Chapter 10 #2
“He scored one hundred forty-seven. The rating system has changed from the old days. Once he would have fallen into the genius category. Now I think they call it the highly gifted group. And he got a perfect sixteen hundred score on his SAT test. He’s flat-out brilliant, Dad.
Thanks for the loan of the car. I won’t be late coming home.
Tate is still in the healing phase and needs all the rest he can get. ”
Before Roger could say goodbye, she was out the door. He was trying to digest what she’d told him, still holding a fork and his paper plate, without remembering what he’d been about to do.
* * *
For Briar, home had always had a feeling of confinement. Leaving the house was like being let out of lockdown.
Going to Tate’s house was her safe place—the place where she always felt welcome. There, she was accepted without conditions, and she was loved—and this evening was no exception. The bonus tonight was her dad’s car.
Every day, a little bit more of Star Ridge was being put back together. As she was driving across town, she noticed Barney’s, the only fast-food place in town, was open again. A positive sign.
As soon as traffic cleared, she turned right and headed down Anderson Road to the Bandy house. A few blocks farther, she pulled up and parked behind Abel’s work truck, dropped the keys in her purse as she got out, then went up the porch steps and knocked.
Tate opened the door. “About time you got here,” he said, smiling.
“Did you miss me?” she asked, as he closed the door behind her.
“Like crazy,” he said. Moments later, his mouth was on her lips, and for a heartbeat, the world stood still. Then he let her go. “We waited supper for you. Hope you’re hungry.”
“I will always be hungry for your mama’s cooking, and I have stuff to tell you.”
He frowned. “Bad news, or good news?”
She shrugged. “It all depends on how I choose to look at it.”
At that point, Lilith came into the room, smiling and wiping her hands on her apron.
“Welcome to this house, sugar. We’re about to eat, and I set a place for you,” Lilith said.
“Thank you. It was a long day on the job, and I’m starved. I should feel guilty for letting you feed me like a stray cat, but I don’t. You always make me feel welcome.”
“Because you are,” Lilith said, and led the way back to the dining table.
Tate pulled out a chair for Briar, then sat down beside her.
“Good thing you got here when you did,” Abel said, then gave her a quick wink. “I thought I was going to have to wrestle someone for my supper.”
Briar burst out laughing, and the meal began with good food, wild stories, and better company, until the meal ended.
“So, how is the work going at your house?” Abel asked.
“Good…or, as good as can be expected, considering ordering delays and different work crews on the job at the same time. But we can’t be picky. So many people in town need the same help. I’ve seen roofing crews from as far away as Springfield and St. Louis here,” she said.
Tate was watching her without speaking, because he already knew her mother had come and gone and wasn’t coming back.
At that moment, Briar glanced up at him, saw that look in his eyes, and felt something breaking inside her.
Tate reached for her hand beneath the table and just held it. “You don’t have to say the words,” he whispered.
She lifted her chin. “Yes, I do. Pretending everything is okay is how my family got in this mess.” She took a sip of iced tea. “Over and above our wrecked house, my parents have just decided their marriage is wrecked too. They’re getting a divorce, and all I can say is ‘finally.’”
Abel nodded. “Sometimes that’s the best thing two people can do for each other. It’s better than being in a constant state of war.”
Lilith got up and walked behind Briar’s chair, then leaned over and hugged her.
“We’ll always be there for you, sweetheart. Between Tate and us, you’ll always have a place to call home.”
Briar took a deep, shaky breath, then exhaled like the weight of the world had just floated off her shoulders. “You do know I’m going to hold you to that,” she said.
Abel waved a fork in the air for attention. “Apple dumplings for dessert with ice cream if you want.”
Lilith grinned. “Yes, we do. Abel, will you please clear the table while I get dessert?”
“Anything for my sweetheart!” he said, and was carrying their plates to the sink when Briar’s phone rang.
She glanced at caller ID and frowned. “It’s Dad. I should answer.”
“Absolutely,” Tate said.
She got up from the table and walked a short distance away. “Hello? Dad? Is anything wrong?”
“Hey, honey. I was about to pay some bills online and I can’t find my credit card, and I don’t remember the number. Do you have it?”
“No. You never gave it to me for anything,” she said.
