Page 57 of Inside Silence
“Is that really necessary?” is my knee-jerk reaction, which earns me a raised eyebrow from Savvy. “Never mind,” I quickly follow it up with, taking a seat in the damn thing.
Nobody speaks until I’m settled in the passenger seat and Savvy slides behind the wheel of her cruiser.
“My father claims he was told you were responsible for those thefts.”
Her eyes are focused on the road, but I can tell she is eager for my reaction.
“I didn’t know that, but I guess it wouldn’t surprise me,” I tell her honestly. “Your father stayed behind the wheel of his cruiser when Sanchuk confronted me, so he was out of earshot. Besides, Sanchuk had it in for me for years.”
“Why? What did you ever do to him?”
I scoff. “Other than exist? Nothing. But my mother did and I guess he took it out on me. She was a flake and a drunk who slept with anyone and everyone she thought could make her life easier. I’m pretty sure Sanchuk was one of her conquests, he’d be over at our house from time to time when I was young. I remember coming home from school one day and walking in on a screaming match between them. He yelled at me to get out and she didn’t like that much so she sent him packing instead. That didn’t seem to sit well with him, and I guess he thought he was getting back at her by targeting me.” I bark out a harsh laugh as a wave of bitterness washes over me. “Little did he know, mother dearest didn’t give even the tiniest fuck about me.”
Wonderful. Here I thought I was long over all of that childhood shit, and now I’ve gone and dumped it all over Savvy’s lap.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, her lip trembling. “For your mother, for Sanchuk, for the way even my father treated you. You didn’t deserve it then and you definitely don’t deserve it now.”
“You don’t own this, Savannah, so don’t apologize. Not for any of them.” I reach out and put a hand on her arm. “I have plenty to apologize for myself, but if you ask me, it’s a waste of energy that might be better spent moving forward.”
“It’s not that easy,” she laments, allowing me to pluck her right hand from the steering wheel and sliding my palm against hers. “I can’t get over the fact my father was even a part of that.”
I bring her hand to my mouth and brush a kiss to her knuckles.
“I don’t know…now being a father myself, and given what your dad believed to be true at the time, I can’t say I don’t understand his motivation.”
The rest of the drive is quiet again, but her hand stays in mine the entire way home.
“Hey, I’d love for you to come in. Tate won’t be home until tomorrow in the afternoon, Maggie and Roy are keeping Tate tonight and seeing her off to school in the morning.”
“I’ll come in and get you settled, but I don’t know if I’ll stay,” she says with a tired little smile.
“It’s up to you,” I assure her, remembering her earlier point and trying not to be too overbearing. “But unless you’ve got somewhere to be, I thought you might be able to use a little break. We don’t even have to talk much.”
She snickers at that.
“Thank God there’s nowhere I need to be, but I’ve spent too many hours this weekend in a much-too-small room, filled with disdain and anger, and smelling of hangover sweat and bad breath. I need a drink and a long, hot shower.”
“Well, I’m feeling pretty benevolent myself, I haven’t touched a drink in days, brushed my teeth before you came, and have a nice walk-in shower and a good bottle of scotch I’ve been savoring.”
She turns her body to me and leans in, pressing a soft kiss on my lips.
“Seems like a no-brainer to me.”
Chapter 17
Savvy
* * *
I’m a little disoriented at first, but the soft groan in my neck and warm body snuggling in behind are good reminders I’m in Nathan’s bed.
It’s barely dawn and I’m suddenly wide awake.
We didn’t last long last night. After making sure Nate was settled in the living room with a drink and the remote, I took a ridiculously long shower in his bathroom. When I came out with my hair up in a towel, wearing one of Nate’s T-shirts I dug out of a drawer, he had dozed off on the couch.
I ended up making us a couple of quick and easy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and opted to make a pot of tea instead of grabbing for alcohol.
We ate and drank, sitting on the couch, with a news station on in the background. His free hand was stroking circles on my bare leg as we took a little time to catch up on our lives. Nothing heavy, no talk about my work, or even my father, but we did broach the subject of his daughter, and the business he built for himself.
