Chapter 14 Alice
ALICE
“Zoey.” I keep my voice low and calm. “Let’s go into Morris’s bedroom. I want to show you a quilt he has on the wall. It’s really pretty. Come on.”
Zoey’s eyes are wide, and she looks as terrified as I feel. “Mama, who’s at the door? Where’s Morris?”
“He’s coming, baby. Don’t worry. Now come on.”
I leave the volume on the TV where it is, hoping the noise of the show Zoey was watching muffles the sounds of our voices and movements.
As we head back toward Morris’s bedroom, I hear another loud series of knocks on the door.
“Come on,” I urge, hustling Zoey into the bedroom. I close the door quietly behind us and twist the tiny doorknob lock. It won’t keep out much, but it will give me a few extra minutes to call 9-1-1 if we need to.
Zoey starts to cry quietly. “I’m scared, Mommy. What’s happening?”
“Honey, I don’t want you to be scared.” I sit her down on Morris’s bed and put my hands on her shoulders. “Listen to me. I’m going to take care of you. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
Even as I say it, I hope like hell it’s true. I never, ever want to have to lie to my daughter again.
I look around the room for anything I can use as a weapon. A man like Morris has to have a baseball bat or something I can use to defend us.
“Just be quiet for Mommy, okay, honey?” I start looking through the room as quietly as I can, but it’s too late. I hear a sound that freezes the blood in my veins.
The unmistakable sound of the front door swinging open and closing shut.
I reach for my cell phone, swiping across the touchscreen as I debate calling 9-1-1.
Goddamn it.
I realize I don’t know the address where we are. I don’t know what to tell them or how to tell them to find us. Morris is on his way, but I have no idea how far away he is or how long it will take him to get back here.
My heart is pounding so hard I can hardly hear, but when Zoey leaps up off the bed, I reach for her.
“Shh!” I shake my head and grab her, holding her close, my phone still in one hand.
“Mama…they have dogs!”
Completely gone is the terrified look on Zoey’s face. In its place is pure delight. My baby adores puppies, dogs, pretty much all animals. That was part of how we convinced Jerry to let us go on spring break.
My sister adopting that brand-new puppy was enough to excite Zoey for weeks. I convinced Jerry that since we were never going to get her a pet—his rules—that she could get her fill on a trip out to see her aunt.
“What? Dogs?”
I set down my phone and listen. I can only make out movement at first, noises that sound like running, and shoes scuffing against the floor.
And…barking.
“What the fuck, Morris? Come out here, asshole. I don’t have time to play your dumb-ass games.”
Someone in the apartment is cursing a blue streak, talking to Morris as though they think he’s here.
I hear voices from behind the door and more running sounds. Then suddenly, someone is at the bedroom door, twisting the knob, but it’s locked.
“I don’t care if you’re balls deep in a bitch. I need you, man.”
I take a deep breath. The man on the other side of the door is not Jerry.
Suddenly, the man is pounding on the bedroom door. “Morris, you nasty fucker! Get your ass out here.”
I hold a finger to my lips for Zoey to stay quiet. I have her stand right behind me, and I hold her body securely with one arm while I unlock the bedroom door. I pull the door open and jump back to put a little extra distance between myself and the stranger.
I look up, and my eyes meet a tuft of chest hair that looks like a gnarled-up bird’s nest. “Morris isn’t here,” I say, taking two steps back, moving my daughter with me.
The man fills the doorway of Morris’s bedroom.
He is, if it’s even possible, more enormous than Morris.
He’s as wide as he is tall, and his head nearly brushes the doorframe.
He’s wearing a V-neck gray T-shirt over his bowling-ball belly, but I recognize the leather vest as the same exact type Morris has.
“I’m Alice,” I say, meeting his eyes with a steady look. “And this is Zoey.”
“Holyyyyyyy shit,” he mutters. The man’s mouth sags open.
I see him look from me to Zoey, from Zoey to me, and then repeat the whole thing, like he can’t believe what he’s seeing.
He wipes his hand on his sagging black jeans and holds it out to me. “Er… Hi. I’m Tiny,” he says.
Well, of course, he is.
Zoey is lying on the floor in the middle of Morris’s apartment, literally at the bottom of a pile of puppies, when Morris storms through the door.
Two of the dogs race for him and start yapping and barking at his ankles, while the tiny one takes the opportunity to hog all of Zoey’s attention, covering her face in licks and kisses.
“What in the name of…” Morris looks down at the dogs, up at me, over toward Zoey, and then a look of comprehension overtakes his face. “Tiny.”
Morris crosses the room toward his friend, who’s sitting with an ankle propped up on a tree-trunk–like leg, watching the scene unfold.
