Stargazing (The Walker Family Book 2) (17 page)

She swallowed and now wiped her cheek as another tear escaped before she continued.

“See, when I went back home with my mom, I went back to a one-bedroom apartment. I slept on the couch. Mom would leave me home at night and I’d sit in the bathroom, in the bathtub, with the door locked.”

“Your mother left you alone at six?”

Bethany nodded. “She had
things
to do.”

“Honey, that’s not okay.”

She nodded. “It was my norm. When I started school I got up and went. I came home alone. Sometimes she’d come home. Sometimes she wouldn’t.”

Kent felt his throat closing off the air in his lungs. No one deserved this kind of childhood.

Bethany reached to the back of her head and pulled the band from her hair. She looped it around her fingers and stretched it. “I watched her take a pill for this and a pill for that over the years. I never thought anything of it. I had a hundred uncles.”

That part made Kent force down the vile taste of vomit he could feel pushing up.

She looped the band over her wrist and ran her fingers through her long, red curls. “She’d bring home a new guy every few months. They were wannabe producers and directors. They were all going to make her a big star. That didn’t happen.”

“I thought your mom had been in a lot of movies.”

“Fourteen and a half.”

“A half?”

“They fired her half way through one and recast her. She was too stoned, too drunk, or too MIA.”

He nodded. “But you followed in her footsteps?”

“It was all I knew.” She reached for his hands and interlaced their fingers. “When I was fifteen there was a director who wanted me in his film. Pretty exciting for a girl that no one had ever paid attention to.”

“Lucky break?”

“Sure. Once I let him have my virginity and see what there was for me to offer him, I got the part.”

Her fingers had tightened around his and he realized that she was holding on for dear life.

“Bethany…”

“Don’t feel sorry for me, okay?”

“I can’t help it.”

“This only gets worse and if you want to know my life up to this point, then you have a lot of listening to do.”

Kent nodded and sucked in a breath. He didn’t want to hear another word, but he knew that didn’t take away what had happened to her. So he braced himself.

He sat there on the lounge while she squeezed his fingers until they were nearly numb. For the next hour, she told him about the men she’d been with, all offering her opportunities for a night. There were drugs in high school. Alcohol suspensions in junior high school. For a short time, she had her say in Hollywood among the B-film community. She was wanted.

Food was a curse since she was fifteen and she binged and purged almost all the time. Though she felt she had that under control, or so she said.

Alcohol didn’t seem to be a problem. That was something he was happy to hear, but the pills, she admitted, that had been something new since her mother had passed.

“I couldn’t deal with it all. So I took all her pills and I started to look them up online. When things got too stressed I’d pick out the right pill. Then when Douglas attacked us…”

“You turned to them more.”

“Do you blame me?”

“Not in the least.” Now he pulled her close and held her next to his rapidly beating heart. “It’s never going to be like that again,” he promised.

“You’re right. I’m never going back.”

“That doesn’t matter. If you want to be rid of all this, then it should be. I’m here to see you through it. I’ll get you help. I’ll help you. Whatever you want, I’m here and I know your family is too. Pearl loves you and she wants what’s best for you. I’ve seen Eric around you and I’m sure he’s on my side too. He’s on your side.”

“That’s why I stayed in Georgia. I didn’t want to be someone who was found dead weeks later because no one missed them.”

“It’ll never happen that way.”

“Promise?”

“With my life.”

Bethany let go of his hand for the first time in nearly an hour. She stood from the lounge and reached for him.

“Follow me.”

She led him to the bedroom. He figured she was going to want to seal the deal and he had to admit, after a roller coaster of emotions, he’d much rather take a roll in the sheets.

But she kept walking. She took him into the bathroom and stopped next to the sink.

“What are we doing?” he asked.

She pointed to the trash can and Kent gasped. “What are those?”

“Those are my mother’s pills. The ones I’ve been using. The ones that killed her. I threw them away the other day after Susan fired me. See, I had all intention of making them go away.”

