Never Too Far (2 page)

I put my beer down on the table beside me and stood up. Whoever it was they needed a

real good reason for coming over here uninvited. I walked through a house that had stayed

clean since Henrietta, the house cleaner’s, last visit. With no parties or social life it was easy to keep things from getting destroyed. I was finding I liked this much better.

The knocking started up again as I reached the door and I jerked it open ready to tell whoever it was to fuck off when words failed me. This wasn’t someone I’d ever expected to

see again. I’d only met the guy once and I instantly hated him. Now he was here, I wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake him until he told me how she was. If she was okay.

Where she was living? God I hoped she wasn’t living with him. What if he’d… no, no, no, that hadn’t happened. She wouldn’t. Not
my
Blaire.

My hands clenched tightly into fists at my sides.

“I need to know one thing,” Cain, the boy from Blaire’s past, said as I stared at him in confused disbelief. “Did you,” he stopped and swallowed. “Do you…
fuck
—” He took off his baseball cap and ran a hand through his hair. I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the tired, weary expression on his face.

My heart stopped. I grabbed his upper arm and shook him. “Where’s Blaire? Is she okay?”

“She’s ine… I mean, she’s okay. Let go of me before you break my damn arm,” Cain snapped, jerking his arm away from me. “Blaire is alive and well in Sumit. That isn’t why I’m here.”

Then why was he here? We had one connection. Blaire.

“When she left Sumit she was innocent. Very innocent. I had been her only boyfriend. I know how innocent she was. We’ve been best friends since we were kids. The Blaire that came back wasn’t the same one that left. She doesn’t talk about it. She won’t talk about it. I just need to know if you and her… if y’all… I’m just gonna say this, did you fuck her?”

My vision blurred as I moved without any thought other than to murder him. He’d crossed

a line. He wasn’t allowed to talk about Blaire like that. He wasn’t allowed to ask those kinds of questions or doubt her innocence. Blaire was innocent, damn him. He had no right.

“Holy shit! Rush, bro, put him down!” Grant’s voice called out to me. I heard him but it was far away and in a tunnel. I was focused on the guy in front of me as my ist connected with his face and blood spewed from his nose. He was bleeding. I needed him to bleed. I needed someone to fucking bleed.

Two arms wrapped around mine from behind and pulled me away as Cain stumbled

backwards holding his hands up to his nose with a panicked look in his eyes. Well, one of his eyes. The other one was already swelling shut.

“What the hell did you say to him?” Grant asked from behind me. It was Grant who had me

in a vise grip.

“Don’t you fucking say it!” I roared when Cain opened his mouth to reply. I couldn’t hear

him talk about her like that. What we had done was more than something dirty or wrong. He

acted like I’d ruined her. Blaire was innocent. So incredibly innocent.What he had done didn’t change that.

Grant’s arms tightened on me as he pulled me back against his chest. “You need to go now.

I can only hold him for so long. He’s got about twenty more pounds of muscle on him than I do and this ain’t as easy as it looks. You need to run, dude. Don’t come back. You’re one lucky shit I showed up.”

Cain nodded and then stumbled back to his truck. The anger had simmered in my veins but

I still felt it. I wanted to hurt him more. To wash away any thought he may have in his head that Blaire wasn’t as perfect as she had been when she had left Alabama. He didn’t know what all she’d been through. The hell my family had put her through. How could he take care of her?

She needed me.

“If I let you go are you gonna chase his truck down or are we good?” Grant asked loosening his hold on me.

“I’m good,” I assured him as I shrugged free of his arms and walked over to the railing to grip it and take several deep breaths. The pain was back full force. I’d managed to bury it until it only throbbed a little but seeing that chickenshit reminded me of everything. That night.

The one I would never recover from. The one that would mark me forever.

“Can I ask you what the hell that was about or are you gonna beat the shit outta me too?”

Grant asked putting some distance between us.

