Cake (22 page)

That same night, Trent and Dray appear offering sympathy and any assistance to my family. I watch my parents talk to each of them, thanking them for coming. I don’t move from her bedside, and I really can’t deal with either one just yet. While staring at my aunt, I thank them for coming and remain where I’m at. The only time Madison leaves my side is to walk them out. Days later, I found out that Dray and Trent spent the first two nights in hard hospital chairs, staying close in case I needed them.

On the third day, she finally wakes up with me sitting right beside her. She smiles, acknowledging my presence, and I return my own heartfelt smile. Over the next twenty-four hours, she gains strength, and her strong spirit returns demanding that she return to her home. Leaving the hospital with her dying will probably be the hardest thing I will ever do in my life. It’s her wish to be at home, but my parents and myself, believe that hospitals are where the sick need to be. It goes against everything inside me to see her leave. It’s almost if she is going home to suffer, even though I know that’s not the case.

Once my family and I have her settled in at her home, I go in to check if she is okay. I find her sitting up in bed as I stand in her doorway to stare at her. My weary heart can finally rest seeing her looking almost happy.

“Go home and get some sleep, Kylie,” her frail voice pleads.

Yawning, I answer, “How about I just use your guest room?”

“Child, come here and sit for a spell.” She pats the empty space beside her on the bed.

I walk over and gently sit down. Reaching for my hand, she pats it.

“My mother went back and forth like this for such a long time. I loved being able to be with her, but sometimes, I also felt like the world was moving on without me. I resented not her, but the sickness for taking me away from living my life.”

“I don’t feel that way.”

“I know you don’t, Honey. I just don’t want it for you. You can spend as much time with me as you like. I’m not going to stop you now, but you can go home to your bed and get a decent sleep every night. Take a minute and allow yourself to breathe.”

The tears that I’ve kept from her overlap my eyes. I don’t want to leave and miss... I don’t want to leave. Or sleep. Or blink. I’ll miss...

“Shh,” she says comforting me. “You are overly tired. Lie down here.”

Lying down beside her, I place my head in her lap as I hiccup from my cries. She brushes my hair with her hands, comforting me.

“God never gives us more than we can handle, Kylie. Please try not to fear what may happen tomorrow because the same God who is with you and cares for you today will take care of you every day. He will either shield you from the pain and suffering, or will give you beautiful strength to bear it.”

“Do you believe that?” My voice comes out in a childlike manner.

She pauses, softly replying, “Yes. It’s the only way I can explain my sixty years on this earth.”

Reaching for her hand, I hold tight. “I love you, Aunt Leigh.”

“I love you too, Child. Forever and always.”

“Forever and always,” I repeat back to her, letting sleep dull my emotions.

The next day, I return home to shower, change, and check on the store in exactly that order. While in the hospital, Madison offered to take Jonsie. Evidently, the story goes he went ballistic when she tried to retrieve him from my apartment. Somehow, Trent ended up with him and says he’ll keep him for as long as I need.

Thinking of Trent, I think of Dray. He has an away game this week and is out of town, so even if I was around, I wouldn’t see much of him. Hearing the chirp of my phone, I glance at my incoming text message.

Trent – I know you’re busy. Would love to come visit Aunt Leigh. Call me or text. Jonsie misses you. :)

Moments later, another text arrives.

Trent – So do I.

Smiling to myself, I take a deep breath. I’ll talk to Aunt Leigh about him possibly visiting. I’ve told her everything that happened. I was hesitant talking about Dray with her, but I’m glad I did. She assured me that I’m young and to follow my heart or my hooch, depending on which one is more sensible that day. God, I love my aunt. The only warnings she provided were that I will probably lose Trent should he find out about Dray and that Dray will more than likely drop me if I become serious with Trent. So be sure of my situation, before it all goes to shit.

Walking into the store, dressed down in my casual wear, everyone smiles. Martha is with customers, so I chat up a couple of regular shoppers. Afterwards, I walk back to my office to see what needs to be done. I can tell that Leo is gone because there are stacks of mail which he normally handles. I hope his buying trip goes great, but I’ll be glad when he’s back.

After almost a week away, I power up my laptop and am sent into shock at the first email I open. It’s a picture of Nick and me when we had lunch on the cover of a national gossip magazine. The headline asks if I’m his new girlfriend. They have photos of us walking arm in arm when we were pretending for my employees as we left the store. We are laughing and looking at one another almost lovingly. The pictures are misleading because it was never like that between us – at all. It’s just the angle.

Reading the little snippet, it refers to me as a sweet Southern Belle who owns a high-end boutique named Decadent Darling. Free advertising is the only positive to this. OH! MY! GOD! It goes on to say that I have also been linked recently to NFL superstar Dray Savage and questions which one I will pick.

Dreading it, I Google myself. Instantly, the search engine pops up with picture after picture of me. Most all are at least flattering. Scrolling down, I see pictures of Nick and Dray. There are tons of articles in print and online detailing my love life or the lack thereof. This is crazy, but it doesn’t bother me as much as it might have months ago. Who cares? As long as the people who it could possibly hurt know the truth, I can live with it.

“Well, if it isn’t Slutty McSlutterson,” Mads says, breezing into my office. She drops in the chair opposite my desk and leans forward to look at my laptop. “Oh,” she states. “I wasn’t referring to that. Trust me, I know all about that. I am referring to your whoring ways with Dray Savage.”

