Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter
Forty-Three
Beulah
It was almost time for lunch when Geraldine’s mind was back in the present. Before that occurred, she thought she was engaged and living in New York City. I wasn’t sure what year that had been, but she was happy and excited about her wedding. She was also very upset I wasn’t the Chinese delivery driver. She had wanted eggrolls and orange chicken.
“Do you feel like going out today? I was thinking I could make some cookies, and we could visit my sister.”
Geraldine was cleaning the makeup off her face that she’d applied earlier to attend a ball with her fiancé. She paused and smiled. “That would be lovely. I’ve heard so many things about Heidi. Meeting her would be a treat.”
Relieved that she liked the idea, I glanced at the pantry. She was stocked with everything needed for baking. “Could I use your supplies to make cupcakes instead? I’ll restock all the items I use.”
Geraldine waved her hand at me. “Don’t be silly! You use whatever you need. I’ll help. It will be fun. I don’t have much of a reason to make cupcakes anymore. Let me get the mixer and measuring cups. You get whatever you need from the pantry.” She clapped her hands together excitedly.
This job was more than I could have hoped for. Geraldine was such a pleasant woman—in her right mind and out of it. My job was just another thing I owed Stone. I often felt like I didn’t do enough to warrant the paycheck. Geraldine was good company, and there was never a boring moment.
Once we had all the ingredients on the counter, we began working together. Geraldine said she was best with the cake batter if I could do the icing. I was fine with that. I had a special way of making the icing that Heidi loved. The pantry was filled with so many sprinkles to choose from, so I had a hard time deciding, but I ended up choosing the sprinkles that sparkled like glitter. Heidi would be amazed at how they shimmered on the pink and yellow icing.
While we were finishing up, I decided to ask Geraldine’s opinion on the best way to handle moving out of Stone’s apartment. She knew him better than possibly anyone.
“I think Stone would enjoy his apartment without me there. With Presley gone, he can have it all to himself.” I stopped myself from saying more. I wanted to see how she responded first.
“If you’re thinking of moving out, I think you’ll have a fight on your hands. Stone will worry. He wants to keep you safe. Having you at his apartment reassures him that you’re okay.”
For Jasper. He wanted me safe for Jasper. I wanted to move on and put Jasper behind me. After yesterday it was even more important that I do that. His visit here had shown me just how important that was. I couldn’t allow Jasper in my life in any capacity. Staying at Stone’s apartment made that impossible.
“He’s helped me so much already. I’m thankful for all he’s done. I don’t think I can ever repay him. But I’m not Jasper’s. He doesn’t have to protect me for him.”
She started placing the finished cupcakes on a platter. “It’s not for Jasper. Stone helps the people he wants to help. When he is sure you’re ready to move on, he’ll make sure you have everything you need to do that.”
This wasn’t how I had hoped this conversation would go. She didn’t understand.
“He has made it very clear that he is helping me because of Jasper. I shouldn’t be his burden. It’s not fair. He needs to be there for Jasper. He wants to help him, and that’s what he should be free to do.”
Geraldine looked up at me then. “Saving Jasper’s ass isn’t what he wants. He feels it’s his job. The boy has so much responsibility he piles on himself. Always has. But he wants to help you. Since he came in here the first time and told me about you, he has been different. When he talks about you, he seems…different. That darkness inside him that he struggles with, well, since you it’s lifted some.”
She didn’t know the side of Stone I did. He loved her and she was special to him.
“I think his darkness being lifted would have been because Jasper and I were done. He was worried about Jasper and I having a relationship. He knew all the lies surrounding us and didn’t want Jasper hurt.”
Geraldine pressed her lips together and almost smirked at my response. “The first time he told me about you was the weekend after he first met you. So that reasoning of yours is incorrect. Now,” she dusted her hands off on her apron. “These cupcakes are finished, and I’m anxious to meet Heidi. Enough of this. Let’s go.”
I stood there mentally going over what she’d just said. I thought I must have misheard her. Stone wouldn’t have spoken about me after he met me unless it was to complain about my existence.
“Stop frowning. It causes wrinkles. I’ll get my purse, and we can go.”
“He hated the sight of me,” I blurted.
Geraldine laughed then. A loud, amused sound that made her eyes twinkle with delight. “Stone has never once hated you,” she managed to say through her laughter.
I realized talking to her about this was a bad idea. She didn’t live in the correct decade most of the time. She was probably confusing me with someone else in his past. I went to pick up the tray of cupcakes. “I’ll take these to the car.”
“Get my keys from the washroom. We will take my car,” she said, still smiling like she was trying to stifle more laughter.
I headed toward the washroom to get the keys I had seen hanging in there. Taking Geraldine to see Heidi might not be a good idea. She could be about to slip into another moment from her past again.
