Chapter 15 #2
Lorraine seized the opening. “Because your father never cared how upset I was,” she said. She moved beside Jesse and touched his sleeve. “You were the only one I could talk to.”
Jesse flinched away from her hand. Lorraine stopped, and the room fell quiet enough for Sophie to hear the old clock in the hall.
“He had school in the morning,” Hank said. He kept his hands flat on the table. “You’d still be up there when I came in.”
“Then you should have come inside earlier,” Lorraine said. She turned on him so quickly that Ruth drew back in her chair. “You knew where we were.”
One cousin said everybody ought to calm down; the other told Jesse he hadn’t come for a fight.
“Then go,” Jesse said. He waited while his cousin stayed seated, then turned back to his father.
“I should’ve come in,” Hank told Lorraine. He reached for the glass he’d left beside her plate. “I’ve said that. He was a boy. You could’ve let him sleep.”
Lorraine pressed a hand against her chest. “I’m not listening to this. Jesse, come into the kitchen with me.”
He stayed where he was. He glanced at the kitchen door. Sophie shifted her bag to her shoulder and waited.
“No,” Jesse said. He reached into his jacket and put the watch box on the table, then laid a key beside it. The brass was darker than their house key, with a red plastic cover Sophie had seen hanging from his belt for years.
Lorraine pressed the watch box against her palm. “You liked it. You said you liked it.”
“I did.” Jesse pulled out the chair he’d been gripping and sat. “Soph and I looked at one last Christmas. I told her we couldn’t afford it.”
Sophie remembered standing beside Jesse at the glass case while he read the price a second time. They had left the shop together without asking to see the watch.
“You said that to me too,” Lorraine said. She opened the box and held it where he could see the watch. “That’s why I bought it. You never buy yourself anything decent.”
She turned the open box toward him. “Take it.”
“I’m leaving it here.” Jesse kept his hands beneath the table. “And the workshop key. I’ll clear the rest of our things next weekend.”
Hank turned toward him. “What do you mean, clear it?” he asked. His chair hit the wall behind him as he moved.
“I’ve rented the unit by the old freight yard.” Jesse looked at his father, then at Lorraine. “Denise has the address. We start moving on Friday.”
Sophie knew the unit, a square brick building beside a yard where weeds grew through the broken loading ramp. It had been empty since the upholstery shop closed. Jesse had complained once that whoever took it would spend a fortune heating it.
“You’ve done what?” Lorraine asked. She let the watch box drop to the table. “After your father fitted that place out for you?”
“The benches stay,” Jesse said. He shifted in the chair. “The wiring too. Anything Dad bought for the building stays with it.”
“You should have talked to me,” Hank said. “We could’ve sorted something out.”
Jesse rubbed at a spot of dried paint on his thumb. “You would’ve told Mom,” he said. “Then we’d have spent three nights on the phone, and I’d still be there.”
“The freight yard.” Lorraine laughed once. “You’ll have people breaking into the vans. You’ll pay twice what you pay me for half the space.”
“I’ve seen the figures. So has the accountant. It’ll be tight for a while.”
Sophie looked at him. He met her eyes and added, “Your payments don’t change. I’ve kept enough in the business for wages and the move.”
“Your payments,” Lorraine repeated. She turned to Sophie. “Is this what you’ve asked him to do? Give up everything we’ve done for him?”
“I didn’t know,” Sophie said, looking at Jesse. “He hasn’t told me.”
Jesse stood. “Don’t ask her,” he said. He waited until his mother turned back. “I picked it. I signed it.”
“And what did she promise you?” Lorraine asked. She spoke quickly now, the careful softness gone. “Because she’ll find something else. You can move out of the shop and throw away the watch and she’ll still find something you’ve done wrong.”
Jesse moved around the chair so his mother had to face him.
“She hasn’t promised me anything,” he said. He wiped his mouth with the heel of his hand. “She might leave me. I’m moving anyway.”
The clock in the hall began to chime. Lorraine waited until it stopped, her gaze fixed on his face.
“You think that place will still be waiting when you come to your senses?” she asked. She touched the red cover on the key. “We were going to give it to you one day.”
Hank drew a breath, but Lorraine held up her hand. Jesse looked toward the window, where his truck stood behind Sophie’s car, then back at the key.
