Chapter 10 #2
She and Bill stood still until the front door shut. She went to the window and watched as his surprisingly tame four-door car drove off. Then she stormed to the door and flipped the deadbolt.
When she returned to the kitchen, her dad was in the seat Milton had vacated, his head in his hands.
Skipping over the obvious questions she should ask, she went for the one gnawing at her. “He’s the reason you kicked me out of the garage when I was sixteen, isn’t he?”
Bill nodded and dropped his hands, his expression weary. His eyes drifted shut. “We’d lost our health plan and your mom’s blood pressure meds were expensive, so I borrowed a little against the garage.”
“From Don Milton?”
He lifted a shoulder in a helpless shrug. “He lends money when a bank won’t. But…it wasn’t even time for the first payment and I came to work to find him watching you.”
“I don’t remember.”
“You were under the car with your legs sticking out. I didn’t like the way… Anyway, to pay him back, I started taking on the side work, ya know.”
Oh, yeah. She knew. The locked doors.
“I didn’t want you where he could get to you, but I wanted to make sure you were close so I knew where you were at.”
“What did you think he’d do?”
“Does it matter?”
The anger that’d been simmering for a decade faded. Still there, but not stoked by as much resentment. “Did Mom know?”
“I told her what she needed to know.”
There it was. That arrogance of her dad’s that never set well with her.
He must’ve read into her expression. “She was sick, Josephina. I took care of her and I took care of you. Just like I’m going to keep taking care of you.”
“I’m an adult now, Bill. You don’t need to hide bad things from me.”
He waved her off. “You don’t need to be mixed up in this mess any more than you are. I’ll take care of it. I met with Gage this morning and we have a plan.”
Her hands fisted. Of course, he’d talked to Gage already. How much of the trouble they were in was Gage’s idea? “What’s the plan?”
Bill stood up, his wary gaze drifting in the direction Milton had left. “We’ve got it covered. Don’t worry about it.”
He adjusted the waistband of his ratty jeans and wobbled out of the kitchen. She abandoned her pancake batter to go after him.
“Don’t worry about it? The less I know, the easier it is for a guy like that to sneak up on me. Like he just did.”
He paused in his trajectory that led to his recliner. “That reminds me. You need to make sure you’re with me or Gage at all times. Don’t go around town by yourself until I pay back Don Milton.”
Her eyes bugged out. Did he seriously think she was going run to Gage for protection? What would she do when he banged Camilla, or what’s-her-name? Wait outside the door?
Arguing would be pointless. This was her teenage years all over again.
She rubbed her eyes, not because she was tired, but because guilt suddenly became an anvil hanging off her neck.
She hadn’t wanted to hurt an old man’s feelings and she’d sunk her dad because of it. No ’68 Shelby, no hundred thousand dollars. Teaching Bill a lesson had seemed so much clearer before she’d met Don Milton.
A shudder of horror shook her shoulders and she dropped her hands. She couldn’t believe what just happened. Bill settled into his chair for a long afternoon of watching golf and hiding from his self-inflicted problems.
Spend all her time with him or Gage, huh? The timing worked out well. She could let Brock know that she would go with him to pick up the Shelby. “I’ll be out of town next week for Jesse’s sentencing. I’ll take a few extra days, so you don’t have to worry about me.”
Bill paused with the remote aimed at the TV. Was he going to agree? “Yeah, that might be good. Stay out of town for a bit and with your brother’s legal troubles, Milton won’t go near Moore.”
Back in the kitchen, she started the griddle.
She couldn’t bring herself to waste an entire batch of batter.
Money was going to be tight for a while.
While she cooked, she figured out ways to bring in extra money with her fledgling graphic design business.
Accepting a paycheck from Alvarez Automotive meant she would be taking Don Milton’s strings-attached money.
She rolled her neck and sighed at the grease-stained ceiling. Those stains represented her mom’s years taking care of all of them. She hadn’t worked outside the home, but relied on Bill to bring in the dough while she made her own dough.
Josie thought back to what her dad had said about the first time he’d borrowed money. She hadn’t known they’d been in such trouble. Just like she hadn’t seen the signs of how sick her mom had been.
Figured. Her mom had carried her head high and her shoulders back even when Bill stayed out late and came home with his shirt tails hanging out and his fly half open. She’d brushed her tears away and chided Josie and Jesse to never mind.
So they hadn’t. She and her brother had gone on their merry way and look where the blinders had gotten them. Jesse in jail and Josie fearing for physical safety.
By the time breakfast was finished, she’d formulated her plan. She would work all weekend on her website and come up with a marketing plan and if Brock would let her stay for a few days, she could get some work done before they brought the Shelby home and she endured her brother’s sentencing.
Bill had told her not to worry about it, so fine, she wouldn’t. He’d do his thing and she’d do hers, and there’d be no trouble between them.