Chapter 105
"Well, I wouldn't say I knew him that well. We had a dealing." I sure wasn't going to admit to Joe I needed help fending a man off. "I can't believe it." I sank down in a chair. I didn't know how much more bad news I could take.
We were silent for a moment, while I let the information soak in. "What happened to him?" I finally asked.
"He was shot behind the restaurant after work. Execution-style."
"What does that mean?"
"They shot him at point-blank range, but they probably tried to get information out of him first."
"Oh, my...why would someone do that?"
"You tell me."
My heart skipped a beat. "How would I know?" He was so exasperating. "I had one dealing with him and you think I know why someone killed him?"
"For such a quiet town, it's more than a little coincidental that your mother is murdered, someone breaks into your house and a man was murdered last night. Someone you had a dealing with."
If he only knew about my break-in minutes earlier. "Do you think the police will figure out I knew him?"
"That depends, Rose. How well did you know him?" Bitterness drenched his words.
"You very well know I didn't know him in the way you're insinuating. I think I'm done talking to you, Joe."
"Wait!" He called out, pleading, before I could hang up.
"What?"
"I'm sorry. I don't want to fight with you. I was just worried and apparently jealous."
Jealous? Joe jealous over me? For some reason I didn't totally believe him. Three more days rang through my head. Besides, I had to admit I liked the idea of Joe being jealous. "So where did you think I went last night?"
"I was worried you ran off and did something crazy like sleep with some guy before Monday."
"And why do you care?" I couldn't help asking.
He paused, then answered, soft and s.e.xy: "Because I want it to be me."
I couldn't stop the sharp intake of air from the instantaneous fire igniting in my gut. "Then don't make me wait until Monday," I whispered. "Maybe we can work out some kind of compromise."
He paused again. I had a feeling Joe was doing some conscious-wrestling. He was trying to be honorable and I was trying to drag him down. I really was wicked. I almost felt bad. Almost.
"We can talk about it tonight at dinner. Remember?"
"About that..." I glanced around my kitchen with a grimace, unsure I could have everything cleaned up by then, or if I even wanted to. "I'm not sure I can cook."
"We'll figure something out. I'm more interested in the company than the food."
"Maybe we could eat at your place. I could cook there."
He paused again. "No, that's not going to work. My house is a wreck. A total bachelor pad."
I frowned. He didn't have any trouble letting Hilary in there. I rolled my eyes. I didn't want to think about Hilary. "Okay, well we'll figure it out later. See you tonight."
"Wait, Rose, where were you last night?" He didn't sound jealous. He sounded anxious.
"At my sister's house."
I could have sworn I heard him mutter "thank G.o.d" under his breath.
We hung up and I pulled out the phone book and called a cleaning company, offering to pay extra if they were there within the hour. Next, I called Violet and told her I had a slight delay. While on the phone, I noticed my Walmart receipt under the junk spread across the table. I pulled it free, looking over the items. I still had things to do today.
"Violet, how about we go to the park for a picnic? We can get food on the way. It'll be fun. We can bring m.u.f.fy."
The maid service arrived ahead of schedule and was immediately taken back by the state of the kitchen. An older Hispanic woman shot a look of disapproval in my direction when she noticed the hole in the hallway wall. I shrugged and murmured something about wild parties. I instructed them to throw everything in Momma's room into the now empty boxes. In the kitchen, they could toss anything broken and put everything else away. I handed a set of keys to the women and told her to hide them under the mat outside the door. A totally obvious place, but it wasn't like locked doors kept people out anyway.
After I got the cleaning service squared away, I called a taxi to take me to the car rental agency. They apologized over the trouble and offered me a new car, but I told them to just give me a refund on the unused days.
When I got to Violet's house, she appeared surprised to see my old car but didn't ask questions. We loaded the kids and m.u.f.fy into Violet's minivan and headed to Henryetta's new splash park.
After we spread out a blanket under a tree, we settled in to eat, the kids excited to play in the water. Violet and I convinced them to eat the majority of their lunch before they took off, leaving Violet, m.u.f.fy and me behind.
The sun bore down as we stood at the edge of the splash park concrete. Ashley tugged on my wrist, pulling me toward the fountains, looking up at me with pouty eyes. I didn't have a swimming suit, but decided I might never get the chance again. I hadn't seen a weather forecast for the next few days, but today it was hot and sunny, with no clouds in sight. There was a good possibility it wouldn't rain between now and Sunday. Maybe this could count for play in the rain.
