Summer Girl

by Sophie Hill

  “We can’t stay here,” I said. “We could burn up in our sleep.”

  I got my cell phone and called Veronica. “Is the offer still on for us to come stay with you for a little while?” I asked.

  “Of course, you moron. I was getting ready to come out there with a freaking butterfly net to scoop you up and bring you in.”

  We packed up and drove out there by mid-day. I thought Consuelo would argue more, but she just stuffed clothing in her stained old Hello Kitty suitcase without a word.

  That afternoon Veronica and I sat on her back deck, drinking iced coffee and watching Luis and Roberto running around on the sand, whooping with glee, while Consuelo made sand castles with plastic molds that Veronica had unearthed from the garage. Consuelo’s grandmother, whose name I’d found out was Magdelena, sat in a beach chair staring at a newspaper that she couldn’t read. In fact she was holding it upside down.

  Watching them made me smile, a slight lifting of the heavy ache that weighed me down.

  “You saved my life, yet again,” I told Veronica.

  “I know, right? I should have a superhero costume by now. I think it’s coming in the mail.”

  I laughed ruefully. “You’d look great in a superhero costume.”

  She nodded. “I look great in everything.”

  “I seriously don’t know what to do at this point. I’m afraid if I push things, if I confront my father, Consuelo will end up being put in a foster home or being forced to live with her mother again. And something’s got her really scared, too scared to tell me what’s really happening. But I don’t know how I’m going to support three kids and a senile grandma.”

  “You guys could always stay here.”

  “Forever? Summer’s halfway over. You have to go back to college. And this is technically your mother’s house.”

  “Both our names are on it. It’s held in trust for me. I could always transfer to the state college. It’s only half an hour from here. And you do seem like you need a babysitter; I’ve never seen anyone get in more trouble than you.”

  “Veronica!” I protested. “I can’t keep using you like this! You’ve already done way too much for me!”

  Veronica set her coffee down and stared out at the waves. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe I like helping? Maybe I like being able to make a difference for somebody? I barely have a family. My mother’s in Hawaii with her latest boy toy, because she dumped husband number five. My dad’s on some pleasure cruise trying to decide if he likes men or women. I talk to the managers of my trust fund way more than I talk to them. My half-brother’s the world’s biggest asshole, and I wouldn’t spit on him if he were on fire. Having you all here is like having a family. Complete with batty old grandma.”

  “Oh,” I said, taken aback. “I got so wrapped up in my own stuff that I didn’t even notice anybody else’s problems. I haven’t even asked you what’s going on with your own family since I’ve been here. I’m really sorry.”

  Veronica shrugged, and for the first time I saw the pain and loneliness behind the smart aleck façade.

  “It’s no big deal.”

  “It is a big deal,” I said. “I’ve been really self-centered, and I’m sorry. Why are our families so screwed up? Is it the money?”

  “Consuelo’s family is pretty screwed up, and they don’t come from money. Family is what you make of it. Speaking of them, whatever happened with the police talking to the Rodriguez family?”

  “According to Sheriff Blackstone, the Hilltop police went by their house and nobody was home. I get the impression that it’s pretty low priority for them. They don’t believe there was a second car.” I leaned back in my chair. “I still feel like I’m using you and giving nothing back.”

  “Being able to help out actually makes me feel like I can do something worthwhile,” Veronica said. “Why is it so hard for you to let people help you?”

  “I guess because while I was growing up, all the money that my parents spent on me felt like it came with strings attached. I had to live the way they said, act the way they said, or it would be snatched away from me.”

  “If our positions were reversed, would you help me?”

  “Of course,” I said. “My God, I’d give you anything.”

  “So let me help you now, for Christ’s sake. If it makes you feel better, consider it a long term loan. We can take the kids shopping today and buy them clothes. I like shopping.” She took another sip of coffee. “And you should call Aurora. I have a feeling that sooner rather than later, you’re going to need a lawyer in your corner.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Slade

  The sun beat down on me as I pushed the lawn-mower across my lawn. Visions of sitting on my front porch, drinking a frosty beer, flashed through my mind, and I shoved them away.

  I needed to finish cleaning up my house, make it spotless and perfect so that Heather would take me seriously. I totally understood why she’d question my ability to care for a family; there was nothing that she’d seen in my past behavior which would give her a reason to look at me as daddy material.

  But I wasn’t going to give up, ever. I knew now how she felt about me. I knew that I loved her more than I loved my own life. And I knew that I could take care of her and those kids. I’d work night and day, she could go back to work at the restaurant or get a different job. We wouldn’t be rich, but we’d get by.

  I would make it work.

  I paused as I heard the familiar rattle of my uncle’s Ford pickup truck chugging down the street. He pulled up in front of my house and walked up the walkway, where I’d laid down flagstones. I turned off the lawnmower and the two of us sat on the little rocking chairs on my front porch. “The place looks nice,” he said. “You cleaned it up pretty well.”

  “I do clean up nice,” I shrugged.

  I saw his eyes wander to the water bottle in my hand, the unspoken relief in his gaze. “How’s it going for you?” he asked.

