others. I think he might be that kind of guy.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I know his family. Let’s just leave it at that, okay?”
“Okay.” I let it go. I had had enough experiences in my life that taught me that sometimes you just didn’t need to know every detail of things. Sometimes it was safer that way.
“Let’s push all the serious shit to the side for a little bit, what do you say?”
“Are you that anxious to get your ass handed to you in skee ball?”
“Little woman, you talk a big game. Hope you can back it up.”
“Come on, buddy. Teacher’s here and class is in session.”
I saw an odd look come over Rowdy’s face, but it disappeared as quick as it came and he was smiling again.
“Lead the way, honey. I’ll let you go first so you get a chance to play without tears of shame on your face.”
“Shit.” I laughed and pushed his shoulder. He staggered for a second and then leaned back toward me, his arm going over my shoulders for a quick hug and then staying there naturally. It was comfortable and I liked it, so I didn’t shrug and get away like I normally would.
I wanted his arm around me, even if it was just a friendly gesture. I felt a kernel of hope start in my chest. Hope that maybe someday he’d put his arm around me as more than a friend. And maybe he’d put those lips of his on me, too.
I hadn’t wished for that in years and it made me wonder what kind of mojo that woman put on the lottery ticket before she gave it to me.
◆◆◆
ROWDY
“This is it! The final throw, ladies and gentlemen. Here he is, Rowdy Lincoln, trying to win best out of … um … how many games is this?” Leia asked the other girls.
“Nine!” A woman who I had never met before was watching along with her husband and standing next to them was another couple. A few minutes ago, I watched money change hands between the men and had to laugh when I realized they were betting on our little competition.
“Nine! This is it, folks. They’re tied four and four right now and this is the clincher. Will he take home the title or will the lady in red snatch his dreams away?”
“Okay, go!” Holly waved her arms like she was starting a drag race rather than a skee ball competition and I watched as Lexi and Leia jumped up and down cheering for Sierra.
Sierra took her time, drawing out the suspense. She held the wooden ball in the fingertips of both hands right in front of her face and then leaned her head back and took a deep breath. Finally, she dropped the ball down to her side and shot it up the felt toward the glass. I saw the ball spin at the last second and then it seemed to hang in the air right before it dropped into the 500 point slot.
Sierra grabbed another ball and threw it the exact same way, finally having found the perfect groove to hit 500 each time. After the third one went in, she missed and got two 300 point balls and then another 500.
Without even finishing the rest of the balls, she turned around and smiled at me and then dropped a curtsy as if she were a member of the royal family.
“I do believe that makes you the Skee Ball Queen, milady,” I bowed toward her and offered up the tickets I had acquired during our game. Sierra took the bundle and shook it above her head as both of our daughters and their friend applauded dramatically. The small crowd we had drawn cheered. I glanced toward the two men I had noticed earlier and saw one of them shaking his head as he reached for his wallet.
“Shall I escort the queen to get her treasures?” I asked Sierra, putting my arm out like a gallant gentleman.
“Yes, you may, milord.” Sierra’s English accent was horrible and she and I both chuckled as we walked together toward the prize counter. I glanced back and saw that the girls were finishing Sierra’s game so they could get tickets for more prizes of their own.
“You won fair and square,” I told Sierra. “Good game.”
“It really doesn’t bother you that I won?”
“No,” I chuckled. “Why would it? You did much better than I did. You deserved the win.”
“Some men wouldn’t handle it quite that well.”
“Well, those men are douchebags.” I smiled down at her. “So, pick your prizes, my queen. What will it be?”
“I’m going to have to have a spider ring, of course. And I’ll get an eraser for each of my court. I’ll have about three tickets left after that, right?” Sierra laughed as she leaned over the counter to look at the little trinkets they had on display. The teenager behind the glass case pulled out the erasers and I watched Sierra pick through them to find the ones she wanted. “Go ahead and give me four more spider rings.”
The teenager pushed the box toward Sierra and she nudged it toward me.
“For you, Mr. Second Place,” Sierra said as she held a black plastic ring toward me.
I plucked it out of her hand and slipped it onto my pinkie before I held it out in front of me and moved my hand around as if to catch the light.
“For me? Awww. You shouldn't have!” Sierra laughed and I raised my eyebrows at the girl behind the counter and said in a theatrical whisper, “As far as proposals go, that was lacking some finesse, wouldn’t you say?”
The three of us laughed as Sierra gathered up her remaining tickets and walked with me back toward the girls. She put what was left of our tickets down on a nearby table and presented the girls with the cheap little gifts she had picked for them. Lexi, Leia and Holly all oohed and aahed appreciatively and then squealed with happiness when Sierra told them to split the remaining tickets between them and go exchange them for whatever they could get.
I watched the girls rush off with a smile on my face and realized that I was twirling my new ring around my finger unconsciously.
I had an idea. It was hopelessly insane and I hadn’t worked all the details out in my head quite yet, but it was stuck there.
