Cherry Bomb (26 page)

There was a shuffle on the stairs and then
Noah’s boisterous voice filled the house. “Cool pizza.”

“Yellow Rushroom. My favorite,” Henry called
down from the top of the stairs.

I peeked up at him and his tangled, nappy
mass of bed hair as he slid down the banister. That boy was going
to be the death of me. ‘Mommy, we never have pizza.”

I held up the receipt which was quickly
snatched from my hand by Noah. “Drake sent it. I didn’t think it
was a mom thing.”

“Is Drake coming? Maybe he will bring Grace,”
Henry said. He had finally bounced in the living room and held out
his hands to hold the pizza. I placed them in his arms and warned
him to be careful.

“Put them on the table, doodle bug.” Ruby
pointed over to the kitchen table.

Henry stood on his tip toes, placed the pizza
boxes on the table, and let out a sigh of relief as if those boxes
weighed a thousand pounds.

I opened up the fridge and took out two juice
boxes and handed one to each boy then twisted Henry around by his
shoulders. “Now buddy, you can eat all the pizza you want but first
you’re taking a bath.”

It had been one week, two days, and six hours
since a pizza had been delivered to my door. The last sign Drake
Hart had even darkened my life. Those eyes, the color of the
Caribbean Sea, flashed in my mind and the pain broke through the
numbness I had let set in. I believe it was his stare that first
captured my heart. A heart I freely gave away, and I wasn’t even
sure if I would ever see it again.
Get it together. You're a
grown woman, Cherry, not some love struck teenager.
I might’ve
been a grown woman with kids but a part of me had been love
struck.

My kids
. True to her word, Ruby had
not mention Drake again. However, I didn’t get so lucky with Henry.
Not one of the past nine days has he not asked if Drake was coming
over. But hard as it was to hear Henry mention Drake, it was the
look of despair that came over Noah’s face every time the name
Drake was uttered that pulled at my broken heart. He heard those
horrible words spew from his father’s lips, words no doubt he
understood. But just like he did with everything that concerned his
dad he went tight lips and chafed inwardly.

A tap on the bedroom door knocked me from my
much needed solitude.

“Can I come in?” Ruby said and poked her head
in the room. I knew this day was coming. I had seen her eyes light
up more than once and knew she had a question pop in her head. A
question I was sure I didn’t want to answer. I was still trying to
deal internally myself.

She cleared her throat. “Mom, I hate this.
Knowing you’re hurting and I can’t do anything to help you.”

“Baby, I’m okay. Plus, it’s not your job to
help me.”

“Yeah, it is. My whole life you have done
anything to make me happy. Even live with the ass I'm force to call
dad.”

“Don't talk about your dad like that.”

“Mom, we both know it’s true. He hasn’t even
called to check on Henry since the accident. He’s too busy with his
business in Raleigh,” she said and stopped picking at her nail beds
to look up at me. “Mom, please call him.”

She wasn’t talking about her dad; she was
talking about Drake. We both knew that. But nine days with not a
word spoke louder than any phone call.

I tucked her hair behind her ear. I use to
love playing with her hair. I believe it brought me more comfort
than it ever did her. “I’ll think about it. Now you need to go to
bed. I've got to work tomorrow.”

She stood up and started to the door but
paused to peek over her shoulder. “I love you the most.”

“Cheater, that’s my line.”

It got a giggle out of Ruby. I savored the
sound. Laughter had been in short supply a few days too long in
this household.

She closed the door behind her, and I
collapsed on the bed. I didn’t even pull back the covers. It was
already one a.m. and I had to be a work at ten in the morning.

Rather it had been a blanket fort or under
the bed when I was small and lived with my mom, to the club and
running now, I had always soothed myself by hiding. But there was
no hiding from this pain. It was a hurt so intense it had the power
to break the strongest of men.

I didn’t love. I didn’t give my heart to
anyone. Now I knew why. Watching what I had wanted to be my future
slip from my grasp before it was truly even mine was a hurt worse
than any physical pain I wielded in the club. When our lives
intertwined, I changed. I became a man capable of loving. Just one
glimpse of her was all it took. When Billy tossed her picture on
that desk, I fathomed a life with her. A life that had already
crashed and burned. After all, sinners didn't get a chance at
happiness.

I had been driving for ten straight hours,
trying to get perspective on what the next step should be. I was
broken, pissed, erratic, and wild.

I didn’t call my dad before I left town. I
had to finish the job I set out to do the first time I ever got a
glance of Cherry. I might not ever be able to hold her again, but
the man I wanted to burn in Hell for all fucking eternity would pay
for every ounce of pain he had put her through.

