“Out!”
Sam stood and started for the door, then stopped and turned back. “If you do this, if you vote for the zoning changes, you’ll leave me with absolutely no choice but to expose the fact your vote was purchased by Eric Angus.”
Danny was almost as shocked as Sam’s dad looked. He’d had no idea Sam was going to say anything of the sort. He stared at him, his heart pounding.
Sam’s father’s mouth hung open. “You can’t do that,” he managed finally.
Sam sighed. “I can. And I will, but only if you leave me no choice.”
Sam’s father stared at him, and Danny saw a world of hurt as his fury faded away. Now he was once again just a weary, sad old man with little to keep him on his feet but his pride. He turned his face away. “You need to leave, Samuel. Now.”
Sam nodded tightly and opened the door, gesturing for Danny to precede him into the hall. Danny started to go, glancing up at Sam’s face. He looked both angry and sad, and Danny knew he had to do something, anything to wipe that sad resignation from his face. Danny bit his lip, then stopped and turned back, looking at the older Ignatius.
“Councilman, you don’t know me,” he said impulsively. “And I doubt you’d approve of me if you did. But you should know that you and your wife raised a really good man. Please don’t put him in the position of being the person who ruins you. Despite everything, you’re his father. He just lost his mom. Don’t make him lose you, too.”
Ignatius didn’t respond and didn’t turn, and Danny sighed as Sam closed the door.
Chapter Sixteen
Sam pulled into the long driveway next to Neverwood, and the sight suspended Danny’s worry and made him catch his breath. Late afternoon sunlight spilled across the vast lawn, throwing an amber glow over the new spring green of the grass. Tulips near the gates glowed in hot pink and red, and the forsythia fronds that weeks before had been lined with tiny buds waved in the light breeze, now an exuberant burst of bright yellow blossoms. It was as if Danny could see the house and yard for the first time since he’d been back, and spring had truly come to Neverwood. The old girl looked like a duchess, dressed up in her Easter finery.
Sam parked behind several vehicles, including Leroy’s beat-up old pickup. He left the motor running and sat staring out through the windshield. He hadn’t spoken since they’d left his parents’ house, and Danny had been loath to break the silence. Sam hadn’t touched Danny, either, and that seemed ominous. Finally Sam exhaled heavily and looked at him. His brown eyes were solemn.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice deep and rough, “for what you tried to do back there.”
“I just told him the truth,” Danny replied.
“He won’t see it that way, but I appreciate it.” He shook his head. “He’s so goddamned stubborn.”
“Do you think he’s really so desperate he’d take Angus’s bribe?”
Sam’s fingers moved restlessly over the steering wheel. “I honestly don’t know. But if he does, he won’t leave me any choice. I’ll have to expose him.”
“Jesus, Sam.” Danny leaned toward him. “You don’t have to do that for us. We’ll figure something else out. Or let it come from us, not from you. I’m sure we could talk to Tag’s dad, and he’d be willing to say Angus approached him, too...”
Before he’d finished, Sam was shaking his head. “No, Danny. It has to be me. He all but admitted it back there. And it would carry more weight with the town coming from me. I know his financial situation, I’ve seen the books. And I know what’s motivating him.”
Danny studied Sam’s handsome, drawn face. He remembered how it had looked the night before, bathed in moonlight, his brown eyes filled with need. His heart sank as he wondered if he’d ever see them look at him that way again.
Sam turned his face away. “I need to go back,” he said, his voice flat. “I’m going to get my stuff out of the house.”
“You’re welcome here,” Danny offered, but even as he said it, he knew it wouldn’t happen. He wasn’t at all surprised when Sam shook his head.
“Dana offered me her guest room, and I think I’ll take her up on it. I shouldn’t have to stay long.”
Danny’s heart ached as the implications of that sank in. “Oh. Okay.” Silence settled again, but now it felt weighted and awkward. “I guess I should get to work...” He reached for the door handle.
“Danny.” He turned back. Now Sam leaned forward, and Danny’s heart surged when he covered his hand. “Talk to your brothers. Don’t let it go, not even for another day.”
