Page 11 of Until Delilah

Max

I’m pullinginto my driveway with thoughts of Delilah and Beckham running through my head when Mom calls.

“Hey, is everything okay?” She doesn’t normally call this late unless something’s happened.

“You could say that. I just got a call from a very upset Delilah.” She continues to talk, but I don’t hear her. What could Delilah be upset about?

When I finally tune back in the last word I hear is shelter.

“I’m sorry you’re going to have to repeat that. Why’d she call you?” Why hadn’t Delilah called me? It’s then I realize she doesn’t have my number, making it impossible for her.

“Did you know she and her son are staying at the women’s shelter?”

“No,” I draw out the word thinking of the apartment building I dropped her off at twenty minutes ago.

“Well, I guess that’s where she’s staying. It was difficult to understand some of what she was saying between bouts of crying. I told her I’d come pick them up, but I thought—”

“I’m on my way,” I interrupt while backing out of my driveway.

“That’s what I thought. While I don’t expect a full report tonight, I do expect one the first chance you get. Why would she lie about where she’s staying?”

“Would you want anyone to know you were staying there?”

Delilah has been pretty cagey about answering questions and now things are starting to make a little more sense, but there are still plenty of things that don’t add up, and sooner or later, I’m going to get her to open up to me. Even if it’s the last thing I do.

“Are they okay besides being locked out?” I ask as I start to speed down the road that leads from my house.

My house is tucked away from the town and private. Just the way I wanted it after I moved back to my hometown. The last thing I wanted was to have neighbors stopping by whenever they felt like it to shoot the shit with me.

“I think so. They’re probably just tired. Can you text me after you drop them off—”

Again, I interrupt her. “I’m bringing them back to my place. I’ll text you once I know they’re asleep. How does that sound?”

“That’s what I thought.” I hear the smile in her voice.

While it took me twenty minutes to get to my house from where Delilah had me drop them off, it only takes me ten to pull up outside the shelter. My teeth grind together as I hop out of my truck and walk over to where Delilah is sitting on the curb with her son on her lap.

“Max, what are you doing here?” She starts to stand with Beckham in her arms and I catch her elbow to help bring her to stand the last few inches.

“My mom called me and told me you called her upset about being locked out of the shelter, which is strange since I dropped you off at an apartment building a mile back. Do you want to tell me why you lied to me?”

Her blue eyes flare, but her voice is hushed when she speaks. “Can we talk about this later? I would really appreciate it if you could take us to the nearest hotel.”

There’s no way in hell I’m taking her to a hotel, but she doesn’t need to know that. Instead, I nod and take Beckham from her and place him in the backseat of my truck. We’re silent as I pull out of the parking lot. It’s taking everything in me not to yell at her and then question her about why she’s staying at the battered women’s shelter. Now the split lip and bruising make more sense.

When we’re on the long road heading to my house, she breaks the silence. “Where are you taking us?”

“I’m not taking you to a hotel, Delilah. Tonight, you and your son are staying with me. Tomorrow we’ll talk about your living situation.”

“You’re not the boss of me. What’s stopping me from calling an Uber and leaving the moment you fall asleep?” she whisper-yells.

Leaning over, I keep my eyes on the road, but direct my voice so only she can hear. “How about the tired little boy in the backseat of my truck? Don’t you think he deserves a good night's sleep? He’s not going to get that if you keep shuffling him around all night.”

Her blue eyes turn glassy as she stares straight ahead without answering me, her hands clenching and unclenching in her lap.

I expect some sort of reaction from her when she sees my house but get nothing. After living in an apartment in New York for most of my adult life, I wanted a place where I could spread out and when I found this house for sale, I knew it was the house for me. It’s too big for one person, but I’ve always hoped I’d find ‘the one’ like my father and we’d have kids to fill it up. Never did I think the first person spending the night would be one of the baseball moms and her son.

Delilah jumps from the truck the moment I put it into park and starts for the back door to get Beckham out, but I stop her with a hand to her shoulder. “I’ll get him and take him to one of the spare bedrooms.”

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