by Ciara Knight
“Yes. We met in first grade and you let me kiss you in tenth.”
“Right. I wanted to get to know you. We became friends before we ever became romantic. I want that, to get to know you again.”
Rex sighed. “I don’t have nine years to wait to get to know you.” He almost blurted that he didn’t have nine days, but he could tell her about leaving later. Now, he needed to focus on kissing.
“No, you don’t. How about at least four days?”
Four days he could do.
“Let’s see how we get along for the next few days, and then decide if we are kiss worthy. I know it sounds stupid, but I can’t…I can’t kiss you and then let you go. When I kiss you, I want to know it’s a promise. A Rocky Mountain kind of promise that’ll mean we’ll try to work things out between us. If in a day, you realize I’m not who I used to be, or that you’ve changed, then we can part as friends.”
He rubbed his forehead. “Is there any way I can change your mind?”
She lifted her chin, “No.”
He sat cross legged in front of her and ate pizza. All the time, dreaming of their next…first kiss.
Chapter Eleven
For three days, Ally woke up and went to the Kelley mansion to work side-by-side with Rex, eat with Rex, and then return home to dream about Rex. It was torture.
They laughed and joked and enjoyed each other’s company, but she still didn’t know how he felt. How would she know if she didn’t ask? They had six days left. Certainly it was time to face the music.
She dressed and grabbed her camera to photograph all the furniture they’d managed to clean up. The other antiques would have to wait at her store for new fabric and stain.
She stopped in to check on Mel since she’d left before they spoke this morning. The lights were on and Mel sat at the computer chin resting on her knuckles. “Whatcha doing?”
Mel hit the buttons to change the screen, but not before Ally caught a glimpse at her search. “Stalker much?”
“I just…I guess I wanted to see how David was doing.”
“Find anything?”
“Not much, he’s like social media deficient, guess that happens when you’re in the military.”
Ally set her purse down on the counter and flopped into the chair next to her. “I can ask Rex to reach out to him for you.”
“No. I told you, I’m the one that did him wrong. I don’t deserve a second chance.” She dropped her hands to her lap and swiveled her chair back and forth. “How are things with you and Rex? Did you get the infamous anticipated kiss yet?”
“Don’t think I didn’t catch your change of subject, but no, we haven’t. I’ve been wanting to talk to you for the last two weeks, but you keep disappearing on me in the morning. My parents are due back soon, and I’m not sure what to do. Rex told me that my mother offered Frank Snyder money for Rex to go to college, but if he refused to go she told him to keep the money in exchange for him making sure Rex never returned to Silver Springs.”
Mel’s mouth fell open. “Harsh.”
“I know. What do I do? She hasn’t called me back, and I know she would’ve gotten my message by now.”
“You forget about her and all the trouble you’ve had. Stop letting your mother, your father, Rex’s father, or anyone else affect you. Make it all about you two, no one else.” Mel clicked a few buttons on the computer then went to the front door and flipped the open sign over. “Now, go spend some time with that handsome man of yours, and get that kiss.”
Ally’s belly felt like all the monsters were having a party inside her, taunting her. All the way to the house, she thought about what Mel said, but before she could commit to forgetting everyone, her phone rang. It was her mother’s picture on the screen. Great, finally she decided to face the music. She hit accept, and her mother’s voice erupted.
“I’m so sorry. I know you must hate me, but I did what I thought was best. So many boys went over there and didn’t return. He would be a grunt on the front lines as an enlisted man. I couldn’t see you become a widow before you were even old enough to drink.” Sobs took over her mother’s words, and Ally stopped and leaned against the brick wall and let her cry. Not sure how she felt. She’d always been so close to her mother. Her mother had always supported everything she ever wanted to do, but this. This was epic betrayal. Still, her mother did it out of love. That much she knew.
“Calm down.” Ally shoved from the wall and made her way to the driveway, but didn’t see Rex on the front porch. “I don’t know how I’ll ever forgive you. What you and Mr. Snyder did was unforgiveable.”
