Wanted (31 page)

Once we reached the garage of the house, it only appeared larger. I was intimidated, not only by the massiveness of the house and its grandness, but also by the surge of welcomers that rushed the SUV before it was even in park.

“It usually ain’t this bad.” Charlie tried to reach over me to open the door but forgot himself, clasping his torso and seething at the burst of pain.

“Are you okay?”

He nodded, but I could see how quickly the color left his face. “Are you?” His thumb brushed against my bruised cheekbone.

Before anything else could happen, a portly looking gentleman opened our door and stuck his head into the vehicle.

“Which one of you is hurt?” I recognized his dialect from either Jersey or New York—I would have to remember to ask later.

Polo started jumping and pointing at Charlie. “This one is! This one is!”

I got out of the way as quickly as I could. It wasn’t difficult to see that I was a fish out of water here, but I refused to make a nuisance of myself.

Among the greeters was a young woman with long dark hair and the healthy complexion of someone who might have spent just the right amount of time in the garden on a daily basis. She eyed me instantly with olive eyes that seemed to sparkle in the chaos.

“Oh, hi there!” She came at me with open arms that embraced, and a heavy but not entirely unpleasant perfume. “You must be Addie.” She forced my hand in hers and vicariously shook for the both of us. “I’m Elise—I’ve heard so much about you. You poor thing, I bet you’re just aching to get yourself cleaned up…”

I smiled and nodded, and although I didn’t want to be rude, my only real focus was on Charlie and I didn’t bother hiding it. From over her shoulder, I could see Yuri and Polo struggling to carry his weight while Charlie stubbornly struggled against them; calling them names and swearing.

I had become completely unaware she was still talking. “Excuse me. Um, just one second.”

I stepped away and used my hands to call out to the awkward bunch, “Charlie!”

He stopped his squirming and glanced back at me.

“Let them help you.”

His eyes darted from across the veranda. Before he could challenge them again, Yuri tripped him across the knee, forcing him to fall forward. I called out, but they managed to catch him before he fell flat on his face and carried him the rest of the way into the house.

“Wow.” Elise came up from behind me. “I’ve never seen him listen to anyone.”

The interior of the house was all high ceilings and pallid white walls. Crisp, blue marble countertops created an island in the circular kitchen, which led directly to a large open living area, where an array of large abstract paintings lined the walls.

“You—have a lovely home.” I crossed my arms over myself, feeling immediately out of place in such glamorous surroundings.

“Oh, thank you.” She put her arm around my shoulder in what I guessed was an attempt to alleviate some of my discomfort. “I can’t believe you’ve been on that terrible ship with those boys all week long! If that had been me, I would have lost my mind within hours.”

“It wasn’t so bad…” I glanced over at Charlie, who was hobbling to a room around the staircase. Though he continued to swear under his breath, he was no longer putting up the same fight as before, now allowing Yuri to take most of his weight on his injured side.

Elise saw the direction of my glance and laughed. “Benjamin mentioned you were a good sport. I’m happy you decided to come along. I’ve been hearing nothing else but about you all week long and I’ve just been on edge to meet you.”

“Oh umm…thank you?”

It was strange to be welcomed with such pleasantness. I suppose I had expected the same amount of bitterness I had received from Reid and Yuri. And while I had never had many female friends, Elise seemed to be genuinely friendly.

I followed them into another pallid white room that seemed to be fixed as a sort of guest room. The chestnut fringed dresser matched the bed frame and subsequent night stands, which had been decorated with matching blue vases filled with carnations of every color. In the doorway, I bit my lip while I watched the portly man put an IV into Charlie’s arm.

“I hate those things,” he grumbled.

I came up beside him and sat next to him on the bed. “Don’t be such a baby. This is your fault, you know. You said I got into trouble for not keeping my nose out of other people’s business, and then you turned around and did the same thing.”

He leaned and kissed my forehead. “That ain’t the same.”

“It’s exactly the same!”

“Nope.”

I broke first with a smile. I was too relieved to argue and he knew it. “The main thing is that everybody’s okay now.”

I looked up at the man who was administrating some kind of needle into the IV. “Everybody will be okay, right?” The fear was creeping through my voice and it made Charlie scoff.

“Hmm? Hmm? Yes? What, young lady? Yes, sorry about that.” He tapped at a bag of saline solution impatiently. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

Charlie found my expression even more amusing. “Its all right, Jimmy knows what he’s doing.”

Once the doctor had successfully managed to set up the IV, he gave Charlie a mild anesthetic, and warned that it would knock him out for a few hours.

At the mention of unconsciousness, Charlie clasped at my hand and enclosed it within his own. “You wanna hear something stupid?”

I rolled my eyes. “Always.”

Already his voice was beginning to fade out, “I-I’m kinda scared you ain’t going to be ‘round when I wake up.”

I smiled. Kissed his cheek. “Nothing is going to keep me away from you, remember?”

At the insistence of Elise, I followed her up the elliptical staircase, but only because she promised she would have me back down to Charlie within the hour.

As we walked down the hall with lush golden carpets and pale blue walls, she tangled my arm in hers like someone might a lifelong friend. I wondered how much she had been prepped for this messy situation or if she just took to being a hostess naturally.

“First of all, let’s get you something to wear. I was trying to picture myself in your shoes, stuck in that place without so much as a toothbrush! I just couldn’t do it, Addie. You do prefer Addie, yes? Or is it Adeline?”

“Addie is better, thanks.”

“Fair enough. I always like to ask because I know Benjamin wishes I would call him Ben like everyone else. Though to be honest, I started doing it just to get on his nerves. But now I can’t call him anything else.”

