All The Glory (33 page)

“I can’t,” he said in weak, agony-filled voice. “I can’t. You won’t love me anymore.”

“Pssshhhh, child please. Grandmomma ain’t never gonna stop loving you, never, ever, ever. You hear me? Now stop talkin' foolish and tell me what you did. Be honest. You know we tell the trufe in this house.”

The trufe, the whole trufe, and nothing but the trufe … come on, Leo.
I gripped my hands together so hard it hurt, but I couldn’t make myself stop.

Leo wiped his eyes on his grandmother’s shirt a little before sitting up. He glanced at me and then kept his gaze fixed on the floor.

“I wasn’t there.”

“You wasn’t where?” she asked, sitting up and taking one of his hands in hers.

“I wasn’t there when Jason killed Coach Fielding.”

“Well that’s good news, right?” She looked first at him and then me.

I shrugged. To me, it sounded like bad news, at least for Jason. Maybe I’d been wrong about everything. Maybe Jason really was one hundred percent a cold-blooded killer like everyone said he was.

“But I’m glad he killed the coach.
Glad!”
He said it with such vehemence, with such fury, I knew then that something was very, very wrong with this situation.

Leo’s grandmother’s voice went very even and very low. She looked right at him and leaned in. “What that coach do that was so bad you be glad he’s dead, Leo? You tell Grandmomma.”

Leo started crying again. “He did a bad thing, Grandmomma. He did a really, really, really bad thing!”
   

Chapter Fifty-Two

MY FINGERS WERE SHAKING SO bad, I couldn’t press the numbers on my phone. It was my worst nightmare come to life.

“You want me to do that for you?” Grandma asked me. She had instructed me to call her that.
Grandma
. She was surprisingly strong, considering what she’d just heard from the love of her life.

“Please.” I sniffed, wiping the four millionth tear from my eyes. “Just click that arrow until you see the name Chuck and press the green button.”

“Here you go, baby,” she said after following my instructions. “I’m going to go check on my boy. I’ll be right back.”

I put my hand on her arm. “I’m so sorry,” I said, my face crumpling again.

She patted my cheek. “Not your fault, baby, not your fault. We’ll make this right. You and me and my baby Leo and our Lord God and his son Jesus Christ. We will make this right.” She nodded once before leaving me for the bedrooms.

I nodded too as the phone rang, leaving her to check on Leo while I called Jason’s dad.

“Katy?” he said, coming onto the line sounding tired. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” I tried to sound perfectly fine and not totally wrecked. It was after eleven, but I wasn’t completely out of my mind just because of the time.

“Your parents called here looking for you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Great. Listen, forget them for a minute, I need to talk to you.”

“Okaaay, what’s up?”

“Can you call Jason’s lawyer, like right now?”

“Uhhhh, I guess. But I’m not sure why I’d do that.”

“I need for you to get that lawyer over to your house right now. Like right this very second.” My breaths were coming out as dog pants. Fluffy and I were like brothers right now.

“Katy have you been drinking?”

“Listen, Chuck,
I’m not playing!”
My voice came out a little too shrieky, so I took a moment to breath in and out and then tried again. “I’m sorry. I’m a little freaked out, but you will be too when you hear what Leo has to say.”

“Who’s Leo again?”

“You’ve never met him. He was in the courtroom today. He’s the one I was chasing after when I blew you off.”

“Sweetie, I’m sorry, but you’ve lost me. Do you need a ride home?”

“Mr. Bradley!” I screamed. “I’m not drunk or high or crazy, okay?!”

Leo’s grandmother came out of the kitchen and held out her hand. “Let me have a word with the man.”

I handed her the phone, my hand shaking so bad I almost dropped it.

Grandma took the phone from me with one hand and with the other pulled me against her hip. She held me there tightly as she talked to Jason’s dad.

Her voice was a smooth as silk. “Mr. Bradley? Yes, hello. My name is Dolores Williams, and I have a grandson named Leo who I have recently learned was a friend of your son Jason.” She paused as she waited for Jason’s dad to speak before continuing again. “Nice to meet you too, but I have to say I wish it was under better circumstances. From what I understand, time is running out, and I think Katy is right. We need to have a talk to
night
. And you need to bring that lawyer o’ yours with you. You come to my house because my grandson needs to stay in bed as much as he can. He sick. My address is fifty-three Shady Oak Lane.” She paused. “Yes, that’s right. Shady Oak … Lane. You got it. You can park on the street right in front of the house.”

