Ashes to Ashes (Experiment in Terror #8) (7 page)

Rebecca and I exchanged a look
as my uncle agreed, looking as surprised as we were, and the two of
them walked out of the kitchen and into the backyard that
overlooked the beach. I could barely make them out through the
window above the sink.

“
What’s going
on?” I asked Rebecca. “I know he hates doing the dishes
but…”

She glanced out the window,
watching as their shapes disappeared into the darkening sky, then
busied herself with the scrubber brush. “Oh, I don’t know. I guess
Dex just wants to make a good impression, that’s all.”

“
Did he tell
you that?”

She paused for a moment before
scrubbing at a tough stain. “Not in so many words. But he’s here
for you, Perry. He just wants everything to be okay. And he wants
your family to accept him. He knows it’s an uphill battle but you
know Dex. He’s determined once he puts his mind to something.”

I know I doubted Dex every now
and then but hearing that really made me feel good inside. Solid. I
could only hope that whatever he was saying to Uncle Al, that my
uncle was being nice about it all.

They were only out there for
five minutes before they came back inside. Uncle Al came in first,
his face red, but whether it was from wine or anger, I didn’t know.
Dex followed shortly after, his beer almost empty and dangling
loosely from his fingers. While my uncle disappeared into the
living room where the twins were watching a movie with Marda, Dex
loitered in the kitchen for a moment. He didn’t meet my eyes, and
instead pulled out a chair and sat down.

I glanced at Rebecca, who gave
Dex a strangely sympathetic glance before she turned back to the
dishes.

“
Dex,” I said
quietly.

He looked up. His face was
open, expression blasé, but there was something troubling about his
eyes. They looked haunted.

“
Are you
okay?”

He smiled but it failed to make
his eyes crinkle. “Yeah, I’m fine. Bit of heartburn though.”

“
Maybe it’s
the beer,” Rebecca suggested.

He answered that by finishing
it off and getting back up. He headed for the front door. I hastily
put down the plate I was drying and ran after him, stopping him
just as he put his hand on the knob.

“
Where are you
going?” I asked, feeling suddenly uneasy about his change in
mood.

“
Got a bit of
a chill,” he explained, looking over my shoulder toward the living
room. “Summer’s not here yet. I have my jacket in the car. I’ll be
back.” He leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the cheek before
stepping out into the night.

I went back to helping with the
dishes but wasn’t the least bit surprised to see that Dex didn’t
come back in until we were done and watching some lame ass Ben
Stiller movie with everyone else. There was no room beside me on
the couch, so he sat on the ground, his legs stretched out in front
of him. He wasn’t even watching the movie; instead, he was staring
blankly at a spot on the carpet.

I felt a pair of eyes on me and
looked over to see Uncle Al staring from across the room. It took
everything I had to keep from glaring at him in return. I came here
hoping to make amends with at least part of my family. I had no
idea what the hell my uncle was thinking, but whatever he heard
about me from my parents, it was obvious that it was affecting him
in some way. If he said something upsetting to Dex, I could damn
well count on him feeling the same way about me.

I waited until the movie was
over before I decided to confront him.

“
I really hope
you don’t mind sleeping on the couch,” Marda said to Rebecca as she
started to pull the bed from it.

“
Perry and I
would be happy to take the couch if Rebecca wants the guest bedroom
instead,” Dex said. To hell with that, I wanted privacy to talk
with Dex about what was going on. But while the three of them were
having a debate over it, I took the moment to ask Uncle Al if he
had any Sleepytime tea.

He gave me a curious look but
walked into the kitchen where I followed him. He pulled open a
cupboard and started riffling through tea boxes. “Marda is the tea
drinker in the house now. Are you sure you don’t want a glass of
wine? Always helps me.”

“
Nah,” I told
him, leaning against the counter. “Wine only makes my body sleepy
but it doesn’t quiet the mind.”

“
Having
trouble sleeping?”

“
Can you blame
me?” I asked directly.

He paused, box of chamomile tea
in hand before placing it in front of me. “I’m afraid this is the
most relaxing tea we have. I can ask Marda if we have anything
else.”

I quickly reached out and
grabbed his arm. “No, don’t bug her about it, it’s no bother.
Chamomile is just fine.” I glanced at the living room where I could
still hear them arguing over the couch. Rebecca seemed to be
whining, given the rising pitch of her voice. “Look, I was hoping I
could talk to you. You know, niece to uncle.”

He sighed quietly. “Right. I
thought you might want to. Well, I want to talk to you too.”

Interesting. I nodded. “Okay
then. Shoot.”

He lips twisted wryly, an
expression that made him look a lot like my dad when he was getting
into scholarly mode. “You asked me first. The table is all yours.”
He gestured to it, and while I sat down, he put the kettle on and
pushed a box of ladyfingers in front of me. “Eat. You could use
it.”

I tried not to laugh. What was
it with Italians thinking everyone but the most obese person was
severely underfed? Still, I picked one up and nibbled at the
chocolate coating while I tried to think of the best way to
ask.

“
I was just
wondering,” I began slowly, keeping my voice low so that the rest
of the house wouldn’t hear me, “what my parents have said to you.
You know, if anything. If you know what happened.”

He sat down across from me and
rubbed at the lines in his forehead. “I know what happened.”

“
And? What was
that? What did they say?”

“
I talked to
your father, mainly. Your mom didn’t have much to say to me. She
never really does, to be honest with you, Perry.”

“
Well, you and
me both.”

“
They love you
very much. You do know that, don’t you?”

I felt a sting of tears behind
my eyes. “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “I guess they do, like
every parent has to.”

“
No parent has
to love their kids, Perry. It’s a conscious decision. They love you
because they do, not just because you’re their daughter. They just
don’t understand you. They worry. They’re afraid for you, that
you’re making all the wrong choices.”

