Page 24 of Avenged

“She needs medical care,” I said quietly to Violet.

“I know.”

“This is the only way I can think to get it for her without a cost.”

She didn’t respond, and I got up from the step, looking back down at her.

“’Kay. Well, I left her a note saying I’d be here at eight to pick her up and take her downtown to the county clerk’s office. Maybe you can convince her of the need to do it before I arrive?”

She stared at me for a long time.

“Why would you do this? What’s in it for you?” she asked, and it about broke my heart that someone as young as her would already be so cynical of the world that she thought I’d only do it to get something in return.

“Honestly?” I asked. “I don’t know. I just feel like it wouldn’t be right to sit back and see her suffer when I know I can help.”

“You don’t really know us.”

“True again. But I know enough to know you both could use a break. You could use someone looking out for you.”

“Mandy and Leena do a pretty good job of that.”

“Well, we can wait till they get back, and then one of them can marry her.”

Violet laughed. “I don’t think they have very good health insurance either, because they both avoid the doctor’s office like it’s the plague.”

“I’m pretty sure Mandy has the same insurance as I do, but there might be a clause in it about her remarrying or something like that.”

I ruffled her hair and headed toward the door. She groaned and followed me. I turned back on the porch to look at her. “If you have any qualms about my intentions, you can read the contract we wrote and see I’m pretty much free of ulterior motives.”

“You wrote a contract?”

I nodded and smiled. “Just make sure she doesn’t tear it up.”

I left with her laughter following me, and I wished, one more time, it was Jersey’s heart-searing chortle instead of her sister’s boisterous one.

? ? ?

I’d had to take a CarShare from Mandy and Leena’s to the house. I’d had way too many to get behind the wheel, but I’d sobered some by the time I got back to the cottage. When I walked in the door, Dawson was at the table with a bag of tacos from the taco truck. He took one look at my face and pushed the bag toward me. I grabbed a plate, took out a couple, and downed them before we said anything. I needed the food to absorb the rest of the alcohol.

“So, how’d it go?” he asked after we’d finished the food in silence.

“How’d you know I’d go through with it?”

“I know you. I know you have a superhero complex and need to be the one to save everyone.”

I laughed. “Not true, but I do like to help when I can.”

“Some people don’t want to be saved, you know.” He said it like a statement. I looked up at him and saw the truth in his eyes. He was telling me I didn’t need to save him. That I didn’t need to fix him. That he was going to be okay. I wanted to believe it. I wanted to see him get on his feet without me having to be the dad and push things on him.

“So, congratulations are in order?” he asked.

I shrugged. “We’ll see if she goes through with it when I pick her up tomorrow.”

“Well, if I wasn’t going to be at work, I’d put on a suit and be your witness,” he said, and I stopped eating to stare at him.

“You got a job? Where?”

“Down at Stoker’s Marina.”

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