A Long Goodbye (20 page)

Just as his hand reached out for the door, I yelled out, “Oh, and Trevor, I’ll die before I let you even think of touching Ashton.”

I had two stops to make.

My mama and my brothers were all gathered around the kitchen table eating some of her left over stew from the night before. I grabbed the chair, turned it backwards, and straddled the seat. “I’m leaving in a little bit to get out of here, clear my head, but I wanted to bounce something off y’all.” I swallowed and grabbed Josh’s coke and took a swig.

I looked over to Jason. “Trevor knows about me and Ashton. The way I see it, I have two options. I can go fight for her and we lose the farm, quite possibly your business, or I leave her be so she can find someone else. I’d like to know what y’all think I should do.”

Jason spoke up first, “you know what I think. I’m sorry, Dane, but for the good of the family, you need to move on.”

I looked over at mama who had tears welling up in her eyes. “I don’t need the farm, Dane. If you love her, then you need to tell her before it’s too late.”

“You’d really be okay taking that chance?” I could see her swallowing and the pain in her face as she nodded, lying to me. That farm meant just as much to her as we did.

I glanced over to Josh. “What about you?”

“I think I’ll never forgive you if you put mama through all this for a piece of ass.”

My mama gasped and smacked him upside head before I could do it myself. “Ashton is not a piece of ass, Josh. I love this girl. If I let her go, I don’t know if I can stay in town and watch her move on,” I paused, took a deep breath. “I’m thinking of re-upping.”

Jason sprung from his chair. “No fucking way, Dane.”

I slammed my fist on the table. “I got to get out of here, because on Daddy’s grave if I stay, I’ll ruin everything by going to her. Winslow will take your business away, and Josh and mama will have nowhere to go. I’m not letting that happen.”

The mood in the room dropped from furious to being able to hear a pin drop. My mama pulled me into her arms, crying. “I’m not losing one of my babies to the war. I kept my mouth shut for all those years, but I’m saying my peace now. You are not reenlisting. You are staying put and as a family we will see this through.” She backed off and started a pot of coffee.

Josh came over and threw his arm around me. “Don’t go back to the Army, stay here and we’ll figure something out.”

Jason had kept quiet, watching. “You still tracking her?”

“I took the one off her car, but yeah, I could still find her from her cell. Why?”

“I’m thinking we might need to head out this weekend and find her. Let her see you, maybe make her believe that you’ve moved on to someone new, or you’re not interested. She’s bound to be out with LuLu, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

I started to raise my voice, but he stopped me. He stood up and got in my face. “Look around you.” I did. “Play it cool with Ashton for now and later on…”

I interjected, “I can’t do that.”

“Play it cool for now. Wait a couple months and then go in for the kill. If you trust her, then you can tell her about her father. If she loves you, she won’t move on. She’ll still be there waiting for you.”

“I don’t know.” I started pacing back and forth, biting my thumbnail.

“It’ll give me time to figure out how to get the property back. We’ll go to a lawyer or something, maybe get a loan to pay back Winslow.”

“So what’s the plan?”

All four of us sat around the table trying to figure out the best way to go about all of us getting what we need.

I missed the hell out of that girl and I was dying to just see her, touch her—anything. The voices were back, as well as the nightmares since I walked away from her. And I knew the only way to stop them was to bring her back into my life. I just needed to figure out how.

CHAPTER 37

ASHTON

I knew my daddy was starting to worry about me. Every night for the last week, he had heard me crying over Woody not calling. I cried that whole day, but then I realized he would never change. Daddy was never going to trust me on my own. After that, I didn’t let myself shed one more tear for my father and what he did.

It was so bad that he enlisted Lu to get me out of the house, which was a friendship he didn’t like to promote, so that was saying something. He must have felt horrible hearing me cry for Woody, but not once did I tell him what had me so sad.

I was just finishing up with my makeup when Daddy peeked his head inside of my room. “Sugarplum, can I come in?”

