Just a Little Series (Parts 1 - 4) (21 page)

Still, Grace had been the person to welcome
Luke into their home the morning after the big storm in October.
She’s the one who’d told him that I was upstairs sleeping in his
old bedroom. She’s the one who’d welcomed him with open arms,
despite the tension between him and Lonnie. So, in a way, it was
hard to tell
exactly
what Lonnie and Grace Reibeck knew
about Luke’s social life. What had Detective Bruno, Grace’s
brother, told them, if anything? Did Lonnie know that the little
blond girl he’d swept off the ground, rescued from the storm, and
sheltered in his home was (somewhat) romantically involved with his
estranged son?

Grace forced Lonnie to the neighboring table
before turning to us and smiling.

“What a pleasant surprise!” she leaned over
to press a quick kiss to my cheek. “
How are you
?” She asked
her question as if it’d been years since she’d seen or spoken to
either of us. It was one of Grace’s many qualities that I’d grown
to love and adore; she always knew how to make a person feel
incredibly special.

“Wonderful,” I looked behind her to meet her
husband’s stare. “Hi, Lonnie.”

He looked up and nodded, incoherently
mumbling under his breath. Grace shrugged and looked back to Luke.
“Lucas, sweetheart, how’ve you been?”

Luke imitated his father, grumbling as he
took a drink of his water. It was no wonder Lonnie thought his son
hated Grace; Luke was acting as cold and distant as I’d ever seen
him.

Grace and I shared a solemn sigh.

“Grace, Lonnie,” I took my purse off the
chair next to me. “Why don’t you join us?”

“What a lovely idea!” Grace said, now
turning to pull Lonnie out of his own chair. Grace slid in next to
Luke, and Lonnie slouched in the chair next to mine.

“This is absurd,” Lonnie said, his eyes
darting across the table.

Luke met his stare with an equally
hate-filled look. “It’s not a walk in the park for me, either—”

“Now, boys,” Grace interrupted with a
motherly scold, “can’t we just enjoy one meal together?”

“Not hungry anymore,” Luke pushed his plate
away. He rolled out of his chair and stood up. He pulled his wallet
from his back pocket and threw a few bills down on the table.
Snatching his jacket, he looked at me for a moment before turning
to walk away.

“Luke,” I grabbed my purse and stood up.
“Where are you going?”

“Stay here and eat, Julie,” he said, turning
back. “I’ll see you around.”

“Luke,” I took a step forward. “Come on,
don’t do this. We had plans—”

“Don’t expect much else,” Lonnie said,
finally making his words loud and clear. “After all, running is
what he does best.”

I turned back and glared at him before
looking back to his son.

“Please, Luke,” I said, and suddenly my eyes
welled with tears. After all the weeks I’d spent waiting to hear
from him, waiting to see him, waiting on my chance to just reach
out and touch him, I couldn’t believe that he was standing there so
eager to just walk away. “I haven’t seen you in weeks. I don’t know
when I’m gonna get to see you again. We were supposed to spend the
day together—”

“Jules,” he dropped his head to the side. He
took a few steps to meet me in the middle of the diner. He lifted
his hand to my face and wiped away the tears that had fallen on my
cheeks. His brown eyes softened as he lowered his stare. “I thought
I could do this, but I can’t.”

“Luke—”

“I’m sorry, kid,” he said, tucking a stray
strand of hair behind my ear. “I still have too much anger. I can’t
be in the same room with him.”

“Please don’t,” I whispered, feeling the
tears fill my eyes once again. “You have to fix things with him.
You
have
to.”

“I can’t—”

“Luke—”

“Julie,” he said, the softness in his voice
fading away, “goodbye.”

He dropped his hands and turned on his heel.
He was through the door and out of sight before I had time to
register exactly what had just happened.

Lonnie scoffed behind me, and I turned to
look back at him.

“You!” I took another step back toward the
table. “This is all
your
fault—”

“My fault?” he looked from me to Grace and
then back to me. “How do you figure?”

I stood there, my heart slamming against my
chest, staring at the man who’d scarred Luke—physically, mentally,
and emotionally. My blood boiled as I watched him sit there so
nonchalant, acting as though Luke was the only one to blame for
their falling out.

