“I only did what I had to,” I explained. “I couldn’t let anything happen to the people I love.”
“Connor said that when he got shot, you saw who did it. I don’t think he understood, though, so I tried to explain it to him. You couldn’t say anything, right, Lia? I know what would have happened to me if I had talked about the guys I was hanging with. They would have killed me.”
He said it so matter-of-factly, it was heartbreaking.
“No,” I agreed. “I didn’t feel like I could go to the police, or tell anyone.”
“And then later, you were afraid that if you told Connor, he wouldn’t understand, and he wouldn’t love you anymore. Like how I was afraid to tell you what I was doing.”
My hands spasmed, but I held the truck steady. “J, no matter what you do, you can always come to me. I’ll always love you and nothing can make that stop. And we can always work things out, as long as we’re together.”
“Yeah, that was what Connor said.”
“He knows how much I love you,” I agreed.
“No, not that. I mean, he said he’s upset, but he still loves you no matter what, and you’ll work this out. He said that I shouldn’t worry,” Jared explained.
“Connor said that?” I asked. “Really?”
“Really. He’s coming over to the house today, right?” Jared leaned over to look at me. “Lia, are you crying?”
Well, yes, I was. I cleared my throat. “I love him too, no matter what. Connor and I will fix this, this problem between us.”
“Good,” Jared said. “Like, soon, ok? I was thinking you guys should get married, and then have a few babies. It would be fun to have some kids around, to liven up the place.”
I started laughing even as I cried. “Yeah, that sounds like a really good plan to me. I’ll work on that.”
“Good. Let me know if you want me to explain anything else to Connor,” he said, and then worked on extracting the string from his new sweatshirt from Misiu’s mouth.
We exited the freeway on Outer Drive and drove to our house. “It looks…better today,” I said, trying to be optimistic. There was a lot I wanted to do to the front yard this morning, although it would be hard with my crutches. “Why don’t you and the puppy go for a walk around the neighborhood?” I suggested to Jared. It was a beautiful, sunny day and it felt like spring was in the air. “Check out all the good spots so we’ll already know the lay of the land when we move in.” He nodded, and I watched him jog down the block, Misiu leaping happily along beside him.
Other things were in the air besides spring at the construction site, things like blowing dust, toilet paper from the port-a-potty, and wrappers from fast food lunches. I put on gloves and moved around as best I could over the ruts and chewed up dirt, picking up trash and debris and stuffing it into the garbage bag I carried. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the woman from across the street come out onto her porch and watch me. Nosy old bat. I knew when she came down her steps and crossed over to stand on the sidewalk in front of my house, but I ignored her.
“Excuse me?”
Now I turned to look. “Yes?” I asked sharply. I figured she was the one who was leaving the complaint notes, although the plywood front door had been paper-free today.
“I just wanted to ask if you were all right,” she told me. “I saw the ambulance the other evening, and Elias, he’s in the Dutch Colonial two houses down,” she pointed, “he said that it was the owner who had been hurt.”
“Yes, I’m the owner.” I heard the pride in my own voice. “And I’m fine. It was a little construction accident, but I’m fine.”
“We’re so glad that you and your husband are fixing up this place. I grew up across the street and I remember the people who used to live here.” She looked fondly at my house. “They built it, you know.”
“Really?”
“They were a lovely couple, but no children to pass it on to, and it just sat empty for so many years. We’ll all be glad to have a young family move in.”
“Thanks.” I smiled at her. “We’re really looking forward to it also.” We talked for a few more minutes about how the yard had looked years ago, what the shutters had been like (they had also disappeared), and other details of the landscape and architecture. She told me that she had some pictures and would go look for them and we said goodbye.
I thought about having our family in the house, if Connor really did still love me. I was thinking about that, leaning on my crutches, when he pulled up to the curb not too much later. He’d been in the office at Whitaker Enterprises for extra work on a Sunday morning.
I pulled off my gloves and waited on the sidewalk for him to walk over, buckling his toolbelt around his hips as he came. I was so full of love for him, it took sheer force of will to stay in one place and not limp over to throw myself in his arms.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi,” he answered. “You didn’t go in without me, right?”
“No. I was waiting for you.” I would wait forever, I wanted to say. However long it took him, I would wait.
“Let’s check out what they did this week.” He let me walk first, and we picked our way through the drying mud and up onto the porch.
The rubble from the former stairs had been cleared up inside but beyond that, the house didn’t appear much better to me. I stared around, looking again for the progress.
“Wow. Wow,” Connor said. “This is great.”
“Really?” I peered around again, noticing that the walls were still mostly holes, the floor seemed to have gathered more stains, and now the windows looked tilted.
“Really, I can see it. Remember that we’re going from the ground up,” he said. “You start at the bottom, fix it, and build everything off that.”
I thought about the house for a moment while he walked through the first floor, admiring the mess. “Connor.”
He turned to me.
