At the Quiet Edge(19)
Lily huffed out a bitter laugh. When she’d met Jones, she’d never even tasted wine, and she still had yet to taste the good stuff. Her bottles were eight dollars max, and most were closer to six, and being at room temperature didn’t help the quality.
God, it felt like a movie she’d watched once, that brief moment of her life she’d spent in a beautiful two-story house with a nuclear family on a reasonable budget. They’d been planning a trip to Disney World. She would’ve seen the ocean on that trip. She would have insisted on it.
She’d had wine by then, of course. She’d even had a martini at a neighborhood party, though she hadn’t liked it. If everything had gone as planned, she would have been an established neighborhood organizer by now, volunteering for the PTA and maybe working in the school office for a few hours, with Everett already in middle school. Or maybe they would have had more kids.
She winced away from the idea of what might have become of her if Jones had gotten away with his crimes for another year or two. They’d been halfway through finishing the basement, anticipating the space they might need once Everett had a little brother or sister. She would’ve had another child. A baby to take care of in addition to a young boy. She didn’t want to think about how much more hopeless she would have felt.
Lily glanced at the glass door, hesitating before she went back in. But she couldn’t hide outside forever, wondering what the hell her ex-husband’s crimes had dragged to her doorstep this time.
“Homework hour for both of us,” she declared once she was back inside and locked up tight behind two doors. To keep the peace, she ignored the window he’d closed on the desktop when she’d walked in. At least he got out his backpack without arguing with her, and he retreated to the couch so she could work on an online assignment.
He seemed entirely back to normal. “I really like Josephine,” she tried, testing the waters of his mood.
“Yeah. She’s cool.” He didn’t seem inclined to offer more, so she dropped it. She knew there was no chance it was a romantic involvement, since he’d blurted out at age ten that he liked boys and not girls. He’d been clear on it since then, so what more could she ask about Josephine? It’s not like he would volunteer answers anyway.
She was too strict to be one of those moms who got treated as a best friend. That was what she’d chosen, but she did occasionally yearn for adolescent giggles and whispered tales. Hell, she’d barely left those behind when she’d had him at age twenty.
When an alert buzzed on her cellphone, Lily looked up from her work to find that Everett had retreated to his room and she was all alone. A glance at her phone revealed that it was five minutes to eight, and her gate alarm was ringing.
Mendelson. Heart hammering, hands shaking, she lurched to her feet and raced to the office. When she glanced at the security feed, she was sure it was him, appearing just as promised. A white man leaned out the open window of an SUV to push the buzzer again. A second glance revealed that he looked nothing like the detective. This man’s hair was shaggy and brown, not blond. Just a stranger here to give her a heart attack.
She glared as she turned on her microphone. “Can I help you, sir?”
“Oh hi!” he said, his eyes flashing up to the camera. “I’m here working on my uncle’s storage unit. I misplaced the note with his gate code on it, so I was hoping you could buzz me in?”
“Sorry, sir, I can’t open the gate without the code. You’ll have to call him.”
“I just tried. He didn’t pick up.”
“Please come back between nine a.m. and six p.m. tomorrow after speaking with your uncle.”
He winced, his eyes crinkling. “I really need some stuff out of there, and I have appointments tomorrow. Any chance you could let me through for just a moment? I remember the combination for his lock. I’ll be quick.”
She glared at his hopeful smile, suddenly thinking about that SUV she’d seen across the street. And Amber’s palpable fear over her abusive partner. This guy could be anyone, and she wasn’t about to let him in.
“The office is closed. I’m not allowed to let anyone in after six p.m. without a code. No exceptions.” That wasn’t quite true. But she’d be damned if she’d take any chances this week.
She watched the man run a hand through his dark hair, but it fell back over his forehead immediately.
“No exceptions?” he pressed.
“None,” she answered, not bothering with any apology this time. It was dark, she and Everett were alone, and she wanted him gone.
“Okay, I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
She crossed her arms and watched until he backed up and turned around. Then she watched the cycle of all the security cameras to make sure he was truly gone. Creep.
Unwilling to deal with more stress, she locked everything up tight again, then tapped on Everett’s door. “I’m going to bed early with a book. Lights out at nine thirty tonight!”
“Got it,” he called. She successfully resisted the urge to open the door and give him a tight hug that he’d try to squirm out of. He hadn’t brought up his dad or his eavesdropping, so she wouldn’t either.
Two glasses of wine later, her own lights were out at 9:30, and she fell into the dead sleep of a woman who was no longer smuggling other human beings on and off her property.