Violet held m.u.f.fy's leash while I ran in, hands over my head, screaming from the shock of the cold water pelting my skin. I shrugged off my inhibitions, tossing them away like an old tattered coat. The chains wrapped around my life slipped off one link at a time with every puddle I stomped. I almost cried from the freedom. Ashley and Mikey laughed as we spun in circles and ran through pools of water. I'd never done this before, completely let go of everything.
I ran to Violet, my clothes soaked and clinging, and saw the wistful expression in her eyes. I stood in front of her and simply reached out my hand. Indecision flickered through her eyes, the fear of letting go. I gave her an encouraging smile, holding my palm face up. She looked into my eyes, tears filling her own and she slowly lifted her hand to mine.
We stood in the Henryetta splash park, me looking like a drowned rat and Violet in her prim and proper outfit, her hair perfectly in place. Our fingers locked in a tight squeeze and I knew I owed this woman so much. As long as I lived, even if it was only three more days, I would never forget her incredible love for me.
My heart swelled with love and grat.i.tude until it overflowed and filled my eyes with tears, falling and mingling with the sprinkler water that dripped down my face. I smiled, my chin quivering with emotion, then I tugged.
She was reluctant, so I eased her into it. I, of all people, knew how hard it was to give into frivolity. Violet skirted the edge of the concrete, resisting. Ashley ran over and grabbed Violet's other hand. Mikey clapped, excited Mommy was going to play.
m.u.f.fy sat off to the side watching all the commotion with disinterest.
When I thought Violet had enough time to adjust, I yelled to Ashley, "Let's get her wet!"
Ashley and I each pulled a hand and Violet screamed and protested in between bursts of laughter. She dug in her heels, leaning her bottom backward as we dragged her toward a huge spray of water spewing from a fire hydrate.
"No! I'll get my hair wet!" she screamed, but this only spurred Ashley on more.
We got her directly under the water, Ashley and I circling our arms around her, holding her under the spray, all three of us squealing. Mikey sat at the edge giggling and clapping. "Momma! Momma!"
Somewhere in the park, someone turned on music. I leaned over to Ashley giving her a mischievous look. "Let's dance!"
And at two o'clock in the afternoon on a hot June day, for the first time in my life, I danced. It wasn't the romantic dance I envisioned when I wrote dance on my list, but it was so much better. I looked up into the cloudless sky, flung my arms wide open and spun in circles laughing until I cried. Violet shook her head, a tiny smile lifting the corners of her lips. I grabbed Violet's hand, Ashley pulling the other. We danced in circles, making fools of ourselves and not caring what anyone thought, just being free.
My heart burst right open, right there under the rainbow spray, as I watched Violet let go of her wariness and dance and squeal with her children. Violet had given me hope and love all those years; I had given her so little in return. But that Thursday afternoon, I gave Violet something just as precious. Freedom. I set her free. When I was gone, there would be no regrets for her. Violet turned to me, Mikey on her hip and Ashley twirling around in the sprays. Pure joy radiated from her face and I couldn't contain the happiness billowing like a mushroom cloud. Another memory for my sc.r.a.pbook.
I wiped the tears streaming down my face and ran into the water, spinning Ashley around to her delight. We played for another half an hour until Mikey looked like he was about to fall over with sleepiness. None of us were ready to go, so we changed the kids out of their wet suits and into dry clothes. We lay on the blanket under the tree, letting the warm breeze dry us. The kids fell asleep within minutes. Violet and I looked up at the leaves of the oak tree hanging over our heads, the soft rustle a soothing lullaby.
"Do you still think of me as your sister?" Violet asked, breaking our silence.
I turned my head toward her. "Of course, Vi. You're the best sister I could have ever asked for."
Her eyes filled with tears, "I wasn't sure, because of Momma..." her words trailed off, and uncertainty hung between us.
"Vi, I don't care about blood. It never mattered to me like it did to Momma." Which made total sense now that I thought about it, Momma's preoccupation with blood. "I love you, Violet." My voice tightened as tears stung my eyes again. "You were there for me when you could have walked away and saved yourself. Momma would have loved you more if you hadn't taken my side. You gave up so much for me. What have I ever given you?"