Sick
. Sick was not the word I’d have used to describe Leo right then.
Destroyed
would have been closer.
Devastated
not as good. Really, no words could describe what Leo was now or what he would be for the rest of his life.
Changed
, maybe, but that didn’t seem to do it justice either. It was too … innocent.

Grandma nodded a few times and then said her last bit before hanging up. “Bring your boy too. This involves everyone. It’s time for justice to be done.”

Chapter Fifty-Three

I COULD NOT SIT STILL. Jason and his dad were coming over.
Jason
. The boy who was my second best friend, the hero of elementary school, defender of innocents … and he’d told me he never wanted to see me again. He told me to let things drop. He told me to leave it all alone.

But I had to
get to the bottom of things.
It’s a personality flaw of mine, to not be able to let things that weren’t right go. I prayed he wouldn’t hate me for the rest of his life. But if he did, I would have to live with it, because down to my soul and with every fiber of my being, I knew I had done the right thing. I just hoped no one else would end up dying over this.

Two cars pulled up outside at the same time. They both turned their engines off and their headlights went out in synch.

“What’s that other car?” I asked.

Then a third car pulled up behind those two.

“What in the hell?” I said absently.

Grandma went to the door and opened it up wide, stepping to the side to let all the visitors in.

The first one in the door was Mr. Bradley. He shook her hand and introduced himself. He nodded at me as he came in and moved over to stand by me.

“I’m glad to know you aren’t drunk,” he said, I think trying for a joke.

All I could do was shake my head. I was panicked about seeing Jason.

Jason’s lawyer came in next. He looked different, not wearing a suit. “This is very irregular,” he said, “but if it’ll help my client, I’m willing to listen.”

“You just have a seat over there,” Grandma said, gesturing to the plastic-covered couch.

“You must be Jason,” Grandma said as he passed over the threshold.

“Yes, that’s me,” he said, his voice making my heart squeeze painfully in my chest.

Grandma wasted no time, pulling Jason into a bear hug. Then she started crying, and it was loud. “You my angel, Jason Bradley. You my angel sent straight from heaven. God forgives you and Jesus Christ forgives you, you can believe that.”

Jason stood there, stiff as a board. I could see the expression on his face. He was made of stone and he said nothing.

She pulled away and wiped at her face. “Come in, come in, sit, sit.” She waved over at the couch.

Jason took a few steps and then stopped, staring at me.

I stared back, tears filling my eyes. He hated me. He wished I wasn’t here. I could see it all over his face.

Then he walked over and sat near me on a chair that really wasn’t big enough for two people. He reached up and took my hand, pulling me down to sit with him. My butt landed half on his leg and half in the seat.

“Move over, would ya?” he said quietly.

I wiggled into the tiny spot next to his tree-trunk legs. “Jason, I’m …” I wanted to apologize, but I wasn’t sorry. I didn’t want to lie. There had been enough lies in Jason’s world for one lifetime.

“Shhhh … we’ll talk later.” He took my hand in his and held it tight. I wasn’t sure who needed the reassurance that his strength gave us, him or me, but it didn’t matter. I gave as good as I got. I held onto him like he was the only thing keeping me from floating away.

My parents came in last. “You have some explaining to do, Missy,” my father said. He barely acknowledged the other people in the room, so focused as he was on making me scared shitless to go home. But nothing he said could burst my bubble. Jason was my friend again and this lawyer was going to fix things.

My mother thanked Grandma for allowing us into her home and took a seat next to my father in chairs brought in from the kitchen.

Grandma stood and clasped her hands together. “So, you all want to know why we asked you to come here in the middle of the night.” She pointed both hands at me. “You can thank Katy here for that, and I’m gonna let her tell her story and then I’ll get my Leo up to talk to this here lawyer.” She nodded at the attorney and then sat down in a chair I was sure would collapse under her weight.

