“What are you talking about? I don’t think of myself as a hero. I just did my job, no more, no less.” His face looked blank, wiped of all emotion. “You can’t tell me they don’t bother you. You have to feel something. Revulsion, pity, compassion. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have some sort of reaction.”
“They don’t bother me.” I stared right at him. “Not in the slightest. Your attitude is a different story.”
“Get used to it. I’m not having any more damn surgery.”
I gave a weary sigh. “It’s not for cosmetic reasons that I ask you to see Dad. It’s a health issue.”
“Look. I think it’s a good thing you’re going away soon. This trip is going to be wonderful for you, and the separation will be good for us.” He gentled his voice. “We kind of jumped into this relationship right after the accident, and maybe it was for all the wrong reasons.”
“I don’t think that.” I snapped back. “You’re wrong about us.” I stood there, willing to swallow my pride, to fight for the man I loved. If he was too damn weak, I’d have to do the fighting. For us. For all that we could be.
“I know you, Brett, and I love the man you are. It had nothing to do with the accident. It had everything to do with the fact that you’re the only man I’ve ever loved.”
“You think you do, but I want you to go to Italy with an open mind and an open heart. Experience everything you can. Don’t be thinking about me and worrying about us. Whatever happens when you get back will sort itself out, but this is your time, Susie, to really discover who you are. Live your dream. Find yourself, then come home.”
“Brett, I am going. Isn’t January soon enough? Besides, I don’t have to go away to know what I want. I want you and I want my art. Why can’t I have both?”
He pulled me into his arms and gave me a long, sweet kiss. “Go, Susie. Take as much time as you need, and enjoy every minute of it, and don’t worry about the future. Go with no regrets.”
I felt tears prick my eyes. “You are making this sound as though you are letting me go. I don’t want you to let me go.”
“Enough has been said, and wishes won’t make it happen.”
He jumped into the driver’s seat, started his damn engine, and left me just like that.
* * *
I woke up to the smell of fresh roasted coffee. I sniffed the air, looked at the clock, and saw that it was 7 a.m.
Melody usually was the last one up, and didn’t bother with breakfast or coffee. She would sprint out the door and grab a cab to get to work in the nick of time. She was not a morning person. So the coffee scent was alluring, and intriguing. Why had she troubled herself to make coffee for me?
I had my answer soon enough. When I walked into the kitchen, Melody was seated at the table, and beside her was the watch. A diamond studded Rolex. I didn’t even hope it was a fake.
“What’s that?” I grabbed a mug, poured my coffee and took a big sip. If ever in my life I needed a caffeine fix it was now. My heart felt like a deflated tire, and it was all I could do to drag it around.
“Mrs. Carlisle’s watch. I took it, and now I want to return it.” Her lovely eyes brimmed with unshed tears. “I’m so sorry, and so scared. I don’t know what to do.”
I swallowed, took another slug from my cup, then put the coffee aside. “You stole it. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“Yes. It was stupid and crazy and I don’t know what made me do it. I want to return it.” Her eyes pleaded with me. “Can you help me get it back?”
“Did you think about knocking on her door and offering it back?”
“I can’t do that. She’d have me arrested.”
“Maybe you should have thought of that before you stole the damn thing.” I slurped at my coffee. “Shit. You’ve really screwed up now. I don’t know how to help you.”
“You’ve got to do something!” she wailed. “Get me back into her apartment. Or find a reason to visit her. You could do that,” she said hopefully. “Ask her for something. Say you need to use her phone. Something. Anything! Get in, drop the watch someplace and leave. That’s all you need to do. Please?” Her eyes beseeched me.
I turned away and refilled my coffee cup. It was like having a puppy dog staring at you, wagging its tail, begging for a treat. I couldn’t look at her. “Uh. No.”
“You’ve got to! Please.” She ran around and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Oh, please, please, please!”
“Stop that. I can’t stand to see a grown girl beg.”