He was my brother for all intents and purposes. Our parents had been married when we

were kids. Long enough for us to form that bond. Even though my mom had a couple husbands since then Grant was still my family. He knew enough to know this was about Blaire.

“Blaire’s ex-boyfriend,” I replied without looking back at him.

Grant cleared his throat. “So, uh, he come over here to gloat? Or did you just beat him to a bloody pulp because he touched her once?”

Both. Neither. I shook my head. “No. He came over here asking questions about me and

Blaire. Things that weren’t his business. He asked the wrong thing.”

“Ah, I see. That makes sense. Well he paid for it. The dude’s probably got a broken nose to go with that closed shut eye of his.”

I inally lifted my head and looked back at Grant. “Thanks for pulling me off him. I just snapped.”

Grant nodded then opened the door. “Come on. Let’s go turn on the game and drink a beer.”

Blaire

My mother’s grave was the only place I could think of to go. I had no home. I couldn’t go back to Granny Q’s. She was Cain’s grandmother. He was probably there waiting on me. Or maybe he wasn’t. Maybe I’d pushed him away too. I sat down at the foot of my mother’s grave.I pulled my knees up under my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs.

I had come back to Sumit because it was the only place I knew to come. Now, I needed to

leave. I couldn’t stay here. Once again my life was about to take a sudden turn. One I wasn’t prepared for. When I’d been a little girl my momma had taken us to Sunday school at the local Baptist church. I remembered a scripture they read us from the Bible about God not putting more on us than we could bear. I was beginning to wonder if that was just for those people who went to church every Sunday and prayed before they went to bed at night. Because he

wasn’t holding back any punches with me.

Feeling sorry for myself didn’t help me. I couldn’t do that. I had to igure this one out too.

My staying with Granny Q and letting Cain help me deal with day to day life had only been temporary. I knew when I moved into her guest bedroom that I couldn’t stay long. There was too much history between Cain and me. History I didn’t intend to repeat. The time to leave was here but I was still just as clueless about where I was gonna go and what I was gonna do as I had been three weeks ago.

“I wish you were here, Momma. I don’t know what to do and I don’t have anyone to ask,” I

whispered as I sat there in the quiet cemetery. I wanted to believe she could hear me. I didn’t like the idea of her being under the ground but after my twin sister, Valerie, had died I’d sat here in this spot with my mom and we’d talked to Valerie. Momma had said her spirit was

watching out for us and she could hear us. I so wanted to believe that now.

“It’s just me. I miss y’all. I don’t want to be alone… but I am. And I’m scared.” The only sound was the wind rustling the leaves in the trees. “You once told me if I listened real hard I’d know the answer in my heart. I’m listening Momma, but I am so confused. Maybe you could help me out by pointing me in the right direction somehow?”

I rested my chin on my knees and closed my eyes, refusing to cry.

“Remember when you said I needed to tell Cain exactly how I felt. That I wouldn’t feel better until I had it all out. Well, I did just that today. Even if he does forgive me it’ll never be the same. I can’t keep relying on him for things anyway. It’s time I igure this out on my own. I just don’t know how.”

Just asking her made me feel better. Knowing I wouldn’t get an answer didn’t seem to matter.

A car door slammed breaking the peacefulness and I dropped my arms from my legs and

turned to look back at the parking lot to see a car too expensive for this little town. Turning my eyes to see who had stepped out of it I gasped then jumped up. It was Bethy. She was here.

In Sumit.In the cemetery… driving a very, very expensive looking car.

Her long brown hair was pulled over her shoulder in a ponytail. There was a smile tugging

on her lips as my eyes met hers. I couldn’t move. I was afraid I was imagining things. What was Bethy doing here?

“You not having a cell phone is for the birds. How the hell am I supposed to call you and tell you I’m coming to get your ass if I have no number to call? Hmmm?” Her words made no sense but just hearing her voice sent me running the short distance between us.

Bethy laughed and opened her arms as I lung myself into them. “I can’t believe you’re here,” I said after hugging her.