“I just want to say again, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the whole truth. I’m sorry I kept things back that you should have known. Jared told me he talked to you about it, and that you said you’d forgive me, eventually.”
He stepped carefully across the creaking floor. “I understand, Lia. I understand what you did and why you did it. It took me a while to come to terms with it all, that my parents had ignored you when you needed help, that you and I have been together for all this time and you still held back. But I understand, and I’m not sitting in judgement, because if I do what you said—if I put myself in your shoes—I have no idea how I would have coped with everything that you had thrown at you. You must have felt like my family abandoned you, and after I never came to find you, like I did, too.”
“I understand, now.”
Connor walked to me and put his hands on my waist. “If you let go of the crutches, I’ll keep you up.”
I let them fall, because of course I trusted him. His arms went around me and he held me to his chest, and I hugged him back for everything I was worth.
“I quit my job today.”
If he hadn’t been supporting me, I would have fallen over. “What? You did?” I gasped.
“I gave six months of notice. It will be enough time to get a good handle on this awful project with Rome Arschloch, and enough time to train whoever will take over for me. I won’t leave Steve in a bind, but I wanted to let him know that I will be leaving,” Connor explained.
“That’s…that’s a big change.”
“Yes, but it’s one I needed to make. It’s what we talked about, right? I said I wanted to start my business again.”
“And I said I would help you. I will, if you still need me.”
He kissed my hair, resting his cheek on my head. “I still need you, Lia. That was what I learned the most by moping around for the past week and trying to keep my distance from you. I needed time to think, but I also need you.”
“I need you, too,” I said. “I love you so much.”
He kissed me again. “We said we bot
h wanted to move in here, together. Do you still want that?” he asked.
“Yes, of course I do.” I looked up at him, tears on my face. “Can we be like this house? Can we also be strong from the ground up, and build everything on top?”
“We already have the foundation, because we love each other,” he told me.
“Yeah, and the rest I can fix. I swear, I can.”
He took my chin and tilted my face up to his. “We can, together. It’s the two of us, now.”
There was a bark outside, and my brother said, “No! Misiu, don’t eat that!”
“It’s the four of us,” Connor amended. “That’s how I want it, the four of us together.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “You know what you’re getting, with me. Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. I love you, and I want us to spend our lives together. I know what I’m getting, and it’s all that I ever wanted.”
He kissed me, and that was all I wanted, too. The four of us together, there for each other. We could get this job done.
Epilogue
Detroit, one year in the future
“Misiu ate one of the flowers,” Jared announced.
My head jerked up. “Misiu! No! Stay away from my bouquet.”
“I think he only got a violet, and those are edible, right?” my brother asked. “I stopped him before he went any further.”
Misiu looked ashamed of himself and lay down at my feet. He stuck his giant head under my dress to hide. The dog walker had been right with her prediction about this guy: he had grown until he weighed almost as much as I did. Luckily for everyone, he was as sweet as ever, and the training had worked pretty well, except for the eating flowers part. And the part where he ate everything else, too.
I sighed when Misiu scooted himself further under my dress and shoved the stool I was sitting on with his body. Maybe having a dog involved in this scenario wasn’t my best idea, but he was part of our family, and I wanted everyone I loved to be involved in it. “It’s ok, puppy. You’re still my best guy, besides Jared and Connor.”
My brother had bent down to check himself out in the mirror, putting his face next to mine. “Do you think I could wear this to school?” He patted his tie.
In the past year, since Jared had started middle school, girls had become a thing. Particularly one girl from our neighborhood who was part of our carpool.
“A suit and tie may be a little formal for every day,” I told him. “But you look very, very handsome. We’ll take a lot of pictures so that she…so that everyone can see.”
“You two look exactly alike,” Amy said. She poked around at some of the hair that was threatening to spill out of the beautiful updo she had created for me, and untangled a kink in the chain of my necklace, the one with the silver disc. “Lia, you are absolutely gorgeous.” Now she stared up at the ceiling, and waved her hands around. “God, here I go crying. I wish I could blame this on pregnancy, but Hailey is nine months old, so I feel like I have no excuse.”
Her husband Steve stood up from the chair where he had been playing with their new daughter. “Honey, you cry at every wedding,” he told her. He held their baby with one hand and offered Amy a tissue from a pack he pulled out of his pocket with his other. “That’s why I come prepared.” He kissed her and laughed.
Teddy, Connor’s younger brother, poked his head into the bedroom where we had all crammed ourselves. “You guys about ready? Lia, Connor is about to lose it down there. I’ve never seen him so nervous.”
Amy cleared her throat and pointed at me, and being a smart man, Teddy took his cue.
“You look beautiful,” he said immediately. “You’re a beautiful bride.”
“Thank you, Teddy.” I smiled at him. It had been easy to get to know him and fall into a sibling-ish relationship. Actually, I had enjoyed meeting most of Connor’s family and his old friends too, as he slowly reconnected with them.