“I don’t want to go to jail, and I will if you don’t help me. This will be the last thing I ever ask of you. I promise.” She put her hands together and pleaded. “I’ll move out right away. I’ll go pack my bag right now, and we’ll go down there together. I’ll tell her I’m leaving, but if she ever wants her dog walked again that I’m her girl.”
“Uh-huh, and how are you going to get into her apartment to drop the watch someplace?”
“I don’t know. I’m open to suggestions.”
“Well, I don’t have any. If we got caught, we’d both be screwed. I’d be an accessory to your crime, and that’s not going to happen. As much as I’d like to help, no, I can’t do it.”
“You’ve got to.” Her eyes begged me.
“No, I don’t. You’ve got to return it.” My voice rose, “This is your doing, and you’ve got to own up to it. This is not my responsibility.”
Her mouth trembled. “I know, I know, but what am I going to say or do? I love working for your dad. This is my big chance to better myself, and I’m so scared I’ve blown it.”
I had no answer. I knew exactly what she was talking about. Every time I got close to my dream of happiness, something happened and I’d blow it. Big time.
Like with Brett. Pushing him to see my father. Refusing to get rid of Melody when he was right about her. She hadn’t been able to stay on the straight and narrow. She had stolen the watch the first chance she got.
He had been right, dammit!
I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Look, Melody. You have to leave for work. Give me some time to think about this. We’ll come up with a solution that won’t include jail. I promise.”
She smiled with genuine relief. “Thanks, Susie. I knew I could depend on you.” She hugged me. “I just knew you wouldn’t let me down.”
After Melody left for the clinic, I rescheduled my flight for one week’s time. I was done with trying to please everybody else. I needed a new adventure. I only wished I could feel a little more excited.
I had to cancel the paper, hold the mail, prepay some bills, and start to pack. I dragged the suitcases out of the second closet, and laid them in my bedroom, sorting my clothes, packing one item at a time.
I’d fly away from my troubles. My mother was right as usual. Like she said, when the going got tough, Susie got going. It was time to leave. Shit was happening. Brett didn’t want me around. Melody had let me down. Who needed this crap?
* * *
After I’d finished the unhappy business of packing for a trip that no longer carried any joy, I had to select some paintings to take to the Candy Bar. I’d sold a few after the unveiling of the mural, and I’d told Candy I’d fill the empty spots on her wall.
It took me a moment to enter my own studio, and it was with great sadness that I finally did. Melody’s stuff was everywhere. Her scent was on the bed sheets, her clothes strewn about the place. I picked up a few of her things, folded and placed them in a cupboard.
I was going to miss her—her smile, her happiness, her hope for a better future. I noticed the black leather jacket and her boots in a corner, and that her dog collar and cuffs were on the dresser top. She looked like a different person now.
She was different, or so I had thought. Was I simply fooling myself? Wanting to believe in her, as I want to believe in myself?
But maybe I was as wrong about her, as I was about Brett.
I quickly selected my paintings, wanting to get out of the room an
d away from everything that looked and smelled of Melody. I was so hurt and angry with her for putting me into this situation, expecting me to make it right. I was heartsick over Brett, weary in every inch of my bones.
It occurred to me that maybe he was right. Maybe I did look for broken people so I could fix them, just as Dad had fixed me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I showed up at the Candy Bar around three o’clock. Candy had told me she had a few things on her agenda but Billy would open up for me. I parked behind the bar in the back alley.
The paintings were heavy, and I lugged them out of the backseat of my Mini-Cooper and dragged them to the back door. I was uncomfortable being in a deserted alley even in the middle of the day.
Call me chicken, but it gave me the willies, so I wasn’t too happy when I banged on the door and Billy didn’t appear.
The damn kid! Where was he? If he had forgotten about me I was going to give him more than an earful. I leaned the pictures against the white stucco wall, and banged on the heavy beamed door with my fists.
The Candy Bar was once an old Spanish mission, and had an apartment in the back where Candy and Billy used to live.
He was to meet me at the apartment, but knowing Billy it was entirely possible he got his message mixed. I would have to leave my pictures at the back door, and go around front. The area was unsafe, but what choice did I have?
