Chapter Twelve
L evi was out in his workshop working on Asher’s virtual assistant. And cussing. He couldn’t get the damn voice quite right, in part because he didn’t know who Asher would want her to sound like. The last time he’d seen Asher, just a little over a week ago, he’d asked his brother for suggestions. Asher’s response had been to stare at Levi like he was crazy and say, “I don’t give a shit.”
Which was pretty much Asher’s response to everything now.
He heard a knock on the door and called out, “Come in.”
“Hi, are you in the middle of something?” Dana asked. “I can come back if you are.”
Levi set aside the virtual assistant with a sigh. “No, I’m having a hard time with this damn virtual assistant. I could use a break. What’s going on?”
“I’ve got bad news.”
“How bad?”
“I’ll let you judge. The tile we want for the bathroom is backordered. ”
“Both kinds? The small and the large?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I thought you checked on availability before you ordered it?”
She frowned. “I did. The person I talked to assured me there would be no problem, that the manufacturer had plenty of both tiles in stock. Today I got a call from the tile shop saying that the man who I talked to had been let go and they were sorry but those particular tiles are backordered for months. They apologized all over the place but there’s nothing they can do about it. Other than offer us a discount on any other tile you choose.”
“Crap. What good is a discount if we can’t get the tile in time?”
“Not much. We need the tile before we can proceed with the rest of the bathroom. I’ve dealt with this tile shop before and never had a problem like this. I’m sorry.”
Great. He should have expected problems along the way, but he hadn’t. He’d been too focused on Asher coming home and worrying about how he was dealing with the loss of his leg. Not to mention, how would Asher deal with being out of the army for the first time since he was seventeen years old? He wasn’t doing so great in the hospital, but to be fair, who the hell would be given the circumstances?
“Not your fault. Can we just choose a different tile? One that’s in stock?”
“Yes. We can look online but we’ll probably have to forego the sample if we want it as soon as possible.”
“I don’t care about that. Let’s just pick something. I guarantee you Asher won’t care.” He let Dana use his computer since she hadn’t brought hers outside with her. She called up the website and they picked several out in case there was another problem.
“I’ll go call and see how soon they can deliver.”
“Before you go, are there any other things that are delayed?”
“The hardware for the bathroom sink isn’t in yet, but it should be soon. And the granite for the countertops is here and going in Monday morning.”
“That’s something, I guess. They’ve finished the ramps, at least,” Levi said. “And widening all the doorways. So it looks like the bathroom tile is the holdup. Is that the only problem?”
“At the moment it is. But construction is notorious for running late. Didn’t you have any delays when you remodeled before?”
“I didn’t really notice. It just wasn’t as big of a deal when it was only for me.”
“We’ll get it done, Levi. We might not have everything just like you want it. Obviously, the kitchen won’t be ready. But we can make it livable for Asher.”
“We have to. I can’t fail my brother. Not again.”
*
“What does that mean? You can’t fail your brother again ?” Dana asked. She wasn’t aware that Levi had ever failed at anything, other than both of them failing to make their relationship work. But he was dead serious. “Levi?”
He didn’t reply but paced the room. Eventually he came to a halt in front of her. “Sit down. This will take a while.”
She started to sit on the bench but Levi stopped her. “Take my chair.”
“I can sit here.”
“Take the chair. It’s more comfortable. I don’t need one. I’m not sure I can talk about this period, much less sit still while I do it.”
Dana took the seat but she said, “Are you sure you want to talk about this? You don’t sound like you do.”
“Want to? No. Need to? Probably.” He paced over to the window, which had a view of the pool. “I’ve never told you about my parents, have I? And not much about Asher.”
“No. The most you’ve said was the other night when we were talking about movies.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not a pretty story.”
“I…gathered that. There were a lot of things we never talked about. Especially…before.” When they were young and their relationship was new they didn’t feel the need to talk much. Sharing the explosive passion that erupted whenever they were near each other had been enough. Until it wasn’t.
“Asher and I had a shitty childhood. Really shitty. But by the time you and I met I’d put the past behind me. At least, that’s what I told myself. Does anyone ever truly put something like that behind them?
“My mother left when I was nine and Asher was seven. She and my father fought constantly and she never seemed to have any use for her kids, either. So it wasn’t a huge surprise, or loss, frankly. But my father didn’t see it that way.
“He’d always been a heavy drinker but after she left he got totally out of control. He was hardly ever sober. He lost his job and we lived on welfare. He drank most of the money.”
“How did you survive?”
“We scraped by. I’d wait until he was drunk and passed out and steal any money he had left over to buy food. I took odd jobs, things a kid could do. Once they realized what was going on Zack, Travis and Tobi shared food. None of them were well off, but compared to Asher and me they were rich. For one thing, they had decent parents. Not like us.”