Connor’s parents had been a different story, mostly because it had taken him a long time to come to terms with how they had acted toward him and toward me. He had eventually forgiven, but he hadn’t forgotten, and neither had I. It had been a wonderful gesture when, a few months ago, Blaine and Margaux had bought the empty bail bonds place where my uncle’s party store had stood before the fire. They were working with the city, donating money to turn the lot into a mini-park for kids, and Margaux had suggested naming it after my parents. They were trying hard, and they were here today. I considered that a big step toward further reconciliation between all of us.
“Misiu, please!” I jerked away my foot, where he had drooled on it under my skirt. I saw a large wet spot on my satin shoe. “Oh, balls.”
“I’ll get a wipe. But your dress is long enough, and you’re walking through the grass anyway, so no one will notice,” Amy assured me. The ceremony would take place in our back yard, which was now totally pond-free. It had been a race to get the sod down and ready, but it looked great. The whole house was a masterpiece, as far as I was concerned.
I stood, smoothing down the petal-pink fabric of my wedding dress. Amy had helped me to pick it out, and when she said that this was it, then I knew I had the right one. The fact that I had already tried on over fifty gowns which did not meet her rigorous specifications may have been a factor in me immediately agreeing to this particular dress. But she had been right: it was beautiful and I felt that way, too. My scars showed a little, peeking up above the line of the bodice in the back, but it didn’t matter to me very much. Or, really, at all.
I picked up my bouquet, minus one violet, and straightened Jared’s tie. “Let’s go,” I announced.
“Are you nervous?” my brother asked me as we trailed after the rest of the crowd down our newly built, extra-sturdy stairs. “I’m not.”
I laughed. “You know, I’m not nervous either. I think this is going to be the best choice I ever made.”
“I agree,” Jared said. “I think this worked out pretty well for all of us.” It had been a busy, crazy time, with us finishing the house, me working toward an accounting degree, Jared joining a travel team for lacrosse, Connor’s new business taking off. And, last but not least, planning this wedding.
We were busy, sure, but we were happy. We were happier than I’d ever been, and gradually, I was learning to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. Even if it did, I had people I loved to support me and help me through anything, just like I would do for them.
We stopped at the new French doors that led to the back yard, and Teddy handed me Misiu’s new, fancy leash. Everyone had gotten dressed up for today. Teddy kissed my cheek and walked up the aisle to stand with his brother and the minister. We listened to the music from the strings trio and waited for our cue.
“Now?” my brother asked.
I thought of my parents. It’s now or never, Lia Bissett, I told myself, just like my mom had said to my dad all those years ago.
“It’s now,” I told Jared.
“Let’s do it,” he answered, and we smiled at each other.
The three of us walked up the aisle, ready to join our future there.
About the Author
Jamie Bennett is the author of almost twenty super great books that you should probably read right now…if that was too subtle, go immediately and find them on Amazon!
Seriously. Go.
You can reach her via Instagram and Facebook @jamiebennettbooks (and join the Rocinante group for extra updates).
Thanks for reading. And if you enjoyed this book, please leave a review!
Read More about Teddy Hayes in The Comeback Route
“I’m leaving!”
There was no answer from the house.
“I mean it!” I threatened. “I’m really leaving!”
It was totally silent, except for a bird that flew by, squawking in the freezing air. There wasn’t one single sound from inside. Well, fine. He would see how much he missed me, because this shit was real—I was out. He would see that most of the things he was c
laiming to be furious about were just mistakes, not a big deal at all. The failed classes? I could make those up. Eventually. The damage to the car from when I had misjudged the distance to the tree, the other car, the other car again? Already fixed, all of it! The whole thing about the insurance would eventually die down. And the rules I had broken, all the house rules, well, they were just dumb. No one else would have followed them either, not any adult, anyway. I was 24 years old, well past the age of having to abide by anyone’s ridiculous regulations.
But we had both made mistakes. He was afraid of his, but I could own up to mine! For example, there’d been a boob flashing incident on the TV news last summer that hadn’t been a shining moment for me: I could freely admit to that one. They had blurred out my nips but it really hadn’t been a good look when I had started to shimmy at the camera. I hadn’t meant for it to go viral—it wasn’t like it was my choice for that to happen!
The problem was, I hadn’t thought very far ahead. Like how now, when you searched my name, the first thing that showed up was that particular video (and the versions in slo-mo were way, way worse). At the time, it had seemed like a good idea, and anyway, it sure made an impression. If I ever wanted to go into adult entertainment, I already had an entrée. Not that I was interested in pursuing porn as a career, but there was a positive side, that was all I was saying.
Whatever, that had been six months ago, plenty of time for a person to forgive and forget. And I was owed some apologies and explanations as well, even if he didn’t want to admit to it. “Did you hear the car door open?” I hollered. I skidded on a patch of ice as I walked closer to the house to make sure he could get the import of my words. “I’m just about to close it! And leave! Drive away for good!” I waited. “I’m serious, I’m really going!”
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