Chapter Twenty-Two
Wade noted his mother’s Subaru in the driveway, and no other vehicles.
He grabbed the bouquet from the passenger seat and headed inside the kitchen, where he found both his mother and Meredith.
Wynona was putting rainbow sprinkles on a white cake.
Meredith stood in the hallway, half in shadow.
It was an odd parallel to their first meeting.
Although she didn’t have the shotgun in her hands, she was in the same spot, wearing the same expression of unease.
He realized he hadn’t expected her to be here, and tender emotions flooded him. He was overwhelmed with relief to see her.
“Are those for me or her?” his mother asked.
Wade had almost forgotten about the flowers. He glanced down at them, feeling stupid. Why hadn’t he brought two bouquets? He’d wanted to impress Meredith with his chivalrous behavior. They’d shared the hottest, most meaningful sex of his life. The least he could do was show some appreciation.
“They’re for the house,” he said, and set the bouquet near the sink. Wynona made a scoffing noise and rummaged in the lower cabinet for a vase. Meredith didn’t seem to mind. She stepped out of the shadows, her cheeks pink.
Wade couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was wearing one of her typical outfits, work jeans and a striped blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a loose braid. Stray tendrils framed her beautiful face. She smiled at him as she came forward.
“Sit,” Wynona said to both of them. “Have some cake.”
Meredith sat at the table, and Wade took the chair across from her. Wynona arranged the flowers in the vase and served them all slices of cake. It was sweet but not cloying. He watched Meredith lick a dab of frosting from her lips.
“Do you remember Billy’s tenth birthday?” Wynona asked.
Wade moved his gaze to his mother. “At the pool?”
Wynona turned to Meredith. “We went to a public swimming pool in San Antonio. Biggest pool in three counties. Billy had been begging me to take him, and it was about a hundred degrees that day.”
“I drove,” Wade said.
“That was the last time we celebrated his birthday together,” Wynona said to Wade. “Until now.”
“Until now.”
His mother pasted on a bright smile. “We had a good time, didn’t we? Billy was doing cannonballs off the diving board, and you’d just been accepted into UT. I never thought a kid of mine would go to a fancy college.”
Wade felt his neck heat with embarrassment. “It wasn’t fancy.”
“He had a 4.0 GPA,” Wynona said to Meredith. “And a football scholarship.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Meredith said.
“Billy got into trouble, as usual,” Wynona said. “I was taking a nap, and all of a sudden he was the center of attention.”
“What happened?” Meredith asked.
Wynona gestured for Wade to tell the story. She probably couldn’t remember the details due to the bottle of vodka she’d polished off that afternoon.
Wade thought back to the day in San Antonio. It had been a pleasant excursion, though not without drama. “My mom had befriended this very large, very hairy gentleman. He was sitting in the lounge chair next to her. They were drinking spiked orange juice and enjoying the sunshine.”
“I was wearing my favorite bikini,” Wynona said with a sigh. “Electric blue.”
Wade just shrugged. She’d never been shy about showing off her figure. “We found out later that Billy had hatched a plan to act like he was drowning. He’d just seen a movie about a boy who got rescued by a female lifeguard. I guess he thought he could pretend to drown and steal a kiss.”
“Was he successful?” Meredith asked.
“He was not,” Wade said, and Wynona laughed.
“I was talking to the only female lifeguard when he started flailing around. Neither one of us noticed Billy. My mom was passed out in her lounge chair, dead to the world. The only person paying attention was the hairy guy. He jumped in to rescue Billy. He came out of the pool with Billy in his arms and his shorts around his ankles.”
“No,” Meredith said, her mouth open.
“Yes,” Wynona said, and slapped her hand on the table. “Billy grabbed his shorts on accident. I woke up to a full moon and then some. The guy was like a werewolf. I couldn’t tell the back from the front.”
Wade dragged a hand down his face, but he was smiling, too. “Billy threw up as soon as the guy set him on the ground. I think he’d swallowed some water. The lifeguard finally ran over to help, but she didn’t give anyone mouth-to-mouth.”
“Not even you?” Meredith teased.
“Not even me.”
Meredith laughed in obvious delight, and Wynona shared another anecdote about the gallant but hairy man, whose name had actually been Harry.
She’d dated him for several months. Wade marveled at their easy camaraderie.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed with his mother or told a story about one of his brother’s infamous pranks.
It was hard to recall the good days, the harmless mischief, the quirky Hendricks antics.
They rarely joked about the past, and seldom reminisced.
