Chapter 18
August
One year, one month, and thirteen days
since last seeing Taxi.
[Stone]
For years, I’ve grumbled internally about wanting days of silence. Peace and quiet and space to myself.
And yet, as I stand inside the house I’d slowly, but surely, restored, the silence is almost deafening. The stone fireplace mocks me. The pictures of my family on the mantel say, you got what you wished for.
Vale and Hudson have moved out.
Today is his first day of middle school. Typically, I’d drive him on the first day of a new school year, make a show of my sheriff’s truck, a subtle warning not to mess with my nephew. Now, he’s living in Rogue River, the next town over.
Vale and Cort are probably taking him to the new-to-Hudson school.
He’s twelve years old, and that means another dozen years of raising a child that wasn’t biologically mine yet tied to me through biology.
With my hands on my hips, wearing my crisp, dull-brown uniform, I stare around the living room like I’ve never seen this space before.
The sandstone-colored walls. The sky-blue chairs.
The deep brown leather couch. Vale made a mark on every inch of this home while respecting that we shared this place.
Now, I live here alone.
Is this what my father feared? Had his loneliness for my mother driven him to push away the seven children surrounding him, willing to love him, wanting his love in return?
My siblings didn’t move out because I was a curmudgeonly older brother. They left because that was the nature of growing up. Because moving out, falling in love, and starting their own families was how the cycle should work.
It’d only taken Vale most of her life for it to happen. And she took Hudson with her. Of course, she did. It’s as it should be.
But standing here, the silence is nearly too much. No thundering footsteps from Hudson, rushing across the upstairs hallway and clomping down the staircase. No Vale hollering for him to hurry up. No grumbled good morning.
“Have a good day,” I mutter to the empty room before swiping a hand down my face.
What the fuck?
I should be over this shit. Cort and I have an unspoken agreement. We tolerate one another. We don’t mention the past. We don’t talk much here in the present. But he did come to me to ask for a future with my sister.
They don’t need my permission. Vale is a grown-ass woman, and I am not her father. Still, I appreciated the gesture.
Jesus, Cort will be on his second marriage, and I’ve never had a first.
I’m long over the reasons why I don’t have Bailey, but the general concept of not having a partner in life is still a bitter pill to swallow some days. Like today, when I’m standing here alone, knowing I’ll come home to the same silence at the end of the day. The same empty nest.
A sharp crackle on the radio attached to the vest over my uniform causes me to jump.
“Sheriff?” Fern is our new dispatcher, and she’s still learning the ropes.
“Fern,” I state, squeezing the sides of the radio.
“Sorry to contact you like this, sir, but you weren’t answering your phone.”
Reaching for the device in my back pocket, a few notifications pop up, all missed calls and text messages from the department.
Sir, I need you to call in.
This is urgent but not an emergency.
Sheriff Stone?
“What’s going on?” As I read the messages, my brows cinch. Urgent but not an emergency?
My thoughts leap to Hudson.
“It’s Trudy Wallace, sir. We got a call this morning from her grandson. She’s been taken to Milton County General.”
Our small-town community is roughly forty minutes from Huntington, and the hospital is just outside the larger town’s limits. We have a clinic in Sterling Falls for minor emergencies but rushed to the hospital sounds like something major.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Massive heart attack, sir. I thought you’d like to know.”
“Where’s Simon?” The boy is ten now. Trudy is his entire world, next to Judd and Genie.
“He demanded to be allowed to go with Trudy.”
“Copy that. Over and out,” I click the radio as I rush toward the front door.
The department has strict orders to contact me regarding anything related to my family and Trudy Wallace.
The list of strict-order-contacts could go on and on, but I narrowed it down to my siblings, their partners, their children, and this one woman because of all she tried to do for us. All she’d been to our mother.
Thick as thieves, my mom used to tell me.
Violet Beauchamp moved to Sterling Falls during her high school years. She’d say starting a new school felt like the most difficult thing in her life. Then she had children.
For half a second, I can almost feel my mother tapping the tip of my nose and witness the smile on her lips as she teases.
Trudy was the first person Mom met when she came to Sterling Falls. My father was the second.