“Let me ask you a question,” I said, bending
at the waist to meet his gaze. “Where were you a couple of months
ago when your son was laid up in the hospital with a bullet lodged
in his chest?”

“Excuse me?” he straightened his posture. He
quickly became defensive, and his body language said it all.

“When Luke was shot,” I widened my eyes,
“
I
was at that hospital day and night for weeks. Where were
you
? I mean, you
did
know he was shot, right?”

“Read something like that in the paper,
yeah,” he acted as though it was just another casual article on the
front page.

“And it never occurred to you that maybe you
should get in your car, drive down to the hospital, and be with
him?” I asked. “He nearly died—”

“Looks like he pulled through just fine,”
Lonnie still wore an emotionless expression.

I leaned closer, now pointing my finger in
his face, and I lowered my voice.

“Your son took a bullet to save my life. Had
he not been there to protect me, I’d be six feet under and nothing
more than a vague memory in this town. I owe him everything. This
town… they owe him infinite gratitude. But you…
you
owe him
more than the rest of us combined.”

Lonnie pursed his lips, but remained
silent.

“I lost my father, Lonnie,” I said, not
giving in to the fear that boiled just beneath the surface of my
skin. “A reckless drug dealer put a gun to his head and took his
life. He left me, but not by choice. If he could be here, he would
be because that’s what a good father does.”

I watched as he rolled his eyes, surely
convinced that my speech had nothing to do with him or Luke. But he
was sadly mistaken….

“The sickest part of all is that you
think
you were a good father,” I continued. “You had a
chance, but you abandoned your son.
You
had a choice, and
you let him go. You stripped him of his will and dignity; he runs
because of
you
. So stop acting like he does what he does to
hurt other people. He runs, so
he
doesn’t get hurt.”

I turned to walk out. I had nothing else to
say, but Lonnie’s voice interrupted my dramatic exit.

“You might wanna get your facts straight
before you start tossing around accusations, Miss Little” he said,
now standing. The steadiness in his voice told me that he wasn’t
the least bit rattled by anything I’d just said. My words seemed to
roll right off his shoulders. He took a few steps toward me and
shrugged, “If you knew what my son had put me through—”

“I don’t care,” I said. “I know what Luke
told me, and I believe every word.”

“So he told you that he just up and left?”
Lonnie asked, raising his voice. His anger caught the attention of
the diner workers, and everyone turned to watch. “Did he tell you
that he just left? No explanation. No note, no call. Nothing. And
that he never came home? He didn’t bother to call, to check in. He
just disappeared. It was like he vanished into thin air.”

His eyes suddenly seemed hollow, and he
shook his head in disbelief.

“A year passed… still, no word. I met Grace,
moved on with my life…,” he scoffed and dropped his head. “When I
finally found him, and sent him an invitation to my wedding, I
never even got so much as a simple rejection, Julie. It wasn’t
until three years ago that I even heard he’d come back to Oakland.
Even then, he didn’t bother to stop by.”

But why would he?
I wanted to ask,
but Lonnie wasn’t eager to stop talking just yet.

“Do you care to explain that,” he asked,
“since you apparently know everything?”

I couldn’t tell if his question was genuine,
or if it was just simply his attempt to belittle me. I lowered my
gaze and took a step toward Luke’s father.

“I heard you had a bit of a drinking problem
right after your wife passed, Mr. Reibeck.”

“That’s public knowledge,” he shrugged a
shoulder. “But I got help.
What’s that have to do with
anything?”

“Let me tell you a little story,” I knew I’d
have to rewind the clock to really drive my point home. “It dates
back to a few months ago, not long after I met your son.” Lonnie
didn’t look the least bit interested in hearing what I had to say,
but he listened nonetheless. “Luke was over at my house for my
uncle’s annual poker night and had one too many drinks with the
boys.”

Lonnie grumbled, but I could tell—given the
glazed expression that swept across his face—that even that much
information hurt him. Did it scare him to know that Luke hadn’t
learned from his mistakes? Was he disappointed that his son hadn’t
recognized his limits? I didn’t know, but I continued anyway.

