Chapter 26
A WEEK HAD PASSED, AND THE PT Cruiser had not shown up.
Angela had not made another surprise attack in the grocery store and Zona’s tires were still intact.
Alec had paid to replace the one Angela had slashed, and Zona had thanked him by taking him enchiladas, which she’d stayed to help him eat. Everything was working out.
They sat by the pool, enjoying both the enchiladas and the margaritas he’d made to go with them.
The early evening was still hot but not unbearably so, since Zona was in shorts, and the sunshine felt good on her shoulders.
So did being with this relaxed, happier version of Alec that she’d been coming to know.
“I could get used to this,” he said, and smiled at her before forking in another bite.
“Getting meals delivered?” she teased.
“Yeah, that’s good, too. But I was thinking more about the company.”
She smiled and took a sip of her drink. Crossed one leg over the other and let it swing, admiring her self-administered pedi.
“Do that enough and I’m gonna forget about food,” he said, pointing to her bare leg.
“Taking it slow,” she reminded him.
“Slow and steady wins the race. That’s what my old man used to say.” His easy smile turned wistful.
“You miss him.”
Alec nodded. “Yeah. He was a great guy. He worked his whole life as a welder. Eventually wound up with lung cancer. He and Mom were savers, and he sent me to college hoping I’d come out and get a high-paying white-collar job. Wanted me to be a lawyer.”
“What did you want?”
“Not that. I started working construction the summer after my freshman year. Bagged the whole lawyer thing and decided to get a business degree instead.”
“He had to be proud in the end that you built your own business,” said Zona.
“Yeah, he was. He got it in his head that I’d build him and Myrna their dream house, but she died before I could.”
“That was your stepmom, right? What did she die of?”
“Aneurysm. It broke Dad’s heart.”
“What happened to your mom?”
“Breast cancer. Lost her when I was eight. Dad made it until I hit middle school and my brother was in grade school, then he got lonely and went looking.”
“Wait. What? You have a brother?”
“He’s a purser on a cruise ship. We hang out whenever he’s in LA.”
“So he’s not involved with . . .”
“The girls?” Alec gave a bitter chuckle.
“No, he was smart. Pulled away and stayed away. Poor Dad. If the cancer hadn’t killed him, the stress the steps laid on him would have.
Especially Angela. She was out of control even as a kid.
But Dad loved Myrna, maybe even more than he loved Mom, so he gave what was left of his heart to the steps. ”
“That’s so . . . tragic,” Zona mused.
“Tragic is the mess Dad left me with. The girls were in their teens when their mom died and out of school when Dad packed it in. Ariel got it together, but Angela never did. Obviously. I did what I could for her, footed the bill for her traffic tickets, paid overdue rent, got her out of a bad relationship, you name it, I did it. But now I’m done.
She’s sucked me dry. Sorry, Dad.” Alec downed the last of his drink.
“I need another one of these. Want one?”
“No, thanks,” she said. One drink was enough. Just being with Alec went to her head. She didn’t need to add more alcohol to the equation.
He went back inside the house and left her still trying to digest the sad family saga he’d shared. It was a messy, tragic one, and the responsibility he’d shouldered had left its mark on him. Cost him his marriage.
“What would you do differently if you could go back in time?” she asked when he returned.
“I’d have taken my wife and moved far away. You know what they say on planes, put your own oxygen mask on first. I never did.”
“Maybe that makes you noble,” Zona suggested.
“No, it leaves me suffocating.” He dug into the last of his enchiladas. “There’s a difference between being useful and letting yourself be used. I think I’ve finally figured that out.”
“Why does life have to be so hard?” Zona mused.
“Dunno. Probably the bigger question is why do we make it even harder?”
“I’m done with that,” she said firmly.
“Me, too. I am ready to have some fun. Baseball games, backyard barbecues, Super Bowl parties. Maybe even learn to dance. How does that sound?”
She smiled. “You had me at dance.”
No, he had her at the way he was looking at her.
It goosed up her heart rate and her body heat climbed another six degrees.
He had the kind of body a woman couldn’t help wanting to claim, and even more attractive, the heart beating inside it appeared to be supersized.
Was he someone she could safely move forward with or would he land her in another smelly mess?
She bit down on her lip and studied the pool. The turquoise water looked so calm and inviting. Rather like the future Alec was painting.
But people drowned in pools.
“You make starting over sound so easy,” she said. “It’s not.”
“I know it’s not. But it beats staying stuck in one place.”
“What if the place you’re stuck in is safe?” Zona argued.