It was not love at first sight, Mom would say.
It was definitely love at first sight, he’d argue.
Settling into my department-issued truck, I speed out of the gravel driveway, kicking up rocks, and head for the highway leading to Huntington.
“Call Judd,” I grunt to the voice-activated equipment in the truck that links with my phone.
“Stone.” Judd sounds breathless.
“I got a call from—”
“Simon called me. I’m already on my way.”
Logically, both of us don’t need to be headed to the hospital, but Judd’s relationship with Simon kicks him into big brother mode.
Trudy hadn’t wanted Simon to have a cell phone, saying ten was too young for the device. Judd demanded that the boy have it for emergencies.
This moment reinforces Judd’s argument. He’d been worried about the nearly-seventy-year-old woman living alone with a young boy.
“I can call you when I know more,” Judd states.
“I’m headed there anyway,” I bite out. Not that I’m angry with Judd. I’m anxious about Trudy. And Simon.
And Taxi.
Does she know? How could she? She’s been gone for over a year.
I don’t often ask about the wandering artist when I see Trudy, but the proud aunt eagerly shares all the doings of her niece.
Tallulah is in Montana. Strange that a woman with an urban vibe to her art was called up for a commission in a mountain town, but she loved it out there.
Tallulah is in Florida. Says she hates the humidity. And the bugs. Lord, do they have bugs down there.
Tallulah didn’t make it home for the holidays. Flight was cancelled due to a storm.
Tallulah was sorry she couldn’t make another Sylver Fourth of July baseball game.
And on and on, giving me updates I didn’t request or require. My heart was full of pride for Taxi and her map-hopping career. She was obviously sought after and successful.
And I had my postcard collection.
I still questioned what happened between us, but then again, she’d made it clear she wasn’t interested in anything other than our one night. Samson and Delilah. Superman and a mystery woman.
No regrets. Just a lingering disappointment.
I don’t live a life of what-could-have-beens. I couldn’t afford to live that way. All that I’d lost didn’t measure up to all that I’d gained, even if it wasn’t apples to apples in comparison. I was grateful for what I had and tried not to dwell on what I didn’t.
With a deep sigh, I flip the light on my truck, abusing my authority, but allowing myself grace while warning other vehicles about my extreme speed, as I dash down the highway with growing concern.
“Massive heart attack,” the young female doctor confirms to Judd and me as we stand inside a stark waiting room.
Her gaze shifts to Simon, who’d fallen asleep in two chairs Judd had pushed together.
“She’s lucky the boy was trying to administer CPR.”
Judd is a few inches taller than me, and his shoulders lower when he hangs his head.
A soft smile curls his mouth. He’d been insistent on Simon knowing basic lifesaving skills.
I’d made it mandatory for all my siblings to learn CPR after losing our mother the way we did.
Not that CPR would have saved her, but . . .
“She would have died without his quick attention.”
The doctor’s honesty is appreciated. I won’t even pretend to know how a ten-year-old placing pressure on Trudy’s chest saved her. I’m just grateful she’s still here. For him. For her.
“She’ll need to stay in the hospital for the next few days,” the doctor continues.
Judd glances back at Simon. “I’ll take him home with me.”
Easy enough solution, as they are close and Simon has had sleepovers at Judd’s home.
“Are there any other family members to be contacted? Perhaps an adult child?” she questions, glancing at the tablet in her hand.
“Is there something else?” I question. Something that demands an adult’s attention.
The doctor shakes her head. “Nothing immediate, but Miss Wallace is going to need some assistance once she returns home. We don’t have an emergency contact for her in our system.”
“I’ll call Taxi,” Judd blurts, and I swing my head in his direction.
He’ll call her?
It should make sense. They’d been friends as children, although Judd was more of a loner once he entered high school.
I missed a few of his years when I went to college.
Then, he went to college once I returned home.
I hadn’t considered that he was still in contact with Taxi or even had her number for emergencies like this one.
My brother had her number all along and I could have gotten it from him.
Not the time. Not my concern. The two thoughts collide and knock each other out of my head.
“What’s next?” I ask.