I didn’t know if Sierra would laugh in my face or take me up on it, but I needed to get her alone and see what she thought about my plan. If she said no, it would be okay, but if she said yes our lives were about to be crazy.
I smiled when I realized I was hoping for crazy.
4.
ROWDY
“Holly, why don’t you take the girls up to your room and y’all watch a movie or something while we relax down here?”
I watched as Holly leaned up to whisper into Marcus’s ear and when he nodded, all three girls got excited.
“Rowdy, Sierra, can your girls stay the night with Holly tonight? We promise to keep the partying to a six drink minimum, will only invite complete strangers, and only break 17 local and state laws.”
“If you’re only breaking 17 laws, then I don’t think so. I mean, a girl’s gotta have standards, right?” Sierra asked with a very serious expression. “Yes, Lexi, do you want to spend the night?”
Lexi jumped up and down excitedly and all three girls looked over at me.
“You’re going to feed her breakfast?” I asked. “Because she’s hell to deal with until she gets that first bite of food in the morning. She’s been that way since the day she was born.”
“Dad!” Leia rolled her eyes at her father, but laughed when he nodded his head.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Reagan laughed as he waved the girls up the stairs. “Y’all get on now.”
The three girls took off like a shot and just a few seconds later, we could hear a bedroom door slam shut upstairs.
“Thanks for letting Le
xi stay.” Sierra smiled at Marcus and Reagan. “I’m happy that she’s made some friends other than the ones at the apartments.”
“She’s a sweet kid,” Marcus told Sierra. “Now, Rowdy, do you and I need to go back to my office for a minute?”
“No.” I blew out a breath and thought of what I was going to say. “I trust Reagan, too, and I know you two won’t rat us out, but Sierra has a secret and she needs some legal advice.”
“If it’s something you need legal defense for, I’m not comfortable with Reagan listening in,” Marcus said as he started to stand up.
“I have a winning lottery ticket and I don’t know what to do.” Sierra blurted out.
Marcus fell back into his chair and leaned back to get comfortable.
“How much are we talking here?”
“Millions,” I told him as I glanced at Sierra. When I looked back at Marcus, I could see that his eyes were wide and he was staring at Sierra. Reagan’s mouth was open and he looked shocked.
“I sense that there’s more to the story, so why don’t you fill me in?” Marcus reached over and used one finger on Reagan’s chin and pushed his mouth closed with a laugh. “She didn’t grow horns, babe.”
“Millions?” Reagan squeaked. “Holy shit. You always read about people winning the big pot, but it’s never been anyone I know!”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” Sierra laughed. “I have had bad luck my entire life. If I bought a cemetery, people would quit dying. That’s how my luck has run. But this woman gave me the ticket as a tip at work the other night and as a fluke, I turned it in to see if it was any sort of winner. I was so shocked that I passed out and that’s how I got this lovely bump on my head.”
Sierra pointed at the bandage on her hairline with a laugh and I continued the story for her.
“We had just left practice with the girls and ended up at the same convenience store. I was talking to Leia and saw Sierra suddenly just drop like a box of rocks. She bumped her head and needed stitches, so I called Nick and we ended up at Nicole’s office. We’ve spent the whole afternoon and evening together and now we’re here.”
“Goodness,” Reagan said as he shook his head. “When I pointed her out at practice and told you that you should ask her out, I didn’t mean club her over the head and drag her to your cave!”
The four of us laughed for a minute and Sierra turned to me, “You two were talking about me at practice?”
“Yeah. Reagan tried to convince me to get the balls to ask you out.” I shrugged and lifted up my hand to show them my spider ring. “And now, just hours later, she’s already giving me jewelry.”
“If it’s meant to be, then just roll with it.” Marcus reached over and took Reagan’s hand and the two men shared a look. “So, what do you want me to do? There's more to the story, I assume?”
“It’s a long one,” Sierra told us. “Unless you want the Cliffs Notes version.”
“You and your daughter are in danger,” Marcus shrugged. “That’s the short of it. Now give me the unabridged version.”
“Rowdy, are you driving?” Reagan asked me. When I nodded, Reagan got up and walked into the kitchen only to come back seconds later carrying a notepad, pen, a bottle of wine, a corkscrew, and three glasses. “Now, we’re ready.”
As Marcus opened the bottle of wine, Reagan settled the notepad and pen in front of him and looked up at Sierra with a smile, “You can trust my man and you can trust Rowdy and I. Let it all out girl.”
I was anxious to hear Sierra’s story and wondered if I should go ahead and tell them my idea now or wait. Sierra took that option away when she started.
