Mr. Good Enough, page 10
He slammed the skewer down. “You wanna talk about my girlfriend.” He almost choked on the word, but it felt safer letting Maddie think he was still attached.
She waved the fork at him again. “Oh, no. We covered that. Obviously you did something to make her mad and don’t feel like she wants to hear from you right now. I’m wondering if you have any other friends.”
He gaped at her. “What the hell?”
She shrugged. “I’m overly perceptive to the workings of the male brain, thanks to years of study on a couple of screwed up examples. I take it you’ve heard Parker’s story. Can’t watch that without learning a thing or two. So? You ever let anybody close?”
His phone rang. Thank God. “Apparently somebody likes me,” he muttered as he checked the incoming number.
Ruby. Shit.
He tossed the phone to Maddie. “Answer that, will you?”
Her fork clattered onto the cake stand, but she caught the phone single-handedly. Probably learned that from her brothers too. Her mouth curved up in a grin. “My pleasure. Then I’ll look through your address book for schmoopsie-poo’s number and call her myself to tell her you need a friend.”
She could mind her own damn business instead. He grabbed another skewer and reached for a handful of tomatoes while Maddie rattled into his phone. “Hey, Ruby. No, he’s here, but he’s got his hands full.” She was silent a minute. “Trent, Ruby wants to talk to you.”
“Take a message.”
She sighed. “Sorry, Ruby. Appears I’m playing the role of his best friend today, and he doesn’t want anybody but me. It’s a rough life. No, we’re alone. Everybody else is out—oh. Oh. Um, okay.”
She hopped off the counter and slid over to him, holding the phone out. “I really think you should talk to her.”
“Unless she’s got Linda stashed in her kitchen, I don’t want—”
“I’ve got her!” Ruby’s tinny voice exploded from his phone. “Trent, please, I have Linda. I need to talk to you.”
Maddie arched her brows and shoved the phone at him. He fumbled to right it and put it to his ear. “Where is she? Is she okay?”
“She’s at my house, and she’s fine as she gets. She’s been here all night. Trent, honey, there’s something we need to talk about, and I want to get this out with you before I call off the search parties. Ain’t much this exciting ever happens here. Don’t think they’ll mind another hour. Where are you? You over at Maddie’s place?”
He rubbed at his chest. “Hold tight, Ruby, I’m coming to you. Don’t lose her.”
“I won’t lose her, and neither will you. I’ll come to you.”
“Too late. Already on my way.” Trent snapped the phone shut, grabbed Maddie by the shirt and tugged her toward the front door.
“Hey!” Maddie said.
His phone rang again. He switched it off. “You want to see Ruby live another day, you’re gonna come along and keep me from killing her.” All night. Ruby had Linda all night, and she was just now calling? The search started over an hour ago.
“I’m not telling you where she lives,” Maddie said.
“No need. I can call one of my friends and have him look it up on your fancy Internet.”
She squeaked out a feeble protest as Trent pulled her along to his truck. “Oh, for crying out loud,” she said. “Let go. I’ll go with you. You want the neighbors to think you’ve gone off your rocker and kidnapped me? I bet half of ’em know your license plate already.”
He loosened his grip, and true to her word, she voluntarily climbed into the truck and buckled her seatbelt. She didn’t bolt when he went around to climb into his side of the truck, and she didn’t once reach for her phone.
The comfort her presence gave him should’ve unsettled him, but he was too damn glad she was along for the ride to worry about it.
He turned the truck around and headed downtown. He didn’t need to call anybody. Ruby lived a couple of blocks behind her shop. She’d watched him and Andi a few times when Linda picked up the occasional odd shifts at the grocery store. He still remembered her cottage with its white picket fence.
Maddie was mercifully quiet during the short drive. She let out a sigh when Trent parked the car at Ruby’s curb. Relief or resignation, he didn’t care.
He heard her padding along behind him as he hustled to the door. Ruby flung it open and ushered them inside.
