Chapter Fourteen
Spring was in full force when Reese exited her home to drive to work. The birds were singing in the oak trees that towered over the bungalow. The scent of dew clung to the grass, and she was light as air.
Ever since their time together on Sunday, she had felt a burden leave her.
She hadn’t realized just how much the shower situation was getting to her.
She had showered twice that night and every day since, taking as long as she could.
There was even an impromptu trip to the store for bath bombs and ridiculously expensive soap, the kind that left its scent on the skin for hours.
And then there was Matty. It had been so hard to let her inside the house.
The next morning, after her brave moment of calling the handywoman for help, she had panicked.
It was terrifying. Sharing her secret. Sharing what she was living in was more than she could bear, and she had had every intention of turning Matty away.
But then Matty had somehow talked her down and didn’t even bat an eye when she walked into the home. Not even the slightest indication that she was shocked or disgusted by what she saw. It was the complete opposite of what Reese had anticipated. It could not have gone any better.
They had even both been vulnerable. The fear, and then the embarrassment, that flashed across Matty’s soft, handsome face when the GED pamphlet fell to the floor was so relatable.
Reese had experienced that exact same thing not thirty minutes before.
It was obviously a sensitive topic for her.
It had left Reese wondering how much support the dark brunette had.
Did someone plant that doubt in her head?
Or did Matty really lack the confidence to believe she could pass those tests on her own?
She was clearly intelligent. The cases full of books.
The ability to fix things by looking at whatever it was and deducing the issue.
The woman had taken up residence in her head ever since.
Reese pulled into The Church’s small gravel driveway. Her stomach dropped at the sight of Jayvon waiting on the front porch.
She grabbed her purse and coffee, then slid out of the vehicle. “This is either really good or really bad.”
“I wish I could say it was good.”
“Damn it.”
They both turned at the sound of Kerrie’s little Ford Ranger pulling up beside Reese’s car. Her eyes immediately went to the passenger seat, where Matty was. They grinned at each other. She completely forgot about Jayvon and whatever issue there was.
“Hey, Reese.” The bright grin on Matty’s face made her skin prickle.
“Hey, Matty. No jeans today?” she asked, motioning to the tan Carhartt work pants she was clad in.
Reese’s mind instantly flashed to the way her jeans had tightened around her thighs and ass as she squatted on her heels in the bathtub.
She had almost drooled on herself when she saw the band of what Reese assumed were black boxer briefs.
“Nope, we’re working on a new residential house that Turtle Grove just bought. We’re going to be tearing out walls and patching the roof, so I wanted something more heavy-duty.”
Just the thought of Matty on a roof, the sun shining on her skin and that damned tool belt slung around her hips, made Reese melt a little inside. That tool belt might as well have been lesbian catnip.
“Sounds like a busy day.”
The clearing of a throat pulled them out of their two-party world. Jayvon and Kerrie were both staring at them, amused looks on their faces.
“Uh, well, I guess I should get going.”
“Yeah, I need to get clocked in. I’ll see you around.”
“See you around.”
With one last exchange of cheesy grins, Matty began walking down the hill toward the main campus while Reese turned her attention to her waiting coworkers.
“So, you and Matty, huh?” asked Jayvon with a raised eyebrow.
“We’re just friends.”
“Jayvon, we’re friends, right?” Kerrie asked.
“Yes.”
“Have we ever stared into each other’s eyes like that?”
“Not that I recall.”
Reese rolled her eyes as her cheeks heated. “We’re just friends.”
“Kenny said you came by her apartment the other day.”
“How did he know who I was?”
“Kenny knows everything. Nothing happens on that property without him knowing. Plus, he said Matty has been talking a lot about that girl named Reese.”
Reese’s breath caught in her throat. “She’s been talking about me?”
“So just friends, huh?” interjected Jayvon with a smirk. “Okay, as much as I’d like to see how deep we could make that blush get, I have to get to the morning meeting to get more details about what happened last night.”
“What happened?” asked Kerrie.
“A client’s wife called the desk last night. She said her husband was sending her texts from a cell phone.”
“Damn it,” Kerrie swore.
“That means there’s a phone in Sparrow. Great. Just great.”
