Kelly Jo

by Linda Opdyke

  “Then give me the facts.”

  Robert’s silence was stark contrast to his dark eyed gaze burning into Jack’s.

  “That’s what I thought,” Jack said tersely and turned on his heel to go back to the apartment.

  “Jack!”

  He stopped but didn’t look back.

  The voice that reached Jack was quiet, but held a finality that sent a chill straight up his spine. “You make this choice of your own free will? Knowing you’ll spend all eternity exactly as Kelly Jo will spend hers���alone.”

  Still not facing Robert he answered, “Yes,” without hesitation.

  Hearing nothing more behind him, Jack glanced back. Robert was gone but a nasty flash of lightning streaked across the sky and light rain had started. By the time he reached the porch it was a steady drumbeat of downpour.

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Taking the steps two at a time, Jack found everything as peaceful as he’d left it inside the apartment. Only now, thunder was audible and flashes of lightning lit up the room. Portents of the drama he knew was coming, that he now understood was not a game, wasn’t to be laughed off through any of Kelly Jo’s shenanigans or shrugged away. It was about life. Precious life. Life and the chance to have it that was about to be snatched sometime, somehow, within the next hours from an innocent. Tragedy that he was helpless to intercept or to alter.

  His nerves taut, he started pacing the living room, trying not to notice Kelly Jo watching him with an anxious expression. What he wouldn’t give to be able to wake up and find this all a nightmare that evaporated when hit with the reality of morning light.

  “Dean,” she called in a low voice, glancing continually at Matty to make sure he didn’t wake up. “Dean!”

  Jack didn’t want to look at her, didn’t want the memory of the last hours of almost comedic fleeing with her from Robert to interfere with concentrating on the gut wrenching event that he knew was coming but that she didn’t remember causing. He set his jaw. He didn’t know exactly how or when the next or final chapter would come about but he knew he’d stay by Matty’s side. He’d do what he could to provide protection and could only hope he didn’t fail.

  He fought both his head and his heart to suppress the knowledge of what it meant for his own chances when this was over. That what he was doing left him without any chance.

  Kelly Jo’s alarmed voice finally broke through his thoughts. “What’s wrong? Did you run into Charlie, did you tell him that Matty’s here?”

  He stopped pacing and ran a nervous hand through his hair. “What? No,” he assured her. “I just went outside to���for air.”

  She rose and came to stand in front of him, searching his eyes. “No, I know you too well. What’s wrong?”

  He tried to smile. He didn’t need her getting upset. Especially since he had no idea how she reacted under pressure or to bad situations. Not to mention there was absolutely nothing he could tell her that would make sense. He playfully pushed her ponytail back behind her shoulder with a light, “I was trying to figure out how to apologize. For the champagne and for making you feel bad. I never meant to���”

  Her eyebrows went up. “Yeah, you do need to finish that tale.”

  Jack turned her around and pulled her into the warmth of his arms, until her back lay against his chest. He stared out the window, noting with a sinking feeling that the storm had increased and wind driven rain now lashed the long windows.

  “You were saying?” she asked.

  He cleared his throat and smiled, even though she couldn’t see it. “Well, we did have champagne,” he fibbed. “And you did get just a little foggy and I figured it was a perfect opportunity for a little payback fun.” His mind jumped from one scenario to another, looking for something that might have even an iota of believability to it. She hadn’t mentioned that the restaurant didn’t exist so he decided to stretch it from that point. “The costume shop next to Fogerty’s. We went in there and I convinced you that with Halloween only a few months off that you should try on a few things, a few things that were pretty daring, for you. What you wore home is what we bought. I’m not exactly sure where you dropped your shoes, though.” He laughed. “I made the rest of it up, the contest, the singing, the prize. Watching you walk home, barefoot and dressed like that���” he laughed again, but it trailed off when she whirled around, now fully in his arms facing him, her arms around his neck.

  His head lowered to hers and his eyes held hers. “You are one incredibly beautiful, sexy lady,” he whispered.