I dashed around to the front of the building and banged repeatedly on the heavy wooden door. Stopping to rest, I sucked in a lungful of air and choked.
My nose twitched. What was that? Fire? It sure smelled like fire, and it was coming from inside. “Billy?” I shouted. “Are you in there?”
Fright mobilized me. I whipped out my cell and called 911. I ran around to the back just in time to see some punks climbing into my car, getting ready to hotwire it. I shouted at them, and waved my cell in the air. One dude got out and lazily began to walk toward me. I’m proud to say I didn’t back down.
“I’ve called 911, and the police are on their way. Leave my car, leave me, and get the fuck out of here.”
The two who were still in the Mini glanced at the big, black dude advancing slowly toward me, and I held my breath in fear. The only weapon on me was my stilettos, and I wasn’t sure if I knew how to throw one well enough to penetrate a guy’s skull.
Even if I did, I only had two. My ears pricked up. Was that a siren? Yes, it was! Luckily for me they heard it too, and took to running. One of the guys had such baggy pants they were sliding down his scrawny ass. He tripped, then kicked his way out of his pants and kept on going.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I hurried to the back of the building and searched for a small window to let myself in. There was one only slightly out of my reach, big enough to give me wriggle space.
I raced back and picked up one of my paintings, lifted it over my head and smashed the window. Smoke billowed out. I looked for something to stand on so I could climb through the window, when the back door opened.
It was Billy. He hopped around on his one good leg, his hands full of soot, and tears streamed down his face.
“Good God! Are you okay?” Relief mingled with fury. Thank God he was alive, but if he’d started this fire I was going to toss him in it!
“Yeah. Shit, man. I can’t get the fire out.” He held an extinguisher in his hands, and by the look of him he’d used it on himself. I pushed past him, nearly knocking him off his feet. “Where is it?”
“In the men’s room. I was smoking some weed and I heard the pounding on the door, and I panicked, man. I threw the shit in the bin and some paper towels were in there. It smoldered a bit, then poof!” He tore at his hair. “I knocked over the bin and tried to stomp it out, but my cast started to burn and my pant leg caught fire.”
I grabbed the extinguisher out of his hands. “Billy, I don’t know how you’ve survived this long.”
He looked younger than sixteen all of a sudden, like the frightened kid he was. “Shit, shit, shit! Mom is going to kill me. The Candy Bar is her frickin’ life. It means more to her than anything.”
I shook my head, and turned the hose towards the flames, hoping to contain the fire until help arrived. “She’ll have to stand in line. I have dibs on you first.”
The sound of the fire trucks drew near. “Go open the front door. Don’t just stand there.”
He did as he was told. The fire was spreading from the men’s room to the back wall, and I’d nearly emptied the container. I heard the firemen arrive just as the blaze whipped up, licking at the walls as if on a feeding frenzy.
I was so focused on stopping the entire place from going up that I didn’t notice someone at my side, taking the empty extinguisher from me, holding me.
Then I looked up. Brett. “Good job, Susie. We can take it from here.”
I nodded, too distraught to say anything. A minute later Melody came tearing into the room, screaming my name and crying hysterically. When she saw me, she launched herself into my arms.
“Susie! I saw the fire trucks out front and your car in the alley. I was so afraid something had happened to you.”
“Why are you here?”
“Billy told me he was meeting you,” she whispered, “and at lunch I had an idea.”
“Not now, Melody.”
Melody looked around, spotted Billy sitting on the floor in the corner and cuffed him with the back of her hand. “What did you do? You nearly burned the place down. You are such an idiot!”
Billy sat with his head in his knees, crying silently. I knew he hadn’t done it on purpose. He loved his mother. Why would he want to hurt her? I sat beside Billy and put my hand on his shoulder. “Want to talk about it?”
“No, there’s nothing to talk about. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“What did happen, exactly?”
Melody ran around tearing my paintings off the wall while I sat with Billy and watched her. Why was she worried about my paintings? Right now, all I cared about were the people inside.
