Page 38 of Danger Close
Greg looked surprised, leaning against the wall right on the inside of the door frame, keeping a respectful distance as I sat on the bed.
“Me neither,” he said with a short laugh. “I get it.”
If only more men would be like Greg… mothers wouldn’t fear so much for their daughters. Surely the altercation outside had to have been a misunderstanding of some sort.
A gentle knock on the door had me sitting up straight. Greg straightened, pushing off the wall. He placed himself between me and the open passage, as if protecting me from an intruder.
“Stand down, son.” It was Charlotte. There was a log in her arms.
Greg turned to me. His long, wavy hair fell over his forehead, partially obscuring his eyes.
“Do you need anything?” He had his hand on the doorjamb, ready to walk out.
I wanted the boy to stay, but I knew that would be courting trouble. Anyway, he was a stranger in the end, wasn’t he?
“No, thank you.”
There were a lot of things I needed. A change of clothes, a toothbrush, toothpaste, maybe something to wash my face with, and a bath… but I didn’t ask for any of those things. I didn’t wantto be a bother. I was already unwanted. I felt like an orphan, thrust upon a reluctant host.
“I live in the barn, in the upstairs loft.” Greg tilted his head in the rough direction of the large red structure. “If you ever need anything, come find me. Day or night.”
With a curt nod, he strode out without a real goodbye, but I didn’t mind. I’d resist the urge to call on him, because he’d done enough – far more than most.
Charlotte gave him a motherly pat on the shoulder as he exited, whispering a gentle “goodnight.”
Then she turned to me, and I prepared for a scolding. I shut my eyes, pulling the leather jacket closed around me, taking a deep inhale of the amber and coffee scent.
“I’m sorry,” Charlotte said, surprising me. “I still don’t think I like you, but that was no excuse for being inhospitable. Even if I had known what Guerro—I mean, Cobra, or Joaquin or whatever you might call him—had done, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to conduct myself correctly.”
My eyes opened, and I blinked, surprised. That was a strange apology, but she wasn’t through.
“I really like Trinity,” she continued. “I love her, in fact. I have long thought of her as the daughter I couldn’t have. If any of mine had made it to term, I would have wanted them to grow up to be just like her.”
The true insensitivity of my previous words struck me full force. Infertility. I shut my eyes, embarrassed at my callousness.
“I know things aren’t good between the two of you, and it upsets her.” Charlotte continued, before I could figure out how I could utter an apology, “I don’t like her upset. I feel very protective of her.”
She walked across the room, to the fireplace, and put the log inside.
“Greg was right, I don’t know both sides of the story.” Her voice gentled, before she nodded her head once more. “So, there. I’m sorry.”
The awkwardness continued as she lit the fire with some papers stacked in a basket to the side.
“I put a new toothbrush and toothpaste in the guest bathroom right across the hall. There are fresh towels in there as well. I’ll take you out tomorrow for some essentials, and I’m taking a wild guess that Cobra didn’t think of getting you a dress for the wedding either, so you and I will do that as well.”
With that, she lifted her chin, and nodded as the flames kicked up, heating the frigid room. She put a grate in front of the fireplace, which would prevent anything from flying out, but not obstruct any of the heat.
“I’m sorry that we don’t have any proper heating. It’s an old house and we have to do things the old-fashioned way.” When I didn’t respond to anything, she simply said, “Okay. Goodnight then.”
She had her hand on the door, her back turned to me before I found my voice again.
“You don’t need both sides of the story.” I took a deep breath. “It’s good enough to be on Trinity’s side. Hers is the one that matters.”
My daughter had friends, and a whole other family. What more could I ask for?
I was irrelevant to this situation.
Charlotte turned, looking at me for a moment with her warm eyes.