“When I was 14, I met a boy at the club my parents belonged to. His parents were members, too, and they all shared the same circle of friends. He was nice and funny and he and I thought we were in love. He was a great guy, really, and I did love him. A part of me, the young part, still does and I see him in Lexi all the time. She never met him, but she has mannerisms like his sometimes and she’s got a keen mind just like he had.” Sierra took a deep breath. “Neither of us knew what the hell we were doing, but we had sex. More than once. I felt so grown up, but I never even thought of the consequences. We were both heartbroken when the summer ended and both of us had to go back to school. I went to an all-girls school in Albany, and he went to a boys prep school in Boston. We swore we would write to each other every day and we did at first. But then his letters stopped and my body started changing. One of the teachers saw something that made her curious and she sent me to the nurse. I was about six months along by then.”
“You were still 14?” Marcus asked as he took notes.
“No, I turned 15 the month I went back to school, in August.” Sierra nodded. “The sonogram showed that I got pregnant in late June.”
“Okay, what state did your parents live in? What was your home state?”
“Illinois.” Sierra must have known where he was going with his question, so she added, “She was in my legal custody from birth.”
Marcus nodded and wrote some more notes.
“What happened next?”
“It was almost Christmas break, so the nurse sent me home and told everyone I had the flu. My parents were waiting for me at the airport and to say they lost their shit doesn’t begin to describe it.” Sierra shook her head, “I mean, I’m a mom myself now, so I do understand a little better, but the way they behaved was just wrong.”
“What did they do?” Reagan asked softly.
“They tried to get me in to have an abortion and that’s when we found out how far along I was. Then, they tried to get the doctor to say it was medically necessary and he refused. I heard them talking after I was supposed to be in bed one night and they were planning to take me to Mexico and either ‘get rid’ of the baby or stay there and give it up when it was born.”
“Damn,” I said as I shook my head. “I can see how they were freaked, but still.”
“I took off as soon as they were sleeping. I got cash out of my dad’s safe and bought a bus ticket to go find Alexander. I made it to the school, but they were out for the break. I ran into a student as I was roaming around the grounds and he knew Alexander. He told me about the accident that had happened that past fall and that Alexander was dead,” Sierra said with a sigh. “That explained why he quit writing to me.”
“Did either of your parents know about the two of you?”
“I didn’t think so, but later I found out that the letters I had been sending to him were forwarded to his dad and he had been reading them. The last letter I sent to him was the day I found out I was pregnant and I had a friend at school mail the news to him before they rushed me off to the airport to go home.” Sierra took a gulp of her wine and leaned back in her chair. “I decided to just run away and have my baby. I had almost ten thousand dollars I had taken from the safe and I got pretty far before I stopped. I ended up in Miami and got a job at a bakery. The owner took me in and let me stay at her house. When I had Lexi, she was beside me in the delivery room and taught me to take care of her once I got out of the hospital.”
“How did they find you?”
“When Lexi was two years old, I filled out a piece of paper to get financial aid for daycare. It flagged something and within a week, my dad and Alexander’s dad were there to take me away.” Sierra swiped the tears from her cheeks and continued. “They had taken Lexi from Mary and had her locked in the car with the driver. They told me that they would take her away, and if I didn’t go with them they would have Mary and her whole family deported. I knew they meant it, so I got in the car and left.”
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Fucking assholes.”
“They let me be with Lexi on the plane home and then when we got to the house, they made her sleep in her own room down the hall from me. She had a nanny around the clock - day and night. I was plotting how to get away and they knew that, so they never left me alone with her.” Sierra finished her wine and tilted her glass toward Reagan for a refill. She s
miled when he filled it almost to the brim and she had to be careful not to spill it as she put it to her mouth for another sip. “Alexander’s brother was a few years older than us. He was not right, I guess you could say. He got kicked out of every school they put him in, so he ended up at home with tutors. Alexander told me he went through those like Kleenex, most of them running from the house like they were on fire. Anyway, my parents and Alexander’s parents got together and decided that I should marry Jackson and raise Lexi as his.”
“That’s just fucked up.”
“They took Lexi away from the house while my dad’s guards held me in a chair. They told me that they would bring her back as soon as I was married and then we’d just forget all this had ever happened.”
“Fucking animals,” Marcus growled. Reagan nodded agreement and reached over to top off Marcus’s wine, too. “Motherfucking animals treating you and that little girl like cattle or something.”
“They got us a house and true to their word, the day after the wedding they brought Lexi back to me like we had just been on a little sabbatical or something.”
“So how fucked up is this Jackson guy?” I asked her.
“Things were calm at first. We had separate bedrooms and rarely ever talked. But then he got drunk one night and that all changed. He raped me and told me if I said anything to anyone, he’d drown Lexi in the pool. I believed him,” Sierra said with a shudder. “That went on for a year or so and I thought that was as bad as it could get, but then Lexi got sick. She had a horrible ear infection and cried almost all day. That evening when he came home, I tried to keep her calm, but even with the medicine the doctor had given her she was restless and loud. Jackson yelled at me to shut her up and I was taking her to the garage so we could go out to the guesthouse when her eardrum ruptured. She screamed bloody murder. He was on us in a flash and yanked Lexi away from me and threw her across the garage. She slammed into the shelves and broke her arm in the fall. She needed stitches on her head where she hit the metal shelving.”
