by Lexi Blake
Half the closet was empty, nothing but unused hangers on the racks where her dad’s clothes used to be. His shoes were gone and the good suitcase.
It didn’t make sense. Why would he leave? Unless….
She turned on her mother. “What did you do to him?”
Her mother was always on her dad’s back. Hector Alvarez was the best husband and father in the world and Dakota had often wondered why he’d picked Joanne as a wife. Her mother was notoriously clumsy and was always running behind with things like dinner and housekeeping. Was it any wonder her dad got a little annoyed? He worked harder than any man she knew and her mother was a pathetic doormat. It wasn’t surprising the man would get bored with her, but he would never leave his kids. Not her dad.
Her younger sister, Mallory, showed up, leaning against the doorjamb. She was still wearing the skirt and blouse she’d worn to the funeral. “She didn’t do anything, Dakota. She was at the reception with the rest of us and then we came home. We found the place like this. Dad’s gone. He didn’t even bother to lock the door when he left. I guess he’s done with us.”
“I don’t understand what’s happened,” her mother said.
Like her mom really cared.
“Maybe he’s just gone on a trip.” Tears threatened. She hated to cry. It was a sign of ultimate weakness and she wasn’t going to do it. She had to believe there was something else going on. Her father loved her. She was Daddy’s girl. Her father was the only man she could count on. He wouldn’t walk away. Maybe she could believe he would walk away from Mom, but never from her.
“I don’t think so. He didn’t have any trips scheduled.” Her mom stepped out of the room. “I’m going to make a few phone calls. I’ll call some of his friends from work.”
“Call the police first.” Maybe her dad had been kidnapped. It was the only reason he would leave her. He wouldn’t pack his things and leave this shit town. Not without her. “Someone took him. Someone hurt him. Oh, God, do you think we’ll get a ransom note? We should call the FBI. Don’t they handle kidnappings? We need someone who knows what they’re doing.”
She was about to run after her mother. Her mom would never get it right. She was useless when it came to anything but cooking dinner and taking orders at the florist shop she worked at. Dakota would get the police out and searching. They would find her dad and bring him back, and he would know that Dakota never gave up on him.
She’d lost Jacob. God, her heart still ached with it. No, they hadn’t been more than friends, but he was going to wake up and see her for who she really was. Jacob was going to be a great doctor and Dakota was going to be his wife. They would leave this Podunk town and move to Dallas or Houston and have a fabulous life.
Jacob was dead and buried. A sob caught in her throat. He was dead and Ginny Moreno was currently being moved into the Salts’ fabulous house. Into her place.
Jacob was dead. Sweet, funny, kind Jacob was dead and he wouldn’t get a chance to wake up and see how good they could be together because he wouldn’t wake up. Not ever.
“Dakota? Are you all right?” It had been a long time since she’d heard something like concern come from Mallory’s mouth.
She shook her head and looked around. How had she ended up on the floor? Her knees hurt. She must have banged them when she’d fallen. Tears streaked down her cheeks and Mallory looked down at her like she gave a shit.
“I’m really sorry about Jacob. I know you liked him,” her sister whispered.
Liked? She’d loved him. He’d been her ticket out of this town, out of the nothingness her life had become. She was a cog in a boring, soul-killing wheel and not a particularly necessary one at that. She wasn’t smart enough to go to college, wasn’t brave enough to walk away without money. She was stuck and Ginny Moreno had taken her place and all because the dumb bitch wasn’t smart enough to know how to use a freaking condom.
She forced herself to stand back up, to wipe away the ridiculous tears. They wouldn’t do her any good. Action. She needed to take action. “I want to know where Dad is. I want to know what Mom did to drive him away. Do you think I don’t hear those foolish rumors she spreads? She’s trying to get sympathy by lying about Dad hitting her.”
“They aren’t lies.” Mallory always took their mom’s side.