“I know,” he said. His voice had gone hoarse. “Find somebody else to rent it.”
Sophie sat down. She’d heard them discuss that building at Christmas, the upstairs rooms they could turn into offices, the second van Jesse could keep out of the rain. He’d once shown her where he wanted a little kitchen. Lorraine had said he could do whatever he liked once it was his.
“It’s your business,” Hank said. He sounded angry now. “You can’t start again every time you and your wife have a row.”
“I’ve been working there eight years,” Jesse said. “I still ask before I change the sign.”
Lorraine reached for his wrist. He stepped back and waited until she let her hand fall.
“You’re angry tonight,” she said. “Take the key. We’ll talk tomorrow, when you aren’t being watched.”
“They can watch.” Jesse looked around the table. “You were all there. At the wedding. Some of you called me afterward.”
The cousin nearest the door nodded reluctantly.
“I told you Sophie was having a hard time,” Jesse said to his cousin. “You asked me about the wedding, and I said she was still upset. I let you carry on thinking the trouble was her.”
“We all saw your mother leave,” the man said. He put his fork down at last. “What were we supposed to think?”
“That Mom chose to go. Sophie didn’t make her miss anything.”
Lorraine reached for the key. “You don’t need to keep humiliating yourself,” she said, and held it out to him.
“I told her she couldn’t ask you to change.” He spoke over his mother, still looking at the men across the table. “My wedding too, and I stood there making her look unreasonable for wanting to wear the only wedding dress.”
The cousin beside Ruth cut a potato into smaller pieces, his knife squeaking against the plate.
“Ring the people you talked to,” Jesse said. He took his phone out and set it beside the workshop key. “I’ll give you the numbers of the ones who rang me. Tell them I lied. Use my name.”
Lorraine set the key down hard. “I won’t be spoken to like this in my own house,” she said. “You can go if that’s what you think of me.”
Jesse picked up his coat. Sophie stood too, but he stayed beside the table while his mother watched him find the sleeve.
“I’m not coming for Christmas,” he said. He pulled the coat over his shoulders. “Don’t send anybody to the new office. Don’t ask Denise where I am.”
“You’re cutting me off?” Lorraine looked past him to Sophie. “Because she says so?”
“Because you keep doing it.” Jesse’s voice rose, and he stopped long enough to fasten one button with fingers that wouldn’t cooperate. “I want you to tell the truth about her. I want you to stop. Until then, don’t call me to have this conversation again.”
Lorraine pressed a hand to her chest. Hank moved closer, and Jesse stayed where he was while his father pulled out a chair for her.
“You’d leave me like this?” she asked. Tears ran into the corners of her mouth. “After everything?”
Jesse looked at Hank. “Stay with her,” he said. He waited until his father nodded. “Please, Dad. Stay in the room.”
He went into the hall. Sophie followed with the album against her hip, and behind them Lorraine called his name so sharply that he stopped with his hand on the door. He shut his eyes, opened them, and pulled the door wide enough for Sophie to pass.
Sophie passed him and went outside. The porch light came on above her, and she waited on the path until Jesse came through the door.
He followed her to the gate, then stopped before she reached her car. Lorraine was still speaking inside, her voice carrying through the doorway until Hank closed it.
“Did you get all the pages?” Jesse asked. He looked at the bag in Sophie’s hand.
“I think so. I’ll check at home.” Sophie unlocked the car.
“You didn’t tell me about the workshop,” Sophie said. She held the car door open. “Have you really signed for the other place?”
“Last Wednesday. I’ll send you the numbers if you’re worried about the mortgage.”
She shook her head. The cold had begun to sting her fingers, and she curled them around the edge of the door.
“That building,” she said. She couldn’t get the rest of the question out. “You wanted it.”
“I still want it.” He gave a short, painful laugh. “I’ve spent half my life in there.”
Jesse touched the open car door, then shoved his hand into his pocket.
“Drive carefully,” he said. He waited until she’d closed the door, then walked toward his truck without asking her to follow.
Sophie put the album on the passenger seat and fastened the belt around it. She waited until Jesse had driven away, then called Kelly as she’d promised.
“I have the album,” she said. Her voice sounded strange in the quiet car. “And I’m hungry.”
Sophie gave Kelly the name of a diner halfway between their houses and started the engine before she began to cry.