Never Again Good-Bye (10 page)

“Amy, I haven’t put the icing on the cake I made for dessert yet. Do you want to do it?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Honey, your daddy must have had something come up. He knows you’re fine here with me, so he isn’t worried. He’ll come when he can.”

A big tear dropped onto Amy’s cheek.

Laney caught her breath and knelt in front of her. “Honey, what’s the matter?”

Her bottom lip puckered out, and her face began to redden.

Laney pushed back the child’s hair and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Please, Amy. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“He’s not coming, is he?” Amy asked in a squeak. “He’s leaving me here with you. He was just tricking me when he said he would come.”

“Oh, honey, no” Laney insisted. “He meant it. He’ll be here. I promise you. Daddy would never say he was coming to get you if he didn’t mean it.”

“Yes, he would!” Amy cried. “Mommy did.”

Laney’s heart shattered, and she reached out for the child, but Amy swirled off her chair and backed away. “Sweetheart, Mommy didn’t lie to you.”

“Yes, she did! She went to the hospital, and she promised me she was coming back home! But she never did! She tricked me, just like Daddy!”

Laney covered her mouth with her hand. “Amy, Mommy was real sick. She wanted to come home more than anything in the whole world. But she couldn’t. She didn’t break her promise to you. She just never got the chance to keep it.”

She reached for Amy again, but the child recoiled. “Honey, listen to me—”

It was then that she heard the muffled sound of an engine pulling into the driveway, and she looked through the window. “There he is!” she shouted victoriously. “See? Your daddy came. Just like he said he would!”

Amy caught her breath and bolted for the front door. She was halfway across the yard before Wes was out of the truck.

He picked her up and she clung to him, weeping with her face buried in his neck. He fixed angry, accusing eyes on Laney as she approached him. “What did you do to her?”

Laney sucked in a breath. “Nothing! She got upset because you were late! She thought you weren’t coming!”

He whispered into Amy’s ear, trying to soothe her, then glanced back at Laney. “Look, I’m just gonna take her home. Neither one of us is up to doing dinner tonight. I’ll pick her up a hamburger on the way home.”

Laney nodded. “All right.” She watched as he pried Amy off him and made her climb into the truck. “Wes, tomorrow will you explain to her that you might be late, but you’re still coming?”

He cranked the engine before he answered her. “I can’t believe you’d bring her out this upset and expect to do it all again tomorrow.”

Laney was getting angry. “Wes, she wasn’t upset until you were late! And I would think you’d at least offer some kind of explanation! To her, if not to me.”

“Something came up,” he said between tight lips. “I got here as soon as I could.”

“Fine,” she said, backing off.

He put the truck in reverse and gave her one last look as if he had something to say but couldn’t say it. Finally, he backed out without a word.

Laney headed back into the house as fast as she could before he could see her crying again.

N
ot long after they left, the phone rang. Laney cleared her throat and wiped the tears off her face before she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Uh … this is Sherry Grayson … Wes’s sister? Is he still there, by any chance?”

“No,” she said, trying not to sound so forlorn. “He left about fifteen minutes ago.”

“Oh. I was hoping to catch him to warn him before he went home.”

Laney frowned. “Warn him of what?”

“Of the sign the bank posted on his house. I went by there to drop off some groceries I picked up for him, and I saw it. He isn’t even out yet, and they’ve already set a date for the auction.”

“What auction?”

“His house. Didn’t he tell you?”

Laney got to her feet. “Are they foreclosing on his house?”

“Uh … well … look,” she said, obviously rattled. “I’ll just call him when he gets home. I’m sorry to bother you.”

Laney hung up and stared disbelievingly down at the phone. Was that why Wes was late? Had he just learned that the bank was foreclosing on his house?

Slowly she sank down onto the couch, wishing she hadn’t yelled back when he’d yelled at her. But he hadn’t said a thing about foreclosure. Was he really being forced to leave his and Amy’s home?

Darkness began to descend, but Laney didn’t bother to turn on any lights. Instead, she sat alone on her couch, staring into the dusk and trying to imagine what it would do to Amy to lose her home now, on top of all the stress that Laney had brought into the little girl’s life.

She thought of Amy’s tears today, how she’d been certain that Wes wasn’t coming back, that he’d “tricked” her, that he, like her mother, was fading out of her life.

So much instability, she thought. So much uncertainty.

This was even worse than when Laney was a child. At least her father hadn’t had money problems. She had been able to stay in the home she’d shared with her mother. She wondered how her life would have been if there had been another mother figure somewhere, someone who wanted to love her and take care of her. Would she have welcomed it or shunned it? Would it have helped her through her grief or heightened it?

She opened the back door and walked back to the pool. Standing on the edge, she thought of Sunday afternoon when they’d played together like a family in the water, pretending that no one was missing, no one was added, nothing was broken, nothing was lost … She had clung to that fantasy ever since, not for herself as much as for Amy. She couldn’t help remembering how Amy had acted the first day they met, before she saw Laney as a threat. She had needed a woman in her life—in her home. And she had chosen to warm up to Laney.

It could be that way again, if some of the stress was relieved and some of the uncertainty were taken away. She could win Amy over if she could only get past some of the obstacles in her way.

It didn’t matter what it cost Laney. Somehow she had to find a way to bring stability instead of uncertainty back into Amy’s life.