“Of course, Daddy,” I said sweetly. I hadn’t let him know that Trevor let me in on his little secret, because I was planning my own retribution. It would take some time, but I was going to get a place of my own and have Lu move in with me. It would infuriate Daddy to no-end, and part of me always swore that I’d never leave this house, or him alone and it pained me to do so. But, he wasn’t leaving me with many options. It was to the point where I was going to take off and head down to our place on the beach in Hilton Head, so he couldn’t find me, since he never went there. And I’d be left alone to make my own mistakes and not have someone there to fix them for me all the time.

He stood behind me, and placed his hands on my shoulders. I looked at this reflection in the mirror. “Trevor’s downstairs.”

I swung around quickly, rage brewing inside of me. “Why is Trevor here?”

Daddy frowned. “I called him. He’ll be taking you and Lu out tonight. I thought it would be best to have someone responsible to make sure you girls get back all right. I don’t like you being so upset; Trevor is here to see that you and Lu have fun tonight.”

I turned and walked over to my bed. I grabbed my boots off the floor and put them on. “Why are you forcing Trevor on me?”

Daddy stood tall over me. “What’s wrong with Trevor?”

I looked up from my boots. “What’s the one thing you hate to hear that ruins a marriage?”

He squatted down to look closely in my eyes. “Ashton, Trevor has assured me.”

I stood up fast. “Damn it, Daddy,” I hollered.

Daddy stood and grabbed my wrist tightly. “Ashton, don’t you take that tone with me.” His voice was raised and had warning in them. “Trevor is fine young man who will be able to provide for you.”

“I don’t need a man to provide for me, Daddy. And, Trevor will only want me barefoot and pregnant while he’s off lifting skirts up from every girl who lets him.”

Daddy pulled me over and onto the bed. “Sugarplum, I don’t know why on earth you would think that Trevor would cheat on you.”

“Jesus Christ, Daddy, he has one of the worst reputations in town. If you’d ask anyone other than his folks, or the people at church you’d find out for yourself. Is that what you want for me, a cheating husband?” I asked, praying he’d finally see the light.

He looked astonished at my accusation of Trevor. “Of course not, Ashton. But Trevor…”

I held up my hand to cut him off. “Daddy, can you please get into the right century with me? I’m twenty-two years old, I want to teach kids, and I want to date the man I’m in love with, not Trevor.”

He dropped his head, and then looked at me. “What is that supposed to mean?”

I slipped and I knew it. “I just meant that I’d like to pick who I marry and not have it dictated to me.”

He took a deep breath and then sighed heavily. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

I took one quick, deep breath, deciding it was now or never. “I fell in love with a man on my vacation,” I blurted out.

“All right, Sugarplum. Tell me all about him?”

“What’s there to say really? I met him; he’s a war hero, Daddy and a really good man. He was so sweet to me and he took care of me and he likes me for me, not for the money you have, or this big house.” I pounded my chest. “Me, daddy, he likes me for me. I don’t have to pretend to be someone that I’m not and I love that about him.”

Without even glancing at me he asked, “What’s his name?” I could hear the bitterness in his voice as he asked, and I had no idea why, other than he was afraid of losing me. Daddy always made it known to me that I would live here with my family someday, even long after he was gone.

“I don’t know.”

Now he looked at me. “You fell in love with a man and you don’t even know his name?”

I shrugged. “I know what I called him. He never told me his real name.”

Exasperated he asked, “Well what name was that, Sugarplum?”

I looked down playing with the hem of my shirt knowing how stupid and immature I sounded. “Woody. He went by Woody.”

Daddy grabbed me and kissed my forehead. “Trevor’s waiting downstairs and I’m sure Lu is probably too at this point. Why don’t you head on down? We’ll talk about this later.”

I smiled softly. “Okay,” I agreed and headed out for the night. Daddy not flying off the handle surprised me some, but I pushed it aside since Lu was waiting on me.

We hit a local dive bar for the cheap drinks. And Lu liked the men that went there to shoot darts and play pool.  Lynard Skynard played on the jukebox as the three of us walked in.

We had just finished our third shot of Tequila when Lu’s mouth dropped open like she couldn’t believe her eyes. I turned to follow her gaze, but the only thing I saw was a few boys’ shooting pool in the back room. “Do you know them?”

She swung her eyes back to me looking panicked. “Maybe we should go somewhere else? This place sucks tonight.”

“We just ordered a drink. Let’s finish it and then we’ll ask Trevor if can take us somewhere else, okay?”