“Do you know which client?”
“Payton.”
Reese groaned. It was her client.
“Okay, Jay, go on to the morning meeting and find out any other information. And would you mind asking Tyler to get us someone to do Group? We’ll have to flip the house, and it’s easier during group when they’re all at The Church. Reese, call the wife. See what her story is.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Got it.”
Reese wanted nothing more than to go home and not deal with the phone issue.
A cell phone in the house was dangerous.
Part of their treatment was controlling contact with the outside world.
When they first arrived, they were usually too raw and disoriented.
Keeping a barrier to the world outside of the rehab was important.
Then there was the danger of having the ability to have someone drop something off.
The road was literally in front of the house.
It wouldn’t be hard for someone to drop something in the yard and drive off.
Drugs and alcohol inside a house full of addicts would be perilous.
“Okay, so let’s hear it,” Kerrie instructed when Jayvon returned. They were holed up in the senior counselor’s office.
Jayvon looked down at his notes. “So last night Payton’s wife, Danielle, called and said he was texting her from an unknown number.”
“Did they go to the house?”
“No, it was after midnight, and they didn’t have the staff to do it. It was decided to let you two handle it today.”
“So the clients have no idea we know?”
He shook his head. “Not as far as I know.”
“Reese, were you able to get in touch with the wife?”
“Yes, but she couldn’t talk long since she was at work.
This isn’t her first rodeo with him. He’s been in and out of jail and treatment for years.
This is his last chance. The judge sent him here with the stipulation that if he doesn’t graduate from the program and successfully finish three months in a transitional home, then he’s got to flatten his time.
” Flattening time was when a person had to serve the full amount of time of their sentence.
“How long’s he got?” Jayvon asked.
“Four years.”
“Damn, and she turned him in.”
Reese nodded. “She’s tired. They’ve been together since high school.
Had their first baby at seventeen and then three more after that.
She’s at the end of her rope. He either gets it together or he goes away.
He knew the risk of using the phone. This is squarely on his shoulders. I hate it for him, but he knew better.”
“Okay, so do we have someone to do Group?”
“Yeah, he’s sending Stan up here.”
“Great. I guess we’ll head to Sparrow.”
Stan was an elderly man who had been in recovery for decades. He volunteered to come to Turtle Grove to interact with clients, tell his story, and share his experience with the program. His knowledge and experience were vast, and having him was great for the clients.
“Have you ever flipped a house before?” asked Kerrie as they walked to Sparrow. The pretty day was starting to get cloudy, and the wind had picked up.
“No.”
“So here are the rules. Anything in the common areas, like the living room and bathroom, we can search. We can’t open anything of the clients’, like their little stands, without them here, but anything open or in plain sight is fair game.”
“So we’re going to just look for the phone?”
“Pretty much. I doubt we’ll find it, but hopefully it’ll make them uncomfortable, and someone will talk. Let’s start in Upper Sparrow.”
The little house looked like usual. The pale yellow walls with white trim were bright and happy, a stark contrast to the gloominess outside.
She walked over to the semi-ripped-out kitchen.
The sink and one row of kitchen cabinets were still there, but nothing else.
No stove or microwave. No appliances or dishes in the cabinets.
She pulled open a drawer. It had crayons, colored pencils, and several different coloring pages that they gave clients to use.
She did the same with the one beside it.
She laughed as she pulled out a rubber-banded pack of cards.
“They made their own playing cards. They actually look pretty good.”
“Confiscate them. They’re not supposed to have cards.”
“Someone’s not going to be happy. This had to have taken a while to make,” she muttered to herself. She pocketed them in her lavender cardigan.
“Remind me to give them praise for keeping it clean. It looks like we’ve got some tidy people in here.”
She finished looking through the cabinets and went into the adjacent room with two beds and two wooden wardrobes. One bed was neatly made, and the other looked like a pile of unfolded laundry.
“Well, most of them look neat." Kerrie grinned over at her. She easily groped around the top of the wardrobe thanks to her towering height.
“So, what do we do if we find out it’s been used by many of them? Danielle said she didn’t think it was Payton’s phone but that he was borrowing it.”