“Rest. Recovery. Eventually, physical therapy. She’s heavily sedated for the moment, but if you’d like to see her, you can.
” Her eyes shift toward Simon again. “We’ve moved her temporarily to ICU.
Typically, we don’t allow children under sixteen in the unit.
” Her hesitation suggests she might consider breaking hospital protocol.
“I don’t want him to see her with tubes and equipment anyway,” Judd immediately states, like he’s suddenly in charge of Simon’s well-being. “He’s already seen enough.”
The little hero made some thoughtful, quick decisions when he could have been scared out of his mind. Maybe he had been, but fear turned to action. He saved Trudy’s life.
When the doctor excuses herself, Judd and I each take a turn visiting Trudy, who isn’t aware of our presence.
A heart monitor measures the slow but steady rhythm of her recovering heart.
A mask covers her mouth, administering oxygen, while various other tubes and wires cover her body.
Her youthful face looks like she’s aged ten years.
I feel utterly helpless. Seeing this powerhouse of a woman lying here reminds me how mortal we all are, and the one area I cannot protect anyone from is death. I’ve witnessed the inevitability of life too much in my forty plus years. I’m not ready to lose Trudy Wallace.
Eventually, I convince Judd to take Simon home with him.
“I’ll stay.” I don’t have anyone waiting on me, like Genie and the new baby are waiting for Judd. Plus, Simon doesn’t need to hang out in a hospital.
After Judd contacted Taxi, he told me she was hopping on the first flight out of Alabama.
Taxi will be in Sterling Falls soon. I wished her return was under better circumstances.
For hours, I try to distract myself from the thought, as I sit at Trudy’s side, using my phone to occasionally conduct business, but mostly letting my deputies take over for the day.
The ICU doesn’t allow more than two visitors at a time and regulates how often those visitors can enter a room. The nurses let me stay full-time, but eventually, there are three of us in Trudy’s room.
Emory Milton, the matriarch of the Milton family, and not any kind of kinfolk to Trudy, somehow talked her way in here. With her daughter, Emerson, at her side, I have no doubt Em tried to use her pull as the mayor of a nearby community to get her mother through the ICU security doors.
The senior Milton pays no attention to me as she rushes to Trudy’s side, hovering over her friend’s body before wrapping her hand around Trudy’s.
“Oh, Trudy,” Emory whimpers, blinking several times.
While Emory Milton was never friends with my mother, and rather down on all of us Sylvers, I’ve learned the reasons behind her hatred from her daughter.
Once upon a time, Emory Milton, the most popular girl in area, had been dating Flint Sylver when Violet Beauchamp moved to town.
And while Mom said it wasn’t love at first sight because Dad ignored her, Dad argued he only ignored Mom because he was so attracted to her.
The facts remain. He was already dating someone else.
He dumped Emory to be with Mom.
And all these years later, Emory has never forgiven Violet for arriving in Sterling Falls and taking her boyfriend.
“How are you doing?” Emerson asks me, sticking to the back of the room where I stand, allowing Emory a moment with Trudy.
“I’m good.” The chair hasn’t been particularly comfortable, and I could use something to eat and better coffee, but those feel like trivial things compared to Trudy’s position.
“Mama made me come with her,” Emerson continues, clarifying why she’s present when she doesn’t really owe me an explanation.
After all that happened with Taxi and the misunderstanding of what she’d seen between Emerson and me, I told Em I couldn’t pretend anymore.
I couldn’t make public appearances and feed the rumors about a relationship we didn’t have.
Em either had to come clean, or we needed to break what was never glued together.
She opted for a breakup.
Which led to another notch in Emory Milton’s dislike of someone with the last name Sylver. According to Emory, another Sylver broke the heart of another Milton, although that wasn’t even half the truth. The other half was Emerson’s to tell.
And Emerson and I are still friends. Just work-related ones.
As Em and I stand at the back of the room, the sliding door open with flair, and a force of wild dark hair; beautiful, bronzed skin, and vivid color arrives wearing bright pink overalls covered in paint splatters.
She rushes to the bedside opposite Emory and stares down at her aunt.
When her cheeks drain of color, she turns her head and her silvery eyes collide with mine.
Taxi is back.