  “Okay. How’s it going for you?”

  “Haven’t touched a drop. Met a nice lady in my A.A. group. I took her out to dinner once. It might turn into something.” He squinted at me in the sun, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and mopping sweat from his brow. “I feel bad sticking you with running the Sand Bar all the time.”

  “It’s no problem. The manager’s pay is actually pretty helpful.”

  “You’re not finding it hard to keep away from the booze?”

  “So far, no. The more I see how people act when they’re drunk, the less that I want to be one of them.”

  He nodded. “You’re lucky.”

  His gaze wandered out to the street, to the police car gliding to a stop in front of the house. My stomach twisted. Had something happened to Heather?

  Deputy Peters climbed out of the car and walked up the steps, his face grim.

  “Slade Monroe, you are under arrest for assault and battery, and felony kidnapping.”

  “What?” My jaw dropped.

  “Barron’s in the hospital. He’s beaten up pretty bad. Says you were driving by him, pulled him into your car, and pounded his face in.”

  “That’s bullshit! I never touched him! I haven’t been in a fight in weeks.”

  Deputy Peters glanced at my hands, which were scabbed and cut. “Your hands are pretty beat up. Like you’ve been punching someone.”

  “Because I’ve been working on my house!” My heart dropped. This couldn’t be happening.

  “This is garbage!” My uncle jumped in front of me. “You’re railroading my boy because of some rich asshole making up lies? You know they’ve been fighting over a girl – my nephew’s being framed! Get the hell off his property!”

  “I’ll arrest you too, if I have to,” Peters snapped.

  “Go ahead!” My uncle roared, eyes blazing with fury. Then he clutched at his chest and fell back into his chair, face pale.

  “Uncle Larry! Jesus Christ…are you all right?” Larry scrabbled in his pocket, pulled out an
orange vial of medicine. His hands were shaking too badly to open the top.

  “God damn it,” Peters cursed, grabbing his radio. “I need an ambulance at 323 Bluejay Lane, for chest pain. Step on it.”

  He grabbed the vial, opened it, and shook a tiny little pill out into his palm, then shoved it in Uncle Larry’s mouth.

  “What is that?” I choked out.

  “Nitroglycerin. Helps with chest pain.” Deputy Peters watched my uncle’s face carefully. My uncle’s breathing got a little easier and some color came back to his face.

  I stood there feeling the world fall away from me. This couldn’t be happening. I was facing serious time, especially if the kidnapping charge stuck. Sheriff Blackstone would be delighted to see me go down for this one. For the first time in my life, I actually cared about my future, actually was planning for a future, and it was all about to be snatched away from me – and for once, it wasn’t even for something that I’d done wrong.

  It didn’t matter what I did, how hard I tried. The Monroe Family curse had me firmly in its cruel, sharp claws.

  Heather

  Dottie and Chuck were standing behind the counter holding hands as Veronica and I walked in with Consuelo, Magdelena and the boys.

  “Ewww,” I said. “Dottie and Chuck, sitting in a tree…”

  Consuelo dissolved into a fit of giggles.

  “Nice,” Dottie shook her head chidingly. “Way to set a good example for the children.”

  “You’re right. Shame on me. We’ll all have hamburgers and fries. Medium. Coke for me, milkshakes for the kids.”

  “She has pictures on her arms!” Luis said admiringly.

  “I like your hair,” Consuelo told her. “How did you get it so blue?”

  “She dyed it. And you can’t do that until you’re at least 18,” I said. Oh my God, I sounded exactly like my mother.

  Dottie took their orders, made their milkshakes, and served them to us.

  “You can come back to work here any time, you know,” she said. “Customers have been asking about you. We’d love to have you back.”

  I sighed. “I may have to. My money’s almost gone. I don’t know what I’m going to do come September, though. The kids have to be enrolled in school.”

  Consueo flicked a worried glance at me, then turned her attention to her burger, chewing it in silence.

  “You could home school us,” she said finally.

  “Is that what happened before?” I asked her. “Were you home schooled?”

  She stared down at her plate, not answering.

  “Whoa. Major fucking asshole alert,” Dottie said.

  “Dottie!” I gasped. “LANGUAGE!” But she wasn’t looking at me. My stomach twisted in a knot when I saw Barron walking through the door. His face was bruised and swollen and his upper lip was split. What the heck was going on? I didn’t want him or his drama anywhere near Consuelo and the boys.

  “Hey, loser, what part of ‘you’re 86ed’ are you having a hard time with?” Dottie demanded.

  “You’re going to want to hear this,” he sneered to me. “Your boyfriend beat me up last night. I had him arrested. Now, I can press charges…or not press charges. Your call. But if I press charges, it’s a pretty good bet that he’s going to prison.”

  “What?” Dottie spluttered.

  My heart plummeted to my shoes. “What did you do to him?” I demanded. “If he beat you up, I am one hundred percent sure you provoked him.”

  Rage sparked in his eyes. “Really, Heather? You see what he did to me, and you’re still on his side?”

