Page 96 of Forever Home

“Hi, uh...” Delaney cleared her throat. “Is this Nora’s phone? I know it’s late. Or early. But...this is her daughter and I...”

“Delaney?” The man’s voice sounded immediately awake.

“Yes. Do I know you?”

Brief silence. “Yeah,” he said. “It’s Walt. You okay, hon?”

Delaney thought maybe she’d fallen asleep and this was all a dream. But she found her voice. “Walt. Fat Boy Harley Walt?”

“Yeah. That Walt.”

“Oh, my God.” Delaney had to squat down to keep her knees from buckling.

“Listen, hon, I can explain—”

A rustling sound came, like someone snatching the phone, followed by a woman’s voice, laced with sleep and guilt. “You figured out I took it, didn’t you?”

Delaney’s eyes closed. She was quiet a second, absorbing her mother’s voice. “Well, hello to you, too, Nora.”

Nora sighed heavily. “I didn’t plan on taking it, if that means anything to you.”

Delaney drew a deep breath. “Why did you?”

The flick of a lighter filled the temporary silence. “After you posted the picture on Facebook, I looked up your shop.” The sounds of Nora sucking her cigarette to life came around her words. “Walt knew that store from before. Dude’s Bikes. He said they were bad news and I got worried. Thought maybe you were caught up with them or... I don’t know. I know a thing or two about the drug scene, y’know? I got scared. I know how close you were to your dad and I thought...well, I thought you might need me. I know you won’t believe me, but I was worried so I had Walt ride up to check out your shop. Make sure everything was okay. And after he came back and told me how good you were doing, he convinced me I should come up, too, and see for myself.”

Delaney resisted the urge to interrupt her. Resisted the anger that tried to fill her back up. She thought of Sean’s words, suggesting that she at least listen. She even thought of Tabitha, who seemed to be able to see right through her, and would probably tell her that listening to her mother wasn’t what Delaney wanted, but it was likely what she needed.

“So Walt and I rode up to see you. All day long I couldn’t get the courage. Just sat in the hotel and watched TV, thinking up all the reasons I should leave you alone. That night, I went out alone and had a few drinks. I don’t know. Call it liquid courage. I realized your shop was just across the street. A quick walk away. I knew it was late but I thought, now or never. I was almost to your shop when the sky just opened up. That storm came up so fast I couldn’t even blink.” Nora paused, took a drag of her cigarette and blew out, long and slow. “I’d come that far. Despite the storm looking like some kind of sign, I kept going. By the time I got to your shop I was soaked to the bone. I was going to knock when I saw you outside, running around with a flashlight. Andthatis when I lost my nerve. When I actually saw you. So I ducked beneath the eaves to hide. And you took off in the woods, chasing down whatever you were chasing.”

Delaney sank to the bottom step that led up to her loft and swallowed hard against her constricted throat. Still, she said nothing.

“I hid there, chain smoking for a while, unsure what to do. Then I saw the open bay door. I went inside. I stood there, dripping, tipsy, foolish...and that’s when I saw Marty’s bike.”

A little blip ran through Delaney’s gut. She’d never heard anyone call Dad Marty and anyone who tried got shut down, quick.It’s Martin, he would say. Even the uncles called him Martin.

“I wasn’t going to take it, Lanie.” Nora gave a loud exhale, like she was at the end of her cigarette. “Then I saw the key was in it. And then the rain. It just...stopped.”

Nora’s voice whispered overstopped, like the ending of the rain had been magical. And, thinking back to that night, standing in the woods and the sudden silence allowing Delaney to hear Wyatt whimpering in the ditch, it had been.

“It was like a sign. And I thought, what if I ride it just one more time? For old time’s sake. We had such wild times on that bike. Back when Marty and me were kids. Back before...” Nora trailed off, her thick voice choked. She sniffed deeply and continued. “Once I’d done it, I didn’t know how to undo it. So I stayed in town quite a bit longer than I’d planned. Walt popped in on you and found out you wanted to enter the bike in that show. So I made some parking lot fixes to the old girl before I brought her back. I didn’t want you riding around unsafe.”

Delaney was quiet for a long time. She wanted to make sure the anger didn’t rise back up before she spoke but once she decided to say something, she realized that the anger had never come back. It its place was something else. Something Delaney wasn’t used to feeling. Something that could only be described as atucked infeeling, like somebody had pulled that old pink-and-green quilt up to her neck after she’d fallen asleep on the couch. Somebody who would look out for her.

Somebody like Sean.

Walt.

Tabitha.

And yes—maybe even her mother.

It wouldn’t be an instant fix. But it could be something. Maybe.

If Delaney gave it a chance.

“I know I’ve fucked up in so many ways it’d take you all night to list them, but I just wanted to tell you that—”

“I’m going to come down for a visit.”

There weren’t enough pin drops in the world to fill up the silence that followed.

“What did you just say?”

“I’m going to come visit you, Nora. Soon.”

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