“Of course they are. He wouldn’t hit her. She’s responsible for this.” She’d heard that crap about her father all her life and she ignored it. It was one more thing her poor dad had to put up with.
Mallory shook her head. “You’re blind. And he’s gone. I don’t know why, but I know he’s gone and he left on his own.”
“How do you know that?” She hated crying in front of Mallory. She really despised the fact that her sister was looking at her like she was something to pity.
“He took the baseball.”
No. She strode out to the living room. He wouldn’t. It was still there. She could still remember the first time he’d taken it down and shown her. He’d treated that thing like a religious relic.
This was signed by Nolan Ryan, baby girl. Your granddad was a hard man, but he did right by me. He didn’t have much, but he saved everything he had and he took me with him up to Dallas when I was just a little kid, not long before he died. I’ll never forget that day. I’ll never forget sitting in old Arlington Stadium with him and catching this ball. Your grandmother never understood him, but I did. He sacrificed for me. He would have loved you, Dakota.
She stared at the place where the baseball had sat for the entirety of her life. No one touched that baseball. It had its own glass case. It had been the symbol of everything her dad had lost and all the reasons she should leave this town.
Daddy was gone and he hadn’t even said good-bye. Her whole world had imploded in the course of a few days. Jacob was gone. Daddy was, too.
“Believe it or not, I’m counting this as a good thing,” her sister said.
“Why? So you can play those damn video games all day and no one will stop you? So you and your friends can be as loud and obnoxious as you want?” Her sister was so selfish.
“You’ve always been blind to him, Dakota,” Mallory said softly from behind her. “He was a horrible father. He’s a drunk and he hurts Mom. You’ve never seen the real Hector Alvarez.”
She whirled around and before she really knew what she was doing, her hand was out, smacking Mallory’s cheek. The sound cracked through the air and Dakota realized with dawning horror that she’d struck her little sister. She pulled her hand back, shocked at her action.
Mallory’s chin came up, her shoulders squaring. “Or maybe you know exactly who he is. Maybe you’re just like him.”
A little cry came from the back of her throat. “Mallory…”
“What have you done?” Their mother stormed in, her eyes going straight to the red mark on Mallory’s cheek. “How could you?”
“I’m sorry. God, Mallory, I’m so sorry.” She could barely see for the tears in her eyes. They welled up from some deep place inside her and she wondered if she would ever stop crying again. She’d hit her sister. Her little sister. What was she thinking? “I’m so sorry.”
She stumbled out of the house, into the heat of the evening. She had to get out of here, had to find a way to forget.
Even if it was only for a night.
Chapter Two
Brittany Rush fluffed the pillow and helped Ginny ease down into bed, despite the fact it was barely eight o’clock. Ginny winced a little as she sat back. The doctors might have said she was healing nicely, but it was so obvious her friend was still in pain, and the stress of the funeral that day had done a number on her.
“Are you all right? Do you need an aspirin?”
Ginny shook her head. “Can’t have one and I’m fine. My back is just a little sore. I think I stood too long at the reception. Could you get another pillow?”
She settled the second pillow behind her so it cradled her lower back. Brittany worried that even after the soreness fro
m the accident went away, the ache in Ginny’s soul would last forever. “Better?”
Ginny turned dark eyes her way. Her friend seemed infinitely older than she’d been when they’d seen each other on the last day of Ginny’s classes. She’d smiled and laughed and snuck a bottle of tequila into their room. The next morning Ginny had gotten up and left for home. Brittany had still had two more finals, so she was stuck in Austin until they were finished and she too could head home.
“Yes, thank you so much,” Ginny said. “I’m feeling better. It was just a really long day. I need to sleep. I swear I can feel the baby zapping my strength. You certainly don’t have to stay.”
She’d already gotten permission from her Aunt Celeste to stay for a few days. Her aunt had gotten teary and hugged her just a bit too long when she’d told Brittany she should stay as long as she liked. It was a little like Celeste thought if she filled the house with people who loved Jacob, maybe he wouldn’t feel so far away. Luckily her mom had been amenable.