  “Because I know you,” I snapped, eyes blazing with rage.

  “You can come back to Raleigh with me, or loverboy can find a new squeeze…in his prison cell,” Barron snarled. “I’m not screwing around here, Heather.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. This is my sister. And her cousins,” I said furiously. “I’m taking care of them now.”

  “Oh? And how are you planning to support them?”

  “Veronica’s helping me.”

  “Oh, right. Veronica,” he sneered. “You’re her latest little charity project. That’ll last until she gets bored, which is pretty much already happening. You know she bought a ticket to go to Paris next week? Alone?”

  My heart dropped. Could that be true? Wouldn’t she have told me? I frantically tried to think back about whether Veronica had ever done anything like that before. Did she make promises and then move on? I couldn’t remember, couldn’t think, because my mind was blind with panic.

  His eyes gleamed with malicious satisfaction. “She didn’t tell you, did she?”

  He raked Consuelo and the boys with a cold, contemptuous glance. “I can pay for a nanny for them, but they can’t live with us. They can live in a house nearby. You can visit them.”

  I could visit them? I could visit them?

  Cold steel bars squeezed my chest, and I struggled to breathe. A nightmare vision of what life with Barron would be like flashed before my eyes. Like life in prison with the most horrible warden ever.

  But if I didn’t give him what he wanted, Slade would be in prison. A real prison.

  “This is a limited time offer,” he snapped. “I can also call child protective services and have them taken away and put in foster care where they belong.”

  “Noooo!” Consuelo let out a wail of panic and burst into tears. Suddenly she made a gagging noise, and the hamburger and fries came back up as she vomited onto her plate. Both of the boys started crying, hard, clinging to her.

  “This is bullshit, Heather! He’s playing you! Don’t let him do this,” Dottie said.

  Chuck came flying out from behind the counter. “Get the hell out of my restaurant, before I kick your ass from here to next week.”

  Barron’s split lip curled in a sneer. “Say goodbye to your sister, Heather,” he said, and turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Consuelo, please come out. Nobody’s coming for you.” We were sitting in Aurora’s office. Consuelo and her brothers were locked inside her bathroom.

  “You promised nobody would take them away! You promised!” she yelled from behind the door.

  Dottie was still at work. Veronica had come to meet me at Aurora’s office as soon as I called her, and had insisted on paying Aurora a retainer to represent me in case I needed to fight for custody of Consuelo.

  “This is total bullshit. Slade’s no saint, but I know Barron’s lying,” Veronica cursed furiously.

  “But all a jury is going to see is a guy with a juvenile record, with a DWI, who gets in fights all the time and who just beat somebody up,” I moaned. “He’s screwed. And he’ll get Consuelo and the boys taken away and put in some horrible foster home. Believe me, I know how money and power works. What can I do? I think he’s won, Veronica. I think I have to go back to Raleigh with him.”

  My stomach lurched at the thought. His greedy, groping hands on me, his mouth roaming over my body, his insults, the orders he’d bark at me…It would be worse than a life sentence in prison. But what choice did I have?

  “Are you crazy?” Veronica hissed.

  I turned to her. “Barron said…he said that I was your latest charity project and you’d get bored and move on. He said that you’re going to Paris next week by yourself.”

  “Oh, come on. Tell me you didn’t believe that. Of course I’m not going to Paris. I already transferred to State College here like I told you I was going to. I can show you the paperwork.”

  “You don’t need to.” I felt like a huge weight had instantly vanished from my shoulders. Slade in jail, a court battle for Consuelo and her cousins…I didn’t think I could face this all by myself.

  “Barron’s a sociopathic liar.” Veronica’s brow wrinkled. “Something stinks about this whole thing. I’m actually wondering if Slade even beat him up. I mean, he claims Slade drove by him and pulled him into a car, and took him someplace to beat him up? Does that sound like
something that Slade would do?”

  “No,”I said, shaking my head. “Slade does things on impulse. I could see Barron needling him into a fight, but for Slade to actually drag him into his car? You’re right. That sounds like something that Barron made up because he knew that a kidnapping charge was much more serious than a simple battery charge.”

  “And why would Barron be walking around by himself in the middle of the night? And by coincidence, Slade just happened to be walking by when that happened? I’m not buying it.”

  “But what about Barron’s face?”

  Veronica leaned back in her chair. “I know what he did! He had somebody beat him up. One of his friends,” she said, light dawning on her face. “His friend Julian just left town yesterday. He stood up a friend of mine that he was supposed to take out to dinner. I bet he left town because his knuckles are all beat up.”

  “Could you find out where this Julian person is? That would be a start,” Aurora said.

  Slade

  I watched Sheriff Blackstone walking towards my jail cell with a dull throb in my stomach. I was screwed. I’d let Heather down in the worst possible way, and there was nothing that I could do about it. Part of me wanted to rage at him, scream at him, threaten him…

  But ultimately this wasn’t his fault. Because of the way I’d lived my life up until now, no jury would believe me when Barron climbed up on the witness stand and raised his manicured right hand and swore that he was telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.