Dana had known he’d had a hard childhood but she hadn’t realized just how bad it had been. He’d always acted as if it wasn’t a big deal.
“The first time I failed Asher was not long after our mother left. It was after school and I was gone. Looking for work. Not many people wanted to hire a nine-year-old. I came home to find our bastard father beating the hell out of Asher.”
“Oh, God, Levi. I’m so sorry. But that wasn’t your responsibility.”
“Yes it was. I was all Asher had.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and stopped and looked at her. “Do you know why he beat him?”
Dana shook her head.
“Asher, who was seven, was crying because he missed our mother. God knows why he missed her, but he did. The bastard said no son of his was going to be a pansy-ass crybaby. So he beat him until he passed out and wasn’t crying anymore.”
Her throat constricted. “Oh, my God. How horrible.”
“It was. After that I made sure I was his whipping boy. And I sure as hell didn’t cry. I don’t remember Asher ever crying after that either. As much as I tried I could never protect him totally.”
“Was there no one to help you? No adult you could turn to? A teacher? A neighbor? Anyone?”
“No. I don’t think that my friends’ parents knew how bad it was. Besides, I was afraid to say anything to them in case he decided to pay me back by hurting one of my friends. He was cagey. Never used anything but his fists and didn’t go for the face. Usually.” He shrugged. “By the time I was fifteen I had started fighting back. And winning. The third time I beat the crap out of him I told him if he touched either of us again I’d kill him. I guess he believed me because he stopped.”
“Were you that big? At fifteen? ”
“I was that smart. I played him. The angrier he was the less he thought. He just reacted. And I’d learned all kinds of dirty tricks.”
“Levi, have you talked about this with anyone?”
“No. It’s not something I dwell on.”
“Travis, Tobi and Zack didn’t know?” she persisted.
“They knew he was a drunk and an abusive bastard but I…I never told them how bad it was.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “Pride, maybe. I didn’t want their pity. I had their friendship. That was enough.”
“Oh, Levi. This breaks my heart.”
“It’s a long time in the past, darlin’.”
“Not far enough that you don’t feel it. You said that was the first time you failed Asher. But, Levi, you were just a little boy. That was on your father, not you.”
“I should have been there,” he insisted.
“Then he’d just have gone after you both, wouldn’t he?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Maybe.”
“What happened after that when you believed you failed Asher?”
“I was seventeen and Asher was fifteen when the son of a bitch wrapped his car around a tree. He died instantly, the lucky bastard. We both went into the system. I wanted to take guardianship of Asher, but the state wouldn’t let me. They said I couldn’t support us both and provide a stable home for him. I was only a couple of months away from graduating, so I stayed in school and got my degree. Then I went to work in the oil fields.”
“That’s when you made your original fortune, isn’t it? Wasn’t it some kind of pipe?”
“Pipe fitting. Yeah, but not soon enough. Asher was in and out of foster homes, in and out of juvie. When he turned seventeen he had a choice. The military or jail. He chose the military.”
“He must have felt like he’d found his place. He’s been in it for ten years or more, hasn’t he?”
“Yes. Until he was shipped home minus a leg. And now, one more time, I’m the only family he’s got left. So this is it.”
Dana wanted to tell him that he was no more responsible for failing Asher now than he had been in the past. But he wouldn’t listen. Maybe he couldn’t. She’d never seen him like this. But then she’d never heard the true story of his childhood before either.
So she did the only thing she could think of. She walked over and put her arms around him and held him. He was rigid at first but then she felt him give and his arms went around her and he held on tight.
“It will be all right, Levi. We’ll make sure of it.”
“How?”
She pulled back and took his face in her hands. “Whatever we have to do, we’ll do it. I promise you, Levi, by the time Asher comes home his rooms will be livable. ”
Levi’s phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and looked at the readout. “It’s Asher,” he said. “He hardly ever calls.”
He answered. “Asher? What’s—what’s going on?” He was silent a moment then said, “Because you usually don’t call me. What’s up?”
Dana could see his hand clutching the phone, white-knuckling it. Then suddenly he relaxed.
“No shit? That’s great! Of course we’ll be ready. Yeah, you take care. I’ll see you Saturday.”
He hung up and looked at Dana.
“Saturday? Saturday as in four days from now?”
“Yes. And I told him we’d be ready. Was that a lie?”
Oh, holy shit. “No. I’ll go call the tile shop. If they don’t have something we can use in stock we’ll find another one that does.”
“I’ll go pick it up if I need to.”
“That might be necessary.” Today. If they could get it today they might have a chance. “Call Harlan and make sure he can get his tile people over here as soon as we have the tile. I’ll talk to you when I know something.”