  It was unplanned but their lips came together. Jack’s heart jumped as the softness of her kiss met his and she seemed to melt into him. Holding her felt so right, so perfect.

  The fist pounding on the door sounded like an explosion.

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Kelly Jo jumped and gasped and Matty sat straight up, his eyes wide. No one had to ask who they thought was at the door.

  Jack dismissed his brief hope that it was Robert, making his presence known and demanding to see Jack outside again. This definitely wasn’t the big angel’s style.

  “Open the door,” came the angry voice. He pounded again.

  “Coming,” Jack called toward the door, then instructed Kelly Jo, “Take Matty in the bedroom. I’ll take care of���I’ll talk to his father.”

  Wide-eyed but hesitant, Matty glanced back and forth several times, from the door to Kelly Jo, before he finally went to her and allowed her to lead him into the bedroom.

  Fully aware that fate had just knocked on his door, Jack forced himself to stop shaking, to draw courage from somewhere deep down. He swallowed hard but went to open the door.

  The tall and thin dark haired man was not only angry, he had obviously spent a good portion of the night hanging over a liquor bottle. He reeked of whiskey. He pushed his way inside the apartment. “Where is he?” he demanded. “I know he came up here again.”

  Jack didn’t close the door. He had no intention of letting this man think he was welcome to stay for any longer than it took Jack to get rid of him. “Yeah, Matty’s here,” he said cheerfully. “But I think he fell asleep. It would be a shame to disturb him this late so how about if we send him down in the���”

  “I know what you’re doing,” Charlie interrupted.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You’re trying to turn my son against me. Filling his head with all sorts of things about me.” He looked around the apartment and yelled, “Matty! Get out here!”

  Jack suppressed his anger and maintained a friendly tone. “No, Charlie, nothing could be further from���”

  “Don’t lie!” Charlie erupted as he headed toward the kitchen looking for his son. “I know what you and Kelly Jo tell him. He told me that you talk about his mother���about me���”

  “Matty loves you,” came Kelly Jo’s quiet voice from behind them. “And you do nothing but say hurtful things to him.”

  Jack and Charlie both whirled to find Kelly Jo walking out of the bedroom toward them, her eyes locked with Charlie’s. Matty was nowhere in sight, still safely tucked or hidden inside the bedroom, if Jack knew Kelly Jo.

  “Why, Charlie?” she pleaded. “Why do you always make him feel it’s his fault that his mother left? He’s a little boy.”

  “He’s my son,” Charlie answered fiercely. “And the two of you are trying to turn him against me.”

  Jack blinked in surprise at how Kelly Jo went straight at Charlie, fire in her eyes. “No, oh no, you don’t,” she said flatly. “Not anymore. You’re not getting away with blaming what you’re doing on anybody else. I’ve stayed quiet long enough, hoping you’d get past wallowing in self pity and try to show your son that you’re still a family. Your wife left you, she left both of you, and I can only image how much that hurts. How hard it is to try to explain to a small child that his mother chose to be somewhere else.” Her voice softened. “If you love your son, you can’t, can’t, continue to let Matty believe that
it’s his fault she left.”

  “I never���” he defended himself weakly.

  “Oh, yes, you did,” she stated. “Whenever you get drunk you lash out at that poor kid. I heard you tell him that if he had been better behaved that maybe his mother would still be here.”

  Horrified, Jack went rigid at Kelly Jo’s words, could only imagine the impact of a father saying such a devastating, destructive thing to a child, but he stayed alert that he kept between Charlie and any opportunity he might seize to get near Matty.

  Charlie sank into a kitchen chair and dropped his head into his hands. “I’m���sorry,” he said. “I don’t���mean to���” He gulped a big breath that sounded near a sob. “I love my son. I’m scared to death that I’ll lose him, too.”

  Kelly Jo went to him and Jack wasn’t surprised by the gentle hand she placed on his shoulder. “Then you need to tell him that. More importantly, he needs to hear that.”

  The air went so noticeably still Jack jerked his head toward the living room. Nothing seemed amiss, but his gut was screaming that something was very wrong.

  He hurried toward the bedroom calling, “Matty.”