The idea of my sister listening to Geraldine’s ramblings with interest made me smile. She’d believe everything Geraldine said and ask questions. When I walked back into the kitchen, Geraldine was there with her black flats on her feet.
“She’s got the most breathtaking eyes I’ve ever seen. It’s like a punch in the gut when she looks at you.” Geraldine said when she saw me.
“Who?” I asked, thinking she might be lost again in her memories.
“He will never see beyond that though. Her face will own him. I saw the way he looked at her. There isn’t anything I can do to stop it. She’s got a depth to her that he doesn’t. She’s strong where he isn’t. He will only hurt her, bring her down, and it’s gonna be fucking brutal to watch. I hate thinking about it, Gerry. She deserves so much more.”
That wasn’t an answer. It was more rambling. “Do you know where we are going?” I asked to see if she was still with me.
She smiled softly. “Yes, Beulah. We’re taking these cupcakes and visiting Heidi.”
Okay, so she was still sane. “Oh. I thought…”
“You thought I’d gotten lost in one of my spells,” she replied looking almost smug. “I am very clear at the moment. I was just repeating that first conversation I had with Stone about you. Those were his exact words.”
Heidi was thrilled we visited. The glittery cupcakes had been a big hit, and she had been excited that I brought my new friend.
Geraldine’s mind stayed in the present the entire visit. She had shown Heidi a trick to crochet, played kickball with us, and pushed Heidi on the swing she loved under the big oak tree.
It wasn’t until we arrived back at her miniature castle that she started talking about me priming the water pump and checking on the chickens. I let her ramble on and fixed dinner while she ran around the house cleaning for the make-believe company she was having. Her sister would be at this party, and she needed to make sure the linens were freshly pressed. By the time I convinced her she needed to have dinner because there wasn’t a party tonight, she had come back around, and I was able to leave at my usual time.
Stone’s Rover wasn’t there when I pulled up to the apartment. Sighing, I sat in the car and stared at the building. This was my fault. Last night’s wine had given me a loose tongue, and now he wouldn’t come home because I was here. I had tried not to think about what Geraldine had claimed he had said about me. It was hard to believe, and I was leaning towards it being another girl he had been talking about. That could not have been me. Stone had never liked me.
A knock on my window caused me to jump in my seat, and I jerked my head to the left to find Mack or Marty standing there with a grin. I wasn’t sure which one it was now that I had met them both.
I rolled down my window instead of opening my door. I hadn’t decided if I’d be staying. I needed to think things through first.
“You gonna sit out here all night?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Not sure yet.”
My response turned his easy smile into a concerned frown. “Why? Stone being his broody asshole self?”
I glanced back at the building. “No. I just think I’ve outstayed my welcome.”
“You’ve hardly been here. Stone’s a good guy, but he can go bastard really easy. Ignore it. He wants you here. Besides, you got rid of Presley. You’re our motherfucking hero.”
I knew he was being funny and trying to get me to smile, but I couldn’t manage one.
“Come on. Marty is grilling steaks. I’m about to make some of my famous broccoli salad, and Shay promised she would bring a peanut butter pie from Hannah’s Sweets down the street. We need help eating all that.”
This was Mack. How did anyone tell these two apart?
“I don’t have anything to bring. I can’t come empty-handed.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, you can. Shay is only picking up the pie because I said she needed to bring something since she eats here all the damn time. And I wanted some of that pie.”
I glanced back at the building and thought of going up to Stone’s empty apartment. Right now, he and Geraldine were all I had apart from Heidi. And I really didn’t have Stone. We couldn’t even be considered friends. It wouldn’t hurt me to make new friends.
“Okay, thank you. That sounds nice.”
I had eaten with Geraldine, but here I was eating a second dinner. I was going to gain weight doing this. One thing was for sure, though, I would not be drinking wine tonight.
I rolled the window back up and opened my door. Mack stepped back to let me out, waiting for me. I picked up my purse and locked the car.
“It’s quieter around here with Presley gone. Thanks for that,” he said, as we started toward the building.
“Yes, it is. But I didn’t really do anything. She decided to leave.” I didn’t understand why they were all so sure it was me who sent her running.
“You’re living under his roof. That was all she needed to go insane. Well, she was already insane. You only pushed her over the cliff. Figuratively speaking. However, if you do push her off a real cliff, give me a call. I’ll help you hide the body.”
I paused and stared up at him. He was joking. Right?
He started laughing and patted me on the back. “Ease up there, beautiful. It was a joke.”
I relaxed and started walking again.
“How did you meet Stone? Rumor is you were his friend’s, uh, what’s the guy’s name?”
“Jasper,” I said, wishing he wasn’t asking me about this, but he’d been so nice I couldn’t be rude.