He nodded and looked at the trash can that was nearly overflowing. “This is all of them?”

She opened the cabinet behind the mirror. “Yes. See, I took them all out.”

Knowing she needed his help to make them disappear, he picked up the trash can and held it in his arms.

“Are you okay for an hour?”

“Why?”

“I want you to start packing for our trip. I’m going to take these and dispose of them. Far away from here, okay?”

She nodded. “We could just flush…”

“Nope. I’m going to make them disappear and you’re going to let me.”

“O-kay.” She let out a short breath. “You’re not leaving forever though, right? You’re coming back.”

“Of course I am.”

“I told you a lot of horrible things.”

He bent and kissed her forehead. “You did. You know what? It doesn’t change anything. And guess what, you’re only twenty-four years old. That leaves a long, long life ahead of you. All of this is going to be like a bad movie you watched and you’ll never watch again. I promise you that.”

“I’m scared.”

“Don’t be. Promise me you’re done with all of this for good.”

“I promise.”

He smiled. “That’s all I ever need.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Driving around town with an entire trash can full of prescription pills, which belonged to Violet Waterbury, didn’t feel quite right. What if he got pulled over? What if he happened to crash his car? The what-ifs were piling up.

Where did he think he was going to take them to get rid of them? He couldn’t just walk through the front door of the hotel with the trashcan full of bottles. That was a bit suspicious. He couldn’t dump them where anyone could see them.

Seriously, he was at a loss and he’d promised he’d be back in an hour. That even cut out the thought that he could take them out to Eric’s house, if he could even find the place.

Then Pearl popped into his head. He’d head over there and see what she had to say. At times like this he wished he had his sister’s ‘emergency mother kit’ in the van. He could guarantee she had a big trash bag in that.

Kent parked in front of Pearl’s store. He quickly climbed from the van, with the trash can, and hurried inside.

He wished he’d looked in the window first. There stood at least six people looking through racks of dresses. And by the wide eyes on two of the ladies, they’d recognized him.

Pearl moved to him and then her eyes too grew wide.

She put her arm around his shoulders and grinned. “In the back room,” she commanded and hurried him away. He then heard her tell the other ladies, “Sequin find. You can never have enough sequins in old medicine bottles, right?”

The women all laughed as Kent ducked into the small room where Pearl had a table, two chairs, a small refrigerator, and a microwave.

It was ten minutes before she hurried into the room and shut the door.

Kent stood from the chair at the table. “I’m so sorry. I should have looked to see if you had customers. I didn’t think to…”

“Are these her pills?”

“Her mother’s pills, but yes. This is all of them.”

Pearl walked over to the trash can and began pulling out the bottles and reading the labels. “This is like a freaking pharmacy. What was wrong with that stupid woman?”

“Bethany?” His voice rose in offense.

“No, her stupid mother. I never liked that woman. My dad tried to get us to, but I didn’t like her. When Bethany was six, I asked him to keep her here after they had come for a visit. Stupid Violet was probably trying to scam money. She probably got it too. Poor Bethany, I remember her having marks on her.”

Kent reached for Pearl’s hand, stopping her from taking another bottle from the trash can. “Marks?”

“Hand marks on her arm,” she said and he let go. “As if someone grabbed her arm—often.”

Bethany hadn’t mentioned that and he assumed it was just normal behavior for her mother to do that. Why mention it?

“She promised me this was over,” he said. “I’m taking her away for the week. This is all she had and she already had it in the trash can. I think that means she’s ready to move on.”

“She’s going to need more help than you or I can give her,” Pearl pointed out.

“Maybe. But we’re her first line of defense. We leave tonight and will be back next Wednesday.”

“Okay. You keep in touch with me. Have her call me every day. Get her help if she needs it and…”

Kent gathered Pearl’s hands in his. “I love her. I meant it when I said it. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is ever going to happen to her again.”

“We have to protect her.”

