Truly, Madly, Whiskey(76)
All his protective urges surged forward. “Then why put yourself through that?”
“Because I think my dad would have wanted someone to take care of her.”
The sadness in her voice slayed him. “I think your dad would have been more concerned about taking care of you.”
“Maybe. How did your meeting with the guys from Silver-Stone go?”
He didn’t want to talk about Silver-Stone. He wanted to convince her not to visit her mother. But if there was one thing he’d learned, it was that Crystal did not like to be told what to do.
“They need a commitment, but it will mean hiring more staff at the bar and the auto shop, and the timing sucks, with my father’s plans to expand the bar.”
She snuggled in closer and pressed her lips to his. “Or maybe it’s perfect timing. If you think my father would be concerned about me taking care of myself, don’t you think the same goes for your father? That he’d be concerned about you taking care of yourself for once?”
I’m not even sure I know how to do that anymore. He rolled onto his back and draped his arm over his head, pulling her against his side. “I don’t know, babe.”
“I wonder if there’s such thing as being too loyal.”
“If there is, then we’re both guilty of it.”
Chapter Nineteen
“BABE, YOU LOOK a little green.” Bear pulled Crystal closer as they drove toward her mother’s house Sunday evening.
“It’s a special look I get just for my mother. You don’t find it attractive?” She hadn’t even been able to muster a smile when they’d picked up Jed. Nothing good ever came from visiting her mother.
“Our mother has that effect on people,” Jed explained.
Bear squeezed her hand. “You seriously hate this.”
“That’s putting it mildly.” She fiddled with the radio. “It was a mistake to ask you to come. You don’t need to see what a mess our mother is.”
“That’s even more of a reason for me to be here with you. I don’t want you going through that at all, much less going through it without me.”
She pointed to the stoplight, her stomach knotting up tighter. “Turn right there. Then it’s the second street on the right.”
“I feel like I’ve been here before.” Bear stopped at the light and glanced at her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“No,” Crystal said. “But I have to. We’ll stay just a few minutes, so I can feel like I’ve done my daughterly duty.”
He turned the corner and followed her directions into a trailer park. “Now I know I’ve been here before.”
“Really?” Jed pointed to their mother’s trailer. “It’s the yellow piece of shit.”
“I know this trailer. You moved here when you were eight?” he asked as he parked.
“Yeah,” she said.
“How do you know it?” Jed asked as he climbed from the truck.
Bear helped Crystal out. “I think I drove your father home. He was at the bar, too drunk to drive. I was a kid. Sixteen, maybe? I don’t remember. But there was a little girl peeking out that window.” He pointed to the window on the side of the trailer.
“That was my bedroom.” Her pulse quickened. “But I don’t remember that.”
“Funny.” Bear slung his arm over her shoulder. “I’ll never forget it. Seeing you made me realize how much my dad cared about other people. He could have thrown customers into a cab and sent them on their way, but he never did. He said he didn’t know how a cabbie would treat a guy who wasn’t in his right mind, but he knew how the children he’d raised would.”
It made her happy to think that Bear had met her father, even if it was under those circumstances. But if her father had been too drunk to drive then, had he also been drunk the night he died? Had he caused the accident that had killed him?
She looked at Jed, and he must have read the fear in her face, because he shook his head and said, “He was no longer drinking when he was killed. He wasn’t at fault. He’d been sober for a while by then.”
Tears of relief filled her eyes. “I’m so glad to hear that. I know your father has weird ideas about women and work, but I love him even more knowing that he took care of my father like that. Do you remember anything else about our father? What he was like?”
“Yeah, I remember. He looked like Jed, tall with dirty-blond hair, but older of course. He talked about you guys the whole trip. His beautiful, smart little girl and the son who tried his patience at every turn.”
It didn’t matter that her father had been drunk. Bear had a memory of him that was new to her. “I love hearing that. Wait. Is this true, or are you trying to make me feel better because my mom is such a mess?”
“It’s true, babe. I told you I don’t lie.”
“Thanks for driving him home,” Jed said. “He was never a big drinker, but when he lost his job, it took a toll on both of them.”
“You remember that?” she asked. “I only have vague memories, and I’m never sure if they’re real or not.”
“You were only eight, but I was eleven. He wasn’t as bad as Mom. There were a few months when things were pretty f*cked up, but then he sobered up. One night Crys looked at him and said she didn’t like the way his breath smelled. That he didn’t smell like her daddy anymore. And that was it. He stopped drinking that night. He was killed ten months later by a drunk driver.”