Everything (21 page)

“That was...bizarre,” I breathed out.

“You were crying.”

“Was I?” I didn’t remember that.

“You called out for your dad. It was heartbreaking.”

The dream was already starting to fade, but I remembered being so happy in it and that he had said I had needed to look after my sister. I sat up on the couch and rubbed my temples, a headache forming. It was still dark outside and, looking through the window at the horizon, I guessed it had to be around three o’clock in the morning. I still needed a shower, and I wanted to go and check on Aria to make sure she was okay.
 

“Where are you going?” Trevor asked.

“I want a shower. Plus, I want to check on A.”

“She came down about an hour ago to get something to drink, then went back upstairs.”

“Did she seem okay to you?” I asked, concerned.
 

He looked at me helplessly and shrugged his shoulders. “She seemed as okay as she could be given the situation.”

“Did she say anything?”

“No. She didn’t even look this way.”
 

I got up to go upstairs. “I’m going to go and take a shower and check on her. You staying here or going home?”

“What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to stay,” I said selfishly.

“Then I’m staying. I’ll be here when you get back.” He took off his shoes and stretched out on the couch.

I went to Aria’s room first to find her fast asleep under her blanket, snoring softly. I walked over to her and sat softly on her bed. I moved a piece of her hair that had fallen into her face.

She stirred. “Daddy?” she asked.

I froze, scared to move any more for fear she would think I was him.
 

She began to wake fully. “Dacey?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Go back to sleep. I was just checking on you.”

“I saw Daddy,” she said sleepily.
 

I knew she was probably referring to a dream she just had. “I did too,” I confessed.

“Dacey,” she moaned.

“Go back to sleep.” I didn’t want her to start getting upset and be up the rest of the morning, especially when we had such a long day ahead of us.

“It’s my fault they are gone.” She said, starting to cry.

“Shhh. No, it’s not. They got in a car crash. It happens.”

“You don’t understand.”

“We can talk about this later. Go back to sleep. Just forget it. It’s not like it will bring them back.”

She turned over in her bed and faced the wall, effectively ending our conversation. She never turned her back on me. Even when she was mad at me, she never turned her back on me. She preferred to shoot me dirty looks to let me know she was mad rather than not look at me.

I got up and went to take a hot shower. I stayed in there a long time, savoring the alone time and trying to analyze what I remembered from my dream. I should have known it was a dream. It couldn’t have been a memory because Wally had never given me a bike, and he sure as hell never taught me to ride one. And his smile—what I wouldn’t give for him to have smiled like that for me in real life. Now it was too late to ever have that. Dad had said for me to be a big sister, I think. And where was Mom in all of this? It was all so confusing, but then again, weren’t dreams supposed to be?

By the time I got out of the shower, my brain was so overrun with thoughts, I didn’t even notice that an hour had gone by. I went back downstairs to find Trevor fast asleep on the couch, arms behind his head and feet sticking off the other end of the couch. I went over to him and kissed him lightly on the lips.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked sleepily.

“Can you hold me?”

“Come here.” He opened his arms, and I climbed on top of him, my head on his chest, and he circled his arms tightly around me.

“Tighter,” I commanded.

“Dac, you okay?” He hesitated.

“I just need a really tight hug. Can you squeeze tighter?”
 

Without saying anything else, he squeezed tighter and I let out a heavy sigh.

“That’s good. I just needed my island.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I couldn’t fall asleep, so we just lay like that until dawn. Then I heard a car door outside in the driveway and got up to inspect. “Fucking great,” I whispered to myself.

Mick was getting out of his new-edition Cadillac SRX Crossover. Leave it to him even in a crisis to get the most expensive rental on the lot.

“Who is it?” asked Trevor.

“Now’s your chance to meet the devil incarnate.” I went to open the door before Mick had a chance to ring the bell so that he wouldn’t wake everyone up. “Hey, Mick.”

“Dacey.” Even now, he still said my name like it was dirt on his tongue. Dick.

 
“Everyone is still asleep,” I said. “We all had a pretty exhausting day yesterday.”

