Chapter 36
This wasn’t working. She couldn’t just lie in this motel bed and do nothing. She couldn’t just stay here and rot away.
Lily had to make her life mean something.
Maybe she wasn’t what Harvey deserved or needed, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t contribute something to the world.
She hated to think that her life would just end, and she hadn’t done a thing with it. Maybe she could turn things around. Perhaps she could become somebody stronger, someone with purpose.
Get a job. Make friends.
Be someone who deserved Harvey, although she knew he would quickly move on. How could he not? Someone like him wasn’t meant to be alone. He was meant to have someone amazing, someone who could support him. Care for him.
Someone like Amanda. Who was independent and confident.
However, she figured the only way to move forward was to fix what was in the past.
Perhaps she couldn’t fix everything that had happened. It wasn’t like she could erase her mother’s betrayal and what Dr. Wallace had done to her. It wasn’t like she could go into the minds of everybody who’d seen those videos and wipe them clean.
Paddy had discovered who the doctor was sending money too. It was someone at his old practice who was obviously blackmailing the doctor. Ronan had told Paddy to drop it. The police would work out that part and it wasn’t really of interest to them.
What was of more interest was who was paying to watch the videos the doctor had been making. That part was proving trickier, though.
Lily felt bad for leaving the way she had. But she knew that if she’d stayed to talk to Harvey, he’d have convinced her to stay.
Would that have been so bad?
More nights at the movies? Laughing at killer appliances. Eating grilled cheese for dinner at the kitchen island.
Lily sighed unhappily. She missed him so much that it was an ache inside her. God, she hoped she was doing the right thing.
Everything in her life felt so half-finished. Without closure.
Well, there was one part she might be able to get some closure on.
And she finally knew what she needed to do next.
A few days later, she drove up the driveway of Grandma June’s property. The potholes had actually been repaired, so the drive was smooth.
To her amazement, when she’d pawned her jewelry and handbag, she’d managed to get quite a bit of money. The pawnshop guy had practically salivated over her handbag.
Weird.
With some of the money, she’d bought a bus ticket, but it had taken her a few days to get to Texas. The bus had stopped in Freestown and she’d realized she somehow had to get from Freestown to Grandma June’s.
Luckily, there had been a cheap car for sale on the side of the road.
She’d bought an inexpensive phone before heading off on the bus and had used it to call the number on the sign.
The owner had driven over quickly and sold the car to her for a very reasonable amount.
That probably meant there was something wrong with it, but she couldn’t keep staying in motels.
So at least she could now sleep in her car.
She came to a stop outside the small house. It wasn’t quite as she remembered it. It looked like Clem had been doing some updates. The siding looked new, and so did the windows. There was a large porch built around three sides. Plus, the roof also looked new.
Then she remembered that there had been a fire. They had rebuilt quickly.
Getting out of the car, she glanced around. She wondered where Clem was.
She walked up to the front door, but there was no answer when she knocked. The door was slightly open, which surely meant that Clem wasn’t far away.
She spotted the large barn and decided to head that way. It was far more likely that Clem was in the barn than anywhere else.
As she moved toward it, a rooster started squawking.
Wow, that was loud. She gazed up at the roof of the barn and saw the rooster glaring down at her. Well, that was how it felt, anyway.
Could a rooster glare? Probably not.
She stepped into the barn and looked around. There wasn’t much in here other than some hay.
Hmm. Maybe Clem wasn’t even here. Perhaps she should just wait out by the car for her. She didn’t want her sister to think she’d been nosing around or anything.
She stepped out of the barn, and that’s when she saw him, the biggest cow she’d ever seen in her life. This thing was enormous.
“Hey there, cow,” she said with a tremulous note in her voice.
He turned to look at her. And that’s when he lowered his head and started to charge.
Lily let out a squeak of fear. What was happening? Oh my God, why was there a cow running toward her? Turning, she took off running.
But there was nowhere to hide. Moving faster than she ever had in her life, she raced toward the barn. She saw a ladder leaning against the side and scrambled up it.
Then she found herself clinging to the roof and staring down at the angry beast. Which was now eating grass with its tail swishing back and forth. If she saw it in a paddock, she’d think it was cute.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be completely deranged.
“Why don’t you just go away? Nice cow. Come on, leave. Leave me alone, cow.”
Movement beside her had her scrambling away with a scream, and she very nearly fell off the roof. Then she saw it was the rooster. He puffed up his chest. Oh my God, had she just run from one animal only to get attacked by another?
It let out a huge squawk as if to let her know that she was in its space. “Look, I know, rooster, but I can’t go down there because the cow was trying to eat me.”
Another strange noise came from the rooster. Was that a noise that roosters could even make?
Lily glanced down again and saw that the cow had left. Where had it gone?
She moved slowly across the roof so she could look down the other side and then toward the back. There she saw some more animals. There were sheep, llamas, and another cow. And a camel?
No way.
What was going on here? Maybe she was delirious and had just overreacted. That was it; she was just getting sick or something. She put the back of her hand over her forehead. Nope. She was fine.
This was actually happening. Oh my God.
What was she going to do if Clem didn’t come back for hours? It was hot up here, and there was nothing to drink.
“Great. This is just great.”
The rooster made that warning noise again. She really had to get off this roof. If the cow was occupied, maybe she could make a run for her car.
It was her only hope.
So she headed back toward the ladder. A camel. Pfft. Maybe she should get her eyes tested.