After a few minutes, Meredith rose from her chair. “I’ll be in the garden,” she murmured, and went out the door.
He watched her go, his chest aching with a feeling he could not name.
“If you’re not serious about her, you should leave her alone,” Wynona said. “She’s not the casual type.”
“Who said it was casual?”
“Isn’t it?”
Wade shrugged, because Meredith hadn’t agreed to be his girlfriend yet, and he wasn’t ready to discuss the romance with his mother. They’d only been on one date, but they’d spent a lot of time together. They’d gone beyond casual before they’d even started.
“Just don’t lead her on,” Wynona said. “She’s been through too much to deal with another heartache.”
“Yesterday I was running her off. Now I’m leading her on.”
“She’s in love with you.”
He inhaled a sharp breath at the words. He realized he wished they were true. “Did she say that?”
Wynona gave him an assessing glance and took the dishes to the sink. She added some water to the vase of flowers, dried her hands on a towel, and sat down across from him again. “I thought you were hung up on Natalie Luna.”
“I was interested in her at one point.”
“So was Billy.”
Wade stiffened at the comment.
“Why did you have to choose her, out of all the women? You could take your pick.”
He sighed, shaking his head. His mother knew Billy hadn’t stood a chance with Natalie. “I’ll tell you what happened, but it’s incredibly unpleasant. It’s not a conversation we can have in the middle of a crowded bar. If you don’t want to hear it, you can stop me now.”
She made an impatient gesture. “Go on.”
“Billy harassed Natalie at work. He made lewd comments and insulted her. He even followed her home one night. That’s why her boyfriend beat him up.”
“No,” his mother said stubbornly. “That’s not what Billy said.”
“He lied.”
“You took Natalie’s word over your brother’s?”
“Yes, Mom, I did. She didn’t want to file a report, but I believed her. I warned Billy not to bother her again.”
“What’s this got to do with his death?”
“I’m getting to that,” he said. “A few weeks later, dispatch received a call about a disturbance at Billy’s residence. I went to the scene, and I found him.” He took a deep breath, because the memories were grim. “It was clear that a scuffle had occurred.”
Wynona frowned. The police report hadn’t mentioned a scuffle.
“We talked to a friend of Billy’s, who admitted to being involved.”
“Which friend?”
“Gabe Luna,” Wade said with reluctance.
“Gabe shot Billy?”
“Let me finish,” Wade said gently. “Gabe and Billy were partying with two girls. Gabe caught Billy drugging their drinks. Gabe told the girls to leave, and they did. Then Billy pulled a gun on Gabe. They grappled over the weapon. It went off.”
Wynona didn’t gasp, or cry, or make a protest. She rose to her feet and walked to the liquor cabinet like an automaton.
“Forensic analysis confirmed that Billy fired several rounds, including the one that ended his life. It was an accident, but it wasn’t an innocent mistake. Billy was trying to shoot Gabe and accidentally shot himself.”
Wynona unscrewed the bottle cap with a shaking hand.
“Dad wanted to arrest Gabe,” Wade said. “I wouldn’t let him. Gabe had acted in self-defense, and he didn’t deserve the blame. We reached an agreement with Gabe to keep things quiet, and we falsified the report.”
Wynona poured a vodka and downed it, neat. She searched for a way to dismiss the awful truth he’d presented. “This is all just conjecture. You weren’t there when it happened. You don’t know what Gabe did.”
“It’s not conjecture. I was at the scene. I saw the evidence.”
“Maybe it was staged.”
Wade dragged a hand down his face. “The pills he used to drug the girls were yours. Valium, from Mexico.”
Her wall of denial crumbled. “No,” she said, her lips trembling. “He wouldn’t have.”
“He did.”
Wynona tried to pour another drink, but her hands were shaking too much.
Vodka spilled across the counter. Wade stood up and took the bottle away.
She flinched, as if afraid he might strike her.
It reminded him of Meredith’s reaction yesterday when he’d grabbed her arm.
Wade recognized the signs for what they were, and his stomach clenched with sadness.
He hated Billy, and his father, and Tripp Gilley.
He hated men who abused women. He hated the pervasiveness of it, and its far-reaching, lifelong effects.
Wynona stared at the bottle he’d confiscated. Then her expression changed from denial to anger. He could tell that she believed everything he’d told her. Her beloved son had stolen pills from her medicine cabinet to commit date rape. He’d come to a bad end, of his own design.
“You’re glad he’s gone.”
Wade had expected a personal attack, so he said nothing.
“You always hated him. He told me you were trying to ruin his life. You wanted to catch him doing something wrong.”