“I can imagine.” He came in and set his suitcase down next to the door. He glanced over at the couch and noticed Trevor, who was now sitting up.

“Who’s this?” Mick jerked his head in Trevor’s direction.

“That’s my boyfriend, Trevor Martin. Trevor, this is Mick Holmes, Mom’s brother.”
 

Trevor got up and crossed the living room to shake Mitch’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Um, you too,” Mick said, taking his hand, but not before sizing him up.

“Wish it was under better circumstances,” Trevor said.

Mick turned to me and did something totally un-Mick-like and hugged me. I didn’t hug people outside of Trevor, Mom, and Aria, so I was a little caught off guard and stood there with my hands to my side. What the hell?

“I’m sorry about your dad. Even though we had our differences, he treated my sister and my niece good. I can’t fault him for that.”

What was I supposed to say to that? I said nothing and stepped out of the awkward hug.

“Do we know what happened?” he asked.

“They were in a car accident,” I said.

“Well, what were they doing? Were they going to some place or coming from some place?”

I had wondered this myself. “I haven’t talked to the officer since yesterday, and he didn’t tell me much. I was going to call him today.”

“Let me handle it. She was my sister,” he said authoritatively.

Normally, I would have been pissed that he was coming in and trying to take over as usual. But in this case, I was all too eager for him to take the reins. I didn’t want to know the horrible way my parents had spent their last few moments.

“What about the arrangements?” Mick asked. He was all business now.

“I’m not sure. I...I think the mortuary is going to call today,” I stammered, not sure how to answer.

He studied me in that “Mick way” that made me feel inferior, like I was missing something.

“It’s okay. I know this is new to you, and I’ve had to deal with this before. Why don’t you let me take over for now?”

How could I say no? I had no idea what I was doing. I was so overwhelmed with just losing them. I had no idea how I was going to bury them or how I was going to say good-bye, forever.

Before I had time to reply, Aria bounded down the stairs and flew into Mick’s arms. “Uncle Mick, I’m so sorry, so sorry,” she cried.

Why was she apologizing to him?

“Hey, kiddo, hush. I’m sorry. Your mom...I’m going to...We are both going to miss her.” He hugged her.

Why hadn’t he said that to me?

“This is...I’m just sorry.” Aria continued to sob.

“Why don’t we move into the living room?” I gestured. I went and sat next to Trevor on the couch.
 

Mick sat across from us on the two-seater and made room for Aria, who surprised us both and came to sit by me, taking my hand in hers. Mick frowned but quickly replaced it with a somber expression.

“How are you girls holding up?” he asked.

“We’re fine,” we said in unison again.

“Ann was right—that is weird.”

At the mention of her name, my heart jerked a little. It was the first time someone had called her by name instead of saying “your mom.” It felt strange.

“How was your flight?” I asked, mostly to be polite, because I really didn’t care.

“It was okay.”

“What time is it, anyway?” I asked and looked around at the clock that hung on the wall next to the TV.

“Going on 6:30 a.m. I would have been here sooner, but there was a mix-up with the rental car place.”

He probably had to wait for his car, I thought snidely. Then I regretted it. Here we were in the house again, this time without Mom, and never would be with her again, and I still couldn’t be nice to the guy. I would try to change that, for her.

“Where are you staying?” Aria broke in through my thoughts.

“I assumed I was staying here.” He looked at me with a tilted head.

“Oh, I’m sorry. We have people who are staying in our guest room from out of town already,” I apologized. I had totally forgotten that Mick would be coming, and even then I didn’t think I could live with him under the same roof. I was supposed to change that mentality. Working on it.

“But I’m family,” he replied huffily.

“So are they,” Aria replied.
 

He shot her a look as if to say something but thought better of it.

“You could stay with Aunt Opal,” Aria suggested with a smirk.
 

I squeezed her hand and stifled a laugh. Mick and Opal? That would be a laugh. They had never met, through the grace of something higher, and Mom and I intended it that way. Opal was...well, Opal, and Mick, being the force of nature he was, it was best that the two never crossed paths. But now, that couldn’t be helped.