It wasn’t like she was eager to head home. She loved her mom, but it was an election cycle. She really hated election cycles. It was like the world became an oppressive cloud that constantly told her to smile. Her grandmother wouldn’t get off her back about what to say and wear and how important Brittany’s father was. Nope, it was better to be here where she was really needed.
“Try getting me to leave.” She sat on the side of the bed and reached for Ginny's hand. “I’m just sorry I couldn’t get here before today. I understand why Mom did it, but I don’t agree.”
It was hard to get too mad at her mother. Payton Rush was a paragon of a wife and a mother. More like a martyr, but she would never say that out loud. It was blatantly obvious there was no passion between her parents but her mother was devoted to the family. She’d always been there for her and her brother, so Brit gave her a pass most of the time. She didn’t understand the relationship between her mom and dad. She didn’t even try.
Ginny shook her head. “Don’t even worry about it. I understood. You had finals. If you hadn’t taken your last finals, you would have been forced to repeat the classes next year. You could have lost a whole semester of work. You couldn’t just walk away. Certainly not when there wasn’t anything you could do. You couldn’t… I don’t know. Celeste kept it from Lacey, too. In some ways it was a mercy to give you another day or hour or even a few minutes when you didn’t know Jacob was gone.”
She couldn’t have stopped the accident and she couldn’t fix what had happened. Brittany knew that, but it felt wrong not to be there when her best friends were… dying. Somehow her final in history seemed meaningless when her own history was being written with such a brutal pen. She’d hugged Ginny good-bye that day. She’d waved as Ginny had driven off to pick up Jacob. She hadn’t thought twice about it, knowing she’d see them at home in a few days. “I just wished I’d gotten to Storm sooner. I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
Jacob. Her cousin. Her friend. He’d been smart and funny. They’d all looked up to him. Jacob was the model son, the perfect student. How could he be dead?
Ginny’s eyes closed and there was no way to miss the tears that squeezed out. Ginny must have cried a river since that moment when she realized Jacob was gone.
Brittany’s heart sank. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
Ginny squeezed her hand. She looked so frail under the pink and white quilt that it was hard to believe she was carrying a baby. She’d lost so much weight and there were hollows under her eyes. “No. You can’t say anything right now that’s not going to make me cry. I’m serious. If you were to joke with me, it would make me cry. It’s what I do now.”
There was so much Brittany wanted to ask. She’d held her tongue because it hadn’t been the right time, but now it was quiet and it seemed all right to find out what had been happening under her nose. Ginny had conducted an entire love affair and Brittany hadn’t noticed. What had she been doing? How had she missed it? “When did you and Jacob…” have crazy monkey sex, look at each other and the heat between you formed another whole human being, knew you were silly, stupid insanely in love? How could that have happened and she hadn’t noticed? She settled for “… become involved?”
She was still trying to wrap her mind around it. It was a total change in how she viewed the world. All of her life Ginny and Jacob had been friends. They’d gone to prom together—with different dates. She’d been sure they would stand up as best man and maid of honor at each other’s weddings. The idea of them together in bed was a little shocking.
Ginny hesitated and Brittany wished she could call back her words. She should just accept it, but it was so hard. Everything she knew seemed to change overnight. Of course if it was hard for her, it must be agony for Ginny. The relationship had been new. Ginny had just found her love. Her whole life seemed marred by tragedy. She’d lost so much and now she’d lost Jacob.
“It was a crazy night. The first night, I mean.” Ginny spoke in halting sentences. She stared straight ahead as though she couldn’t look Brittany in the eye. “I was at his place. He’d just broken up with Wendy. You know how sad he was.”
At least she was talking. Talking was good. Talking could help heal. “What about you?” Brittany asked. “You didn’t date all year. I thought you had a crush on someone. I even thought maybe it was a professor. You started dressing so much more maturely.”