Lu chugged her beer quicker than lightning. Trevor came over a few minutes later after talking to some people we had gone to high school with. He stuck out his chin and whistled. “Damn, Lu, looks like one of your old friends is here. I bet if you asked real nice he’d go for round two.”

“Shut up, Trevor,” she bit out with warning.

Curious as to why Lu was acting weird and why Trevor was teasing her, because he never teased her in front of me, I looked around, but came up empty. “Who are y’all talking about?” I asked Trevor.

He kept his eyes on Lu for a beat and then turned to me. “Josh Woods is here.”

“Oh, I remember him. He was a cutie way back in high school.” I cranked my neck, glancing around. “Where is he?”

Trevor smirked. “He’s playing pool.”

“Hey, Woody,” Trevor yelled out over the music.

I froze at the name as my eyes followed where Trevor was looking. Only Woody wasn’t there. Josh Woods turned around instead. I recognized the other boys he was with seeing they ran around together back in the day. Trevor took a step to head toward the poolroom. “Why did you call him that?” I asked, stopping him from moving away from me.

He shrugged, grinning. “All the Wood boys go by Woody, or Woods. I’ll be right back.”

Lu jumped off the stool and grabbed my arm. “I want to go. You pick and we’ll go dancing, or see a movie. Let’s just ditch Trevor.”

I gasped trying to figure out what was going on. Trevor was already over talking to him, when I flipped out of Lu’s grip and made a beeline for Josh. When he saw me, he blinked and the look of nerves and guilt washed over him. I hadn’t seen him in years and quite frankly, I’d forgotten about him.

“Josh Woods… Woody,” I murmured. I took his appearance, his blue eyes, his chiseled face, and his broad shoulders to his dark hair.

He continued to stare speechless. “How many brothers do you have?”

“Umm… why?”

Lu grabbed me, shooting a quick smile to Josh. “Honey, let’s just go.”

“Get off me, Lu,” I said through clenched teeth.

“You look just like him. I can’t believe I missed it,” I whispered the last part trying to wrap my brain around the fact that Woody lived in Charleston, which meant he was close by and which also meant, he was the one my daddy hired. It all clicked together in one beat of my heart.

I stormed out of the bar with Lu and Trevor on my heels, screaming after me. Quickly, I turned. “Give me your keys, Trevor?”

He held up his hands. “Ashton, I don’t think you should be driving.”

“They live out on the old farm on Landis Road, right?” I screamed.

Lu nodded her head. She turned to Trevor. “Let me take her.” She held out her hand and he placed the keys in her palm.

“I’ll get a ride from someone inside. I’ll come by tomorrow and pick it up,” he agreed, which astonished me. He’d never given in to Lu, or me before.

My heart was racing, tears springing from my eyes as Lu drove quickly and quietly to their farm. I was stunned and left speechless. I was so confused by everything I couldn’t put two and two together, but the one thing I did know was that I was going to see Woody. The only problem I had was that I didn’t know if I was going to smack him, or kiss him.

CHAPTER 38

DANE

The crunching sound alerted us that someone was paying us a visit. If he weren’t standing in front of me, I wouldn’t have believed he had the gonads to show up at my mama’s door.

Josh had gone out for a few beers with his buddies, leaving Jason, mama and me alone to hash everything out. I’d just come back from visiting Kara and the baby for a second time. I had saved some money prior to the job, and not wanting to use the money from Winslow anymore, I gave her the rest of my savings. She refused to take any more than I’d already given, but I tucked it inside the baby’s pajama drawer knowing she’d find it after I left.

She cried in my arms again, whispering how she’d missed AJ and how hard it was to be a single parent. To raise a child who would never know, or understand what a great man he was. That night before I left, I wrote a note to Lauren telling her everything about him that I knew, so someday when she was old enough and ready, she’d find out.

Pictures were still hung all over the walls of them on their wedding day. I was glad I’d gone, and I was glad I was able to give her more money. Before I left, I made sure she knew I’d be sending more when I could. I wasn’t sure when that was going to be seeing my family needed the money, but I’d be damned if AJ’s baby would go without.

“What can we do for you?” Jason asked, skeptically.