“Where is she?” Trent asked. He turned into the living room and almost jumped out of his skin. A somewhat familiar chubby naked woman, eight feed wide and probably thirty feet long, was painted across three of the four walls, her legs tilted and arm bent to preserve what she could of her modesty. “Not her,” he said on a whoosh. “Where’s Linda?”
He twisted and found Maddie glaring at him. Right. He’d seen that woman on Maddie’s wall. She’d painted this.
Well, she could kiss his ass.
“I would’ve called sooner but I didn’t know until Joe popped into the shop and told me the news,” Ruby said.
He ignored the sensation of the wall-woman’s eyes boring into the back of his head. “Where’s Linda?”
Ruby sighed. “This way.”
She led him down a short hallway to a cheery room. A rainbow comforter was draped over a double bed beneath a butterfly mural. Linda sat in a wooden rocking chair, staring out the window at a small vegetable garden.
She’d gone past thin to emaciated. Her stringy hair hung limp and lifeless on her shoulders, and what he could see of her skin was a pasty gray. She gripped the armrests, but her hands shook. A faint odor of cigarette smoke tickled his nose. He inhaled sharply. Not Linda. No. She wouldn’t.
He took a hesitant step into the room. “Linda?”
She shifted dull hazel eyes toward him. Her voice had a gravelly quality he didn’t remember. “You killed my baby girl.”
Trent flinched. He opened his mouth, fumbling for the words that would make it all better, but they didn’t come. He couldn’t find the right thing to say, the right thing to do.
“Go away.” Her gaze unfocused, but she still clenched the armrests.
Ruby tugged him out of the room. “Time,” she murmured. “She needs time, and you and I need to talk.”
Right. Talking would make it all better. They could light up a peace pipe and hand it around too. That always helped. “What’s she doing here?”
Ruby kept walking. So Trent kept following. He was about done being led around, but even angry and hurt, he knew better than to lose his temper within earshot of Linda. Maddie eyed him warily when they passed the breakfast nook. Ruby paused and put a hand on her shoulder. “Probably time we call somebody. You got Joe’s number? Tell him it was a mix-up. Me and Trent, we got a little something to sort out. We’ll be in back.”
Maddie nodded. Trent followed Ruby out onto a concrete patio lined with flower pots. She sat at a wrought iron table set and indicated the other chair, but Trent didn’t want to sit and act civilized. “What’s she doing here? And don’t give me some bullshit answer. I want the truth, Ruby.”
If Ruby was insulted, she didn’t show it. She sat ramrod straight, her eyes boring into him. “I care about Linda a lot. Always have, always will. First and foremost, you need to understand that.”
“I damn well care about her too. She was more of a mother to me than—” This wasn’t about him. This was about Linda. “You’re trying to care for everyone, Ruby. You care about me. You care about Maddie. You care about Sarah Jo. You care about Linda. I’m her family. You damn well should’ve told me where she was before half the town went nuts looking for her.”
Her gaze didn’t waver. “There’s more to family than blood.”
His hands clenched into fists as he paced the small patio. “I should’ve been here. Got it. I’m here now.”
“I wasn’t talking about you.”
“The whole damn town’s your family. Also noted. Can we get back to Linda?”
“Trent, hon, I am talking about me and Linda.”
He drew up short. Tilted his head. Was she—Did she—Oh. “You and Linda.” As a new picture formed, Ruby nodded.
Bits of memories flashed through his mind. Little scenes in his life that had meant nothing to him as a boy, but now all spelled out an entire facet to his aunt’s life that he’d never noticed. He cleared his throat. “When?”
“For me? Never meant to settle here. I was just passing through. But then I saw her, and I’ve been here ever since.” Ruby let out a humorless laugh. “Linda, though, she had responsibilities. A reputation. A daughter. She couldn’t live free here, so I didn’t live free here. Couple of years after you left, we started seeing each other. Quietly. She preferred it that way. Fell apart not long after we got the rumors that you were dead.”
Trent’s shoulders sagged. He’d managed to ruin Linda’s life again without even being there. “Sorry.”
