Chapter Twelve
Rune
“Did the cops get anywhere with the brothers?” I asked Chip the next day. The girls got all pampered at the spa, and I went to meet the window guys I had called first thing in the morning.
“No. Said the brothers had an alibi. But I’m not buying it. They probably got their friends to vouch for them.”
“Probably,” I agreed.
“You think they’ll come back?”
“I don’t know. Hitting one of them with a cane seems like a silly reason to risk getting locked up. It would be stupid to shoot the place up again. It was probably just a scare tactic.”
Chip nodded.
“Think I’ll be sitting out here for a few nights,” he declared. “With my gun. Just in case. These girls have been good to me. I can’t be letting anything happen to them.” He paused, watching me. “Are they coming home tonight?”
“I think I can convince them to stay for one more night, but they’re stubborn. They’re going to want to be back to their lives soon.”
He nodded at that.
“If nothing happens tonight, I think it’s probably over.”
“I agree,” I said, even as I hated the idea of the girls being back in a potentially unsafe place.
“You’ll tell them to make sure they stay upstairs as much as possible for a few days?” he asked.
“I will.”
“Are you sure they won’t stay with you for a while?”
“I actually live over an hour away. I have them at a hotel right now. I don’t think Carmen would be willing to be that far away from work.”
“That one works too hard,” Chip said, shaking his head. “See the little one out with men or friends, but never see the older one doing anything but working, working around here, or staring off into space looking haunted. Too young for that shit.”
“She lost a friend last year,” I told him. “She’s still learning how to deal with that.”
Chip nodded slowly. “That other girl. Wondered what happened to her. Thought maybe she had a thing with the older sister. If you know what I mean.”
“Not from what I’ve heard. But they’ve been friends since they were five. So it’s like losing a sibling.”
“Lost my two when we were in the service together,” Chip said, eyes going sad for a moment. “I guess that explains it. Glad she’s got you now, though. Don’t like those girls being alone. The little one’s exes left a lot to be desired, but at least there was a man in the house.”
“They’ve got you.”
His chest puffed up a bit at that. “I ain’t what I used to be. But I’d give my life for ‘em if I had to. Problem is, my mind, it’s ready to go. These knees? They got their own sense of urgency. Usually, none at all.”
“I feel better knowing you’re watching out when Sofia is gone.”
“Where’s she going?”
“California. She got an acting gig on a soap opera.”
“Which one?” he asked in a familiar sort of way that suggested maybe he even watched them himself. “I mean, the older one isn’t going with her?”
“She’s got her business here. I suspect the dog might be going with Sofia too. They share her, but the dog sleeps with Sofia every night.”
“She can’t be living here without her sister and her dog. You should move in.”
“I got my work too.”
Though I was with Chip on the issue. The idea of Carmen alone in the duplex in their neighborhood made my stomach twist. Even if, objectively, she was a smart, capable woman who owned a gun and might be willing to use it in the right situation.
“Weekends…” Chip said, shrugging.
I had no right to make any kind of promises about that kind of thing. I wasn’t dating Carmen. Given how fucked up our connection was, I wasn’t even sure it would be healthy for us to give in to the spark between us again.
“Weekends would be doable.”
“And another dog.”
“That would be up to Carmen. But I tend to agree that dogs are the best deterrent.”
“Next to a gun,” Chip agreed.
“She’s already got one of those.”
“Yeah, I signed off as a character reference for her permit. Was glad to do it. Girls as pretty as they are need all the barriers they can get.”
“Yeah. I’m adding better locks to the doors too. And alarms for the windows, in case anyone tries to open them when the girls are asleep.”
“When is the little one leaving?”
“I don’t have an exact date. But it sounded relatively soon. Think shit moves fast on daytime television.”
I barely knew these women.
But I was somehow simultaneously thrilled for Sofia… and nearly debilitatingly worried about Carmen.
Not just for her physical safety. But for her mental health. Up until a year or so ago, she had both her sister and her best friend to lean on when she needed support. Now, Vicky was long gone, and Sofia was all but on a plane across the country.
What then?
When there was no one around to worry about and lavish her attention on? What happened if there was no one there to distract her from her own life and future? To soften the sharp edges of her past?
Would she fall deeper into depression?
Would she fall into a hole of revenge? This time, with no one around to tether her to the consequences of rash decisions?
“What are you doing over here?” Chip asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“I’m having your windows fixed too,” I told him.
“I can take care of my own affairs.” Chip attempted to straighten his bent spine.
“I’m sure you can. But these guys are here, they have the supplies, and gave me a deal to do both sets.”
That last part was mostly a lie.
But his pride didn’t need a blow.
“It’s the least I can do to thank you for keeping an eye on the girls for me when I’m not around.”