“Mr. Snyder?”
“Yeah, I know you gave Rex’s father silence money and he kept Rex’s letter from us.”
Her mom sniffled. “No. He tried to get me to tell the truth. He does have the letter, but I only gave it to him six months ago. He came over asking all sorts of strange questions. That’s when he found out about the letter and your phone calls. He never knew before that.”
“I don’t understand.” Ally knew her mother had always been honest with her, except for this epic betrayal, but there was no reason to lie to her about this. If anything, she’d want to cast blame on him.
Ally’s mom began to sob again. “I’m so sorry. I really am. I thought losing him because he left would be easier than you giving up college, moving all over the place, ending up pregnant and then having him die over there. I wanted more for you.”
Ally fisted her free hand. Not sure if she wanted to hit or hug her mother. “It should’ve been my choice.”
A muffling on the other end of the line. “Hey. It’s your dad. Listen, we’ll be home in a week, we can talk then. I’m sorry about all this. But we’re family. We can work it out.”
How could such an epic betrayal be worked out, but the phone wasn’t the way to hash it out. “I’ll talk to you both when you get home. If I ever speak to you again.” She hung up the phone and got out of the car. The house was quiet, no sign of Rex anywhere. She searched all of the downstairs and then the upstairs. Her gut started to twist at the realization that he might have left. What if this time, he left because he decided to give up on them?
She lowered to the chair and waited, eyeing out the front window. Perhaps he went out for coffee. The door was unlocked as if he was returning. Her phone rang.
It was Mel. Ally didn’t even have a chance to say hello before Mel shouted at her, “You better get down here. Rex and his dad are going at it on the street. Something about keeping something from him and he doesn’t want him around anymore,” Mel said, her voice cracking with anxiety.
“On my way.” Ally slid her phone into her back pocket and sprinted out the door. She ran all the way back to the store. When she got there, Rex was kneeling on the ground. People congregated around.
“Someone call 911.” Rex shouted.
Ally sprinted to his side and found Rex holding his father in his arms. “What happened?”
“Don’t know, he was ranting about something one minute, then he started slurring his words, then he went down and hit his head.”
Mel came outside. “Ambulance is on the way.”
“I need to tell you something.” Ally said, but Mel grabbed her arm, shook her head, and mouthed, not now.
Rex held tight to his father. The father that had disappointed him. The father who had embarrassed him. The father who had beaten him. The father that had stolen from him. His only father.
Chapter Thirteen
Rex sat in his father’s hospital room all night, Ally holding his hand, never leaving his side. He hadn’t felt that kind of comfort in a long time. Sure, he’d gone on dates, even had some relationships, but never ones that lasted. Never ones that kept his attention.
“Can I get you some coffee?” Ally rubbed his hand back to life, he hadn’t realized it had gone numb.
“I’m okay. Thanks, though.” Rex stretched in his chair, his back complaining at the inactivity. “You should go to work. I don’t—”
<
br /> “Not happening, so don’t start.” Ally said with a half-smile.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Can we come in?” Spike’s voice echoed in the quiet room.
“Yeah.” Rex stood, analyzing the once free-spirited friend turned big brother bully.
The door opened a little further revealing a small, trim woman with long, black hair. Spike took her hand and tugged her inside.
“Hi, Ally.” The woman half-waved.
Spike hugged Ally. “Hey, sis.”
“You’re not here to make trouble, are you?”
“No, swear. Mel told us what happened, so we wanted to come by to check on you both,” Spike said. “Rex, you haven’t met my fiancé, Amy Sanderson. Amy this is one of my friends from high school, and best bud for finding trouble, Rex Snyder.”
Amy held out her hand. “I hear we have a lot in common.” She glanced at Rex’s father lying in the hospital bed. “My dad was an alcoholic, too.”
Rex saw the empathy in her eyes and knew she spoke the truth. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too,” she said.
