The Denver Cereal (22 page)

Jill looked at her watch.
Two hours and forty-nine minutes. She stopped walking to stare at
her watch. Was it really only Thursday? She’d known Jacob less than
a week. For a moment, images from Katy’s reaction to the bee sting
to her ex-boss with the straight pipe wrench lofted over his head
threatened to send her into blank emptiness.

Not today.

She blew out her breath
and starting walking again. Shaking her head, she turned down
Fourteenth Avenue.

“
Hi, Jill.” Trevor stepped
from the shadows into the light of a street lamp.

Startled, Jill jumped and
yelped.

“
Trevor! What are
you
doing
here?”

“
I wanted to see you,” he
said. He fell in step beside her. “I’ve been thinking about
things.”

Jill stopped
walking.

“
What things? You know I
have a restraining . . .”

“
I love you, Jill. You
were right. You are my soul mate. We belong together.”

“
It’s an interesting week
to decide that,” Jill said. She kept walking toward her apartment
building.

“
We were a family — you
and me and our Katy . . .”

“
Until you fucked it up,”
Jill said.

“
I was manipulated, Jill.
We both were. I . . . I was so focused on doing what
was right for us, for Katy, I didn’t realize I lost the most
important thing in my life — you.”

Jill stopped walking and
squinted her eyes at Trevor.

“
I want to get this
straight. You thought by divorcing me, taking all of our
money,
my
money,
stealing our only vehicle, a vehicle I bought and paid for I might
add, and getting some rich girl pregnant was what was best
for
us
? For
Katy?”

“
When you say it like
that . . .”

Trevor’s voice rose in
irritation. Jill shook her head and returned to walking. Trevor
noticeably softened.

“
Oh, Jill, you cut me to
the core when you’re so cold.”

Jill raised her eyebrows
and turned into the apartment building.

“
Jill.” Trevor put his
hand on her arm. “Stop. Just listen to me.”

Jill turned to face
him.

“
We were manipulated by
these rich people. They used us . . .” Trevor’s hand
caressed Jill’s arm. “People like that can never understand what we
have.”

Trevor leaned in. His lips
brushed her lips. With her mouth an inch from his, she said, “So
you’re not getting married on Sunday?”

Trevor jerked
back.

“
That’s what I thought,”
Jill said. “If you’ll excuse me, my dog Scooter needs to be
walked.”

“
Scooter! Oh my God, Jill!
Where did you find Scooter?”

“
Don’t even start with me.
I saw the papers. A Mr. Trevor McGuinsey turned him in to the Dumb
Friend’s League.”

Trevor grabbed her arm
before she stepped into the building.

“
Don’t let them do this to
us, Jill. We belong together. I still love you with every cell in
my body, every fiber in my being, every thought in my head, and
every action in my life.”

Jill visibly
sagged.

“
Please,” Trevor
said.

She felt his hand move
along her rear. Under his pressure, her hips shifted toward him.
While her mind returned to her lists, he kissed her and then
slipped his hands under her shirt. He flicked open her bra and
moved to cup her breasts.

Her weary mind
whispered,
“This will be over soon
enough.”

For the first time, Jill
heard what her mind had repeated every time Trevor touched her.
Horrified by the thought, Jill jerked to the present.

And found
that . . .

She was standing on the
sidewalk like a Colfax crack whore, while her ex-husband busied
himself on her body. She took a step back. She wrenched his hands
from under her shirt.

“
Get off me.”

“
You can’t just lead me
on!” His voice was a terse whisper.

Jill couldn’t help
herself. She laughed.

Trevor slapped her hard
across the face.

“
Stupid worthless whore,
how dare you?”

Trevor grabbed her arms
and jerked her toward him. She banged against his hip. He was rock
hard and ready. He mashed his lips onto hers.

At that moment, she
knew.

He was going to have her
no matter what.

Jill wrenched her arms
from him. Using her elbow to push him off her, she bolted into the
building. Racing up the stairs, she reached her door when he
slammed her face forward into the wood. He caught her when she
bounced off the door. With one hand over her mouth, he unbuttoned
her pants. His fingernails raked their way into her soft flesh.
While he jerked her pants down, and his own, Jill worked to get her
key into the lock. Trevor was so lost in his lust he didn’t realize
what she was doing.

Somehow, she managed to
get the door open.

Scooter flew at Trevor.
His bark brought Sarah from the living room couch. While Sarah
lunged and barked, Scooter snapped at Trevor. Trevor screamed in
pain and fury. He lunged at Scooter, but Sarah blocked his
way.

When Trevor turned, he saw
the hallway lined with neighbors. Jill’s next-door neighbor, Mr.
Wilson, rushed Trevor with his baseball bat. Terrified, Trevor ran
for the stairs. Scooter and Sarah chased him from the apartment
building.

Everyone stood in stunned
silence. Before anyone could say anything, Mike poked his head into
the hallway from the stairs. Whistling for Scooter and Sarah, Mike
sauntered toward Jill’s apartment. The dogs trotted up the stairs
in answer to Mike’s whistle. Mike looked from Jill to Mr. Wilson.
He put a hand on Mr. Wilson’s baseball bat.

“
Mr. Wilson?”

“
Nice to see you,
Michael.”

With a nod, Mr. Wilson
returned to his apartment.

“
Trevor?” Mike slipped off
his jacket and tied it around Jill’s waist to cover her bare
behind, torn jeans and underwear.

Jill nodded.

“
You okay? Spaced
out?”

“
No,” Jill said. “I’m
here.”

“
Huh,” Mike
said.

He guided her into the
apartment. Settling her on the couch, he went to get her a glass of
water. When he returned, she was writing out her list on a pad of
paper.