“Hey to you too,” I reply in greeting. Shutting my laptop, I lean back to look at her. “First, I need to say thank you for being there for me.” Taking a deep breath, I continue, “Second, I’m sorry. I should never interfere in your love life. I want you to know that I didn’t do it for Nick. I thought I was doing it for you. I love you, and I had some unfair predisposed ideas about Lil Rip, and I didn’t give him a chance. Sorry.”

“Are you done?” She acts like I didn’t just spill my heart two seconds ago.

“Yes.”

“Okay. Good. So, I talked to your Mom and we are going to have a girls sleep over with Aunt Leigh if she is feeling up to it on Saturday. You are in charge of the booze. Your mom is on food duty, and I’ll bring the music and strippers.”

“What?” I burst out laughing.

“Okay, you’re right. We’ll fight over the music. So you bring the booze and music, and I’ll stick to the strippers.” When she finishes, she stands to walk to the door.

“Wait!” I yell and stand at the same time. “No strippers of any kind.” I can’t help but laugh. “And that’s it? You aren’t going to grant me forgiveness or at least make me beg for it? What about Nick? Aren’t you going to tell me what happened that night?”

Stopping, she looks back at me. “Damn if I can’t bring strippers. Who doesn’t love a stripper? Everybody gets cheery around strippers, and strippers make the world go ‘round. Regarding your stint as a prison warden, I promised you that I wouldn’t get mad, and I keep my promises. I may need a few days to process, but my word is golden. Last, you just said that you wish you didn’t interfere in my love life, so consider that wish granted. We won’t talk about it. Laters, Babe.” She blows me a kiss and walks out.

Well, that’s my Mads in full-effect, you gotta love her. I check back in with Martha to see if she needs me before leaving, which she assures me she doesn’t. Walking to my car, I call to see if Aunt Leigh would mind Trent coming over. She actually insists that he does. Laughing, I hang up and dial his number.

“Jonsie is unavailable, but he sends me to speak on his behalf.”

I laugh and start to answer when I see my car.
BITCH
and
WHORE
are keyed on the hood in large letters.

“Oh, God!”

“Kylie, what is it?” His voice is full of worry.

“Someone keyed my car. Let me call the police, and I’ll call you back.”

“Call me back,” I hear him say before I hang up.

Who would do this? This is crazy. I dial the police and wait for them to send someone over. Officer Chandler arrives almost thirty minutes later looking like a thin Santa Claus in a suit. He takes my statement only asking if I know who would have done this. A jealous lover or anyone I’ve had problems with lately? I start to say no when I think about that conversation between Lil Rip and me. Then, my thoughts go to Jason Silas staring at me across from the club. No! Surely not! I don’t say anything because it sounds crazy in my head, which I know means it sounds crazy out loud.

Officer Chandler says that the police will look into it. It could just be an act of kids getting into mischief. I cut my eyes to him at this point because I actually think “kids” would have a better imagination and maybe tag the car instead. He proceeds to instruct me to take more safety precautions just in case this is a personal attack against me. Jeez, you think?

As the officer drives away, Trent pulls up in one of Dray’s sports cars. I know that he could care less what the make or model is; he’s all about functionality. Jumping out of the car, he rushes to embrace me. I allow his arms to swallow me whole. Was I trembling the entire time Office Chandler was here because, now, my teeth vibrate from my full body shakes?

“It’s going to be okay, Kylie,” he says against the top of my head.

He holds me tight as we stand there. Who would want to do this to me? After this past week, I am emotionally spent, and the tears just will not come; however, it feels like my body has been run over by a three ton truck.

“Give me your insurance information.”

I happen to have it in my hand with my phone, so without moving my head from his shoulders, I lift the card I grip between my fingers. He slides it out of my hand along with my cellphone.

“Is your family with Aunt Leigh?”

I nod my head.

“Here is the plan. I am going to call your family and make sure everything is okay, and then, you have two choices.” At this point, I lean back to look into his compassion filled eyes.

“I’ll take you back upstairs and stay with you. Let you catch up on some sleep that I know you need. Or, you and I will head down to our little bar to have a couple of drinks.”

“Bar. I don’t want to sleep.”

“Good answer.”

He leads me to Dray’s car and proceeds to help me fasten my seatbelt.

Through the windshield, I see him make the phone call before getting into the car.

“Aunt Leigh is fine. I didn’t tell them anything about what happened other than we decided to have some lunch.” He laughs, “God, I love that woman. She told me to order a bottle of whiskey and demand that you drink it down. I think she is a little intuitive when it comes to you.”

“Yes, she always has been,” I answer, turning to look out the window.

What will I do without her? Again, no tears rise because I think I’ve cried them all away. That doesn’t stop the pain though. I hear Trent next to me talking to the insurance company and then arranging to have my car towed. I see the corner bar and smile. Trent and I found it years ago while walking around downtown one night. We drank ourselves into a spectacular oblivion, and it’s been our spot ever since.

After parking, we both get out and walk towards the entrance. Trent comes up beside me and smoothly joins our hands together. He’s done it plenty in the past, but if feels different now - not so platonic or innocent. The bar is decorated like an old country barn which completely clashes with the business suits having lunch. The juke box in the corner plays new and old country music with Kacey Musgraves’s “Blowin’ Smoke” filtering in the background now.

Trent leads me to a booth in the back. I slide across the seat, expecting him to do the same across from me. Instead, he glides in next to me.