“Whose aunt? It’s not yours. I didn’t have another sister,” he said indignantly.

“She’s been my aunt since I can remember. She has taken care of me and loved me like her own, so she is my aunt,
Uncle
.”

“Now look, Aria. I never said anything, but I never pretended to like the whole ‘merging of families’ thing. They have their family, and we have ours.”
 

I knew this was coming. I just didn’t think it would be so soon.

Aria stood. “How can you say that? How can you sit there and say that Dacey isn’t my sister? That Daddy wasn’t my dad? You have no idea what you’re talking about.” She was getting worked up.
 

Mick was about to reply when the front door opened and Opal walked in along with Mr. Davis and Rufus at his heels.

“Is anybody up?” Opal called out before spotting the scene in the living room.

“Daddy and Dacey were right. You’re a dick! And if Mom had a grave, she would be rolling in it. To take Dacey away from her—from
us
—because you didn’t agree...is bullshit,” she spat.

“Aria, it’s okay—” I began.

“No! He’s been treating you like this for years, and I’ve never said anything. Well, no more! This is my
sister
! She has been there for me when even you have not. She has never let me down, when you have. And that lady”—she pointed at Opal—“that is my
aunt
! Sure, she’s a little batshit crazy at times, but she has bandaged my scrapes and taught me the meaning of right and wrong and been there for me, really been there for me. That’s more than I can say for you,
Uncle.
So, you don’t get to come here and tell me who the fuck my family is and isn’t. If that’s so, you can get the hell out of
our
house.”

And with that, she stormed up the stairs and all we heard was the slamming of her bedroom door. What. The. Hell?

“I’ve always said she had fire in her, but whooo-wee,” laughed Aunt Opal. She came into the living room and sat down in Aria’s spot, across from an open-mouthed and red-faced Mick.

“I take it you’re Uncle Mick? I’m Opal Jean Watson. Pleasure.” She stuck out her hand and offered it to Mick.

“I’m going to check on Aria. That wasn’t like her—”

“Oh, let her be,” Aunt Opal cut off Mick. “She just blowin’ off steam. I’ve never seen that lil’ chile be less than sweet tea to anyone. She’ll come ’round.”

“What is with all the yelling?
Dios mío
!” Tina came groggily around the corner from the guest room. She eyed the scene in the living room: Trevor, me, and Opal sitting on the couch across from Mick the Dick and Mr. Davis standing just off to the side with an observing eyebrow. Tina missed nothing though. “Hey, Mick. Just landed, huh?”

“Justina.” He said her name in the same manner as he said mine. She was dirt by association. “So you’re the family staying in the guest room,” Mick said. It wasn’t a question.

“My mom and I are in there, yes.”
He didn’t say anything, just nodded and turned back to me and Opal. He liked Tina less than he liked me. Point for me, I guess.

“Dacey, despite what just happened here with your
sister
, my offer still stands. Let me handle all the arrangements for you, funeral-wise.”

“Now hold on, slick. You can’t come on in here and take ova things. This here a family affair,” Opal interjected.

“And I’m family. Ann was
my
sister.”

“An’ those are
my
nieces. It was
their
parents that died. They got as much say in this as you,” Opal said.

“Look, lady—”

“Okay!” I interjected loudly. This was getting ugly. I can see why we’d never had them meet before.

“Mick, I appreciate the offer. I really have no clue what to do. But I want A and I to be involved as much as possible too. So can’t we compromise?”

“Sure, that’s fine. I would never want Aria to not be involved, and you as well. They were your parents. I was merely suggesting that the phone calls and finances, I’ll handle for the time being.”
 

Alarm bells were going off in the back of my head. Mick and finances were two things I knew didn’t go together in a sentence, but I was too focused on defusing the situation in front of me. Besides, it’s not like my parents were super-rich. They were working-class citizens in a small town, and my dad’s business was barely above water.

“Whatever, Mick. I can’t even think about those things right now,” I said.

“’Course you can’t, an’ don’t need to be,” Opal said pointedly, looking at Mick. He seemed to get the message and dropped the subject, for now.