27. Fall Into That Trap
27
FALL INTO THAT TRAP
“I ’ll call Egan and we’ll see if we can get your sister picked up at Logan on one of the helicopters and brought right over and then returned the same way.”
“What?” Justine asked later that night. “You’re joking, right?”
“No,” Garrett said.
He watched as she was shaking her head. “Who just calls up helicopters?”
He snorted. “My family.”
She rolled her eyes. “I want to say that is ridiculous, but considering the short amount of time that she has to visit and the logistics of it all, it really isn’t.”
“Once you find out her flight information, I’ll call Egan. We’ll see if we can get it arranged.”
“I can do that,” she said. “And she’s going to set it up today. She might have already, but just hasn’t had a chance to let me know.”
“The sooner you know, the sooner we can figure out whether or not he can have a helicopter get her at Logan or not. She might have to get a ride to the docks where it’d be easier. Faster than the ferry if there wasn’t one departing right then.”
“Let me text her and find out if she knows yet and I’ll explain why.”
He watched while Justine pulled her phone out and composed a text to her sister. He’d come over after work when she said she was up, but they were going to his place tonight.
He was looking around the apartment and smiled at the red cardinal next to the couch, then turned to look at her while she sat there.
He hadn’t planned on stopping, but it was on the way and she’d said she was up. Normally she slept a bit more and since her text came in so early, he wanted to see if everything was okay.
“Give me a kiss,” he said. “You look so excited over this.”
“I am,” she said. “I need this visit. It cheered me up after the call with Elise.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Your stepmother called you again?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll explain it all. Why don’t you go home and shower and change? I’ll stop and get dinner. I said I’d cook, but I’m too excited about Jordan being here in a few days.” She leaned in to kiss him one more time and then pushed him toward the door. “Go. I hadn’t even known you were stopping.”
“Sorry,” he said, laughing. “Just wanted to make sure you were okay with how early you texted. Maybe you were horny and needed me and you didn’t want to wait.”
She laughed. “You’re so full of yourself.”
“Just a little,” he said, smiling and pinching two fingers. Whatever had happened with Elise couldn’t have been that bad because Justine was in a good mood.
“I’ll see you soon. I’m going to order Italian. Anything special you want?”
“Nope,” he said. “Surprise me.”
“Will do,” she said.
Garrett left and drove home. He got in the shower, changed, and twenty minutes later Justine was walking through the garage and into his kitchen.
“Smells good,” he said, taking the box out of her hand.
“I couldn’t decide. I got stuffed shells, chicken parm, and lasagna.”
“There are only two of us,” he said. “Good lord. I guess you are hungry.”
“We’ll have leftovers,” she said. “Or you will.”
“You can take some,” he said. “You have to work tomorrow night.”
“True,” she said. “These look like enormous meals. Let’s dig in while it’s hot and I’ll tell you what happened. If I fall asleep in twenty minutes, don’t hold it against me. I haven’t had a lot of sleep in over thirty-six hours.”
He listened to her recap the call from Elise and then after she talked to her sister.
“That’s crazy that she thought you’d just hand over money,” he said.
“She’s crazy,” she said. “I’m not sure what my father saw in her.”
He didn’t know if she’d want to talk about this since she rarely did. It might be helpful to her if she could though.
“Was Elise always an alcoholic?”
Justine helped herself to a slice of lasagna and then took some of the chicken parm, a small sliver of it. “I don’t think so,” she said. “She always liked her wine. I remember her having a glass with dinner all the time but just one glass. It’s not like I remember seeing empty bottles places either.”
“She could have hid it well,” he said. “Do you know what might have triggered it? It seems to me from everything you’ve said about your father, that he wouldn’t have married her if he knew.”
“He absolutely wouldn’t have,” she said. “Jordan and I were living there at that point. Elise wasn’t a horrible person when we met her. She was nice enough, but we weren’t looking for a mother. Jordan made it clear that they wouldn’t be getting close. I was a bit nicer to her, but didn’t listen to her either.”
“Daddy’s girl?” he asked.
“You know it,” she mumbled.
She had a sad smile on her face but didn’t seem like she was going to cry so he continued to talk to her about this.
“Do you remember when things changed?”
“No,” she said. “I think they did when I went to college. Jordan would have said something if it was when she was still living there, so my guess is, it was after she left too. It seemed like all of a sudden when we were home after that, Elise was drinking more. I didn’t always know she was drunk and then at night, we’d hear a bang and find out she tripped or broke something in the house.”
“So a closet drinker,” he said.
“That’s my thought,” she said. “Then they’d fight. My father acknowledged Elise drank too much, but she didn’t want to get help. She said there was nothing wrong with her and she’d go days without drinking to prove she could.”
“Hmm,” he said. “She was a functioning one.”
