Worth the Weight (38 page)

He threw the tablet down at Liz’s feet. He had to get out of here. Thank God Gran had
already
taken the kids home. He couldn’t bear to go back into the festivities
and hunt around for them. There was
no telling how many people knew about Liz’s little folly. Was he now the laughing stock of the Copper Country? Would he become known for his stud services for out-of-town visitors? He started to leave, then thought of something, and turned to Liz once more.

“Just one last thing. You are on the pill, aren’t you?”

Dumbfounded, Liz nodded.

“Good. At least that’s one thing I don’t have to worry about.” She tried to reach out to him, but he pulled away from her. “Handle all the fundraiser and foundation stuff through Margo. I don’t want to see you again.”

Seeing the crushed look on Liz’s face just about brought him to his knees. That he hurt so badly for her even after knowing what she’d done to him made him want to hurt her even more, and he knew just the target. He turned to Davis and said, “ Good luck, man. Hope you like it with the lights off.” He heard the strangled sound come from Liz, but he couldn’t face her.

He walked past her and out the door of the rec center.

Lizzie didn’t turn around to watch him go, nor did she need to see his reflection this time to know that he wanted to get as far away from her as possible.

She sto
od silent, not believing what’
d just happened.

After a moment, a lifetime habit of putting other people at ease caused her to look around at the stunned faces in the lobby. Putting a smile on her face she said, “Don’t worry, everyone. Just a simple misunderstanding. Nothing to worry about. Why don’t we all go back into the dance?”

She started to move forward but Alison and Katie each took an arm and swung her around, heading outside. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Petey step forward and take Davis’ arm, leading him into the rec center, the other men following.

Outside, Katie placed her arm around Lizzie’s shoulder and Alison stepped in front of her, tilting Lizzie’s chin up to look her in the eye. “Not this time, Lizard. No laughing this off, or pretending it didn’t happen. You were just barbecued in there. Feel it, Lizzie.”

Lizzie started to say something. To make light of it. To make a joke of some sort. To brush her friends aside and tell them they were making something out of nothing. She started to say all of that.

What came out instead was a sob of pain so deep it rocked her entire body. It was the type
of soundless cry that babies made before they could
get out a substantial wail. Her shoulders shook and she struggled for breath. When her lungs finally filled, she was able to get sound out. The cries took her friends by surprise. But only for a second, then they recovered and began comforting Lizzie, leading her to Alison’s car.

Lizzie wasn’t sure how they got her home. She was vaguely aware of Alison driving and Katie following in Lizzie’s
SUV
. Good. She sure as hell didn’t want to return to the rec center the next day to get her car.

They were in her bedroom now. She stripped off her dress. The dress she was so proud of. The one that had lit
Finn
’s face up so brightly only hours earlier.
Was that tonight?
Time seemed out of proportion to her.

She crumpled the dress up and threw it in the corner, causing Katie and Alison to look at each other. Lizzie stepped into some drawstring gym shorts and the largest tee shirt she could find, then hunted for her bathrobe. Finding it, she wrapped its generous material around her twice, and pulled the belt tight. She moved to the bed where her two best friends sat and laid down between them.

“Let’s call Domino’s,” she said in a quiet voice.

Katie and Alison shared a look of panic. What to do now? If this was any normal breakup scene, they would of course call Domino’s and Little Caesars, and take a run to the nearest convenience store for six or seven pints of ice cream.

But they couldn’t do that for this break up. That would send
all the wrong signals to her
.
That hurt could be healed with food. There was no way Alison and Katie would start any sort o
f downward spiral for her
.

She
knew the spot she’d put her friends into. “I’m just kidding,” she said. She could feel the sigh of relief that emanated from them. But Lizzie knew she wasn’t kidding.
She
knew that more than anything she longed to forget about this horrid night with a little help from her friends. And she didn’t mean Katie and Alison. She meant her pals like Ben and Jerry. Her buddy Poppa John. And of course, the woman who knew all her secrets, Sara Lee.

She cried on their laps for an hour. They stroked her hair and cooed words of comfort to her.

“Isn’t anyone going to say ‘I told you so’?” she asked.

“About what, honey?” Katie asked, rubbing Lizzie’s back.

“That my plan was stupid to begin with, and how you both saw it blowing up in my face from the start.”

Alison and Katie looked chagrined. “Well, since we’re partly responsible for it blowing up in your face, we don’t have much of a right to say ‘I told you so’, do we?
”
Katie gently said.

Lizzie waved her hand, a blanket forgiveness. She knew that she should have been honest with
Finn
the minute their relationship turned serious. Should have told him why she’d come to town. That she had intended on getting together with
Finn
from the start. That showing up at the
Mine Shaft
had been no coincidence. That it was originally to be nothing more than a summer fling, but now she was in love with him and desperately wanted a future together.

It was her honesty, her integrity, that
Finn
valued most, and she’
d betrayed that. She couldn’t blame her friends for her omission.

“I told you so,” Alison said. Katie punched Alison in the arm, but Lizzie only laughed. God, how she loved these women.

Finally, she told her friends to go home, that she was okay, and she just wanted to get some sleep.

Her friends looked skeptical, but she convinced them to leave.

The second they were out the door, Lizzie threw off her robe and grabbed her sneakers and car keys. She intended to drive straight for the convenience store at the other end of Hancock. The only place that would be open this late. Instead, she felt the Navigator head for Houghton. It was if she had no control over the vehicle as it headed toward the Robbins’ farm.