Ginny had bought some skirts and low-cut blouses, paid more attention to her makeup for a while. Brittany had teased her about taking a lover. Now she had to wonder.
“No. Not at all.” Ginny flushed a nice shade of pink. “I’d…well, I’d had a long dry spell. I’d been alone for a while. Obviously I was dressing up for Jacob. Who else would it be? Deep down, I suppose it was always Jacob. Sometime during the year my feelings changed for him. I looked at him in a different light.”
“You started to love him?” Brittany was still trying to grasp the concept. She remembered them fighting over crayons and sharing bags of Cheetos. Jacob had pulled Ginny’s pigtails on the playground and Ginny had spread a terrible rumor that he had a horrible case of cooties.
“I always loved him.” There was no doubt that was true. It was there in the ache in Ginny’s voice. “I loved him from the moment I met him. It was just different. A couple of months ago we had this one night where we saw each other differently.”
“Only one night? And why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, it was obviously more than just one night. It started with one night, but we moved on from there. It was a love affair. We found each other that night. We knew it was right. We were coming back here this summer and we were going to tell his parents and my sister and brother. We knew we were eventually going to get married, though we were going to finish college first. I know I should have told you, but it seemed so new. I thought I should tell my family first. I promise I was going to tell you, too.” Ginny sniffled, her eyes on her hands in front of her. She was struggling, but Brittany understood.
She definitely understood looking at a friend in a different way. After all, she’d grown up with Marcus Alvarez. She’d thought he was an icky older boy at one point. They’d been kids and she’d thrown mud pies at him. And now she dreamed about him at night. She wished he was here with her, holding her hand, making her feel safe.
If her parents ever found out… She let that thought go. Marcus wasn’t here right now. It wasn’t an issue. She needed to focus on helping her friend. Her heart just longed for her beautiful boy. She’d sat in the pews today and wanted his hand in hers so badly. But even if he’d been here he might not have acknowledged her.
“Are you sure you’re good with living here for now? Is Marisol okay with it?” Ginny had left her family home in favor of moving in with the Salts. Celeste and Travis had offered her a place to live and support for her and the baby they would all adore. But Brittany worried. Ginny was so young. It seemed like she was making a lot of decisions that could affect the rest o
f her life. “Are you going to stay here for the summer and then go back to Austin?”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I need to be here. I have to think about the baby.”
Brittany leaned in. “Sweetie, are you dropping out of school? After all your hard work?”
Not to mention everything her sister Marisol had given up. Ginny had lost her parents when she was young and her sister, Marisol, had sacrificed to raise her and their brother. Marisol had become their parent in that horrible instant they’d lost theirs.
Now Ginny’s baby was down a dad.
“I have to think about the baby,” Ginny said, sounding resolute for the first time. Her chin came up, a stubborn look clouding her eyes. “Nothing is more important than Jacob’s baby. I have to put all my effort into having a good pregnancy. Everyone’s counting on me.”
It had to be a hard place to be in. “You know you have to think about yourself, too. I know you’re going to be a mom, but you’re a person, too. You have rights. If you want to go back to school, you should. I know it would be hard, but everyone here will help you. Maybe it would be hard to go back to UT, but online schools are everywhere these days. You can still have a career.”
“I don’t want to think about it right now, Brit. I’m just trying to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving because if I don’t, if I fall, I’m pretty sure I won’t get up again.”
What kind of friend was she? Her heart sank and she hugged Ginny. Sometimes she thought too far ahead. It was easy to forget how hard the present was when your head was always in the future. “I’m sorry. I’m a planner. I know there’s no way to plan for this. Forget everything I’ve said and just know that I’m going to support you and I’m going to be here for you as much as I can.”
Ginny leaned against her and Brittany remembered how she would do the same thing when they were little and Ginny would hurt herself. She would fall while they were playing and scrape a knee and when her mom would clean the wound, Ginny would lean against Brittany and hold her hand. Brittany would try to give her friend strength.