“A padded cell is safe.”
She laughed at that. “Oh, now, there’s an interesting metaphor.”
“Okay, the womb is safe.”
“Very poetic,” she said.
“Yeah, that’s me. Like it or not, at some point you get pushed out. From then on, what happens is up to you. You can’t hide forever, Zona.”
She frowned at him. “I’m not hiding. I’m rebuilding. And I’m doing it very carefully, making sure this time that I’ve got a solid foundation. How’s that for a metaphor?”
“Pretty impressive,” he said with a nod. “Building is a lot of work, and a lot of doing. You can’t squat on a foundation forever because you’re worried the walls will fall in on you if you put them up.”
The walls had fallen in on her twice before. “I’m afraid.” The words crept out on a whisper.
He reached over and laid that big, solid hand of his on top of hers. “I know you are.”
“I don’t know you, not really.”
She’d seen his temper. What else could set it off besides his out of control stepsister? Was he solid and trustworthy or was he truly a Jekyll and Hyde? People were so good at hiding their true selves.
“You keep saying that, but I hope you’re starting to.” He studied her a moment. “What’s got you worried? Be honest.”
“I’ve seen an angry side to you. What brings it out besides your stepsister?”
He thought a moment. “Being lied to, being used, lazy workers. Cheaters.” He half smiled. “Seeing the Dodgers lose.”
“Dogs pooping on your lawn,” she added.
“Yeah, that.”
“You yell a lot.”
“I yell a lot at Angela,” he corrected.
“Did you yell at your wife?”
“Once. When she got rid of my favorite jeans. I apologized later,” he quickly added.
That seemed like a small offense. Zona frowned. “Were there times you didn’t yell at her when you wanted to?”
“When she wrecked the car. I was just relieved she wasn’t hurt. Oh, yeah, and when we were first married, she sucked at budgets, always overspent. That made me crazy, but I never yelled. Nagged a lot, but never yelled.”
“I yell,” Zona confessed.
“Yeah? What makes you yell?”
She could almost see a reflection of her exes’ faces on the surface of the water. “Cheating and lying. I yelled at my first husband because he thought it was okay to cheat on me. I yelled at Gary because his gambling ruined our lives.”
“I’d have done more than yell,” said Alec.
“I managed to forgive Luke. God only knows how. But Gary . . .” Her eyes narrowed at the memory of what he’d done, and her fists clenched. “I can’t forgive him. He stole from me. And from Bree. That was the worst. He made a mess of our lives and I’m still cleaning it up.”
Alec nodded. “I feel the same way about Angela. Only difference is I caught her before she could totally screw me over.”
“I felt . . . violated,” Zona confessed.
“But you’re moving on,” he pointed out.
“On my own. How do I dare do that with someone?”
He took a deep breath. “Therapy? Hire a hit man?”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“Look, I don’t exactly know how we get those two out of our heads, but we can’t let them keep hanging on to us. I say we leave ’em in the dust. We break the rearview mirror, rev the engine, and go for it.”
“You know, for a builder you do have a way with words,” she said.
“I have a way with my hands, too,” he said. He gave her a full smile and, once more, her body temperature shot up.
Maybe she was ready to rev her engine.
“AS LONG AS you’re taking it slow, you’ll be fine,” Gracie assured her when they met for coffee.
But the more time Zona spent with Alec the more tempted she was to forget going slow and race forward.
Until she envisioned that horrible moment when she’d discovered the savings for Bree’s college fund had been drained, the moment when the truth came out and she learned that Gary had taken them to a very high cliff and pulled them all off it.
After that it wasn’t hard at all to put on the brakes.
GARY SHOWED UP at Louise’s house on a Thursday right after Zona had gotten home from work, an unwelcome ghost from the past. She was about to put together a shrimp salad for Louise and Gilda, and Martin, who had been invited to hang around for dinner and a movie, then planned to work a shift for HopIn.
Gilda had been anxious to indulge her sweet tooth and had gone to fetch something for dessert and Martin hadn’t yet arrived, so it was just Zona and Louise in the house when the knock on the door came.
Assuming it was Martin, Zona opened the door with a smile on her face. The smile got gobbled by a glare the second she saw Gary standing there. The smile he’d been trying for collapsed.
“What are you doing here?” Her words came out like shards of ice.
“Can I come in for a minute?”
“No.”
He took in a deep breath, resigned to the stony welcome he was receiving. “Okay. I won’t stay long.”
“You won’t stay at all. Why are you here, Gary?”