No. No. No. She wouldn’t beg and grovel at this man’s feet. Memories of that long walk back from Houghton years ago when she’d gone to see
Finn
at the theater
after he dumped her came raging back. Did she really want to humiliate herself that way again?

She wouldn’t have to make that decision because
Finn
’s Jeep was not in the driveway at the farm.

Where was he?

She headed back to Hancock, going through town, past the turn up to her parents’ place. Back toward her original destination of the convenience store. When she got to the store she drove past, not even looking into the window. Not sure she could take the temptation of seeing the shiny glass freezer doors knowing what treasures lay behind them.

Lizzie drove on to the beach. She hoped to see
Finn
’s Jeep there, but the gates were chained shut and there were no vehicles along the road. She parked the truck, grabbed two blankets from the back and slowly walked to the spot where she and
Finn
had always gone. Laying one blanket on the ground, she wrapped herself in the other and sat down, hugging her bent knees to her
chest, staring at the lake, letting its softly swirling waves lull her. It did its magic, as the water, and the Copper Country, always did.

She achieved such a sense of calm she almost half expected to turn to her left and see
Finn
lying beside her, one arm under his head for a pillow, the other thrown over his face.

The sadness struck her again. She lay back on the blanket, rolled up into a fetal ball, and tried to hear the water lapping over her sniffling.

She awoke some time later shivering from the cool air, amazed that she’d been able to sleep. Gathering the blankets, she made her way back to the Navigator, all hopes gone that
Finn
might show up at their special place.

The clock on her dash read four fifteen. It was pitch dark as she drove through Hancock, not seeing another single car on the road. She reached Bob’s Mobil and put her blinker on to turn up the hill, when she saw something that made her screech into the gas station’s lot and slam on her brakes.

Up on a ladder resting against the marquee, dressed in pajamas, was Bob, in the midst of changing the Bible verse.

His pickup truck - or what Lizzie assumed was his truck - was parked right next to the sign. Lizzie saw how it all must play out. Bob would wait nearby in his truck until no one was out, pull up, quickly change the sign, and drive off, obviously going home and back to bed.

Lizzie was dumbfounded. She’
d seen the “Changing of the Verse”! She couldn’t wait to tell Alison and Katie. She rolled down her window as she pulled the Navigator alongside Bob’s truck.

He looked down at her from his ladder. What a pair they made. Bob in his pajamas perched high on a ladder and her still wrapped in her blanket, red eyes puffy from crying.

“Lizzie,” Bob said, with a nod.

“Bob,” was all
she
could say, returning his nod.

She started to say more, but stopped when she looked at the verse Bob was in the midst of assembling. It was the Corinthians verse that was often read at weddings. So far Bob had posted “Love is Patient. Love is...” He hadn’t finished yet, and
she
found sh
e didn’
t want to see him complete his task. She knew how the verse went of course, but she kind of liked the way it stood now. Love is…fill in your own blank.

She powered up the window and drove home, knowing she would never mention to anyone what she’d just witnessed.

Finn
spent the night driving aimlessly for a while, then found himself at Eino Ruotala’s farm twenty miles outside of town. Eino was whom he had sold his horses to. The barn where the horses were stabled was unlocked and
Finn
quietly made his way down to the stalls that held his beloved animals. He had only done this once before, a few weeks after they’d been taken away. He hadn’t allowed himself to come back since even though Eino, understanding his loss, told him to stop by anytime.

The beautiful animals still knew his scent and nickered their welcome.

“Hey guys,” he whispered. It was all he trusted himself to say, afraid his voice would crack. He went to all seven of his former pride and joy, pleased to see they had obviously been well cared for. Petting and nuzzling, but not daring to go into the stalls themselves for fear he’d never want to come out.

He sat on a bale of hay directly across from the stalls and thought about the day he’d
watched them being taken away. He loved the animals, had raised every one of them himself from birth. Hell, he’d even birthed t
wo of them all by himself. He
ranked the day he sold the horses second - only behind the day he found out about Annie’s condition - as the worst of his life.

Not so much for the loss of the horses themselves, though that had stung like a son-of-a-bitch. But it had been more than his horses that had bee
n taken from him that day. He’
d lost all sense of hope
, of goodness, in mankind. It’
d been Dana’s treachery that made sel
ling the horses necessary. It’
d been fate, or God, or Karma or whomever he’d pissed off, that had not let the tiny vertebrae on his precious baby girl develop properly. All the other shit that had happened to him in his life he could take, hell, he probably deserved, but not his baby girl. She was so innocent and pure.

He felt as helpless the day they’d taken his horses away as he had the day he’d sat down with the doctors when they explained his daughter’s condition. Helpless, bitter, betrayed and seething mad. Absolutely sure he’d never have any hope or calm in his life again.

But Liz had restored that, not even realizing what a precious gift she’d given him. All to have it snatched away again.

This betrayal hurt ev
en more because he just couldn’
t believe that Liz Hampton was capable of such a cold-blooded seduction. Had life really changed her that much?

He snorted at that, causing the horses to shuffle uncomfortably. Of course it did. Look at how life had changed him. Goddamn
, he
wasn’t even sure if he felt worse for himself or for Liz, he loved her that much. It tore him apart to think that life had made her yet another calculating bitch like Dana.