A vague thought dawned on her, a thought that would offer Wes some relief and perhaps serve as a peace offering between them. She could loan him the money he needed to keep his house.

But that would only solve one of the problems, she thought. Not all of them. It would relieve his immediate stress, but it still wouldn’t bring Amy family security or give rest to her frightened mind. And it wouldn’t help her to accept Laney.

Laney wanted to be a mother, not just a creditor.

But there might be another way.

As a better idea took root in her heart, she began to see the light of hope. Maybe it would work. Maybe it could solve everything.

Quickly, she grabbed her purse and dug for her car keys. She had to see Wes right away.

S
herry showed up around eight with all the sympathy a sister could give, and knowing that Wes was too preoccupied and upset to function normally, she supervised Amy’s bath and put her to bed. After she had read Amy a story that put her to sleep, she looked for Wes.

He wasn’t in the den, so she went to the doorway of his bedroom and peeked in. Wes sat on the side of his bed, staring down at the portrait of Patrice in his hand.

“Want to talk?” Sherry asked him.

He twisted his mouth and shrugged. “I was just thinking what a failure I am. She trusted me to hold things together. I’ve lost partial custody of Amy, and I can’t even hold onto my house. I can’t even make a living.”

“Wes, none of this is your fault. You didn’t ask Laney Fields to come into your life. And nobody can blame you for all of the bills from Patrice’s cancer. What were you gonna do? Turn down medical treatment for her because you couldn’t afford it?”

“It’s gonna kill Amy, leaving this house.”

“You can stay with me until you get an apartment or find something to rent.”

“First I have to find a job.”

“But maybe you’ll get the contract for the park. Maybe it’ll happen in time …”

Wes shook his head. “No. They won’t make a decision on that for three weeks. By then, the bank will have everything I own. Let’s face it. I’m finished.”

“You can’t get an extension?”

“No,” he said. “This
was
an extension. I’ve been putting them off for months.”

She sat down on the bed next to him and hugged him. “I’m so sorry, Wes. I wish there was something I could do.”

“You did a lot. Working for me all these weeks with no pay …” He swallowed and looked down at the picture again. “I guess I’ll tell Amy tomorrow. We’ll have to start moving out this weekend. Maybe I could hire on with one of my subcontractors and get him to advance me a deposit on an apartment. I just hate to do it all so fast. It doesn’t give her any time to get used to it …”

He broke into tears and covered his face, and Sherry didn’t know what to do for him.

The doorbell rang, and he drew in a deep breath.

“Who could that be?” Sherry asked.

“Maybe the bank, coming to take all the furniture,” he said. “Bloodsuckers …”

Sherry got up. “I’ll get it.”

He went to the bathroom and leaned over the sink to splash water on his face. Blotting his face with a towel, he looked into the mirror. He had aged ten years in the last one, he thought. He had put up a terrible fight to stay above water, but he had lost.

He could accept all of it stoically, he thought, if it weren’t for Amy.

Sherry came back into the bedroom. “Wes, it’s Laney Fields.”

He came out, frowning. “What does she want?”

“Well, uh … she sort of heard about what was going on …” “How?”

Sherry winced. “I called you over there earlier, and I sort of … mentioned it before I realized she didn’t already know.” “Oh, great,” he said. “She’s probably come to chastise me for not providing for my child. Thanks a lot, Sherry.”

“I’m sorry, Wes. Look, I’m going to go home now, but if you need anything, just call. Any time of the night. I mean it, OK?” She shot him a bolstering look, then turned and headed for the back door.

He watched her go, his eyes dull. He didn’t want to see Laney. Not now. But as always, she hadn’t given him a choice in the matter.

Laney was waiting in the den. The moment she saw him, she asked, “Wes, why didn’t you tell me about the foreclosure?”

He threw up his hands. “I’m sorry. I must have missed the part where the judge told me I had to keep you informed about every event in my life.”

“Not every one,” she said, “but where you’ll live, at least. Have you told Amy?”

“No, I haven’t told Amy,” he said impatiently. “I’m still trying to sort it all out myself.”

“Well … when do you have to move?”

“Two weeks,” he said. “We’ll probably go ahead and get out this weekend.”

“Poor Amy,” she said, sinking down on the couch. “It’s gonna be such a shock to her.”

“She’s getting used to shocks,” he said. “You never cared about them before.”

“She’s getting used to me,” Laney said. “When you were late tonight, it was just a setback. She got scared. Wes, did she tell you what she was afraid of?”

He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, leaving it tousled. “No. We didn’t really talk about it much.”

“She said that she thought you’d tricked her like her mommy did.”

“What?”

“Wes, she’s terrified of losing you. She said that her mother promised to come back, and she didn’t, and now she’s sure that one day you won’t either.”

“She told you that?”

“Yes. She was very upset. It was … one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It reminded me of my childhood so much …” Her lips began to quiver. She was trembling, trying to go on. Finally she looked up. “Amy needs you,” she said. “She’s afraid, I think, that if she gets comfortable with me, she’ll lose you altogether. I think in her seven-year-old head she may even think we’re trying to prepare her for a time when you’ll drop out of her life.”

Knocking a newspaper off of a chair, Wes wilted into it. His eyes grew luminous. Maybe she did understand after all. “No argument so far.”