“You mother…fudger.” Morris holds a hand out to his friend and hauls his ass off the couch.
They do a one-armed man hug, and Tiny shakes his head. “Tried to reach you all day, man. I had a little…situation.” Tiny looks at me and the woman who belongs with all these dogs.
“’S’all right,” Morris says. “You took the spare key?”
Tiny nods. “Figured you wouldn’t mind, brother, but again… Didn’t know you had shit going on.”
“Stuff,” Morris corrects, pointing to Zoey.
Morris crosses the room to me, and when he does, I am so relieved to see him, I grab him in a hug.
“So, we met Tiny,” I explain. “And Lia.”
“And the dogs!” Zoey calls, leaping up from the floor and smoothing down her dress. “Hi, Morris. Hi, Leo.”
Leo is hovering in the doorway, looking thoroughly confused. “Hi, Zoey,” he says. “Everybody’s all right?”
I nod.
“You sure?” he asks.
Morris hasn’t released me yet, and I stay close, savoring his heat. “We’re fine,” I say. “Tiny and I have been chatting a bit, and Zoey is really excited about the dogs.”
“I think I’m almost caught up,” Morris says, looking over at the young woman on the couch beside Tiny, who’s sat back down. “But you want to fill me in?”
Tiny looks sheepish as he peers over at the woman beside him.
The young woman is totally engrossed in her phone.
She’s dressed like she’s just back from a weekend-long music festival.
She has feathers braided into her long hair, and her bare feet are tucked under her, each toenail painted a different color.
Each fingernail has teeny tiny, half-peeled stickers on them, and she’s wearing earrings that travel the entire ridge of each ear.
“Um, yeah. So, Morris…” Tiny scoots forward on the couch, grabbing the waistband of his black jeans and holding them up as he stands. “This is Lia.”
At the sound of her name, the girl’s head pops up.
She gives Morris the same sunshine smile she gave Zoey and me earlier.
“Hiya!” she says, and I half expect her to pop a piece of gum, she’s so perky.
“Thanks for helping me out. My dad wasn’t sure if your apartment allows dogs, but I know I can’t stay with my girl crew at the compound.
So yeah, I’m like, so super psyched to meet you! ”
Morris’s mouth drops open for just a moment, and then I see a tiny curl of amusement at the corner of his lips. “Your dad? Your girl crew?” he repeats.
Tiny huffs a deep breath and points toward his own chest. “Dad,” he clarifies. Then he points to the three dogs who have now climbed onto the couch and circled Lia. “Girl crew.”
Morris looks as if he’s going to rupture something. He’s holding back laughter or shock, but I can’t tell which.
“Walk me through this. Someone?” He looks from Tiny to me, but I know about as much as Morris does at this point.
Tiny walks up to his friend and puts a hand on his shoulder. “So, Morris, I’d like you to meet my daughter, Lia Dove.”
“That’s my whole first name, but you can call me Lia,” she offers, popping up from the couch.
She pads over to Morris on bare feet. An armload of bracelets jangles as she holds out her hand with the colorful nails toward him like he’s not this enormous, tattooed biker.
“My mom was a hippie. Total hippie,” she says, laughing.
“But in the best kinda way. Dad didn’t know about me until what, Dad, like, a couple months ago? ”
“Something like that,” Tiny mutters. He’s looking really embarrassed, shuffling from foot to foot.
Morris, for his part, holds out his hand, now appearing completely unfazed. “Nice to meet you, Lia.” He looks down at the girl crew. “And your mother is…?”
“Oh, Mom is fine,” she says. “She’s actually, like, great. She met this billionaire or something. She’s, like, living on his yacht. And… Oh, well, I guess I don’t know. She’s off having her second youth, and I just got the heck out of the way.”
Lia walks up to Tiny and slips an arm around the big man’s waist. It’s laughable watching her petite, thin arm snake just a fraction of the way around Tiny.
“Poor Dad here didn’t even know about me until…”
“Wasn’t too long ago,” Tiny mutters under his breath. “Total clusterfuck. A good clusterfuck, but still a clusterfuck.”
“What about…” Morris starts to ask until Tiny shakes his head ever so slightly.
“Haven’t gotten that far,” Tiny replies. “Shit’s still unfolding.”
“Sounds like it’s hung up, brother. There’s nothing left to unfold.”
I’m so confused and doing my best to keep up with their conversation as they dance around something.
“I know about my sister,” Lia adds, making things clear. “Dad says I should wait to give her some time to deal with her feelings.”
“Right, sweetheart. She’s not as—” he pauses, rubbing the back of his neck “—sweet as you. She’ll calm down after she has some time to think.”
Morris laughs, running his hand over his mouth to cover the subtle movement. “Sure,” he mutters.