But it didn’t and all the attention shifted over to me. My face flamed up as I started my story.

Chapter Fifty-Four

“ALL THIS TIME THAT I’VE spent with Jason, I knew he wasn’t telling me all of the story.”

I glanced at him before I continued, to see if he was angry. He stared at the floor, but held onto my hand. I took that as a good sign.

“He told me over and over again that I had the story, the whole story, but I didn’t believe him.”

“She’s very stubborn,” he said in a subdued voice.

“That’s my girl,” said my mom with a sigh.

My father grumbled but then she cut him off with, “She takes after you, Mike, so watch it.”

I rolled my eyes and continued. “Anyway, one day Jason told me part of the story that he hadn’t told anyone else.”

His lawyer got visibly agitated at that, but I continued without stopping.

“He told me that he’d gone to speak to the coach about something personal, and that the coach hadn’t reacted right and then they got into an argument and … well … we all know what happened after.”

“You killed that man,” said Grandma, “praise Jesus.”

When everyone looked at her, my mother with shock in her expression, Grandma looked at the ceiling and said, “Lord, I’ll beg forgiveness for that evil thought at church on Sunday, I promise, but let me be a sinner for jus’ a little while longer.” She shook her head and shifted her gaze to me. “Tell your story, baby, tell it.”

Jason took his hand away from mine and put it around me, pulling me against him. He set me on fire with that. I was warm from head to toe with his love and friendship. I felt like I could fly.

“Dad, remember that photographer who came to the house that one night?”

“How could I forget,” he said wryly.

“I took the pictures off his camera and kept them.” I looked around the room. “They were pictures of the football team at the Boys’ Center, the charity place not far from here. Jason was a big brother there. It was the coach’s pet charity.”

“He made all the players participate,” Jason said, his voice rough and low.

“There were several pictures of Jason with Leo, and I could tell they were friends from the way they smiled at each other.”

Jason smiled, but he seemed very sad.

“Anyway, one day when Jason came over, he was looking at the pictures. And after he left, I noticed that he’d tried to delete all the photos with Leo in them.”

My mom frowned. “Why would he do that?”

I looked at Jason as I answered her question. “He was trying to protect Leo.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

I DIDN’T SLEEP THAT NIGHT. After Leo was roused from bed and had a private conference with the attorney, we all went home and I spent the entire night and morning at Jason’s kitchen table, talking with him and his dad.

“We need to get going so we’re not late to court,” Chuck said. “You sure your parents are okay with this?”

I nodded. “Do you honestly think they could stop me at this point?”

He laughed. “Uh, no. You’re unstoppable.” He pulled me into a hug. “Thank God.” After he let me go, he walked down the hallway. “You kids have ten minutes before this bus is leaving.”

Jason and I sat there looking at each other across the table, the first time we’d been alone in what felt like forever.

He just stared at me, his head kind of tilted.

“You’re making me paranoid,” I said, feeling my face pinking up. “Say something.”

“You are … the most beautiful, amazing person I have ever known in my entire life.”

Why I was suddenly shy with him after all we’d been through, I have no idea, but there was no denying it. It felt like a first date.

“Shut up,” I said, ever so eloquently.

“I’m serious.” He got up and walked over, taking my hand and making me stand in front of him.

We stared into each other’s eyes for a long time.

“I love you, Katy.”

“I love you too, Jason.” I knew he probably meant
as a friend
and even though that’s not how I meant it now, it didn’t matter. Being his friend was an honor for me.

“I really want to kiss you, but I don’t want to screw things up,” he said.

I tried to smile but my lips were too trembly to do it without looking like a lunatic. “How could you screw things up by kissing me?”

He huffed out a single laugh. “If I remember correctly, the other times I tried I managed pretty well to completely suck at it.”
 

I lifted my chin. “Those weren’t kisses. Those were you trying to fight me off with your weapon of choice.”

“My weapon of choice.” He said it like a statement.

“Yeah. Before you used to think I was hanging around because you’re cute. You were kissing me with your ego. Now you know different.”

He moved closer so we were almost touching body to body. “So you’re saying now that I know you actually
love
me, I can kiss you without my ego?”