“Talked to a lawyer today,” he said around a small cough.
My heart jumped. Had Mr. Dunham called him? Why? God, I had hoped to avoid this. It had been one of the many reasons I owed Jess, her quick work had gotten me out so fast that my grandfather hadn’t noticed me gone. Just thinking about his look of disappointment would eat into me for the next two days.
“Yes, got a good one in Seattle. It’s all finalized. Only took ‘em two months.”
“What?” I asked him as I tried to understand what he was talking about.
“The Yard,” he said. “it’s all yours. No need to wait until I’m dead in the ground.”
“What?” I asked as my gut dropped. I’d been dreading this for years. Somehow it made everything so much more real.
He shot me a quick smile. “Don’t act so surprised. You know I’ve been training you for this.
I knew, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. I’d worked at his Lumber Yard since I was twelve. A few months after mom and dad were killed by that drunk. I’d been dumped on an old man who didn’t have any idea how to raise a punk kid.
After my third fight and the cops threatening to ship me off to juvie. He’d solved the problem by keeping me so busy I rarely had time to get in trouble.
Of, course, I still seemed ways to find some. But things had been a lot better. At least up until the other day.
At the yard, I’d started out shoveling sawdust or running errands. But for the last three years, I’d worked full time during the summer and almost every weekend and a lot of evenings when things were busy. Ever since his diagnosis, he’d had me run through every job until I mastered it then moved me onto the next. Everything from bucking logs to driving a forklift. From top-line grader to sharpening saw blades. If it was done in a lumber yard, I did it.
Last summer I’d spent my time in the backroom learning how to do the books with Mrs. Jamison. She’d taught me more about economics in two weeks than Mr. Turnbuckle had taught me in seven months.
I sometimes wondered if he’d hung on so long because he wanted to make sure I was ready to take over.
It was one of the many things about the fight with the Burk brothers that had filled me with shame. I should have been at the yard but it was the first day I had off in three months and I’d just wanted to get away. Forget about my grandfather dying. Forget about the responsibility hanging around my shoulders.
We’d never discussed why he was leaving me the Yard. Never delved into what was really going on. Nor what the future held. No, some subjects were just too tender.
“Papa,” I said as my heart broke.
“No son,” he interrupted. “It is time. Davidson, the bankers, and now the lawyers. They are all on board. It’s all yours. The house too. Sell it, run it, I don’t care. Your call.”
I stopped to look at him. A frail man at the end of his life. What could I say? Instead, I turned and took the plates to the sink.
“I’m taking a girl to the Prom,” I said to him from the kitchen as I rinsed the dishes. That was the way we handled emotional moments. We pretended they didn’t happen and shifted the subject. “Her name is Jess Dunham. She’s pretty, sweet, and … I don’t know. Special.”
I wiped my hands on a towel and stepped back into the living room.
He smiled up at me. “Good, a man should go to his high school prom. Especially if the girl is special.” His eyes grew glassy as he drifted off into dreamland. The drugs did that. He’d be fine, then gone a moment later. I wondered if he was thinking about Grandma. God, I hoped so.
The next day, as I walked down the school’s main hall, I saw Jess Dunham up ahead. Something about those jean-clad hips and the way her caramel brown hair bounced as she walked, I just knew it was her.
“Hey,” I said as I came up next to her.
She jumped, shooting me the strangest frightened look. She really did think I was a monster. Obviously, the whole breaking out of her hidden hole and into regular high school society was important to her. Important enough to go to the prom with a monster.
“I got the tickets,” I said to her. For some reason I wanted her to know I was taking this seriously.
She blanched a little then quickly looked around to see who was watching. What, was she embarrassed being seen with me? Well, she was going to have to get over that. Besides, I thought she wanted a sacrificial lamb. Wouldn’t that work the rest of the time as well?
“Um … Okay,” she said as she stared down at her hands.
“You still want to go don’t you,” I asked as my stomach seized up.
“Yes,” she answered quickly as she looked up at me.
My insides relaxed. I hadn’t realized how nervous I had been about her answer. The warning bell pushed us into moving again, I just naturally fell in next to her as we made our way through the throng of kids. Jess kept looking over at me with a curious frown.
“You’re going to have to tell me the color of your dress. I guess I’m supposed to get a tie that matches.”
She slammed to halt and looked up at me. “You are really going to go through with this. I mean, this isn’t some joke.”
Now it was my turn to frown. “No. I mean, if you still want to go. I’m willing. After all, I owe you.”
Her shoulders slumped as she nodded. “Burgundy,” she said before turning and hurrying to her class.
All I could do was admire the curve of her hip as she disappeared. Yes, a most surprising week.
Chapter Five
Jess
This was actually going to happen was the thought that tumbled around in my brain all day. A mixture of fear and excitement kept washing over me. It seemed so real. I expected to wake up at any moment and discover it had all been a dream.
Either that, or I imagined a thousand things that could go wrong. Eventually, my mind wondered if he was setting me up to be the school’s laughing stock. Get the silly girl to actually believe someone like Danny Parsons would take her to the prom then leave her hanging. Alone.