“Crap. I’m gonna be so pissed off at myself if I’ve lost it,” Roger said.
“Wait! Tate might be able to help,” Briar said, and went back to where Tate was sitting. “It’s Dad. He’s lost his credit card. Do you think…”
“Let me,” Tate said, and took the phone out of her hands. “It’s me, Mr. Lowe. Just say my name so I can connect.”
Roger blinked, thinking he was crazy for even falling for this, then did it anyway. “Tate.”
Tate closed his eyes. A few seconds later, he answered, “You used it for a bookmark. It’s inside a book beside the table where you sleep,” and then he handed the phone back to Briar.
Roger was already on the move, running for the living room to the sofa where he spent his nights. And there, on the table, was the book he’d been reading before he went to sleep last night. He opened it, turned it upside down, and shook the pages, and the credit card fell out.
“Dad, it’s me again. Did you find it?”
Roger sighed. “Yes. Good grief. How the hell does he do that? Tell him thank you for me.”
“Yes, I will,” Briar said, and hung up. “Tate, Dad says thank you, and how the hell do you do that?”
Tate shrugged. “I’m hardwired. Do you want ice cream on your dessert?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes, please.”
After dessert was eaten, Tate and Briar went out back to the porch swing and sat down in it. He pulled her close with his good arm, kissed the top of her head, and pushed off in the swing with the toe of his shoe.
The familiar creak of the swing set off the tree frogs. Night had come to Star Ridge, and the nightlife with it.
“Your mother…she hurt your feelings, didn’t she?” Tate asked.
Briar leaned her head against his shoulder.
“My whole life with her has been an apology for not being the son she wanted. No matter what I did, it was wrong, or not enough. She saw me as less than, but as I grew up, she began treating me like her competition. Our bond was something she couldn’t control and, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break.
So, she targeted your mother instead. In my head, I know she’s a narcissist and an alcoholic.
She’s never been able to see past her own point of view.
But it didn’t make growing up her child any easier. ”
Tate listened, just letting her talk, because he knew in all those years Mariah had never once said, “I love you,” to her daughter.
Night held them within the shelter of darkness, blurring their faces and making it easier to say what they were feeling. “I love you. I cherish you. I honor you. You are my everything,” Tate said.
“I thought I understood love until I almost lost you,” Briar said. “When you passed out in the storm shelter and I couldn’t wake you up, I knew it would be the end of me too. I don’t understand the bond we have, but I know it’s unbreakable.”
And then from inside the house, the strains of a song filtered out into the night. At first it was just single notes from a guitar, then a woman with a haunting voice singing barely above a whisper.
Tate knew the song. “Lullaby.”
Lilith loved the song because it was played on with an Omnichord and guitars, like music from the mountains.
The singer’s voice rose with the melody of the song.
Tate reached for her then, cupping the side of her face.
“How long do you want to be loved, darlin’?”
Briar was locked so deep into his gaze that she almost forgot to breathe. “Forever is enough.”
“It has to be, because I’m never givin’ you up,” Tate said, echoing the last line in that stanza.
Then he wrapped his arms around her, settled his mouth on her lips, and kissed her; slow, lingering kisses that became a deep and abiding ache.
The ache stayed with them, long after Briar was gone, and long after Tate had gone to bed.
* * *
A few days later, Lilith drove Tate to Doctor Joe’s to get his stitches removed and stopped at Sparks Grocery on the way home. Lilith hadn’t set foot in that store in years, and yet, she thought just this once, with Tate beside her, there wouldn’t be any issues.
Andy Sparks, Tate’s boss, was elated to see him up and about and was about to ask him if he planned on coming back to work until school started, when Tate’s expression froze.
Even from two aisles over, Tate heard a woman say his mother’s name, and something about witchy ways and hillbilly, and heard the derision in her voice.
Before either woman saw him coming, Tate was suddenly standing between his mother and Bev Harwell, a teller from the bank. The second Bev saw Tate, her whole demeanor changed.
“Tate, it’s wonderful to see you up and around. I know Andy will be glad for your help again. He’s told everyone how you saved him from that bank robbery. We have such turmoil at our house, trying to sort through what the tornado did… I was wondering if you could maybe tell me what happened to my—”