Chip accepted that, then spent the next hour lecturing the men on how to do their jobs. For which they got a big tip as they were heading out.
“Alright. I’m gonna head back. You holding down the fort?” I asked.
He patted the shotgun propped next to him.
“Don’t worry about me.”
The problem was, I would.
I’d somehow gone from not having any real, active concerns about the people closest to me to being almost debilitated by worries about Carmen, Sofia, Hammy, and now, Chip.
I said my goodbyes, got on my bike, and headed back to the hotel to find Carmen standing on the grass to the side of the building with Hamster.
Spotting me, she beelined for my bike.
“Where have you been?” she asked as soon as I cut the engine.
“Overseeing the glass installation at your place. Your old windows were all rotted to hell.”
“You… what? I didn’t set that up.”
“No, I did. Did Chip’s windows too.”
“Wait… but you didn’t have key—” She cut off at the smirk I sent her. “Oh, right. Okay. Well, thanks. Send me a copy of the receipts so I can pay you back.”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no? You can’t pay for my windows.”
“I can. I did. It’s done.”
“But—”
“I get that you’re the one always doing shit, handling things, but this is done. It’s handled. You don’t have to think about it.”
To that, she glanced away, then back. “You didn’t save me from thinking about it. You just changed what part of it I’m worrying about.”
“What do you have to worry about?”
“How to pay you back.”
“You’re not paying me back.”
“It had to cost a small fortune.”
“I have enough money.”
“It’s not your responsibility.”
“Baby, just let something be done for you without analyzing the shit out of it. I saw something that needed to be done. I did it. Case closed.”
“I… I have a really hard time accepting that,” she admitted.
“I noticed. Just the usual eldest daughter shit, or did you have to be the grown-up when you were a kid?”
“Both, I guess. My parents worked around the clock. Anything that needed to be done, I kind of had to do.”
“Are they still in the picture?”
“They divorced as soon as Sofia was out of the house. Our father moved on with the woman he always claimed was just a friend.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. We aren’t on speaking terms. I mean, Sofia is. She’s too sweet to cut anyone off. I’m… not.”
“What about your mom?”
“Mom died a few years back. She had weak lungs already, but then caught pneumonia… and, yeah.”
Christ.
She really had a rough couple of years.
She’d lost (or was losing) her entire support system.
I couldn’t even fathom that.
Even when my brother and I took off to try to forge our own path, our immediate family was always calling, texting, demanding to come visit or have us come home.
And no matter the distance between us—both literal or figurative—I knew every single one of my aunts, uncles, or cousins would drop everything and come running if I said I needed something.
Once Sofia was off on the other coast, who was going to look out for Carmen?
“I’m sorry, baby,” I said, climbing off my bike.
She shrugged it off but I could see the pain in her eyes.
“You have something here,” I said, reaching out to rub at something green and hard near her hairline.
“Stupid mud mask,” she said, shaking her head.
“My sister used to put those on all the time. Dried so hard she could barely open her mouth to talk. Yeah, that’s not coming off.”
“I am covered in so many different oils you could probably fry a chicken on me. But Hammy didn’t want to wait until I showered to go out. She’s looking for Sofia.”
“Where is your sister?”
“You won’t believe this. Or, since you met her, maybe you will. She went out for coffee with her masseuse.”
“I can believe that. But, why bother when she’s leaving?”
“She’s just a people person, I guess. It’s something that has been good for her career, at least. Even if it constantly makes me worry about her. Shouldn’t we have checked out by now?”
“Check-out was at eleven,” I told her.
“Eleven? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because I planned on staying one more day anyway. Figured you guys needed a chance to really unwind before going back.”
“You could have asked, though.”
“This is another of those things where it’s already done and you can just relax and enjoy things.”
“What if I didn’t have enough clothes?”
My gaze slid down, then back up, loving how her eyes immediately went hazy with desire.
“Don’t see a problem with that.” She pretended to be annoyed by that, rolling her eyes at me.
“But you forgot, I carried that weekender bag of yours. If there aren’t extra clothes in there, then you’re carting around your whole bedding set. ”
“I have clothes.”
“So you’re just being difficult for the fun of it, huh?”
“It’s not difficult. I just—”
“Are fundamentally incapable of accepting some help?” I filled in for her. I threw an arm over her shoulders. “You gotta work on that,” I said, pulling her away from the hotel.
“Where are we going?”
“Food.”
“Why?”
“Because you gotta eat. And I already picked out a place so you don’t gotta worry about making that decision either.”
I could feel her gaze on me, could sense her inner battle to snark at me about being able to make her own decisions against her pleasure at having someone else lift some of the burden. Even in the smallest of ways.
I just lucked out that she loved Italian.