His eyes were close and penetrating, and in that moment Danny would have promised him anything. “I won’t,” he whispered. “I’ve waited long enough. I have to trust them. If we’re going to do what Mom wanted, if we’re going to make it work, we have to talk to each other.” He tried to give Sam a lopsided grin, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded. “Whether we like it or not.” He started to get out of the truck, but Sam’s grip tightened on his hand.
“You can do this,” he said, his expression intense.
“I know.”
Startling him, Sam leaned in and kissed him, not openmouthed or with tongue, but softly and full of what felt like promise. Relief crashed into Danny like a wave. Nothing was settled between them and he didn’t know if it ever would be, but for now, for this moment, Sam still wanted to kiss him with this sweet intensity. And so he let himself fall into it, his eyes closed, his hand lifting to settle on Sam’s chest. When their lips parted, Sam pressed their foreheads together, and Danny’s heart was so full it ached.
“I’m going to go back and try to talk to him again,” Sam said quickly. “I can’t let him do this.”
“Sam...”
“No. It can’t hurt to try. I’ll meet you at City Hall in the meeting room, all right?” Sam whispered.
Danny leaned back and forced a grin. “It’s a date.” He opened the door and slid down from the elevated cab. “Good luck,” he said softly.
“Thanks. I’m going to need it.” Sam’s brief smile looked as strained as Danny’s felt. He stood in the driveway as Sam backed out, and waved as he drove away. When he walked up the gravel driveway, he tried to tell himself that any man who kissed like that wasn’t saying goodbye, but he just wasn’t sure. Of anything.
A worker in the drive was cutting molding on a table saw, and painters on the front porch were doing the gingerbread trim in ivory. Under Cal’s instruction they had stripped through the layers to the original colors of the house. It was mossy green, with off-white gingerbread and burgundy trim. They were going to have to finish the exterior in sections, and Danny really liked the porch, but right then he couldn’t be bothered to admire it.
He entered through the open front door, ducking under scaffolding that made it possible for one of the detail guys to paint the decorative wood above the frame. The ever-present hammering was coming from the second floor but he could hear voices in the kitchen. He pushed through the butler door and found Will and Cal leaning over the butcher block, shoulders pressed together as they read what looked like a letter on official letterhead. Cal was chewing on his lower lip and Will’s forehead was furrowed.
“Bad news?” Danny asked. He really didn’t think he could take any more.
Cal looked up. “The official notification of tonight’s city council meeting. They had it delivered by messenger. I think we can thank Tag’s dad that we got official notice at all. We should have gotten two weeks’ advance notice, and they say they mailed it, but...” He shrugged. “Either someone is lying or someone took the notice out of the mailbox so we wouldn’t have time to prep for tonight’s meeting.”
“I’ll bet it was Angus.” Danny sat heavily on one of the tall stools. “That might be why he’s been hanging around.”
“Possibly.” Cal sat across from him, his expression pensive. “Are you all right? How’d it go with Sam’s dad?”
“Sam confronted him, and he threw us out of the house.” Danny reached up and squeezed the back of his neck
where the muscles were so tight they hurt. “He says he’s going to go back and make him listen, but...” He shrugged weakly.
Cal rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand, his eyes closed. He looked as defeated as Danny felt.
“Hey,” Will said, looking at both of them. “You can’t give up, here. Sam can be damned persuasive.”
Cal dropped his hand and looked over at him. “And I talked to Maureen at the center. She’s offered to speak on our behalf. News has spread through the group, too. The kids are going to ask their parents to come.”
“You’ll have more support than you think,” Will said encouragingly, folding the letter and slipping it into the envelope. “There are some good people in this town, too.”
“I hope they show up at the meeting,” Cal said.
“They will.” Will sounded so sure. Danny wished he was.
Cal suddenly zeroed in on Danny. “Dylan and Maxwell Rasmussen? Where did that information come from?”
Danny looked between the two men who were watching him with almost matching expectant expressions. He took a deep breath.
“Is Devon home?”
Cal blinked and glanced at Will, who frowned. “Yeah, he’s upstairs. Why?”