I laughed. “I like that very much.”

We walked through a large bedroom suite with the most delicate bronzed furniture and sponged painted walls. A light breeze tossed white curtains around an antique spinning wheel, not far from where a vase of sunflowers sat perched on a desk. I thought it all blended nicely together and again it made me glad to be on land. But the warmth of the room also reminded me of home and re-ignited the homesickness I was feeling for my family. I was back in the country now, still three thousand miles away from home, but on the bright side, I was that much closer.

“I have so many things…” She opened a large walk-in closet where a thousand different garments seemed to lay. “Honestly, I’ve never even worn half of these things, but shopping is my worst weakness.” She seemed giddy as she spoke; it was hard not to be entranced by her warmth. “And really, since I’ve had Tyler, I don’t see myself wearing any of these things again. It doesn’t feel very ‘Mommy-ish’.”

I looked at Elise as she piled various items of clothing on my arm. She was slender in figure, but her red sundress revealed the fresh curves of motherhood that wouldn’t have been given away if she hadn’t mentioned it.

She shooed me towards one of the massive bathrooms with my hands overflowing.

“Now you go along now and freshen yourself up. Take all the time you want and please help yourself to anything you might need, okay?”

“That’s really generous of you, Elise, but you don’t have to—”

“I insist now, go, go!”

Before I could protest any more, she politely pushed me into the bathroom and shut the door. I took the moment to smell my hair and the skin beneath my arms. I didn’t think I smelled or anything, but maybe my perception had been altered by my time on the sea.

Like everything else, the bathroom was a grand design in granite and marble. Along with the antique tub, there was an oversized shower which practically begged to be used. Once I took a sniff of the small ivory soaps, it wasn’t hard to do as instructed and take my sweet time scrubbing every inch of me. I hadn’t realized it until then, but my knees and elbows were layered with light patches of dirt and grime—blood, mine and Charlie’s, had dried on various parts of my body. I watched the drain swallow the scalding hot water, dirt, blood, and stray hair that fell from my head.

I wrapped a large white towel around myself and reveled in its lushness. The room was overwhelmed by barrels of steam that I had to wipe from the mirror before I could see any sort of reflection of myself. Some new bruises had formed over the old, but other than that, none of it made any sense to me. I still looked about as plain as any other girl. Throughout the week I had gotten some sun, which seemed to strengthen my complexion a little. But everything else was still the same: eyes, hair, lips; and for whatever reason, Charlie seemed quite fond of it all.

From everything Elise gave me, I selected a simple navy blue dress with a beige ribbon just above the waist. Just as she said, it still had the tags on it and I was reluctant to remove them, but I enjoyed the feel of the cotton-silk too much to pass it up.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, Elise was sitting on the divan, cooing at a bundle in her arms. For a moment I watched them, fearing I might interrupt if I made my presence known. The little feet within the blanket kicked and squirmed as she tickled them with the tips of her manicured nails. The bundle within the blanket giggled at the attention and its tiny fingers reached out for Elise.

“Hi.” I walked over and sat beside her.

I felt like a useless piece of furniture, but Elise was a face of smiles. As I peeked over her shoulder, I could see the face of the little boy and instantly remembered one of Charlie’s many sketches. I smiled at the thought; it was nice to know he was just downstairs and relatively safe.

“He’s beautiful,” I told her. I could faintly see the same nose that belonged to Ben and tuffs of the crisp dark hair that belonged to Elise. “How old is he?”

“Just four months now.” Elise gazed at him with the utmost affection. “He’s growing so quickly it feels strange to me,” she admitted. “On the other hand, it’s hard to believe my world ever even existed without him.”

“I’ve seen a lot of sketches of him. But I didn’t realize…”

She laughed and hoisted Tyler so he was over her shoulder. “Yes, Ty loves posing for his Uncle Charlie.”

I smiled awkwardly, remembering how the photograph-like drawings of Tyler were so easily demolished by Wallace and what he had said when shoving me into the confession booth. Wallace’s only regret at the time was that he couldn’t have Elise and Tyler there, too.

She eyed me curiously but I pretended not to notice. Instead, I focused on the little eyes that bugged out at me, surrounded by all of his pudginess. I couldn’t even begin to imagine hurting either of them, let alone being angry or vengeful enough to even have those thoughts.

“Are you feeling well, Addie?” Elise crossed her legs and swayed her feet against the divan.

“Yes, um…I’m fine.”

“May I ask you something a little personal?”

I nodded, only imagining the other wide assortment of questions she must have been asking herself. I had, after all, neglected to mention to Ben Wallace’s comment about his wife and son. But Elise seemed like an intelligent person—she had to wonder if she and Ty were also in danger.

“Why are you here exactly?”

“I’m sorry for imposing,” I offered. “It was never my intention to be a bother to anyone.”

She waved me away. “Oh please! You’re no bother at all, besides it’s nice to have company. I meant why did you come along with the boys after the ship got to port? I have a vague idea of what happened from what Benjamin told me, and the news, but I’m still not entirely sure I understand…”

“I wanted to be with Charlie,” I cut in, “and he wanted me with him. I didn’t really think much beyond that.”

She lit up with excitement. “Awesome! I’m so glad!”

“Huh?”

She put the baby down in the bassinet and strolled to the dresser.

“Well,” she brought back over a hand brush and a few other items I couldn’t see. “Benjamin said a couple of days ago that Charlie was completely undone by you, but frankly, I just didn’t believe him. I’m glad that not only was he right, but you seem to be quite taken, too.”