They would have laughed their guts out.
No. No, Danny wasn’t like that. I just knew it in my very soul. No, he really was going to take me to the prom. Things were already changing. People were looking at me differently, actually noticing the shy girl on the side. Katie and Bella had spread the word quickly.
Girls especially were staring at me strangely. I could read it in their minds, how had someone like me captured the interest of someone like Danny Parsons? Thank God, Katie and Bella hadn’t let out the whole debt aspect of things.
No, as far as everyone knew, Danny Parsons found me special enough to take to the prom. That made me worth something significant. Someone to be taken seriously.
Now the difficult part, telling my parents. Or really, telling my dad. He was going to freak.
That night, at dinner, Dad came out of his office and sat at the head of the table shooting me a quick smile before starting on his salmon.
“Mom,” I started with a hesitant breath. “I’m going to need your help picking out a dress for the prom. I guess I’m going after all.”
Her eyes grew big as she smiled widely. The fact that she was surprised hurt a little. But then I couldn’t really blame her. I’d never even been on a real date. So, starting out with a Prom had to be a bit of a shock.
“Who’s taking you?” my dad asked absently as he continued to eat.
My stomach tightened into a tight ball as I took a deep breath and tried to calm my racing heart.
“Danny Parsons.”
His fork froze halfway between his plate and his mouth as he looked at me with a creased brow. “Over my dead body.”
Oh, I had hoped this would go so much easier, but obviously, the universe is never that kind.
He gently laid his fork on his plate. “What is that punk thinking, asking my daughter to the prom?” he growled as his face began to turn red. “After what I did for him. The boy is lucky he isn’t rotting in a cell somewhere. One word from me and they�
��ll have his butt back in there.”
“Jim,” my mom said as she reached over and put a hand on his arm. I couldn’t tell if she was worried about him saying something to upset me, or his blood pressure stoking him out right there at the dinner table.
“He didn’t ask me,” I said as I straightened my back and looked directly at him. “I asked him.”
“What?” Dad barked.
“Why?” Mom asked as she stared at a daughter she had never seen before.
I liked this new feeling of pretending assurance. People looked at you differently when they thought you were sure of what you were doing.
“Because it was the only way to make sure I went to the prom with him,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders. They didn’t need to hear the whole sacrificial lamb excuse as Danny called it. Dad would love that. Going with one boy to get other boys interested. Besides, it wasn’t true. That wasn’t the reason why I asked him.
“No,” Dad decreed. “You will not be going to the prom with Danny Parsons. I forbid it.”
This was it, I realized. One of those moments in life where things could go either way and an entire life trajectory would change. One way could lead to future independence and happiness. The other, to a life of meek acceptance.
For too long, I had been too accepting. Too nervous to assert myself. It was time for things to change. And Danny Parsons was the perfect reason. One night on his arm was more than enough motivation to risk my father’s displeasure.
I put my fork down and focused on him. Over the years enough lawyer speak had seeped into me as if by osmosis. Leverage, negotiations only worked if you had leverage. I’d thought this through, it was my only hope.
“I will be going to the prom,” I said with as firm a voice as I could muster. Of course, deep inside, my stomach was a bowl of jelly. “And, it will be with Danny Parsons. If not … then I will go live with Aunt Vicky. At least I know she will treat me like an adult.”
A pin falling would have sounded like a bell’s gong. The silence was that intense. Mom looked at me with concerned worry. Dad’s face suddenly became very calm. My insides cringed. He’d shifted out of Dad mode and into top lawyer mode. Things had just gotten serious.
“You are seventeen. I’ll treat you like an adult when you start acting like one. In the meantime, you are my daughter. You can’t just run away to your aunt’s. Not without my permission.”
I stared back at him. “Are you going to throw your older sister in jail for taking me in? Grandma would skin you alive. Not only that, but Aunt Vicky would make your life a living misery and you know it.”
He let out a long breath as he continued to stare at me. “No. I won't allow it.”
“What, are you going to have the cops drag me off to jail? At least I won’t have to live here.”
With that perfect ending, I threw my napkin onto my plate, shoved my chair back, and stormed out of the room. As I ran up the stairs, I kept thinking this had to work. They weren’t used to me being all emotional. No, I was the shy, perfect daughter. Well, they were going to have to change their perception.
Everybody was going to have to change their perception. A small sense of satisfaction flowed through me. Standing up for myself could become addicting.
As I lay on my bed, I watched the clock. I gave Mom a good ten minutes. She beat it by two as she knocked on the door and stepped in.
“Honey …”
“Mom, I’m serious,” I said as I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed.
She studied me for a long moment then laughed. “It has been a long time since I saw your father lose an argument that badly. It was glorious. You can go to the Prom with this Danny Parsons.”
I stared at her, “And he won’t do anything to hurt Danny. I swear I’ll never forgive him if he does.”
Mom frowned and shook her head. “No, I made him promise. Of course, if this boy hurts you. Everything changes.”
“Danny would never hurt me,” I said as I ached inside. Danny didn’t care enough about me to hurt me. No, this was all a favor in his mind. But Mom didn’t need to know that. She just had to know her daughter was going to the prom and needed a dress.
