The Davis Years (Indigo) (29 page)

He glanced at her. Was she trying to pour salt in the wound, or did she have no tact at all?

She sat on the edge of his bed, near his feet. “I just want things to be okay between us. Would it help if I told you what happened?”

“To tell you the truth, I dunno.” Davis paused the game and looked in her direction.

“Let’s at least give it a try. I really don’t want you to leave your home. This place is yours more than it will ever be mine.”

He kept his face emotionless and stared at her sitting at the foot of his bed. He swung his legs over the side of the bed so that he sat close to the headboard. He stared down at a faded cola stain on his tan carpet, waiting for her to tell her story.

“I was young. When I married Bill. As you know. I was twenty-three and broke and I believed everything he said to me. As I’m sure you know, that man was full of lies.”

He turned his head toward her, but other than that made no move at all.

“Bill and I—I don’t know if I ever loved him. If I did, it wasn’t the type of love you marry for. And I think when he realized that, that’s what set him off. Made him a bitter, ugly man. When he found out about my boyfriend, that’s when the drinking started.”

“You cheated on him.” Davis’s voice was a perfect monotone.

“Yeah. And still being young, stupid, and selfish, I chose myself over you kids until it was too late. I gave up my parental rights and . . . well, I told you the rest earlier. Bill was pretty convincing. I figured there was no point in coming back.”

“How’d you find Cole and Ashby?”

“I hired a P.I. I needed to know what happened to my kids. By the time I got in touch with them, you’d already had your accident. They told me it was best to stay away from you. That you had turned into another version of him and didn’t want anything to do with your family. It took me weeks and finding out about Bill to realize that I needed to stop listening to other people.”

“Really. You know, it’s suspicious to me that you show up a few months after Bill died. Now that there’s a house to be had. My accident was four years ago.”

“I was still mixed up inside. I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of. I didn’t know if I was worthy of being back in any of your lives. Your brothers made me feel like I wasn’t for a long time. I still don’t know if I am. All I know is I want you in my life.”

“What about your other family? Don’t I have brothers and sisters I don’t know about?”

“Sean—Sean never wanted any kids. And my third marriage didn’t last long enough for us to talk about kids. I still wear the ring, but that’s been over for a while now. And after what I did to you all . . . I didn’t figure I deserved any more kids anyway.”

“Well, you made one good decision. I guess that’s better than none.”

“I understand that you’re angry. I only hope you can forgive me one day. I need you, son. I need all three of you.”

“So you’ve been married twice since Bill?”

“Yeah. Like I said, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. But now I want to repair whatever I can.”

“Wow. It only took you twenty-one years to choose me? Not bad at all.”

“Davis, please.”

“Or did you really choose me? You know what I think? I think you just want a free place to live. Well, you can have it. I don’t need anything from him anyway. Or you, for that matter.”

“I’ve been out of work for a while. I’ll be out of here as soon as I can get myself together. Please. I don’t want to run you out of your own house.”

“What’s a while?”

“What?”

“You say you’ve been out of work for a while.”

“Well, there were a couple of lawsuit settlements. The divorce settlement from Sean. A car accident. A slip and fall in a grocery store . . . Money ran out and it’s been so long since I worked, it’s hard for me to find something now since my work history is kind of sparse.”

Davis scoffed. “Whoa. Really? So all your other freeloading got cut off and you hunted down your sons to see what they had, huh? Too bad the ones with all the money pawned you off on the have-not, huh? But at least you got a house out of the deal.”

She shook her head. “I had other options. I could’ve gone to live with my sister. I just wanted to be near you. To be back in your life.”

Davis doubted it, but he couldn’t talk to her anymore right then. “Could you just get out? Please?” Davis pressed his fingertips to his temples. He felt his stomach coiling around itself.

Lydia stood, but continued to hover by his bed. “Davis, are you okay?”

He cast an ice-glazed gaze at her, and she finally understood. “Okay. I’ll be in my—in the room if you need me.” Placing her hands to her mouth, she hurried to the door.

She turned to face him, leaning against the doorframe. “I’m going to go get settled in. Take all the time you need. But please, come talk to me when you’re ready. Don’t you think this family’s been through enough heartbreak?”

“Whose fault is that?” He turned his back to the door until he heard it close.

Tuesday night, Jemma and Mary sat at the kitchen table with mugs of tea. Now that it was all over, she was able to tell everything without being concerned that Mary would needlessly worry about her. Jemma went over what had happened when she visited Larry at the prison. She also told Mary about the interview she’d had with the parole board representative earlier that day.

“You were right. I really do feel better now that I’ve dealt with everything.” Jemma sat back in her chair and took a sip of her peppermint tea.

“You don’t look like you feel much better.” Mary spoke the first words she had since Jemma had told her all that had happened.

Her smile faltered as her mind went back to that morning at Davis’s, but she refused to admit defeat.

“It’s okay to admit you want to stay. You know I’d love to have you here.”

“I know. But I want to go.”

“Lynette may be dead and gone, but you’re still letting her run you off, I see. That woman sure has some kind of power over you.”

“Lynette doesn’t have anything to do with this. This decision is for me.” Jemma tensed. She was tired of people accusing her of running away.

Mary looked unfazed by Jemma’s reaction. She looked at her mug and then up at Jemma. “If you say so. But no matter what you say or do, I’m going to be right here. Whether you go to Florida or Timbuktu, there will always be a place for you in my heart and in my house.”

“I appreciate that, Mary. I really do. But I have this opportunity. To go to Florida and start over. I can start fresh now that I’ve dealt with everything that happened before.”