“Yeah, Jasper. Met him once. He doesn’t come here much. Anyway, the chatter among the girls is that you’re his ex or that you were his maid. No one seems to know for sure. I was leaning toward the latter since I can’t see why he’d be giving his buddy’s ex a place to live.”
He opened the door for me to enter, and I went inside. I regretted agreeing to dinner now. There was no way I could explain this and still be vague.
“If I’m being nosy, tell me,” he said, sounding as if he felt bad about asking.
“It’s not that…it’s just a very long and confusing story. One I don’t want to share. I’d rather forget.”
He gave me a nod of understanding. Then stepped in front of me to open the door to his apartment. I heard country music playing, and the smell of bacon drifted to me as we walked inside.
“Brought company! You got on clothes?” Mack called out loudly.
The idea of Marty with no clothes on made me blush.
Marty stepped out of an open doorway into the entry room. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a navy-blue T-shirt that said US Marines on it. A large spoon was in his hand, and his face broke into a grin. “Beulah! Damn, that’s a relief. Sometimes he shows up with women that annoy the hell out of me all night.”
“Whatever. You fucking loved Layla,” Mack said, dropping the gym bag he’d been carrying on the floor beside the door.
Marty shrugged. “Yeah, well, it was easier to ignore the annoying shit when her profession was dancing on a pole.”
Mack chuckled, and Marty winked at me like I was in on this joke. I didn’t have much to add to the conversation, but I didn’t want to appear as if I were a prude. I went with the first thing that came to my mind.
“Our neighbor growing up was an adult dancer. She was a single mom putting herself through college. After she got her nursing degree, she stopped dancing. She also started eating a lot of bread. She was always bringing us a loaf.”
I was rambling about a lady I hadn’t thought of in a very long time. Her daughter Melanie was three years younger than me and ended up getting pregnant at fifteen and running away. I wondered what had happened to both of them.
“Got to love a stripper with a goal. Bet that bread packed some weight on her,” Mack said, walking toward Marty and what I assumed was the kitchen.
It had. She’d gained about thirty pounds the first year she was a nurse. I didn’t mention that.
“Enough about the beauty of naked women dancing. Come try the bacon wrapped mushrooms I just took off the grill. They’re fucking delicious,” Marty said, waving me toward him.
I followed them both into the kitchen and saw what could only be described as cooking destruction. There were open cabinets, spilled ingredients, and even some splatters of what looked like sauce all over the place. I paused mid-step and looked around the room in horror. What in the world had happened?
Mack glanced back at me, holding a toothpick stuck in a bacon-wrapped mushroom. “Try it. He’s right. It’s fantastic.”
I continued to stare at the mess he’d made.
“Marty isn’t a clean cook. You’ll get used to it. He can’t seem to create anything without a disaster around him.”
I managed a nod like that made sense, but honestly, I had never seen such havoc created by simply cooking. “Is that…a slice of onion on the fridge door?” I asked, still trying to take in the wrecked kitchen.
Marty glanced back and laughed. “Yeah. Guess it is. Not sure how I managed that.”
“He cooks and cleans this shit up. If I had to clean up, we’d be ordering takeout every night,” Mack said as he popped another mushroom into his mouth.
“A masterpiece can’t be produced in structure. Chaos. It takes Chaos,” Marty said.
Mack rolled his eyes and asked me, “You want a beer?”
“No, thank you,” I replied.
“She’s not a beer drinker. Look at her. She’s got the wine look. A ros é wine. Am I right?” Marty asked.
I had no idea what kind of wine drinker I was , but I wasn’t drinking again any time soon. “Water would be good.”
Marty opened the fridge, took a bottle out, and handed it to me. “Water it is. But those steaks would be good with a glass of red.”
A door slammed, and seconds later, Shay came strolling in with three bakery boxes.
“Those don’t say Hannah’s on them,” Mack said, sounding annoyed.
Shay sighed. “That’s because they aren’t from Hannah’s. The Elswoods had a dinner party last night, and so much shit was left over. I have a variety of delicious sweets. You will eat them and be happy.”
“Dammit, Shay. I wanted that pie.”
“This was free. Suck it up, eat the expensive free sweets I brought, and be happy. Some celebrity chef made this stuff.”
Mack stalked to the fridge and jerked it open, then took a beer out and opened it. “I don’t know why we put up with you. You can’t even bring me the damn pie I want.”
Shay sat the boxes down. “Because I’m lovable, and you can’t live without my witty jokes.”
He snarled. “Fuck that,” he mumbled as he turned to look at me. “She’s why I drink. I swear.”
Maybe it was just me, but I felt chemistry burning off both of them. I wondered if they even realized it. There was a definite attraction between the two. They might not want it, but it was there. I shifted my eyes to Marty, who was watching me. He winked again and smirked. Like we shared a secret, he saw it too. Hanging out tonight might be just the thing to get my mind off my life.