“I must say,” she said as she pushed a wisp of hair behind my ear. “I am intrigued. This boy must be … special to upset your father this much.”
“Oh, Mom, you have no idea.”
A strange look crossed behind her eyes before she smiled. “We’ll go shopping on Saturday. It is going to be so much fun.”
“It has to be Burgundy, the dress,” I announced.
Her brow furrowed, “Why?”
“Because,” I answered and shut my mouth. No way I was telling her it was because in every dream I had about this for the last three years. I had been wearing a burgundy dress.
The next day at school, my emotions were on a roller coaster. First, I was excited, jazzed to the max. then terrified I’d screw something up. This was followed by a hollow tenseness when I thought about forcing Danny into this. It really wasn’t fair. He was a senior. This was his last prom. He should be allowed to take whoever he wanted.
Of course, that feeling only lasted about seven seconds before the shear excitement returned.
It wasn’t until lunch that I got a chance to observe Danny. He was in his natural habitat, main table, center of attention, a dozen girls batting their eyelashes, and sticking out their chests. All in the hope he’d notice them. They knew he was taking me to the prom. They didn’t care. There were a thousand other things they were more than willing to do with him if he’d just say the word.
The man was too handsome for his own good. Tall, wide shoulders, high, sharp cheekbones, blue eyes that sparkled when he smiled. Thick brown hair that begged to have a woman run her hands through it. He had it all.
But there was something more. Some intangible aspect that drew you to him. A confidence. A sense of not worrying about what other people thought. No, Danny was above all that. The ultimate in cool.
He looked across the room and caught me staring at him. I froze, but couldn’t pull my gaze away. He smiled at me and my heart melted. It wasn’t a smirk. Not an acknowledgment that he’d caught me checking him out. No, a simple smile directed at me and only me.
For one brief moment, it was as I was the only person in his world. As I said, my heart melted. Someone dragged his attention away and I swear I saw something in his eyes. Something that might have been regret. At least that was how I was going to interpret what I saw. After all, a girl could hope.
That became my life over the next few weeks. Me hoping for a smile across the room. A head nod as we passed each other in the hall. When you mixed in the tension with the realization that the date was getting closer and closer. It is a major achievement that I didn’t have a heart attack or meltdown into an emotionally useless puddle.
As the time grew closer, this strange awkwardness between Danny and myself continued. We most definitely didn’t travel in the same world. We had no excuse to talk to each other. We weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. And there was no prospect of that ever happening. And it wasn’t exactly like he had to chase me and win my affections. No, I’d sort of ruined that possibility when I blurted out my request. Technically, the only thing he had to do was show up on time, take me to the prom. Escort me in and spend some time with me. That would more than meet his obligations.
I obviously hadn’t thought this through. When I’d dreamed about him taking me to the prom. It had always been based on the idea that he wanted to. Forcing him made it seem … I don’t know. Disappointing somehow.
Of course, I wasn’t letting him back out. Not now. Not after everyone knew he was taking me.
It was a week before the big event when he shocked me by leaving his friends and walking towards our table. Both Bella and Katie shot me worried looks. My stomach clenched up. He was coming to tell me he had to back out. That had to be it.
“Hey Angel,” he said with a hesitant smile.
“Hi Danny,” I managed to say without sounding like a total idiot. I held my breath, waiting for the devastating news. Had my dad said something to him? Was that it? Or no, it was me.
“I was wondering,” he began with a little nervousness in his voice that tore at my soul. “If I could pick you up about an hour earlier than we planned? I know it’s late to be making changes and if you can’t. That’s cool.”
My heart lurched. Did he want it to start early so he could end it early? Was that his plan?
“Sure,” I said as I tried to bury the worry. At least he wasn’t canceling. “No problem,” I added before he could become upset at me. I know, not a very strong personality, and non-existent self-assuredness. But change takes time.
He smiled. “Great, six instead of seven.” Then turning to Katie and Bella, he dipped his head and said, “Ladies.”
I watched him walk away and melted inside. God, I had it bad.
Chapter Six
Danny
When I made my daily phone call, Margaret, Mr. Dunham’s assistant, passed me through to him instead of simply making a marking in her book or something. My gut clenched up. Had the cop’s found something? And if so? Was it good or bad for me?
“Danny,” he said on the other end of the phone. Crap, he didn’t sound happy.
“Yes, Sir.”
“I am told you are taking my daughter to the prom. Is that correct?”
“Um, yes, sir, I … I mean, I hope that is all right?” God how I hated talking to fathers. There were no good answers.
“No, it’s not all right,” he growled. “But it seems I have no choice in the matter.”
My insides froze. A guy does not want to piss off his lawyer. Especially, when he was pretty sure the man was the only thing between him and a cold cell.
“Sir, I … um … don’t think I could back out now. It’s sort of late.”
“No,” he grumbled. “But if you hurt her, jail will be the only safe place for you. Do you understand me?”
My insides relaxed just a little. A protective father I could deal with. An irate lawyer would make things difficult.
Rebel of my Dreams Page 3