Mary sipped her tea. “Whatever’s in your heart is what you should do.”

“Florida’s in my heart.”

Mary smiled and patted Jemma’s hand.

Maybe Davis was also in her heart, but that couldn’t be helped. She had those memories of him from the past couple of weeks, and no one could take them from her. She had much better memories of him than she had the first time she’d left. And wasn’t that all she’d expected out of the deal? A few happy moments and some good memories? They’d ended a little earlier than she’d expected. So what?

***

Wednesday afternoon, Davis went to his room as soon as he got home. Lydia followed him in. He needed to talk to her, so that was convenient.

“I spent the whole day cleaning. What do you think?” Lydia beamed sunshine at him with her huge smile.

“House looks nice,” Davis said before rubbing his hand across his face.

“Thanks.” The smile slowly fell from her face.

“I just came from Seth’s office. Cole and Ashby are talking to the bank they want to use. Things look good for the loan. Seth says the papers should be drawn up soon. Probably in less than a week from now.” Davis toyed with his keys, glanced up at her occasionally.

“You’re still thinking of moving out? It’s such a silly idea, Davis. There’s plenty of room for both of us here.”

“That’s what I was out doing. Seeing Seth and running other errands. Getting packing supplies and asking around at apartment complexes and places. There are a few trailers for rent, too. Saw some adds on the bulletin board at the laundromat when I was walking around town.”

“So you haven’t found a place yet?” Lydia looked a little too hopeful about that.

Davis gave a small frown. “I have some leads.”

“You don’t even have a place to go.”

“I’m moving out next week and that’s all there is to it.”

“I’m only trying to make you see that it makes sense for you to stay, Davis.”

He tightened his grip on his keys. “I don’t want anything to do with you. I can hate you if I want and you can’t blame me for that. I’m entitled to that after all you did to me.”

She looked at him as if he’d stabbed her in the gut. Her shoulders sagged forward and she walked to the door. She paused for a second without turning around. Then she walked out, quietly closing the door behind her.

Davis sat on the corner of his bed after she left the room. He had his fist pressed to his mouth and a bad taste inside of it. He couldn’t believe he felt like he’d been out of line. But he also couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d just said something incredibly stupid.

He got up and paced the room, the feeling gnawing, eating away at him. Finally, he groaned and walked next door to Bill’s room. He still had trouble thinking of the room as belonging to her.

Her words had somehow gotten to him. He began to see her from a new angle. A more human one. As a victim of circumstance creating three new victims of circumstance. He still had a lot of things to work out when it came to his feelings for her, but maybe moving out wasn’t the best option. He wouldn’t work much out by avoiding her.

Besides, he really had earned a right to stay. After taking care of Bill for years, he had a right to every square inch of that house. And if Bill hadn’t run him out of the house, why move out because of Lydia? She couldn’t be any worse to live with than him. Definitely not.

He stood in the open doorway. She slouched next to the window that faced the front lawn, staring out of it. He knocked on the open door. She turned and gave him a weak smile, waving him into the room.

Stalling for time, he looked around Bill’s room. He hadn’t been in there since the funeral except to get Bill’s important papers for Seth. The room was nearly unrecognizable, and that was a good thing. For one thing, he could see the floor, and it was vacuumed. He was surprised she’d been able to find the vacuum; he certainly didn’t know where it was. She’d taken down the green sun-faded curtains and had draped light blue fabric over the windows.

“I’m going to make curtains out of that. Eventually,” she said, breaking the silence, when she noticed him staring at the windows.

He nodded, his gaze traveling over the mint green sheets on the bed and the dusted surfaces of the desk and wardrobe. The only things that seemed out of place now were her suitcases lined up against the wall at the back of the room.

“Looks good in here,” Davis said, sitting on the corner of the dresser.

“Thanks.” She stood with her back to the window, looking across the room at him.

“I guess I came in here to apologize. So maybe I should get to it.” Davis stared down at his fingernails, wondering if they’d always been that dirty and he’d just never taken the time to notice.

Lydia nodded and crossed her arms over her chest.

“It’s hard. I want to be angry at you, but what’s the point? I mean, it’s not like I have much family. I guess I should try to save what little there is.”

“I would have been willing to do anything to hear you say that.” She wiped at the corners of her eyes with her jacket sleeve. Davis kept the A/C up pretty high, and he guessed she wasn’t as hot natured as him.

“I don’t wanna go through all this bull anymore.” Davis ran his hands through his hair and then raked them over his face before letting his head rest in them.

Lydia walked over and hugged him to her. “I know, Davis. I know.”

“I need to talk to Cole and Ashby, I guess.”

“We could call them together.”

“Nah. I need to go see them.” He pulled back from the hug. They were leaving in a few hours. He needed to say what he had to say before they did. Face to face.

***

When Cole first opened the door, Davis thought he would slam it right back from the look on his face.

“What do you want, Davis? Seth called, everything’s set for the closing. We’re moving as fast as we can,” Cole said. “We’ll be out of your way soon.”

“I just want to talk,” Davis said. “Can I come in?”

Cole heaved an exaggerated sigh. “I guess.”

Davis walked in and saw open suitcases on both beds. “You guys heading out?”

“Tomorrow. We have to get back to work.” Cole put extra emphasis on the word
work.

Davis forced himself to remember that he hadn’t come over to fight and that Cole was naturally a jerk. That was just a fact of life. He sat in a chair near the window and drummed his fingertips against the table in front of him. “Where’s Ashby?”