  No answer.

  A quick look inside said Matty was gone. Then Jack noticed the front door was still slightly open, just like he’d left it. His heart leaped into his throat and he ran down the steps yelling, “Matty!”

  The door to the Whitman apartment was open and a fast glance inside found that Matty wasn’t in there, either. Now frantic, Jack ignored Kelly Jo’s call from the top of the stairs, his only focus on finding the little boy.

  He ran out the front door, just in time to see Matty running, through the pouring rain, into the heavy traffic of the busy street. Jack felt the blood drain from his face. He had guessed wrong and Matty’s death was not at his father’s hand, but from being hit by a car.

  He didn’t hesitate. He sprinted after Matty, calling his name and racing in between the swiftly moving cars, ignoring driver’s honking their horns at him, to get to the little boy. He caught up to him in the middle of the street, grabbed him roughly into his arms and raced to the safety of the other side.

  Down on one knee, Jack pulled him tightly into his arms, the rain beating down on them. “Thank God,” he whispered, grateful beyond words that he’d succeeded in saving him. Did he reverse or prevent the event that drove Kelly Jo to come back here? He had no way of knowing, could only hope that Robert would sort it out for him. He pushed the boy back and asked, “Matty, why did you leave?”

  Tears mixed with rain on the child’s cheeks and he lowered his head. “I always make my dad sad. I wanted to run away so he’ll be happy again.”

  Jack raised his head when he heard Charlie calling frantically to Matty, saw Kelly Jo come out of the house searching for them.

  Charlie spotted them across the street and started to run across, unaware of the car speeding toward him on the rain slicked road.

  Before Jack could shout a warning, Kelly Jo screamed, “Charlie! Look out!” and ran into the road behind him, pushing him out of the path of the speeding vehicle.

  The screeching tires stopped too late for Kelly Jo.

  Jack screamed a hoarse, “No!” and ran to where she lay in the street.

  On one knee beside her, Jack hung his head and closed his eyes before raising them to the sky. “Why?” he whispered as he searched the heavens, his hand gently on her bloodied face as deep grief and loss flowed through every fiber of him.

  “Because,” Robert said gently from behind him. “This is why she came back.”

  Jack raised to his feet and faced Robert, his voice thick with emotion. “You’re telling me that she went to all this trouble���that this was all so she could come back to die?”

  Robert had lost the biker gear and was once again the formidable angel Jack had originally met. The rain didn’t fall on him. “I’m telling you this is her time, yes.”

  “But you said she came back to prevent a death.”

  “Yes, that’s correct. A death she caused during her last visit here. She was determined to reconcile Charlie with his son and came back to relive that night, to persuade parental change in him before she ultimately met her fate. Unfortunately for her, she defied my warning and advice and came back alone. Her memory loss was the same as it was this time and because she came without help, the scene played out very differently. She was too late to save Charlie from being hit and they both died, she on schedule, but Charlie before his time. This is what she was desperate to reverse.”

  “For Matty’s sake,” Jack murmured with a sad look to where a crowd gathered near Kelly Jo’s body and the distraught driver. The faint sound of sirens filled the air.

  “Well, for Matty, yes, but mostly for Charlie, since it was his life she accidentally ended,” Robert corrected him.

  “Don’t let Big Bob split hairs, Jack. It was mainly for Matty.”

  Jack whirled to see Kelly Jo standing beneath the streetlamp, its light a halo around her in the mist and rain. She smiled at him, and like Robert, the rain fell around her but not on her. She looked exactly as she had the first time he saw her, only this time she had no wings. Overjoyed, he was about to go to her when Robert stopped him. “Not so fast, Jack.”

  Jack looked over at Charlie and Matty, both of whom were crying next to Kelly Jo. Charlie had gathered Matty into his arms to comfort him. “Is there some way I can help, something I can say to them���”

  “They can no longer see you.”

  “Come again?”

  “Your part in this is over, Jack. You���”

  “Over? Don’t you think it’s hard enough for Matty to lose Kelly Jo? What will he think when his friend Dean disappears without a word?”