“We are.” He kissed her on the cheek and gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “I have to get back to her. Can you make these disappear?”

“Like a Vegas magician.”

“Good enough.”

Kent returned within the hour he’d promised. Susan was home now. She was wiping her eyes from visible tears when she answered the door.

“Everything okay here?” he asked.

“We’re having some tea and laughing so hard we’re crying,” she said as she walked him to the kitchen.

There sat Bethany and another woman who were both wiping away tears, just as Susan had.

Bethany stood and kissed him gently on the lips. Then she turned toward the other woman. “This is my sister Audrey.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” she said, still trying to catch her breath.

“Looks like you girls are having a nice time.”

Bethany rested her hand on his chest. “We are. A very nice time.”

“I still have to pack. Why don’t I leave you and your…”

“No,” she said softly. “I’m ready to go. My bag is by the door.”

“I’ll go put it in the van,” he said and she nodded.

He shut the front door behind him after he’d picked up her bag. He wondered what had spurred her decision to not stay and chat with the women. It should have been a good thing to stay and bond with her sister, he thought.

As he opened the side door to the van, Bethany walked out of the front door, and closed it behind her.

She was smiling. It was about time he saw that smile without having to have coaxed it out of her.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”

She walked toward him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He gathered her close.

“I want to be with you. You have no idea how good I feel right now.”

“I’m glad.”

“How long of a drive do we have?”

“Well, I have to go check out of my hotel, and then we have just shy of four hours.”

She nodded with a smile. “What kind of radio does this thing have in it?”

He cringed. “AM, FM.”

“iPhone hook up?”

“It’s that old,” he said shaking his head.

“Okay then.” She nipped his lips with a gentle kiss. “How about in two hours we pull over so I can have fifteen minutes of yoga?”

He crinkled up his nose at that. “Really? You want to do yoga during the trip?”

“Would you trust me if I told you that it helps me keep my food down if I’m focused. If I tell you that I won’t get restless if I stretch. If…”

“Anything you want, sweetheart. As long as you’re with me the rest of the week you just tell me what you need.”

“I want you to introduce me as Bethany Walker.”

He eased back slightly. “Bethany Walker?”

“I’ve decided that if I’m going to toss away Bethany Waterbury then I should be the other me,” she giggled when she said it. “Audrey came up with the idea.”

“You told Audrey?”

“And Susan.”

“You’re recovering by leaps and bounds.”

She rested her head against his chest. “Baby steps.”

“Those sound good to me.”

Within the hour, Kent was checked out of his hotel and they were on their way. Bethany had found some radio station with music he’d never heard before. If it wasn’t country, Kent hadn’t been exposed.

She was seated next to him. If she had a headband of daisies around her head, she’d have been the perfect embodiment of a 60’s child of love, he thought. She was breathtaking.

“You should watch the road,” she said tucking her bare feet up under her skirt.

“Sorry. Distracted by your beauty.”

She laughed easily and the pink glow in her cheeks made him happy. This release for her wasn’t going to be so hard, he decided.

Two hours into the drive, he found a park where they could park and she could do her yoga. The backdrop was perfect with the evening sun.

Though she had tried her best to convince him to do yoga with her, he insisted that he’d much rather watch her. It proved to be the better choice. Watching her beautiful body bend and move in a fluid dance was breathtaking.

The drive took more than four hours with their stop half-way and then a necessary dinner break.

Kent watched as Bethany searched the menu for a meal. Even though she settled on a salad, he thought that was a step in the right direction. There was no gorging yourself on a salad. Not that he could imagine anyway.

When they finally checked into their hotel, it was nearly nine o’clock. It was then he noticed Bethany’s fidgeting.

“Everything okay?”

“Yep. I feel good. Just have a lot of energy.”

He gave her a small nod. “What do you want to do with that?”

It didn’t take but a moment and she was jumping into his arms, her legs wrapped around his waist, and his balance compromised, dumping them both onto the bed.