36. Megyn
CHAPTER 36
MEGYN
T rouble started again the next afternoon, just as Carter and I were sitting down to eat the excellent lunch Antonio prepared for us. All last night and this morning, we’d been tensing up every time a vehicle went by, only relaxing again when it passed the house without slowing down. I didn’t want to say aloud what I was hoping, even though I saw the same hope on Carter’s face whenever I looked at him.
But that afternoon, without looking at him, studying my omelet, I felt as though I couldn’t hold back anymore. I said, “Maybe they won’t come back.”
“Maybe,” Carter agreed. He picked up his fork and cut into his omelet, right into the thickest part, causing cheese and roasted onions and peppers and sausage crumbles to spill out.
I wrinkled my nose in mock disgust of his action and sliced off the very edge of my own omelet, which was the same as his except with bacon instead of sausage. Bowls of sour cream, ketchup, salsa, anything a person could think to top an omelet with, sat on the table between us, surrounding the salt and pepper dispensers. They weren’t shakers, but the grinder sort of dispenser. Antonio would have nothing else in the house. It was just another little difference between the life I used to lead and the one I had with Carter. Whole peppercorns and salt chunks, instead of cheap powdered pepper and granulated salt crystals. The difference was so small and yet so big.
And so much tastier.
The distant roar of an engine stopped me with my fork halfway to my mouth. I looked at Carter and he looked at me. We waited.
The car approached, slowed, and stopped.
I put my fork down, not hungry anymore.
Carter put his hand over mine. “It doesn’t mean—”
Before he could finish, we heard voices and we both recognized them right away as Crystal’s shrill demands and Dad’s dull responses to said commands.
Carter pushed back from his chair. “Turn the oven on low, Megyn. Put our plates in there.”
“Is there any point?” I asked, but I got up to do as he said anyway.
“I don’t know,” Carter said. “But I’m hopeful they’ll be gone sooner rather than later.”
But will we feel up to eating after they’re gone?
Carter patted my back and went off into the living room. I turned the oven on and set the heat to very low, then set our plates inside on the top rack to keep our food warm. My stomach twisted. I wasn’t as hopeful as Carter was about all of this. I didn’t think we’d be coming back to our meals anytime soon. The omelets would sit in there and shrink and harden, like an improperly washed wool sweater.
The front door opened and someone marched inside. Crystal, undoubtedly.
“Please, come in,” Carter said tiredly.
I swallowed hard and shut the oven door.
“Where’s Megyn?” Crystal demanded. “I thought I heard something. Is she hiding?”
I clenched my hands into fists, digging my nails against my palms. Steeling myself for the worst, I stepped out of the kitchen. “I’m here.”
Crystal darted over, her hand raised like she meant to slap me.
Carter hissed under his breath and moved, striding over the carpet.
I didn’t think. I acted. I reached and patted Crystal’s hand with my own, stealing a high-five.
The other woman jerked to a halt and looked at her hand, then mine, and then up at me, as baffled as a puppy wondering why it couldn’t potty on the floor in the house. Crystal blinked and lowered her hand, shaking her head. “You’re crazy. You know that, don’t you? Crazy and ungrateful.”
“That’d be your opinion,” I said.
Crystal stared at me. “Aren’t you going to ask why? Don’t you care?”
“What you think?” I thought about it. “Not really.”
“Megyn.” Dad stepped forward. “We just want to ask you why you sold the house. You said it was being worked on, not that you were gutting it.”
“Right! I can’t believe you, Megyn,” Crystal said. She crossed the floor to Dad and slung her arm around his waist, like he had just come to her defense, even though everyone else knew it wasn’t the case.
If you’d stand up for yourself and tell her off, Dad. I shook my head. I couldn’t be too harsh on him. I wasn’t exactly the most forceful or confrontational person in the world, so I understood. It made me think perhaps we were more alike than I had considered before. He’d raised me, after all.
“Letting us believe the house was perfectly fine and then come to find out it’s being turned into… into…a store?”
