Page 51 of At Last

15.

Duke

“Mamie, shut the fuck up.” God, the woman won’t give me a chance to think. And Doc taking off,shit. What did I expect? I toldherto stop. “Why’d you come here? You know you’re supposed to call first.”

“Who was that woman?” She says woman the same way someone might ask, “Who was that monster?”

I didn’t want her to find out about Doc this way. “She’smywoman, Mamie. She and Peaches are mine.”

Dawna’s mom stops her ranting dead, mouth gaping open. Fucking stunned. “No… no. The pieces. You promised, Duke. You’d stick with the pieces. You’d never replace my girl. She was the love of your life. You said that, over and over. At the hospital, you told me… her body was still warm when you made me that vow.”

“We both know it wasn’t fair for you to even ask ’a me. To spend my life alone.”

“No.” She throws her hands to cradle her head as she cries. “What’s not fair is my baby cold in the ground. If not the one you made to me in that hospital room, think of the vow you made to my daughter.”

“It’s not fair that someone as beautiful as Dawna left us so early. But I fulfilled my vow to her. ’Til death do us part. Death parted us, Mamie. I met Doc. And fuck, I ain’t even told her yet.”

“Told her what?” she asks, but damn if it ain’t accusatory.

“That I fell for her.”

Mamie gasps, then drops to her knees crying. I feel bad for her, but I need my family. My girls. While she continues to cry on my floor, I pull my phone and attempt to call Doc yet a-fucking-gain. And yet a-fucking-gain, it goes straight to voicemail.

“Come on, sweetheart. Get up.” I help Mamie stand and lead her to the sofa. She ain’t a hefty woman by any means, but when she plops down on the cushion, the whole damn thing lists to the right and hits the floor. Both legs on that side broken off.

I think it happened when I fucked Doc on the sofa that day. We went at it so hard we moved the damn thing. Mamie starts crying harder. But I think it has more to do with the fact that I’m gonna have to replace the sofa now. And that’s another piece of her daughter’s life gone.

After getting her a bottle of water from the fridge, I start to leave my mother-in-law on the broken sofa to head up to the clubhouse.

“Stay ’til you’re composed. Then I gotta ask you to leave. Sorry, but the way you treated Caitlin, can’t have you in my house, she gets home.”

“Home? No. This… this is my Dawna’s home.YourDawna’s home.”

“Don’t gotta explain myself, Mame. Not gonna.”

Then I turn to leave, but she stops me. “You forgot.”

That stops me.

“It’s today, Duke. Four years ago, today.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, reach inside my pocket to pull my pack of smokes, but remember I don’t smoke in the house anymore so I don’t light up. “Living life again is the best way to honor her memory.”

“Aren’t you lucky you can do that,” she says snidely.

“No. It ain’t luck. It’s Doc. Peaches.” And that’s all I’m willing to give, because I gotta make this up to my woman.

Finally outside, I light up and suck back the calming effects of the nicotine while I walk across the forecourt to the clubhouse. I walk inside and look around.

“Where is she?” I ask Hero. He’s the brother sitting closest to me.

“Who?” he asks.

“Who the fuck you think?Doc.”

“I haven’t seen her.”

“Anyone seen her?” I call out to the other brothers.

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