Candy came through the door next. The bags of supplies in her hands slipped to the floor. Her face was white with shock. The fire was out, the damage minimal, but she didn’t see that. She could only see her son sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around his knees, his shoulders shaking as he cried in my arms.
“Billy?” She dropped to her knees in front of him. “Are you hurt?” She saw the bottom of the burnt cast, and his hands and face full of soot. “What happened?”
He lifted his arms and his mother held him while he sobbed his heart out. “It…was…my…fault.Didn’t…mean…to do it.”
“Billy? You started this fire?” She drew away from him and took his face in her hands. “Tell me you didn’t.”
Brett came over. “Candy, we know the cause of the fire. A part of a joint was left smoldering in the restroom bin.” He looked at Billy. “You know anything about that?”
I got up off the floor, leaving them to sort it out. I helped Melody get the damaged pictures down, and we carried them out to my car. “Don’t worry about the others,” I told her. “I’ve plenty more where these came from.” I put an arm around her. “And don’t worry about Mrs. Carlisle. We’ll get everything sorted out. I promise.”
“Thanks, Susie. I can’t believe I was so stupid and got us both into this.” A police car had arrived on the scene and we watched Brett walk over to the cop. I wondered if Billy would get arrested for smoking pot. Deep down he was a good kid, and I hoped they’d go light on him.
Melody looked at Billy and swore. “Dumb kid. I’ll say I was smoking it.”
I stopped her before she took two steps. “Forget it. You’ve got enough trouble right now without adding to them. Billy will probably get off with a warning.”
Brett walked over to Candy. She grabbed his hand, and kissed his cheek. I wondered what the hell was going on. The policeman got back into his car and drove off.
Whatever Brett had said to him had saved Billy’s ass. But I knew are
troubles weren’t over. The expression on his face was grim as he walked towards us.
Melody saw him coming and squeezed my hand. “I’ll go check on Billy.”
“Do that. I need to have a word with Brett, alone.”
He touched my cheek, wiping a smudge of soot with the back of his fingers. “You did good containing the fire.”
“Think so? I’m always looking for a new line of work. Maybe I could be a firefighter.” I teased him with a smile, “Get to sleep with all those hunky guys. Hmm. What do you think?”
“I think we have a problem with Melody. She supplied Billy with the dope.”
“She did not.”
“That’s what he told me, and I believed him.”
“Uh-uh. No way.”
I glanced over at Melody, afraid for her. She was helping Candy restore order amidst the chaos. When she shifted a table, her sleeve rode up her arm. Gold glinted off her wrist. I was standing about ten feet away but it sure looked like the Rolex to me. Brett followed my gaze, and his face grew hard. He squared his shoulders, and his back looked as rigid as a tin soldier’s. “What’s that?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
He was already walking toward Melody, who didn’t even think to hide it. Brett touched her arm. “Let me see your wrist.”
She tried to pull away, but he twisted her wrist around so he could have a good look. “A diamond Rolex.” His lips curled. “Where did you get this?”
Melody’s eyes met mine. I could read her fear. “I was holding it for a friend. It’s not mine, but I didn’t want to leave it lying around. Susie can explain.”
“Susie?” Brett snapped, immobilizing me with his eyes.
“Yes. I know about the watch,” I stammered. “We were going to return it tonight to the rightful owner.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I stole it, but I don’t want to keep it.” Melody chomped on her gum, then spat it on the floor. “Susie’s gonna help me return it.” She glared at Brett with her chin in the air.
My eyes dropped to the wad of gum on the floor. My shoulders slumped as if I was carrying a fifty-pound weight. I wanted to protect Melody, but she was sure making it hard. By telling Brett she’d made another fatal error of judgment, he had no choice but to turn her in. It was his moral code. Right or wrong. Black or white. She had blown her chance for freedom, and my chance of winning Brett’s love and trust.
The Candy Bar Complete - 4 book box set: Candy Bar Series Page 43