“Oh, no, hon. It’s not you who needs to be sorry. It’s me.” She shifted in her chair. “I knew something wasn’t right. Didn’t put it all together until you came walking down the street the other night. Your daddy’s the one that put that obituary in the paper. Got to thinking Linda probably figured out you weren’t dead after we all mourned you, but your daddy must’ve threatened her to keep her mouth shut. Don’t quite all make sense to me, but then, not much about your family ever did. Suppose you might know better’n me about that.”
Yeah, he knew. His old man wouldn’t have had to threaten Linda. Linda had probably been glad Trent was dead. He sank into the small chair and stared at the pattern on the table, unable to meet Ruby’s eyes. “So what now?”
“She’s had preacher after preacher stopping by to check on her, but ain’t a one of them who knows her. Well, I know her. It’s my turn to try to save her.”
Movement inside caught his attention. Looked like Maddie’d let in a cop or a deputy.
Ruby must’ve seen it too. She leaned across the table and gripped his hand. “I went to see her last night. She was hallucinating, tried to stand up and nearly fainted, so I brought her back here. Made sure she ate something. She shouldn’t be living alone.”
“What makes you think she’ll stay?”
“She doesn’t care enough yet to leave.” Ruby inclined her head toward the door. “I need your help, though. You’re her only living relative. Joe in there, he’s a good guy, but he’s gotta follow the law. Dr. Mason’s probably gonna come out and check on her, too. They say she’s not coherent enough to make her own judgments. It’s up to you what happens to her.”
What a mess. Would’ve been nice to hear from Linda that Ruby wasn’t feeding her a line of baloney. “Why’s she shaking?”
“Nicotine withdrawal.”
“You’re at work all day. Who’s gonna stay with her?”
“She sets foot out of that house, either you or me’ll get a call from a neighbor. Nosy neighbor’s one that reported her missing this morning. I got some help at the shop, so I can cut back my hours. Go in for the baking, check up after everything’s closed. I’ll make it work.”
“The neighbors didn’t notice you taking her or bringing her here.”
Ruby glanced down. “I went late. Thought she’d appreciate it if nobody noticed me going into her place.”
“Sneaking around late at night? Breaking into her apartment? Sounds like you’ve been planning this.”
“Athena’s underpants, Trent! I didn’t go over there to kidnap her. I went to talk to her.”
The patio door slid open. Trent sent one more look at Ruby. “One hair out of place on her head, and I’ll have yours,” he murmured.
“Take it out on my bathroom,” she murmured back. She stood and nodded at the deputy.
“Afternoon, Joe,” Ruby said. “Maddie take you in to see Linda? Sorry about all the trouble. Didn’t quite put it all together till after you left the shop.”
Trent remembered Joe. Played ball with him in high school.
“She couldn’t be in better hands,” Joe replied. “Still, I called Dr. Mason. Protocol.”
“And I’m right glad it is,” Ruby said.
“She’s been here all night?”
Ruby fed the deputy a doctored story of what she’d told Trent while he tried to ignore the remnants of panic fluttering in his stomach. He might not agree with Ruby’s methods, or with Joe’s blind acceptance of her version of the truth, but Linda needed help, and nobody else had been able to reach her. It killed him that he couldn’t try. Still, would’ve been nice if they pretended his opinion mattered.
Maddie slipped out onto the patio. She stopped beside Trent and spoke softly. “My mom’s here. She’s with Linda now, but she said she’ll probably need to talk to you when she’s done. Shouldn’t take long.”
He followed her inside, leaving Ruby and Deputy Joe to their bullshitting. Too much to take in, too little time before the next influx of bad news. He plopped into a striped cushioned chair at the breakfast table and rubbed his temples.
“The couches in the living room are more comfortable.”
He glanced up at Maddie. She leaned against the avocado green counter, elbows propped behind her, the sober tilt of her mouth completely ruined by the devious glint in her eyes. “View’s better too.”
An image of the giant naked woman flashed in his mind. Jesus Christ. Maybe Ruby was wrong. Maybe Linda broke it off because she hated the décor in the living room. He swiped his eyes, but the woman still loomed in his head. “Do your parents know you did that?”