Danny shifted uncomfortably. “Will, I don’t mean to sound like a prick, but I need to speak with my brothers. Privately.”
Will immediately stood, no trace of resentment on his face. “No problem. I have work upstairs. You want me to send Devon down for you?”
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
Once the door swung closed behind him, Cal came around the block and sat next to Danny. “Are you all right? You look pretty rough.”
“I feel pretty rough. And I’d rather only have to go through this once, if that’s okay.”
“All right.”
The silence that fell between them after that was awkward and weighted. Danny fidgeted and popped his knuckles, and Cal sat perfectly still but for a foot that rocked on the bottom rung of the stool. In the distance a saw whined, and the floors creaked over their heads. It seemed to take Devon forever to push through the door, although in reality it probably wasn’t very long. When he finally did enter the room, he paused just inside the door, looking at both Danny and Cal cautiously.
“What’s wrong?”
“Danny wanted to talk to both of us at once,” Cal answered. “So we’ve been waiting for you.”
Devon moved further into the room but didn’t sit. “Okay, I’m here. So, what’s going on?”
This was it. Danny’s palms were damp and he could feel a drop of sweat sliding down the middle of his back. Both Cal and Devon were looking at him expectantly, and Danny felt his mouth grow dry. How was he supposed to start this?
“Just say it, sweetheart.”
Danny’s breath left him in a rush. He supposed the best way was to just... “You wanted to know how I knew about Mom’s great-grandfather and his brother.” His brothers waited, watching him mildly. “Mom told me.”
“Mom told you,” Cal repeated. “When?”
Danny cleared his throat and sat up straighter. “Last night. Here in the kitchen when I went to get Sam a beer.”
He wasn’t surprised when Cal and Devon stared at him as if he had two heads.
“What?” Cal’s voice was a dry whisper.
Might as well continue as he’d started. “Mom. I hear her. Talking to me. In my head. I know no one else hears her, because she talks to me sometimes when other people are in the room, and they don’t. Hear her. Like now.” Both men glanced around, wide-eyed.
“Now?” Cal asked.
“Yeah, just now. I was trying to figure out what to say, and she told me to just tell you.” He could hear his own heart pounding, but that was the only sound in the room.
Finally, Devon stepped forward and lowered himself onto one of the stools. “You’re—hearing Mom.”
“I have been, even since before I got the letter. At first, I thought I was losing it, but when she kept talking...” Danny studied their faces. “Of course, you must still think I’m losing it.”
Cal slowly shook his head. He cleared his throat. “I’ve been dreaming about her. A lot. She comes to me in my dreams.”
Devon let out a ragged sigh. “I...feel her.”
Danny frowned. “Feel her like...sense her?”
“Sometimes. Other times I actually...feel her touch. Usually as I’m drifting off to sleep. And I smell her perfume.”
“Chanel No. 5,” Cal and Danny said together, and then the three of them exchanged long, telling looks.
Danny felt a surge of relief so profound, he almost cried. “How long...”
“Not until I got back here, after she died,” Devon said. He glanced at Cal. “You?”
“I had one dream before I moved back, but I just thought I was grieving.”
“I thought I had ESP or something,” Danny said. Devon arched a dark brow. “I got the letter the day after I heard her the first time. The one from the lawyer.”
Silence fell again as they all stared at one another. “So,” Cal said. “What do we do with this?”
“I have no fucking idea,” Devon muttered.
“Oh, his language,” Audrey said, and Danny tried to stifle his startled laugh, but he ended up sputtering. His brothers looked at him.
“She thinks you cuss too much.” Danny grinned at Devon, who glared around the room while Cal swallowed a smile.
“I don’t suppose she’s told you what it is she wants, or why she’s here?” Devon asked.
Danny shook his head. “No, she just sort of...talks to me. Not about anything in particular, and never when I expect it. She’s just—there.”