Yep, turned out she definitely needed her eyes tested, because when she moved back to the side of the barn, where she was certain the ladder had been . . . the ladder was gone.
Now, there was the possibility it had just slid over, right? Only it wasn’t lying on the ground either.
There was no ladder. There was no way she’d managed to get on the roof of the barn without a ladder. So where was it?
Oh, God. She was in a huge mess here.
What was worse was that the cow was now by her car. And if she wasn’t mistaken, it was trying to eat her back tire.
And then the cow was joined by the biggest pig she’d ever seen in her life.
How was it possible for a pig to be that big? She had no idea. Okay, now she was glad that she hadn’t been able to get down off the roof of the barn. It just wasn’t safe down there.
“What are you doing on the roof of my barn?”
Lily startled and started to slip, but she grabbed hold of the roof again, halting her movement.
Oh, God. She was just not made for this sort of outdoor pursuit.
Could you call having to climb up onto a barn roof to escape a maniac cow an outdoor pursuit, though?
“Hey, careful. I don’t need you to sue me when you fall off my roof.”
She glared down at her sister. “I’m not going to sue you, Clem, you know that.”
“You sure about that? What if you break your hip? Would you sue me then?”
“Of course not.”
“What if you break all the bones in your butt? Would you sue me then?” Clem asked.
“No. I’m not sure there are that many bones in my butt, though.”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking it’s pretty bony. What if you fall flat on your face, smash your nose up, and break your jaw? Would you sue me then?”
“Clem,” she said. “Can you please stop suggesting scenarios where my face or my butt gets broken and I sue you?”
“Hmm, I guess I can do that once you explain why you’re on the roof of my barn.”
“Why are you on that horse?” she asked instead. And the moment she said it, she realized how stupid it sounded. There was only one reason that Clem was on the horse.
And the she should have asked was why Clem had a lamb in front of her on the horse.
“Well, I figured I’d fly to the moon on it,” Clem said sarcastically.
Lily sighed. She deserved that. “Sorry, sorry. I just didn’t realize that you rode.”
“Yeah, I can ride. Jaret taught me. Well, to be fair, he started to teach me, but then one of his brothers had to finish off the job. Jaret said I ride like a madwoman, and he couldn’t stand watching it anymore.
That it was giving him indigestion. He gets indigestion a lot though, so I wouldn’t worry about it. ”
“Is there a reason why you have a lamb in front of you? Oh, were you rescuing it? Was it stuck? Poor little thing.”
“Nah, Lamb Chop wasn’t stuck.”
“Lamb Chop?” she asked. “You named your lamb, Lamb Chop? Well, I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me, since you named that cow of Grandma June’s Rump Roast.”
“Yeah, only he’s not a cow, Lily. He’s a steer.”
“Oh, yeah. I always get that confused.”
Clem actually smirked.
“Wait, you just talked about him like he’s still alive. That’s not him, right?” She pointed over at the evil cow, who was definitely eating the tire on her car.
“Huh? No. That’s not Rump Roast. That’s Chuck Steak. What are you doing, Chuck? Don’t eat that tire. It’ll give you indigestion.”
“Also, I kind of need it to drive my car,” Lily called out to Chuck Steak.
“Yeah, Lily doesn’t want to get stuck here.” Clem stared up at her with a serious look on her face, and Lily swallowed. She deserved that. She deserved anything that Clem wanted to throw her way.
She managed to sit up without feeling like she was going to slide right off the roof of the barn.
The lamb was still sitting in front of Clem, as though it was perfectly content where it was. “Do lambs normally just sit like that?”
“No, but see, Lamb Chop loves a ride on Donkey.”
“Donkey?” she asked. “That’s a donkey?”
“No, this is a horse. Please, Lily, tell me you know the difference between a donkey and a horse.”
Well, she thought she did, but apparently, she didn’t know the difference between a steer and a cow so . . .
Lily rubbed her forehead, feeling a tension headache coming on. She was exhausted after pushing herself to get here as quickly as she could. Once she’d made up her mind to come to Texas, she’d just wanted to get this over and done with. Only things didn’t seem to be going well so far.
“You named your horse Donkey?” she asked.
“Yeah, it seemed to suit him. Hey, Chuck, stop eating the tire, man.” Clem got down off the horse and put the lamb on the ground before she started walking toward the steer.
“Clem, don’t get too close to him. He’s dangerous,” Lily called out, wanting to protect her sister.
Clem turned to look back up at her. “What do you mean he’s dangerous? No, he’s not.”
“Yes, he is. He charged at me. That’s the reason why I’m up here. I flew up a ladder, or at least I think I did. The ladder’s no longer there. And this rooster keeps glaring at me like I’m invading his territory. Also, I think I saw a camel.”
“Yeah, you did. That’s Jessica. And you kind of are invading his territory. That’s also my thinking spot. Umm, not to sound rude, but how come you’re here, Lily?”
Lily tried to find the words, but they didn’t seem to want to come. She and Clem had spoken a few times on the phone since Harvey took off with her. But it had been a bit awkward and about nothing in particular. In person, things felt just as awkward.
“Are you here because you want half the property? Because I don’t have that type of money to buy you out. And Grandma June did leave it to me.”
God, did Clem think that little of her? Maybe there was no repairing this relationship between them. Maybe it was completely broken.
“I don’t want anything from you, Clem,” she said in a quiet voice. “I just came to, well, I guess, to tell you that I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, Clem.”