Chapter 13
Brodie
Gabrielle may be writing a story, but there was no way she’d been acting out a character’s response in the hallway with me.
If she had been, she was one hell of an actress, academy award worthy, in fact.
I should have suggested she give up the writing to become an actor.
I suppose I should try to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it sure seemed like something was very wrong. For real.
I walked into the kitchen and found Jackson doing the old drinking out of the milk carton thing our mother always yelled at us for. “Hey, nobody wants your stinking germs in their milk,” I said, smacking the back of his head as I walked by.
He eyed me over the top of the carton and continued to drink. When he finished, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and smacked his lips. He crushed the carton until it became flat before tossing it into the trash. “It was the end of the carton.”
Rufus wagged his tail twice but didn’t move, not even when I stepped over him on my way to the refrigerator.
He was a lazy dog most of the time, except for that episode with Lena when he’d tried to save her life.
He’d been quick to come to her rescue that day.
That was something we’d all been surprised about with our good ol’ dog.
“Good thing. I don’t think the women in this house would have liked your backwash,” I said, unable to hide the negative mood behind my tone. I opened the fridge, took out a beer, popped the top and guzzled half before stopping.
“What’s eating you?”
“Nothing.”
“Something.”
“Nope.”
“Are we going to continue this one word at a time conversation for long? Because if we are, I’m gonna need a beer, too.”
“Better have a glass of water first. I don’t have first-hand experience, but I’m not too sure a beer will settle very well with the milk you just drank.”
Jackson nodded. “You might be right.” He walked to the cupboard, grabbed a glass and headed to the fridge, filling the container to the rim with cold, filtered water from the spout. Then he drank down the entire contents. “So, what’s the deal?”
“Grab your beer. Rufus, come on boy, let’s go get some fresh air.
” If there was one thing that Rufus got excited about, it was the prospect of being outside, sniffing around.
Bloodhounds were naturals at tracking, and the first thing he did when he got outside was put his nose to the ground.
I watched him as he sniffed his way toward the back of the property, following the trail of some squirrel no doubt.
The raccoons don’t come around anymore now that they know Rufus is here.
When he was a puppy, they’d come around and try to steal his food in the middle of the night.
Now that Rufus was full-grown and ate his food quickly, they’d stopped coming.
I walked to the middle of the yard, stopped, and took another swig of the beer I held.
Another bolt of lightning cracked, but not as bright as before.
A few seconds later, thunder boomed in the distance.
The storm was heading south. I glanced around the yard, dimly lit by the single porch light. “The grass needs cutting,” I mumbled.
“The gardeners were here a few days ago.”
“Maybe they should lower the blades on their mowers, then,” I suggested.
“The grass always grows twice as fast in the summer months.” My eyes fell upon the old hammock our uncle had tied up between the two oak trees.
I pointed my finger at it. “The netting on that needs to be replaced before your wedding.”
“So now we’re talking about things that need to be done around here. Okay. At least we’ve graduated from one-word sentences. I’m well aware of what needs to be done.”
“Gabrielle.” Her name flowed past my lips with a heavy breath.
“What about her?”
“How much do you know about her?”
“Not much. Just things Lena has told me. She had started singing in Weezer’s band several months before Lena left it. They’d become close in those months. Gabby attempted to keep in touch, but apparently, Troy never let Lena know she’d tried. Why? Has she done something wrong?”
“No. Nothing like that. Nothing wrong. Just … strange.”
“As in?”
I glanced back at the house. Not wanting anyone, especially Lena, to hear what I had to say.
“A few minutes ago, I was coming down the hall. I’d just gotten out of the shower, was towel drying my hair and hadn’t been looking where I was going.
I smacked into Gabrielle.” I recounted the whole story about how Gabrielle had spilled the milkshake and then became all weird, apologizing and sounding like a scared little girl.
“I’m telling you Jackson, she wasn’t herself.
The way she stared at me, blotting the sticky stuff off my chest and stomach, saying, ‘Please don’t be mad, I promise I’ll clean it up, please don’t make me.
’ It was like I was somebody else and was going to punish her in some weird way. ”
“Make her do what?”
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t say. She just ran from me into her room and locked the door, or blocked it, because it wouldn’t open when I tried to check on her.
My first thought was that she was on drugs or something, but when she finally let me in, I could tell she’d been crying.
When I asked her what was going on, she came up with some lame excuse about acting out a character for a story she’s writing. ”
“A story?”
“Yeah. Apparently, she’s getting a book published and writing another one.”
“Wow. That’s fantastic. But you think she was lying about the whole character thing?”
“Yeah. I’m positive.”
“Should I have Lena talk to her?”
“No. Let’s just keep it between us. I was only wondering if Lena had ever mentioned anything about Gabrielle’s past to you.”
“No. Nothing weird anyway.”
“Well, I think I’ll go pick up a bottle of bubbly to celebrate the book. Maybe that will make her feel better.”
“Sounds like a plan. Oh. Something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. This is none of my business, but why have you been home so much lately?”
“You’re right. It is none of your business.
” Jackson knew me too well. He’d never buy the bucket of shit I was about to lay on him.
But I didn’t want him getting all brotherly on me and start talking about Beth.
He knew how much she’d affected my life.
“I figured it was the least I could do since we have a houseguest. I didn’t think it was right to leave her alone knowing you and Lena would probably be busy with each other. New love and all.”
Jackson smirked. “Oh. And here I thought it was because you liked her.”
“Don’t get your hopes up there, big brother. She’s made it very clear that she wants nothing to do with me that way.”
“So you’ve tried.”
“Long time ago. Last year, but I think we’ve come to a mutual understanding now.”
“Which is?”
“She hates me.”
“What’d you do, stick your tongue down her throat without asking?”
I shrugged.