“Well, she chose a good time to mention her relatives.” Cal slipped a sheaf of papers out from beneath the letter from the council. “Will did a web search and found the family records back to when the brothers first came west from Michigan. It’s all right here. Eric Angus and Audrey are cousins. His problem is being related to the wrong brother. The brother that built this house was Audrey’s relative, not Angus’s. And apparently there was some major falling out between the two of them. So much so that Maxwell pulled a gun on Dylan in a bar downtown. It made the newspaper.” He shuffled through his papers. “Here. In January of 1910. They’d been business partners, but after the fight Dylan bought his brother out. He ended up going back to Ann Arbor and died basically penniless.”
“Will got all of that online?” Devon peered at the papers.
“Yeah. It’s pretty frightening what you can find out, actually, if you’re willing to pay for it. Arrest records and everything.”
Danny stiffened. Cal had inadvertently reminded him of what they still had to discuss. He felt faintly ill but pushed through it. “There’s something else I need to tell you about,” he said, his voice rough. “Something...personal.” Both of his brothers watched him with quiet interest. “You know I did time in juvenile detention. I was pinched for shoplifting.”
“How old were you?” Devon asked.
“Seventeen and a half and trying to survive on the streets of L.A.” He took a deep breath, and told them everything.
He told them about Mark, and how they’d run away. He told how he’d been abandoned in L.A., about the street kids he’d lived with, and what he’d chosen to do to earn his keep. Devon’s gaze sharpened; he’d just done that piece on street kids. He knew exactly what Danny had been through, how he’d lived. Cal could commiserate on an intellectual level, but Devon got it.
When Danny got to the part about the juvenile detention facility, and the guard, the muscles down his back began to tighten. He spoke softly, laying all of it out. How he’d defended the younger boys, how he’d mouthed off, how he’d awakened in the night handcuffed to the frame of his bunk.
Danny felt tremors begin near the center of his body and he had to stop. Cal reached over and took one of his hands, holding it and steadying him. After a moment Danny was able to continue.
�
��He pulled down my boxers, and he...he...” His voice caught in his chest. Devon moved closer on the other side and Danny felt surrounded, insulated.
“Christ, no wonder you have a hard time trusting people,” Devon said raggedly. “You don’t have to finish this.”
“No, I do.” Danny turned to him. “It’s important you understand. I think it explains a lot about me, about the way I’ve been.”
“The nightmares,” Cal murmured. He held Danny’s hand between both of his, his knowing eyes solemn. “Did he rape you?”
Danny shook his head. “No. He...fingered me.” He shuddered. “That’s all he did, and I have three years’ worth of fucking nightmares.”
Devon leaned in, one of his big hands gripping Danny’s shoulder hard. His brown eyes were narrowed and dark with banked fury. “For Christ’s sakes, Danny. You say ‘that’s all he did’ like it isn’t a big deal, like it shouldn’t bother you. It is a big deal. He may not have raped you but he incapacitated and then violated you. You were a kid and he was a sick fuck. Don’t try to make it sound like it wasn’t a big deal.”
Danny’s eyes ached but he was not going to cry. He wasn’t. Not even when Cal pulled him into his arms and Devon leaned close, his cheek pressed to Danny’s and his hand resting gently on Danny’s head.
* * *
Danny had never been to Elk Ridge City Hall before, and as he stood at the back of the huge meeting room, he didn’t think he’d missed much. Built in the late sixties, the building showed its age in every pink poured-concrete wall and liver-spotted linoleum floor. Even the chairs were retro, but not in a good way. Pressed plastic with metal legs, they were bright orange faded with age. They looked sturdy though, he would give them that, holding some impressively wide fannies in stretch polyester, unintentional clones of Sam’s Aunt Edie. If the chairs were equal to that task, they were worth whatever they’d paid for them. Occasional dirty looks were sent over round shoulders, and Danny figured they must be from the save-our-children contingent.
He leaned against the back wall, Will and Cal on one side and Devon on the other. They’d attracted quite a bit of attention from the standing-room-only crowd, but Danny didn’t care. The only thing he was interested in was Sam’s father’s vote. Neither Ignatius was there yet and Danny chewed on his thumbnail nervously. Angus was there, of course. He’d offered them all a condescending smirk when he’d entered, as if he had them and knew it, and Danny wanted nothing more than to shove that smile down his throat. He just hoped Sam’s conversation with his dad had worked.
The Growing Season Page 16