“Most alcoholics really can’t go days without a drink, but Elise could. But when she was drinking, she almost always got drunk. I think that is why I don’t use the word alcoholic with her and just call her a drunk. She’d get plastered on the weekends more than anything that I can remember.”
“But had wine with dinner every night during the week?” he asked.
“The funny thing is, she stopped that,” she said, frowning. “When we came back from college, she wasn’t drinking as much every day, but when she did drink she was just a bitchy mean drunk. I think the daily dinner wine was to prove to my father she didn’t need it. Unless she still had it and he didn’t know. They’d fight and most of it was because my father was trying to cut her off.”
“Did he try to get her help?” he asked. “Do you know?”
She’d told him how her father had scratch marks and bruises on him before and that she’d have to testify in court when the time came that she witnessed it.
He hated that for her and hoped that he could be with her when she had to do it.
“I think so,” she said. “I know it was brought up and every time it was, Elise would stop drinking for periods of time to prove he was wrong. But I often wonder if she was sneaking it without him knowing. He wasn’t around a lot.”
“And limiting her money,” he said. “He’d know if she was charging something like that, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “If she was charging it on the card my father paid. But Elise had a part-time job and her money was hers.”
He nodded. “I hope you don’t think back to things you wish you saw and could have pointed out to try to prevent this, Justine.”
She looked up from her plate. She’d been answering him but not making eye contact during it either.
He knew there was more going on in her mind and he was trying to figure it out.
“I went through that phase,” she said. “I think it’s normal. Jordan kicked my butt. She said that you can’t look for signs of things when people are sneaky enough to hide them.”
There was a tear in her eye when she said it and he let her blink it away rather than reach out to comfort her. He knew if he did that, that tear could fall.
“Your sister is right.”
“I’d like to think my father wasn’t sneaky but rather embarrassed.”
“That too,” he said. “I would be. Sometimes you love someone enough to try to help even if they don’t want it. But it doesn’t mean you want the world to know your business and judge you either.”
“Like you think I’m doing to him?” she asked.
“Never,” he said. “I didn’t know your father. You knew him, but we have to ask ourselves how well we know our parents. I think I know mine well, but there are parts to their marriage I don’t know and never will. Just like most people have in a personal relationship.”
Her head went back and forth while she chewed. “I’ve thought of that too. I want to believe he didn’t love her, but I know that is wrong. I do think he was in love with the idea of a nice marriage and a partnership more than he actually lived it.”
“Many people fall into that trap,” he said.
He would be guilty of that.
For putting up with Taylor longer than he should have.
He just thought she’d adjust. Or that she’d accept.
When he needed her the most she decided it was too much and she couldn’t handle how depressing it was to be around him.
A shot to the heart on a lot of levels.
Looking back, he didn’t grieve her like he should have and it only let him know maybe he was more in love with the idea of love than feeling it with Taylor.
Because gazing across at Justine, he knew what he felt for her was twenty times stronger than he thought he had with Taylor.
“I know,” she said. “I’m working through so many things with this. Her call set me off and I thought for sure I was going to spiral down again, but then Jordan stopped it.”
“Sisters are good that way,” he said, smiling.
She looked over at him. “Was Gabriela there the most for you last year?”
“Yes,” he said. “Not always helpful but appreciated looking back.”
“This was appreciated for sure,” she said. “I’m sorry that I might not see you much while she is here. I’m going to try to work on Saturday so I can get Wednesday off even though Jordan told me not to.”
“Don’t worry in the least,” he said. “You spend that time with your sister. I would like to meet her though.”
“Trust me, that is part of the visit. She wants to meet you.”
“Then I’ll take you two out to dinner.”
Her phone went off and she grabbed it. “Jordan just sent her flight plans.”
“Then let’s make a call and see if we can get this all set up,” he said.
“Let me tell Jordan first. I don’t think she’ll have a problem with it. I’m going to tell her my winnings from the casino are being put to good use. She won’t argue with me then.”
He laughed. “Good way to do it.”
She put her phone down after she texted. “I know you don’t need to know this,” she said. “But when I say my father left us a lot, it’s over seven figures each.”
He nodded his head. “You don’t need to tell me,” he said. “I know you’re not after me for my money. Right?”
She lifted her head sharply and he laughed, then she relaxed and smiled. “No,” she said. “I’m not. I know women were with my father and I never understood that. I couldn’t be that way. Even if I didn’t have what I do now. I’d give it all back to spend the next fifty years with him.”
This time he reached his hand over. “That’s why I love you, Justine. I’m not sure you want to hear it, but I have to say it. I’m not asking you to give me answers. I’m not asking you to make any plans. I’m just telling you what is in my heart.”
Her eyes filled and a few tears rolled out quickly.
He thought for sure he just ruined what they had, but if that was the case, it was best to know now.
“I think that’s why I love you too. I can feel that and not worry about the rest. Right?”
He let out a breath. He might have wanted her to answer differently, but all he heard was she loved him too.
“That’s right,” he said.