I felt myself stiffen. “I’m not
making wrong choices. I’m making the only choice.”

He let out a breath. “The way
they see it, the way your father told me, was that you were very
ill…mentally ill. It was enough for them to really worry.”

That was putting it mildly. I
was fucking possessed!

“
And then when
you were doing better, just as you got back and were recovering,
you decided to leave and go live with the very man who put you in
that terrible position.”

“
They don’t
know Dex,” I said, the anger rising in me. I struggled to keep my
voice down. “They don’t know him, but if they did, they’d see he’s
the only one who loves me unconditionally. He’s always been there
for me.”

“
Except when
he wasn’t.”

I opened my mouth, ready to
spew venom, but he raised his hand in a manner that made me shut
up, like he was some mob boss.

“
Perry, you
can’t pretend what happened to you didn’t happen. You can’t pretend
he didn’t break your heart like I told you he would.”

I shook my head. “He did. I
know, but people make mistakes. They deserve second chances.”

“
You’re right.
And I agree with you,” he said, giving me a hard, steady look like
he was trying to freeze me in place. “But not when you’re not
well.”

“
I am well.
I’ve never been happier.”

“
I can see
that,” he said simply.

“
Perry?” I
heard Dex’s voice from the other room and spun around in the chair.
He came out of the living room and poked his head in the kitchen
while Uncle Al got up and poured me my tea. “I’m going to bed now.
Becs won the great couch debate. You going to be long?” His eyes
went to Uncle Al and back to me, that strange haunted look coming
back into them.

I shook my head. “I’m just
getting tea. I’ll come to bed soon.”

He stared at me for a few
moments.

Don’t worry
about me
, I thought hard, trying to
project it on him. I don’t know if it worked or not. He just nodded
sharply and said goodnight to both of us.

Once I heard the door to the
spare room close, Uncle Al put the tea down across from me.
“Careful, it’s hot.”

I blew on it for a long time
before taking a scalding sip.

My uncle leaned back in his
chair. “So what else do you want to know?”

I felt frustrated at the
conversation and fidgeted in my seat. “I don’t know. That, I guess.
I wanted to know what they said. I guess they think I went off with
Dex because I’m crazy.”

“
Perry, they
just want you to come home, that’s all.”

“
I’m
twenty-three. My mom wanted me out of the house for the longest
time, how could they want me back?”

“
They don’t
think you know what’s best for yourself at the moment.”

I nearly smacked my hand down
on the table but refrained myself. “I know what’s best for me more
than anyone else. I’m not crazy. I had a moment or two there but
that’s over.”

“
Is
it?”

I narrowed my eyes at him.
“What do you mean? Of course it is.”

“
And yet you
keep putting yourself in these positions.”

“
What
positions?”

He folded his hands on the
table. “My brother told me what you and your sister were saying,
that it was possession. Demonic possession. You know Daniel
discounted that off the bat, because of his beliefs. But you know
my beliefs. You knew what I felt about that lighthouse. I have no
doubt that if you keep opening yourself up to this…this job of
yours, that you’re just putting yourself more at risk.”

I couldn’t believe my
ears. “You believe that I was possessed?” I asked quietly. I wasn’t
sure that I could trust Uncle Al with the truth. We all played it
off like I was delirious with a fever, all so my parents wouldn’t
fear I was following in Pippa’s footsteps and have me committed.
What if Uncle Al was baiting me? What if he’d tell my parents what
I really thought, what I
knew
, happened?

I cleared my throat and
continued before he could answer. “Well I wasn’t possessed. I was
just delirious. My parents made a bigger deal about all of it than
they should have. And I didn’t want to live in that. Living with
Dex made perfect sense and I don’t regret a minute of it. I just
wish they could see that I know what I’m doing.”

He stared at me for a few
moments before shrugging, as if all the world had been on his
shoulders. I knew he didn’t believe the act but I was giving him no
choice. “When you see them, you can tell them that yourself.”

I took another sip of my tea,
the liquid burning my tongue and doing the opposite of making me
sleepy. When my mouth recovered, I asked him, “What did you want to
talk to me about?”

“
I think we’ve
already covered part of it,” he said. His eyes drifted over my
shoulder to the empty hallway. “Perry, I’m your uncle. I’m not your
father. I know that doesn’t stop me from giving you advice though
so I’m just going to talk. You can listen or you won’t listen, it’s
all the same. I want you to be happy. But I also want you to stay
happy. To think about your future.”

“
Okay,” I drew
out, thinking he sounded like he was going into a pitch for a
high-interest savings account.

He sighed and reached for a
cookie, weighing it in his hands. “I just don’t want you to do
anything foolish.”

I raised my brows. “That’s kind
of vague.”

“
Dex is
foolish,” he said quickly, his words sharp like needles. “You may
think you’re in love with him, and I believe you are, and I also
believe the man is in love with you, but…come on, bella, you have
to step back from the situation for just one second and try and see
it all from someone else’s perspective.”

I swallowed hard, a ball of
fire expanding painfully in my chest. “Someone else like my
parents?”

“
They’re
older, they’ve been there, we’ve all been there. You’re living with
this man that you barely even know, a man who just broke your heart
and ruined you.”

“
Barely even
know?” I managed to say. “I know Dex, okay? I know him more than
anyone in this world.”

“
Perry,” he
said, his voice tinged with impatience. “When was the last time you
were here? Think about it.”

I blinked stupidly. “Uh,
September?”

“
Right.
September. You came here with Dex in September. What month is it
now?”

“
May,” I said,
my throat tightening.

“
And how many
months is that?”

I stared at him, unwilling to
count. “I don’t know.”

“
It’s eight
months. You’ve known this guy for eight months.”