Saving Simon (Tarnished Saints Series Book 5) (11 page)

“Good morning, Pippa. Thad,” he said with a nod, opening the door for Piper. “Didn’t let the bedbugs bite last night, I hope.”

“Not funny,” she said, not sounding amused with him at all.

“Well, let’s go see Ma,” said Thad, and by the tone of his voice Simon knew he really didn’t want to do it.

“Yep,” said Simon, staring at the little cemetery next to the church, not really wanting to see his mother’s name on a headstone either. He’d already watched his father being lowered into the ground, and though Simon’s relationship with him hadn’t been good, it had still been hard to watch. Now, he and Thad were going to have to face reality that they’d never see their mother alive in this lifetime again.

“I miss Ma,” said Thad, looking toward the cemetery, but yet neither of them moved.

“Are you going to be okay with all this?” Simon asked softly.

“Not sure. Are you?”

“Are you two going to stand here all day discussing this or are you going to pay your respects to your poor departed mother?” asked Piper.

“Well, I suppose we could always come back later,” said Simon.

“Good idea,” agreed Thad. “Maybe we should wait til later since you said the marina was busy.”

“I can’t believe you two,” Piper spat, grabbing Simon with one hand and Thad’s arm in the other. “I’m not letting either of you leave here without paying your respects to your mother.”

Piper dragged both the guys toward the cemetery, not sure why they were both being such babies about going to visit the gravesite of their mother.

“When did she die?” she asked them.

“I dunno,” said Thad. “A few months ago or so.”

“A few months ago?” she asked, shocked to all hell that they hadn’t been here right after it happened. She stopped in her tracks and crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at them. “And neither of you could see to come home for your own mother’s funeral?”

“I guess we should have,” said Simon, looking like a little boy being reprimanded.

“You think so?” she asked sarcastically, having no tolerance for this kind of thing. “You two don’t realize how good you had it to have your mother so close by. I bet you never even visited her.”

“Well, when she got Alzheimer’s she didn’t even know us anymore after awhile,” Simon told her.

“That’s no excuse,” she said shaking her head. “I’d give anything to have my mother close by, no matter if she remembered me or not. I grew up far away from her, only talking to her and my sister once a month on the phone.”

“Why don’t you go visit them?” asked Thad.

“I can’t. They live in France.”

“Well, it’s not like you can’t afford a plane ticket.” It was Simon’s turn to be sarcastic now.

“You don’t understand. It’s not that easy,” she said, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. She’d only visited her mother and sister once in the ten years they’d been gone. And only recently had she started Skyping with them over her computer. Yet because of her parents’ crazy agreement, this is the way it was. If her father even knew she’d been Skyping with them, he would probably have a fit. Every day she wondered if she’d made the wrong decision by staying in the States and living with her father once her parents split up. Every day she also wished her family could make amends and the four of them could live together again.

“Pippa, did you want to talk about it?” asked Simon, and she figured he was only stalling because he felt guilty not coming to see his mother sooner.

“No. Not now. Right now I want to meet your mother. So no more stalling, let’s go.” They walked over to the little cemetery, and Simon opened the gate and Piper went inside followed by Thad. “I don’t know what kind of man your father is, but I’m surprised he didn’t make you two come back for the funeral.”

“No, that never would have happened,” said Simon, directing her toward the grave with a hand on her elbow.

“Why not?” she asked, thinking of her own father and the way he didn’t let her get away with anything. She’d always done everything he wanted her to do and was afraid to say no to him.

“That’s why,” said Simon, pointing to the ground.

She looked down and her heart about stopped beating for a second. There in front of her was not only the gravestone for Albina Taylor but right next to it was one with the name Webster Thomas Taylor on it as well.

“Your father is dead too?” she asked meekly, feeling like a fool for what she’d just said.

“Yes. He died about five years ago,” said Simon. “And with Ma in the home with Alzheimer’s, the family just kind of fell apart I guess. Everyone went their separate ways and only recently started coming back together.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea.” They all just stared down at the gravesites and didn’t say a word. Then after several minutes, Simon turned, obviously meaning to leave, but she grabbed his arm to stop him. “I want to be introduced to your parents,” she told him.

“What? For God’s sake, Pippa, they’re dead!”

“I know they are, and you really shouldn’t swear in a cemetery especially with the church right next door. Now, I still want you to introduce me to them.”

“What kind of a fool do you take me for?” he asked, the anger in his voice evident. “I’m not going to play your silly games, now let’s go.”

Simon and Thad turned and left the cemetery, but she just stayed there, looking down at the graves. Emotion overwhelmed her and she dropped to her knees and folded her hands in prayer, and then spoke in a soft voice.

“Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, I’m happy to meet you. My name is Piper Westbrook and I think very fondly of your son. He saved my life when I fell off the cruise ship and if it wasn’t for him, I’d be in the same position as you right now. I owe him everything. I owe him my life and I promise you I’ll do everything I can to make sure he knows how thankful I am that he came into my life. I know it sounds crazy, but . . . I think I see myself being part of your family someday.”

“She’s not coming,” said Simon to Thad as soon as they made it out the gate. He looked back to see Piper still standing there, and then she dropped down to her knees on the hard ground. Kneeling in the dirt, especially in her designer jeans, told him something was seriously wrong.

“What’s she doing?” asked Thad, squinting in the sun and looking over the fence.

“Take the keys, go on and open the marina and I’ll be there as soon as I can pry her away. I’m not sure what her fascination is with graveyards but I’m finding it a little disturbing.”