Tears trickled from the corner of her eye, across the bridge of her nose and dripping to the blanket beneath us. Her lip quivered as she struggled to speak. "You gave me you."
The dam of tears broke again and I cried softly, grateful for the love I didn't deserve because the gift of me didn't seem to be enough.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
I took a nap on the blanket, a short one, but long enough to make me feel groggy and slightly muddled. m.u.f.fy lay next to me, her face on her paws, soft snores coming from her tiny body. Leave it to me to not only get a farting dog but a snoring one, too. But she was a good dog and I was grateful she was mine. I reached my hand over and scratched the back of her neck.
Lying there with the soft breeze tickling my skin, I realized this is what people meant when they said it's the little things in life. I felt the tears returning. Enough tears. There wasn't enough time left to waste on tears.
When the kids woke up, we loaded everyone into the minivan and headed to Violet's house. It didn't take much convincing to get Ashley to jump on her trampoline in her backyard with me, especially considering she had begged me to jump many times before. When we tired of jumping, we played dress up. Ashley gave me a makeover, placed a tiara on my head and we paraded around the house using our princess waves. Afterward, I convinced Violet to teach me the basic elements of knitting.
"Now? Let's do it next week."
"No," I said a little too abruptly.
Violet narrowed her eyes. "What's the rush?"
I'm going to die on Sunday and it's on my list of things I wish to do before I die didn't sound like an appropriate answer. I shrugged then tried Ashley's puppy face. "Please?"
Violet laughed, "I need to get dinner started."
"Just a few steps..."
"St.i.tches."
"Just a few st.i.tches. Please?"
Violet relented and thankfully I was a fast learner.
"What do you want to make?" she asked as I cast a long row of uneven st.i.tches.
"I dunno, a scarf?"
"That's pretty easy. You keep up at that pace and you could be done in a couple of weeks."
I didn't have a couple of weeks, but that didn't matter. I just needed to learn how to knit.
I washed my face before I left. I would have just enough time to make sure my house had been put together before Joe showed up.
When we got home, m.u.f.fy sniffed around our yard, reacquainting herself with the territory and marking all the appropriate places. I pulled the keys from under the mat as Joe pulled in.
"Please don't tell me you had those keys under your rug," he said as he got out of the car.
"Okay, then I won't."
He groaned as he walked over. He looked dirty, his hair a scroungy mess. Streaks of grease covered his hands and ran up his arms. He smelled of sweat and gasoline. As crazy as it was, I had never seen him s.e.xier.
"Why would you do such a thing?" he asked, but not in his usual bossy tone.
"It was only this one time. The cleanin' ladies left them under the mat since I wasn't home when they finished."
"Cleanin' ladies? Why would you need a cleanin' lady? Your house is spotless."
I shrugged. I really didn't want to go into the morning's events. "Maybe I should have sent them over to your house instead, since it's so messy and all."
He laughed but sounded a little uneasy. "Yeah...what do you want to eat?"
I unlocked the door and turned around to face him. "I really don't have much food to cook." I didn't really see the purpose in making a grocery store run at this point.
He leaned on the side of the house, trapping me against the door. "Who needs food?"
I pushed against his chest, "You're nothin' but a big tease, Joe McAllister. You have no intention of givin' me what I want."
He kissed me and I silently cursed his ability to make me forget what I was arguing about.
"I'll give you everythin' you want and more... on Monday."
"Argh!" I growled as I turned around and opened the door. "That still doesn't solve our dinner dilemma."
"We can order out and have it delivered. What sounds good?"
"Chinese," I said the first thing that popped into my head. I'd never had Chinese food and it was on my list. Momma said she wouldn't eat food made by communists.
He smiled, a real smile, not his usual teasing or taunting smirk. It made him look like a boy, the way his eyes sparkled. I smiled up at him like an idiot, lost in his eyes. They were a dark brown, but I could see little flicks of almost black scattered around his pupils. I realized he had asked me a question.
I cringed, giggling. "Sorry, I was caught up in the view." My boldness amazed me, but at this point, I had nothing to lose.
He actually looked embarra.s.sed and his cheeks turned red.
I laughed. Joe McAllister blus.h.i.+ng. That was a sight I never expected to see. "Obviously, I didn't hear your question."