Spike pulled her into his side, but focused on Rex. “Listen man, sorry about treating you like a jerk. I thought you wronged my sis, and well, you know how us Roberts are about family.”
Rex wasn’t sure where they’d go from here, but he welcomed the friendship offer right now. “Yeah, I know.”
Spike shook his head, the long strands falling over her eyes. “Sorry about all this. I know it’s gotta be tough. You holding up okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. Ally’s been here all night with me.”
Spike nodded and an awkward silence settled on the room. After a minute, Spike clapped him on the shoulder. “Listen, we’ve got to get to work, but you yell if you need help with something. I’ve got your back.” Spike drifted toward the door.
“It was nice to meet you,” Amy said before following Spike out the door.
Rex let go of a long breath and leaned into Ally, taking a whiff of her floral, fresh fragrance to cover the antiseptic smell of the hospital.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
Ally shrugged. “I didn’t know they’d stop by. You don’t need any more stress right now.”
“I actually liked seeing Spike, now that he doesn’t want to clobber me over the head and bury my body out back.” Rex leaned over his father. “It was a nice distraction for a few minutes.”
Ally rubbed circles on his back. “It’s okay to be upset.”
“I don’t know why I care, he deserved the tongue lashing he got, but still. I don’t want him to die when the last thing he heard was me yelling at him. Even if it is a fitting end.”
Ally opened her mouth then shut it again.
“What? It’s okay, you can tell me anything.” Rex angled to face her. He toyed with the hair that had fallen from her ponytail. She leaned into his hand and closed her eyes.
The machines bleeped and pinged. The loud speaker overhead crackled and made announcements. The softness of her hair was an escape from it all. “Go ahead.” He nudged her, wanting to know what she thought about all this since he couldn’t seem to gather his own opinion.
“I don’t want to over step, but you can’t beat yourself up. You were gone when he got better. You don’t know the man that I’ve seen around town the last few years.” She bowed her head. “I’ll admit, I didn’t like being around him at first. It was a reminder of you and the pain you went through growing up, but he started picking up trash in the street, helping people with odd jobs without being paid. He told me once it was his way of serving a community he’d only taken from for years. A chance for him to give back and heal the pain he’d caused others.” Ally sighed. “All I’m saying is that if something happens you can’t blame yourself. And the man I have seen around town, the man in that bed, wouldn’t want you to carry any guilt.”
Rex fought the tears welling up in his eyes. He wasn’t the type to show emotion. He’d learned to bottle that up years ago. Anytime he’d cry his father took a belt to him, telling him it was time to toughen up and be a man, not some sissy. That man, the angry, violent, drunk wasn’t the man he saw in bed. This man was broken and old and vulnerable. Who was he?
They sat for several more hours until the doctor came in and scanned the chart. Rex couldn’t take it anymore. “What’s the prognosis?”
“He has a DNR, so we wait and see. With the liver in the shape it is, it is only a matter of time as you know.”
Rex looked to his father, then at Ally, then the doctor. “Liver disease?” Rex half chuckled half choked. “Guess the bottle finally got him.”
“You didn’t know? It’s in his records and you’re listed as his emergency contact. I thought…my apologies.”
Rex stood and offered his hand to the doctor. “No need to apologize. A son should know his own father’s health.”
The man shook his hand then quietly disappeared out the door, leaving Rex to stand over his father’s decrepit frame, eaten away by years of alcoholism and unhappiness. “If he wakes up, what do I do? Do I provide him a home? Let him stay on the streets? Get a nurse? Hospice?” He fought the lump of regrets choking him and gripped the bed railing.
Ally placed her hands around his waist and pulled him against her. “Take a deep breath. You don’t have to answer this all right now. Once he wakes up, talk to him, see what he wants. I know you’re conflicted. You are a good man who wouldn’t turn his back on anyone. You were upset and you have good reason to be. He was never there for you growing up.”