“Yeah, well, me either. That was one long drive. But you’re worth it and seeing as you left the cell phone in Rosemary I had no way to talk to you.”

I wanted to tell her everything but I couldn’t. Not yet. I needed time. She knew about my

dad already. She knew about Nan. But the rest… I knew she didn’t know.

“I’m so glad you’re here but how did you find me?”

Bethy grinned and tilted her head to the side. “I drove through town looking for your truck.

It wasn’t that hard. This place has like one red light. If I had blinked twice I’d have missed it.”

“That car probably caught some attention coming through town,” I said glancing over at it.

“It’s Jace’s. That thing rides like a dream.”

She was still with Jace. Good. But my chest ached. Jace reminded me of Rosemary. And Rosemary reminded me of Rush.

“I’d ask you how you are but girl, you look like a walking stick igure. Have you had food since you left Rosemary?”

My clothes were all falling off me. Eating had been dif icult with the large knot that stayed tight in my chest at all times. “It’s been a rough few weeks but I think I’m getting better.

Moving on from things. Dealing with it.”

Bethy shifted her gaze to the grave behind me. Both of them. I could see the sadness in her eyes as she read both the headstones. “No one can take away your memories. You have those,” she said squeezing my hand in hers.

“I know. I don’t believe them. My father is a liar. I don’t believe any of them. She, my mother, she wouldn’t have done what they claim. If anyone is to blame it is my father. He caused this pain. Not my momma. Never my momma.”

Bethy nodded and held my hand irmly in hers. Just having someone listen to me and know

they believed me, that they believed my mother’s innocence helped.

“Did your sister look a lot like you?”

The last memory I had of Valerie was of her smiling. That bright smile that was so much

prettier than mine. Her teeth were perfect without the help of braces. Her eyes were brighter than mine. But everyone said we were identical. They didn’t see the difference. I always wondered why. I could see it so clearly.

“We were identical,” I replied. Bethy wouldn’t understand the truth.

“I can’t imagine two Blaire Wynns. Y’all must have broken hearts all over this little town.”

She was trying to lighten the mood after asking about my deceased sister. I appreciated it.

“Just Valerie. I was with Cain from the time I was young. I didn’t break any hearts.”

Bethy’s eyes went a little wide then she glanced away before clearing her throat. I waited until she turned back to me. “Although seeing you is awesome and we could totally rock this town, I’m actually here for a purpose.”

I assumed she was I just couldn’t figure out what that purpose was exactly.

“Okay,” I said waiting for more of an explanation.

“Can we talk about this over a coffee?” She frowned then glanced back at the street. “Or

maybe the Dairy K since that’s like the only place I saw when I drove through town.”

She wasn’t comfortable hanging out amongst the graves like I was. That was normal. I was

not. “Yeah, okay,” I said and walked over to pick up my purse.

“
There’s your answer,”
a soft voice whispered so quietly I almost thought I’d imagined it.

Turning to look back at Bethy she was smiling with her hands tucked in her front pockets.

“Did you say something?” I asked confused.

“Uh, you mean after I suggested we go to the Dairy K?” she asked.

I nodded. “Yeah. Did you whisper something?”

She scrunched her nose and then glanced around nervously and shook her head. “Nope…

um… why don’t we get out of here?” she said reaching for my arm and pulling me behind her

back toward Jace’s car.

I looked back at my mom’s grave and a peace settled over me. Had that been…? No. Surely

not. Shaking my head, I turned back around and went to get into the passenger side before

Bethy threw me in.

Rush

It was my mother’s birthday. Nan had called me twice already asking me to call our mother. I couldn’t do it. She was on a beach in the Bahamas with
him
. This hadn’t affected her at all. Once again she’d run off to enjoy her life while leaving her kids behind to figure things out.

“Nan’s calling again. You want me to answer it and tell her to leave you the hell alone?”

Grant walked into the living room holding up my cell phone in his hand while it rang.

Those two fought like actual siblings. “No, give it to me,” I replied as he tossed me the phone.