“They call it art. Helps ’em sleep at night.” She lowered her voice. “Between you and me, I think my mom likes it. We women love seeing other women fatter than ourselves, and believe me, I didn’t spare any fat dimples on that chick’s thighs. And she’s got a lot of thigh.”
Trent choked on a surprised laugh. He tried to picture Ella here, making jokes about the Stay-Puft goddess in the living room. Didn’t work. She wouldn’t find anything funny here.
Still, some of the pressure in his chest melted away.
Maddie flashed a cheeky grin. “Want to know what I do for male nudes in a guy’s house?”
“No.” He felt his lips start to turn up.
“You sure? I could take you over to the gay bar in Shakerville and show you.”
“There’s a gay bar in Shakerville?”
“If only,” she sighed. “I’d be making more money painting than I do with Web design. But I did paint tiny penises all over an ex-boyfriend’s guest bathroom once. It was worth doing for free when I heard the other woman he was sleeping with dumped him over it.”
Ouch. “You are not right.”
She shrugged. “God gave my parents a teacher, an engineer, and a boy genius who just might rule the world after he gets bored with astrophysics. He had to throw me in to even it out.”
“Oh, Maddie, it’s nowhere near even,” Dr. Mason drawled behind him.
Maddie smiled unrepentantly at her mother and strolled to the patio door. “Holler when you’re done. Joe said he was supposed to be off an hour ago.”
“I heard.” The doc settled in across from Trent. A faint odor of antiseptic settled around him. Smelled like Ella.
He must not have been too right either, because he was glad it’d been Maddie here instead of his ex-girlfriend. Ella would’ve gone straight for her bedside manner instead of her stand-up routine. “How is she?” he asked the doc.
“Not well, but I suspect you knew that. Dehydrated, undernourished, disoriented, among other things.” Dr. Mason shot a glance out the door and frowned. “I’d like to take her into the hospital for observation.”
“No.”
“The wing I’d take her to is nowhere near the cancer ward, if that’s your concern.”
“Doesn’t matter. It all smells the same. All the rooms look the same. She stays here.”
The doc’s frown deepened. “That’s an awful lot you’re asking of Ruby.”
“She stays here.”
Dr. Mason sighed. “She needs medical care, Trent.”
God, his head hurt. “You think you can fix what’s wrong with her with drugs? With shrinks? Maybe it’s easier to take her to the IVs and medicines and trays of disgusting hospital food, but will that solve it? She needs friends. She needs family. She needs something to live for, and she’s not gonna find it in a place that reminds her of all the people she’s lost. So make a couple of phone calls, get her set up with what she needs here. Get her a nicotine patch, for God’s sake. Cost isn’t an issue. Just leave her here.”
She studied him quietly for a minute. “Alright,” she said finally. “We’ll try it your way.”
Some victory. The Linda he knew was still gone. “Thank you.”
“So let’s talk about you.”
Trent’s shoulders hitched. Damn Mason women could mind their own business where he was concerned. “Why? You figure out the magic words I can say to Linda?”
“Won’t do either of you much good when she wants to see you again if you’re losing sleep in the back of your truck between now and then.”
“I’m fine.”
Her lips turned up, but her eyes held a steely determination. “Walt and I have a spare bedroom. No strings, no conditions, it’s yours as long as you want it. Linda’s not the only one who needs friends and decent food. You both need support.”
He was cracking. He could feel it. “Decent food? I saw that birthday cake.”
She chuckled as she reached into her pocket. “The invincible Swish Sawyer, felled by a birthday cake. Don’t worry. I hide the purple food coloring the rest of the year.”
“Dunno, doc. Not sure I could sleep knowing that thing’s sitting in the kitchen.”
“Honestly, I can’t either, so I’ll send the leftovers home with Maddie and Connor.” She twisted a key off her key ring and slid it across the table to him. “That works on the front and back doors. Feel free to come and go as you need to, and help yourself to anything you find in the kitchen.”
It sounded suspiciously like Welcome home. He wasn’t entirely comfortable with that. “Anything else?”