Rex turned in her arms. “I know, but look at him. He’s a shell of what he once was. I’d treat a stranger better than how I’ve treated him since arriving in Silver Springs.” He pulled Ally tight and rested his chin on her hair, savoring the contact. It calmed him. Her embrace was like a welcome home present that would make him never want to leave again, but he had to. He needed to take care of his business, and he had to report for duty for two weeks in only a matter of days. The world tilted and he held tight to the one person in the world that always grounded him. Made him feel like he could face anything. “Ally, I need to tell you something.”
She leaned back and looked up at him. “What?”
“Rex,” his father whispered in a gruff, wounded sound.
Ally released him and leaned over the bed. Rex hit the nurse button and stood by her side. “Don’t try to talk.”
He hit the button again, but there was no sign of a nurse. The white board said Katie was the nurse, so he headed for the door. “I’ll be right back. Don’t try to move.” He raced to the nurse’s station, but a part of him wasn’t sure why. Even now, that man had the power to turn his life upside down.
Chapter Fourteen
Ally stroked Frank’s arm.
“I know you didn’t keep the letter from Rex. You weren’t the villain in all this. My mother was. Once you tell Rex, it’ll all be better between you. I was going to tell him. I should’ve told him, but I wanted you to have the chance.”
He grabbed her wrist with the strength of a man half his age with no ailments. “Pants,” he rasped.
She followed his gaze around the room.
“Pants pocket. Don’t tell Rex. He should hate me. Easier that way.” His hand slipped from hers and his eyes closed. Ally held her breath and eyed the machines, but they still beeped at a normal pace. She opened the cabinet and found the bag with his clothes. Inside his pants was an envelope addressed to her in Rex’s handwriting. She held it to her chest. Proof he hadn’t left her behind. She wanted to rip into it and read it at that moment, but shuffling in the hallway told her it wasn’t the right time, so she slipped it in her shorts pocket and closed the cabinet door.
“He’s awake,” Rex said and headed for the bed. She joined him and took his hand. “I’m afraid he fell back asleep. He’s exhausted.”
The nurse eyed the machines and then checked his IV and a few other things before eyeing them both. “Mr. Snyder, yo
ur father needs rest. You two need to head home and get cleaned up and get some rest. We will call you when he wakes up again.”
Rex stood firm at the bedside, but Ally saw the exhaustion in his eyes. “Come on. We’ll go take a nap and be back before he wakes up again.”
“What if?” He bit his lip and straightened.
“He’s stable for now.” The nurse said and then stood at the door as if to kick him out. “Your father doesn’t need any stress right now either. Let him rest and you can come back later to see him when he’s stronger.”
Rex scanned his father then the nurse. With only a nod he headed out of the room.
Ally followed him out into the fresh mountain air and walked with him to the end of the long drive. “I can call Mel to pick us up.”
“It’s four miles. I need to walk. You go ahead with Mel.”
“No chance. I’ll walk with you. Unless you want to be alone.”
Rex stopped and faced her, an intense look on his face. “I’ve been alone long enough.” He took her hand and they walked and walked and walked. No words. No questions. No promises. Only walking hand in hand all the way back to Main Street, then to the Kelley mansion. By the time they reached the top of the porch steps, they were dragging their feet and their eyes were heavy. Just inside the door, he paused. “You ready for that nap?”
She yawned, fighting the heaviness of her eyes, but she wanted to read his letter, each and every word of his commitment to her. But when he took her hand and led her upstairs to the only cleaned bedroom, they both collapsed on the oversized bed. He pulled her into his side. The warmth of his body, the strength of his arms, all wrapped around her in an instant sleep cocoon of bliss. She awoke when the sun had drifted low in the sky.
Rex still slept soundly at her side. There was no place she’d rather be than in his arms, but the letter in her pocket called to her. She’d waited eight years and she couldn’t wait another second, so she slipped from his arms and tip-toed down the stairs to the parlor.