“A sewing store,” I said. “My sewing store. You left me the house, so I can do whatever I want with it.”
“Like you had the money for that!” Crystal scoffed.
Dad lifted his head, a light turning on deep in his sunken eyes. I looked at him, and he looked back at me, and I suddenly saw that he understood why I had done what I did, why I was turning the house into a shop.
Dad. Please. Say something. Defend me for once. Back me up. Fight back against Crystal.
Dad blinked and lowered his head again without a word.
I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, struggling with the pain in my heart. So, he wasn’t ready.
“Where did you get the money for this?” Crystal pressed.
I opened my mouth to tell her it was none of her business.
Carter stepped up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. “I’m funding it.”
Crystal bounced on her feet and clasped her hands together. “I knew it!”
“Because I love her,” Carter said. He pressed his cheek to the top of my head. “And I’m proud of her, and I want her to accomplish her goals.”
“What about the goals of her family members?” Crystal pressed.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Crystal sighed dramatically. “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this. See, Megyn, your father and I are in a very bad way financially right now.”
“Is that true, Jeremy?” Carter asked.
Dad sighed too, in a much more genuine way than Crystal. “Yeah. Yeah, it is. We’re not doing too good.”
“When we saw that Megyn had fallen in with someone who had money, well, it was only natural for us to ask,” Crystal explained, as if it wasn’t absolutely terrible of her to say. She seemed to have no shame about what she was saying. I didn’t think she really did at all. “We had to come and talk to you. Can you help us out, Carter?”
“You decided to spend tons of money on plane tickets and other travel expenses at a time when you’re not doing well with money?” I couldn’t really believe any of this. “You could have called. You don’t have to actually show up to get money.”
Crystal brightened and clasped her hands together. “Does this mean you two will help us out?”
“No!” I cried. “Absolutely not!”
“But why? Carter is giving you money!”
I spread my arms. “Carter is the man I love. He’s funding my dream. There’s a big difference between loving and supporting someone and handing out free cash to moochers! ”
It was the worst word I could think of and it had the desired effect. Crystal’s face turned red and she swelled with indignation, her breasts having. “I won’t be talked to like this. Come on, Jeremy. We’re leaving.”
“Don’t act like it’s your idea,” I said, my throat tight and hot with anger. “Because it 100% is not. Get out of here and don’t come back.”
Dad lowered his head and turned away. “If that’s what you want, Megyn.”
“No, Daddy,” I said, sympathy for him dampening my anger. “It’s not what I want, but it’s how things have to be.”
“You’ve turned into such a strong young woman,” he said. “Your mother would be proud of you. I know I am.”
Tears jumped into my eyes. I bit my lip and didn’t say a thing, even though there was so much I could have.
Dad went back to the front door, opened it, and walked out with another word.
Crystal flicked her indignant glare all around, a trapped animal looking for another avenue. Finding none, she rushed over to the door. She twisted and looked over her shoulder. “You haven’t seen the last of us!” she spat. Then, she took off, catching up to Dad, overtaking him, almost knocking him down as she passed him by in her hurry to get to the Porsche.
Carter pushed the door shut and locked it. He turned to me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me in against his chest. “If they come back, we’ll call the cops. And then we’ll go watch a movie so we can’t hear Crystal shrieking threats.”
His deadpan attitude made me smile a little, despite the ache in my heart. I pressed my face to his chest and clung to him tightly. “I love you, Carter. Promise me we won’t end up like them?”
Carter stroked my back in a soothing motion, one hand over the other. He brought his lips to my ear and murmured, “I promise you we will always be happy and deeply in love.”
I found it in me to smile a little more. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Back to the kitchen for our omelets?”
“Last one there is a rotten egg.” I took off running, sliding onto the kitchen tiles in my socks.
Carter muttered, “I hope there’s no rotten eggs in there or I’ll have to have a talk with Antonio.”
I pulled our still-warm plates out of the oven and handed his over. “That was a pretty lame joke.”
“And you loved it.”
“Yeah,” I said, and smiled.