“That very night,” I said, “just before he
left, he told me he loved me.”

“So you and Luke are an item, big deal.”

“We’re not an item,” I said definitely.
“Luke was my mentor for a school project. We weren’t even friends,
if you want to put a label on things. Needless to say, we’ve always
had a bit of a love-hate relationship.” Lonnie’s brows lowered as
he waited for elaboration. “The whole point of my story is that
when Luke came to pick me up the following Monday to continue our
project, he didn’t remember telling me that he loved me.”

Lonnie shrugged as if those words were
irrelevant to the argument.

“He was so wasted, Lonnie,” I tried to make
him understand as best as I could. “He was so far gone that he said
and did things that he wouldn’t have normally done under any other
circumstance.”

Grace was now standing. She rested her hand
on Lonnie’s back, caressing him and comforting him the best she
could. It was clear that Grace had followed what I was saying, but
Lonnie appeared just as clueless as ever.

“Your drinking problem was more of a problem
than I think you realize, Mr. Reibeck. Just remember that before
you start pointing fingers,” I turned again to leave.

“Julie,” he said, and his voice was suddenly
laced with anger, “you’re not leaving until you tell me what he
told you.”

“It’s not my place,” I looked over my
shoulder. “Luke made it clear that he wanted to fix things on his
own terms, but I think it’s wise for you to remember that
he’s
not the one responsible for what happened.”

Once again, I turned to leave, but a hand
landed on my shoulder to stop me. I defended myself out of reflex,
turning to slap Lonnie Reibeck square in the face. A bright, red
handprint glowed from his cheek almost instantly.

We stood and stared at each other for a few
long seconds.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Lonnie said,
his face turning red as he inched closer.

“Why?” I swallowed hard. Despite the
steadiness in my voice, my heart felt as if it would explode from
my chest at any moment. “You gonna hit me back, Lonnie? Beat me to
a pulp the way you did Luke?” The expression melted from his face.
“At least this time you’re sober, so you’ll remember every strike.
Go ahead; hit me—since hitting kids is what you’ve proven to be so
good at—”

“Stop it!” he dug his fingers into my
shoulders as he shook me with every word he screamed.
“I—never—hurt—my—son!”

“Lonnie, no!” Grace darted forward to put
herself between me and her husband.

I stood staring at both of them, undoubtedly
a mess. I rubbed my shoulders where Lonnie had grabbed me, doing my
best to keep tears from my eyes. My hair was disheveled, and my
clothes were wrinkled and creased.

I’d provoked him. I saw the look in his
eyes, the one I’m certain Luke saw on the night that Lonnie had
struck
him
.

Lonnie’s eyes welled up with tears as Grace
stepped forward to examine my arms. I shrugged her away and took a
step back. Just as I turned to leave the diner, a police siren
bleeped outside on the curb.

I glanced at the waitress, who clung to the
telephone receiver, and then back at the Reibecks.

The bell over the door rang, and Charlie
rushed in. His face was red and twisted as he stared between me,
Lonnie, and Grace. He nodded at the waitress, who’d obviously
called him in, and then turned back to me.

“Get outside,” he pointed back to the car.
“Now.”

I walked around him and reached the door as
he nodded at Grace and Lonnie. “Sorry for the disturbance. I assure
you she won’t be bothering your family again.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Saturday, December 15

There wasn’t much solace to be found in a
6x8 holding cell.

As I slouched lower on the wooden bench, I
rested my head against the cold brick wall. I couldn’t stop
thinking about Lonnie. I couldn’t believe I’d let myself cross that
line. I’d betrayed Luke. I’d told Lonnie.
The one thing
he’d
specifically
said is that he didn’t want his father to find
out why he really left. He didn’t want to hurt him. And I screwed
it up.

I could only imagine what he would say when
he found out.

Dammit, Julie
, I could hear him yell.
He’d twist his face in anger and hold a breath, biting his tongue
so as not to say exactly what was on his mind.
Can’t you mind
your own damn business?

But this
was
my business…
somehow
….

All I could do now was pray that he would
understand. He had to. It was too late. I couldn’t go back; it
couldn’t be undone.