Page 45 of The Cadence
“Once I left their house, the only time I had to pay attention to him was when he tried to drag me into his problems. That was what he did when he got into the accident with the ambulance. I told him I’d pay his legal bills if he pled guilty and accepted responsibility. I told him that I’d pay for treatment, too, so he could get sober. He could at least have tried. But he had no interest in any of that, because alcohol was always more important than his family and so was weaseling his way out of any trouble. My father was just so damn low. Just a low, terrible person.”
He dragged the back of his hand across his mouth, and he breathed hard for a moment.
“I’m sorry anyway,” I said again.
“Don’t be. Now he’s dead and he won’t give my mother any more trouble. It’s for the best.”
“That may be, but it’s still hard for her and for you, and that’s what you should think when people offer you condolences. You’re right that you will hear it again. They may not miss him either, and they may also think that he was a bad person, but they don’t want you to have to go through this. That’s what Imeant when I said that I was sorry,” I explained, “and I’m also sorry that he was so low and terrible. You didn’t deserve it.”
“I don’t know why my mother stayed with him.” He sighed. “Maybe it was for financial reasons when I was a kid, but that changed when I signed my first contract. I can afford to take care of her and I’ve been paying most of their bills for years.”
“Maybe she loved him,” I suggested.
“How could anyone have loved him?” he asked me disbelievingly, and I only shrugged. She very well could have. You couldn’t really choose what your heart wanted, even if you knew that it wasn’t any good for you.
But you could choose how you acted on those feelings and I didn’t understand his mother’s behavior either. She should have kept his son away from that man, but it was too late. “Does the reason matter now?” I asked.
“No. Nothing matters, except that he’s gone.” Will rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes, pressing so hard that I thought he would hurt himself. That was why I took his hands to pull them away.
“You should go to sleep,” I said. “Just try.”
Our rooms adjoined, which I’d learned meant that they had a connecting door—two doors back-to-back, and either side could shut theirs and make totally separate spaces. When he nodded, I walked through that opening but I didn’t close anything behind me. I went into the bathroom to change and brush my teeth, and when I came out, the doors remained open. The lights were off but I could see the outline of a large, solid form under the covers.
He shifted, turning toward me. “Calla.”
“Yeah?” I took a few steps in.
“Tomorrow’s going to be bad for my mother. I appreciate your help with her.”
“I don’t know how much help I was tonight,” I admitted. I had gotten the feeling that I was mostly in the way, actually. “I’m happy if I am.”
“I’m happy that you’re here,” he answered, and that was enough for me.
We couldn’t stay that long in Tennessee. It was lucky that there was a bye in the Woodsmen schedule, a week with no football game, but Will still needed to get back and I could tell that he wanted to be away from here. We spent the next morning whipping together details for the service for his father, which would be private and very, very small, and then I took some time to go see Miss Mozella and the other ladies.
“I’m sorry that you had to come home because of this, but I’m so happy to see you, Bug,” she told me, and hugged me for a long time. So did everyone else, and I was glad I’d brought a box of those tissues with me because many of us needed them. We talked together for a little while and they caught me up on all the news. They also asked about mine.
“Look at this,” I said, and showed them the pictures that Will and I had taken of my furniture. “I’m selling some online right now, but two people already asked me if I can do custom pieces for them. And Annie, Will’s house designer, wants me to paint something for one of her clients, too!”
They were all very, very pleased, and said things like they knew that I was talented, I’d always had a good eye, and wasn’t that beautiful! But actually? They had been asking about something else, something besides my work life. Miss Valerie mentioned a few things about relationships blossoming but when I didn’t immediately answer, Miss Theresa stepped in.
“What’s happening between you and Will Bodine? Personally, not professionally,” she asked. “Are y’all still living together?”
“We are not,” I said grandly.
“Don’t use that tone with me, Calla,” she answered. “Are you in his little house while he’s in the big one?”
“Well, yes,” I confessed. “But I’m saving for a new apartment.”
“Which you don’t want to get, because you don’t want to move away from him,” Miss Mozella said, and they all nodded in confirmation. “We know that you—”
“I don’t want to talk about this,” I interrupted her. “I need to get back to the Bodines and I don’t want us to spend this time together arguing.”
“I wonder if Ophelia Bodine will sell the place,” Miss Lisa mused, and funnily enough, that was the topic that Will and his mother were pursuing when Miss Mozella dropped me off in their driveway.
She had to hug me again and say that she was so glad that things were going well, but she also wanted me to remember that I always had a home here with her. “I love you,” she told me.“Your grandmother didn’t tell me much about what happened between you and that man, but Bug, please be careful.”
“I will. I love you too,” I answered, and knocked on the door. She waited until Will had opened it and we both waved before she drove away.