  “There is no Dean.”

  Jack rolled his eyes. “Right. And I have a bridge for sale.”

  “Did you check the basement apartment, Jack? It’s empty. Why do you think I put the key to her apartment in your hand? So that you didn’t go downstairs.” He sighed. “Charlie only met you once or twice, only as Kelly Jo’s boyfriend, and he was consistently in what I can only describe as a drunken haze, at best. Matty will remember you fondly, but with the vague memories of a child that over the years eventually fade to oblivion. Your role as Dean was necessary to keep Kelly Jo on script to avoid another disaster. I placed you and a history of her knowing you into her mind.”

  Jack could only stare, dumbfounded. “What about that whole trip on foot, from where we���the creek���the contest��� the dog.” He couldn’t resist a side glance to Kelly Jo and a chuckle, just to remind her how much he enjoyed the dog episode of their trek to town.

  “That all happened, and I congratulate both of you on your ingenuity, especially given the necessity of finding ways, not to mention clothing, to forward your journey and get yourselves into town. However, those involved on the earth’s plane will remember the events differently.”

  “Oh? How differently?” Jack wanted to know.

  “Wiley and his father will recall, with immense pride, Wiley’s mother winning the contest. No one will remember either of you. I temporarily gifted to Kelly Jo the voice that enabled her to win, a gift that was noticeably retracted by the time you reached home and she sang to Matty. That gift has been transferred to Wiley’s mother.” He cleared his throat. “It took some doing but I wiped clean the memory of Kelly Jo on stage from Wiley’s mind.”

  Jack snorted in derision, remembering how infatuated the young teen had been with Kelly Jo. Even funnier was the jaw dropping difference between Kelly Jo’s voice in the auditorium and her singing voice at home.

  Robert lifted his eyebrows to Kelly Jo. “I’ve smoothed over your pilfering those clothing articles from the dead biker they called Rattler. His belongings were returned to his fellow gang members, no worse for the wear.”

  “So you both used me!” Jack was not pleased.

  “Not I,” Robert said mildly.

  Ja
ck whirled toward Kelly Jo. “How could you?

  Kelly Jo sighed. “I had no choice, I told you it was my last chance to undo something critical. What if I say I’m sorry?”

  “I seriously doubt that you are,” Jack said, his anger visible.

  Kelly Jo walked to him looking very contrite. “Saying I’m sorry is pretty much all I have, Jack. Please?”

  “Uh uh,” he informed her, then turned to Robert. “I want my life back. I helped her go back to undo that event and she succeeded. Pay up.”

  “No can do,” Robert said calmly.

  Jack blinked, his look to Robert full of questions. “You’re joking.”

  “Afraid not. You’ll remember that I warned you against helping her. I made it very clear that, whether you succeeded or not, disobedience meant your fate would be the same as hers.” He tilted his head at Jack. “Do you remember, when I called you outside, that I asked you if you made this choice of your own free will, knowing the consequences?”

  When Jack made no move to disagree, Robert continued. “Kelly Jo will be where you first saw her. Forever. Alone. Your eternal spot is similar in landscape and isolation.”

  Jack scowled at Kelly Jo, his mind racing for an argument against what Robert had pronounced. What could he possibly say to sway the big angel’s decision?

  Kelly Jo leaned into Jack and kissed his cheek.

  “You’re right, of course, Robert, and Jack and I definitely deserve a severe penalty, but���” she offered Robert the disarming smile that Jack had to come know all too well. Kelly Jo’s smile sweetened as she took Robert’s arm. “Could we talk for just a minute, in private?”

  “No,” he said flatly. “Whatever you’re up to, it won’t work.”

  “You think I’m up to something? You hurt my feelings,” she pouted softly. “Just a word? Privately? Is just a few seconds of your time too much to ask when I’m about to be chastised for all eternity?”

  Jack saw Robert’s reluctance but knew curiosity would eventually overrule reluctance. It did. As they walked off, Kelly Jo began chatting with Robert but before Jack could figure out what Kelly Jo was up to, she turned and winked at him.