“
For someone who was
almost raped, you seem very . . . together,” Mike
said.

“
Raped? Oh, yeah, I guess
so.” Jill flushed. “I should change. Ah, crap, my feet are
bleeding.”

Getting up from the couch,
she went into her bathroom. Mike helped her rebandage her feet, and
then she went into her bedroom to change.

“
Do you ever think things
happen for a reason?” Jill asked from the bedroom.

Mike stood in her bedroom
door.

“
Sure.”

“
I stayed with Trevor,
married him, even, because I thought he would never leave me. I
wanted something permanent so I would never ever be alone.
“

“
Like after Mom and Dad
died?”

Jill’s eyes welled with
tears. She pulled a T-shirt over her head. Before she could pull on
another pair of jeans, Mike pointed out the scratches on Jill’s
lower back where Trevor’s fingernails had torn her flesh. She
turned to give him a soft smile.

Speaking in a whisper, she
said, “I knew he cheated, but I thought he needed me too much to
ever leave. He was so demanding — I need this book, pay for my
school, I want this car, make my dinner, fuck me
now . . . I . . .”

Mike hugged his little
sister.

“
Then he left and took
everything. Just like that. He’s gone. And . . . I
didn’t die or fall apart or starve or . . . Every
terror I lived with since I was nine years old, every single one,
never happened. None of them. I . . . I realize that
I’m a lot stronger than I thought.”

“
You’re one of the
strongest people I’ve ever met,” Mike said.

Jill smiled.

“
So Wonder Woman, are we
moving all this stuff to your apartment at the Castle?” Mike asked.
He gestured around the apartment.

“
Not today.”

~~~~~~~~

The first thing Jacob
noticed was the silence. Not quite alert and not quite unconscious,
he scanned his immediate environment for sound. Nothing. He felt
tiny fingers pressing his eyelids apart.

“
Katy,” Jacob
whispered.

“
I knew you were in
there,” Katy said.

He opened his eyes and
found her face about an inch from his face. He attempted a smile.
Katy patted his cheek.

“
I’m not supposed to be
here.”

“
Where’s here?”

“
Psshft. Mommy says this
is called a ‘hospital.’ That means a house for sick people. I was
in a hospital but I
still
don’t remember being sick.”

Jacob smiled and the
little girl laughed.

“
I wanted to know if you
would be my daddy,” Katy said. “No one will tell me so I thought I
would just ask you myself.”

“
I’d be honored to be your
daddy,” Jacob said.

“
No matter
what?”

“
No matter what. Pinky
swear?”

Katy held out her pinky
and they shook pinkies.

“
Katherine Marlowe Roper!”
Jill scolded from the doorway of the room. “What are you doing
here?”

“
But Mommy! I didn’t touch
any of the white gauze!”

Katy seemed to fly through
the air when Jill lifted her from the bed.

“
Hi,” Jill
said.

Holding Katy in her arms,
she leaned over to kiss him. His left hand cupped her face while
his thumb caressed her bruised cheek. His concerned eyes asked the
question, but Jill shook her head. Her eyes flitted to Katy. Jacob
smiled.

“
We haven’t seen you in a
while.”

“
Where am I?” Jacob
asked.

“
You have a private room.
It’s funny, because there’s been a whole bunch of people here —
your family, my family, people from work, the police, your entire
hockey team. This is the first time you’ve been alone. Well, not
quite alone.” Jill looked at her daughter. “You are in big trouble,
Little Missy. I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“
Oh,” Jacob said. “Don’t
be too mad. She’s very sweet.”

“
He’s going to be my
daddy,” Katy said.

“
KATY!”

“
We pinky swore,” Jacob
said. “Plus she’s a Marlowe.”

“
In honor of Celia
M . . . Oh.” Jill blushed. “Sorry. You don’t have
to . . .”

“
Oh,
honey . . .” Jacob’s energy evaporated. He closed
his eyes, and then opened them. “I want to be her daddy.
Sometimes . . . things . . .
defy . . .” He let out a breath.
“Explanation.”

She thought he was
unconscious again when his eyes popped open. His eyes shifted to
look at Jill, and then he said, “Are we engaged?”

“
Do you see a large
diamond?” Jill held up her left hand as a joke but he was already
out.

“
Are you going to
marry
my daddy?” Katy
asked. “Well that’s
perfect
!”

Katy clapped her hands
together and Jill laughed.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday night — 7
p.m.

Mike looked down the
Castle’s dining room table at his brother, Steve, and Steve’s wife,
Leslie. They were as silent as Megan, Tim, and Candy on the other
side of the table. Jill was at the hospital for her first official
“date” with Jacob. Delphie was entertaining Megan’s kids and Katy
in one of the sitting areas. The clinking of silverware echoed in
the formal dining room.

Valerie slipped her hand
into Mike’s. He turned to look at her. She had lost weight this
week. Tonight, her beautiful black hair was held back with a simple
band. Her face was makeup free. When she smiled, he felt the same
heart-constricting feeling he had felt the first time she smiled at
him.

“
Okay,” Steve said. “Since
no one’s going to do it, I’m going to. Frankly, I’m sick to vomit
of the secrets in this family. Mike and Val invited us here for
dinner, and we’re acting like church mice.”

“
What secrets?” Candy
asked. Her dark eyes blazed a “shut up” to her brother.

“
Your
secrets,” Steve said.

Candy bristled.

“
Meg’s secrets.” Megan’s
head jerked up to look at Steve.

“
Hell, my own secrets,”
Steve said. “Fuck, did you know how abusive Trevor was?
Anyone?”