He handed Thad the keys and headed back through the gate to the cemetery to see Piper on her knees with her hands in prayer at his parent’s gravesite. He was about to call out to her when he realized she was talking to someone in a soft voice. He quietly walked up behind her, not making his presence known, listening to every word she said. He almost fell over dead himself when he heard her talking to his departed parents about him. It wasn’t that part that had him so surprised, as the last words he heard her say that he never thought he’d hear out of her mouth in a million years.

“You see, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor . . . I think I’m falling in love with your son, Simon.”

Chapter 10

Piper hadn’t known Simon was right behind her when she was talking to his parents’ graves and now she felt really embarrassed. She didn’t know if he’d heard what she’d said because she was talking in a soft voice, but was afraid to ask him.

She hadn’t meant to say all those things out loud, but it just sort of happened. She felt emotional thinking about her own family, and also half-delirious from only having had about an hour or two of real sleep. She’d been thinking about Simon’s family all night and the way they were always there for each other, even if they had been apart for years. She felt a comfort being around them, as this is the way she’d always dreamed her family could be.

If Simon had heard her, he hadn’t acknowledged it, and that was fine by her. She didn’t want to face him nor face herself with the emotions she’d been feeling about him since the day he’d saved her life.

“I’m sorry about your parents,” she said on the ride back to the marina. Thad had left in the jeep and they were in her car. Simon had left her car keys in the ignition with the top down, which bothered her. Then he’d quickly gotten into the driver’s seat, never offering to let her drive even though it was her car, and she didn’t like that either. Still, she had to admit he looked damned good in her metallic-sea-blue convertible as they drove with the top down on this bright sunny day. She could picture him driving the two of them around always . . . that is, if they were a couple, which they weren’t.

“Shit happens,” he said, looking at the road and having no expression at all on his face.

“Shit happens? That’s it?” she gasped, not at all believing the lack of emotion in his words.

“Well, what do you want me to say?” He turned down the road that she remembered from the night before as the one that led to the marina. Tall trees lined both sides of the gravel road and if one didn’t know this was a main drag to the marina, they would probably never be able to find their way there without getting lost.

“I don’t know. Maybe you could say that you miss them and love them and are so sad that they are gone?”

“Of course I do. They were my parents.”

She waited for more, but that’s all he said.

“How did your father die?” she asked.

“Heart attack.”

“Did he have a stressful job?” She knew she wasn’t going to get info out of him unless she fished for it. A typical male trait. She was used to this from living with her father.

“If you consider being a preacher stressful, then I guess so.”

“So you’re the preacher’s son?” she asked with a smile on her face.

He looked out of the corner of his eye at her briefly and still with no emotion looked back at the road. “My father was the one who started the Twelve Apostles Church in Sweet Water.”

“Baptist or Lutheran? Or is it Catholic?” she asked.

“None of them. It’s nondenominational. He figured he could get more people to attend mass that way. The more parishioners he had meant the more money he could collect to expand the church. Too bad he died before he was able to make the church bigger.”

“How many brothers did you say you had?” she asked, piecing this all together.

“There’s twelve of us,” he answered. “And before you bother to ask, yes, he named us all after the apostles. He wanted twelve sons to be his apostles to carry out his work and that’s exactly what my mother gave him.”

“I’m surprised that’s not what killed her,” she mumbled. By the scowl on his face she knew he wasn’t amused.

“So let’s see,” she said holding out her hand and ticking off the names on her fingers. “There’s Thomas, Simon, Thaddaeus, Nathanael, Judas and James. I was raised Catholic so I know those are names of apostles.”

“That’s right,” he said.

“That’s six so far. So how do Zeb and Levi fit, in? I don’t remember those names as being apostles.”

“Levi’s real name is Matthew. Matthew Levi, named after the tax collector. And Zeb’s real name is James.”

“Wait. There’s two brothers with the same name? I don’t understand.”

“There were two apostles named James in the Bible, so when my father had twins he called them both James. Zeb goes by his middle name of Zebedee.”

“Oh, I get it. But you said there were twelve of you,” she said, counting off on her fingers again. “I only count eight.”

“That’s because the rest of my brothers don’t live here. Peter is a missionary in Peru right now, but plans on coming home for good soon. Andrew is a firefighter out west, John is in Alaska raising sled dogs, and Philip is a teacher in France.”

“France?” she asked, her ears perking up. “What part of France?”

“Lyon, I believe. Why?”

“That’s where my mother lives.”

“Really?” He stopped the car at the marina and shut off the engine. “Tell me about your family, Pippa. You seemed very upset back at the cemetery and I can’t help but think you have had an emotional past.”

“I don’t want to talk about it now,” she said, opening the door to get out. Simon put his hand on her arm to stop her, and she looked up into his translucent blue eyes.

“You know I’m here for you if you need to talk. You can tell me anything. Anything at all.”

She wasn’t sure what that meant. Maybe he figured she’d had a hard time growing up or maybe he’d overheard her at the cemetery talking to his parents. She didn’t want to deal with either one of those right now.

“Who’s that man on the horse?” she asked, looking across the grounds, glad for the distraction.

“Horse?” Simon turned to see his brother James riding up on one of his horses. He wore his normal garb with boots and cowboy hat included. Jumping out of the car, Simon rushed over, happy to see his brother.

“Simon, so the rumors are true. You’re back,” said James from atop the horse.

“Just for a short while. How the hell are you, James?”