Purple Hearts(94)

“Hey!” I heard, muffled, from below.

I panicked, dashing to the door, my heart racing. He was looking up at me, waiting, his chiseled arms resting on either side of the door frame at the bottom of the stairs, now open to the porch.

“What?” I said, laughing a little. “You scared me.”

“Sorry. I forgot to tell you. I did it!” he called up the stairs. He gestured toward his injured leg, where he had leaned his cane, and I gasped, knowing what he meant.

He nodded. “I ran. I went running!”

But before I could congratulate him, the door was closed, and he was gone.





Luke


A string held me to that room, where she was still sitting, wearing that silly white button-up shirt that looked nothing like the soft T-shirts she normally wore, stumbling over her words, looking at me like she had never looked at me before. Hearing that she was open to something new afterward, maybe not as friends, maybe not as husband and wife, but just whatever we were, was almost too much to take.

I reminded myself of the rules I had come up with after being arrested. Leave Cassie alone.

She was feeling warm toward me now because she was coming off the wake of the news that we had a chance to beat the charges. But it was just one day I had been good to her. Soon she would remember everything that came before that, that I had messed up her life. Whatever she was feeling now, she would have time to reconsider.

And yet when the sun hit me outside as I walked to where Jake idled near the curb, a hard bright diamond bouncing off the hoods of parked cars on Cassie’s street, tinkling piano sounds drifting from her open window, I waited until the last possible moment to open Jake’s car door. I savored the seconds when Cassie was still a few hundred feet away, wanting me.





Cassie


The next morning, I stopped the Subaru outside my mother’s house, and got out, standing on my old street. I knocked on the screen door. When there was no answer, I let myself in.

“Mom,” I called into the dim light that shone through the east windows, almost tinted green from her plants.

She came out into the living room, her reading glasses dangling around her neck. I didn’t say anything. Instead, I wrapped her in my arms and squeezed.

“Will you comb my hair?” I asked into her shoulder, too relieved to see her to feel embarrassed about making a request I hadn’t made since I was a teenager. “Once before I go?”

“Of course,” she said.

I sat in the kitchen, staring at the cactus clock, her fingers on my scalp giving me shivers of warmth. “I’m leaving behind a mess.”

“Oh? You mean your apartment?”

I laughed. My laughter stopped at the first yank of the comb. Automatic pain tears gathered in the corners of my eyes.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “Just getting out this big one.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “No, not just the apartment.” She yanked again. The tears flowed freely. I took a deep breath. “So. About this marriage thing.”

I told her what I’d realized about Luke. About sleeping with him, and immediately meeting and falling for Toby. About the injury, Frankie’s death, and about how hard it was to fake that we loved each other. Until it wasn’t.

By the end, she had made my hair into a sleek, damp curtain. Every time she’d paused the comb as I spoke, I wondered if she was going to throw it down and smack me on the back of the head. She didn’t, though.

“And now I’m confused, Mom. I know I made mistakes, but I’ve learned so much. And I haven’t lost sight of my goals. And Luke and I, I don’t even know what that’s supposed to look like, but we have something very deep, you know, and— Will you say something?”

She was quiet. I turned around in the chair to face her, looking up at her dimpled face, her eyes traveling my face.

She put her hand on my chin. “Ay, mija. If you’re asking me for advice, this is the first time I have nothing for you.”

“Nothing?” I felt a smile grow, despite a jump in my gut. “From the judge of all judges?”

“No. This is a rotten pickle.” We laughed. “And you know what? After our fight, it feels pretty good to say, okay, Cassie, you’re the woman now. Take care of your own pickle.”

She was right. If I wanted my independence, I’d have to take it. The good and the bad.

“All I have for you is sorry,” she continued. “And I know you think you had a fake marriage and did it for the money, and I know I’ve been hard on you, but hearing you talk just now, well, it sure sounds like something real to me.”

Something real. Even to Mom. I smiled at her. “Really?”

“Of course. You took care of him. He took care of you. Even though you both had it harder than most. You’ve grown up.”

“But next time . . . ,” I began, wondering what I meant. Next time I would mess this up royally? I didn’t like putting it that way. I didn’t want there to be a next time. “Next time we’re in any trouble we’ve got to help each other out, first and foremost.”

“I like that idea.”

I got up. I had to get on the phone with “Young at Heart” again, figure out how to finally get that state-sponsored health insurance, and then it was time for my last practice before we went on tour.