I pulled into my father’s drive. I should’ve
called and informed him of what I had been doing, but I couldn’t
bring myself to talk about it. It only reminded me of what I had
lost. What I never expected to find. What I was not even sure I
truly ever had.

I gulped back a bottle of Gentleman Jack then
threw the small bottle into the glove box. Before I had a chance to
get out of the car, Katie was already knocking on the window. I
rolled it down and smiled at her.

“I counted one . . . two . . . three . . .
four . . . five . . . six . . . seven . . . eight . . . nine days.
I got scared.”

It was a preconceived misconception that all
people with Down syndrome were always happy. But our Katie
experienced every emotion. She got excited when she met someone
new, she got bashful when someone’s touch was unprovoked, she got
sad and pouted when I left for too many days, on a few occasions
she has even cried. This was one of those times. Tears poured down
her cheeks.

I had been so wrapped up in the idea of
exposing that scum’s every lie, I had forgotten the one who had
always depended on me.

I climbed out of the car and gripped Katie by
the shoulders. “I was working, Soda pop.”

She shook her head, violently. “No, Billy
didn’t know.”

I had never witness Katie being that upset.
Not even when she was dealing with the actions of our mom. I had
finally been successful with one thing in my life, destroying
everyone I cared about.

“It was a special job. I drove all day to get
to you. I haven’t even gone to my house yet. I came here to see you
and Grace. I’m going to stay the night with you then take my girls
for waffles in the morning.”

“Drakie,” Grace said and came bolting from
the house. Without slowing, she leaped in my arms. Luckily, I
caught her. One day I was not going to be so fortunate. “Where have
you been? Mommy is sad.”

“Sorry, Soda pop,” I said and kissed her
forehead. “I’m here now.”

“Holy hell, son. Where have you been?”
Jerry’s voice called out as he came around from the back yard.

“Tying up some loose ends. I can’t answer any
more questions, right now.”

I placed Grace back on her feet and told her
to go pick out a movie for us to watch. Kissing Katie on the
forehead, I whispered, “Let me go talk to dad then I’ll be in for
popcorn and a movie.”

I watched her walk back in the house, her
head down onto her chin, shoulders slouched. I would have to work
to reassure her that I wouldn’t leave her again like that, but
first I had a bigger problem on my hands.

I walked to the backyard and fell back onto a
chaise lounge, gripping the armrests. The pain had slammed me
again. The parts I had managed to bury came rushing back when I saw
Katie hurting. Her eyes mirrored Cherry’s when she begged me to say
James was lying. I couldn’t. I didn’t have much to offer but I
could give her the truth.

“Are you going to tell me what the hell
you’ve been doing?” Jerry asked and sat down around the patio table
closest to me.

He was not the man who fathered me, but he
had been the only dad I had ever known. He was there for me and
Katie when no one else was. Jerry Hart was family, and had enough
sense to know this was all about Cherry Webb.

“She found out the way we came to know each
other. I went to North Carolina to finish up the work I was doing
on her husband,” I answered and stared out over the pool.

He popped the top of the beer bottle he was
holding. “Shit, son. How is she doing?”

Not good. I don’t know. God, I wish I
knew.
“I haven’t talk to her since . . . I needed to have solid
proof of everything.” I jerked the bottle out of his hand and
tipped it back.

“Don’t give up on her.” Jerry stood and
fisted my shoulder. “Come on, you have more than one woman to make
up too.”

Waking up to the sound of pure laughter and a
small hand tickling the sole of my foot, I moaned. I had stayed up
till one, watching the Corpse’s Bride. All was forgiven by Grace,
but I was not so lucky with Katie. It was the first time in Katie’s
life that she had held a grudge against me. I seemed to be having
that effect on the people I actually cared about lately.

“Oh, no, the tickle monster is in my bed,” I
said, trying my best to laugh.

Giggling, Grace took a nose dive under the
blanket, trying her damnest to hide.

In one swift motion, I yanked the covers back
and growled. Grace squealed, showcasing her missing two front
teeth, and had my nose in a death grip.

“Good morning, Gracie,” I said, sounding like
a squeaking chipmunk.

“Good morning to you, too,” she said, mocking
my voice.

Grace leaped in my arms. I cradled her and
showered her face with kisses. My little red-headed angel, if she
only knew how much I needed her.

Smacking my lips against her forehead, I
whispered, “I’ve got to do a little work then we will go get some
breakfast.”

Grace stared up at me, wide-eyed. “Pawpaw
said I could go but Mommy said she wasn’t going.” She jumped up and
took off down the hall, without another word.

I climbed out of bed, ran my fingers through
my hair, and headed over to the small desk in the corner of the
room. I picked up the manila envelope, containing everything James
had done over the years. I prayed the information didn’t drive a
steak farther into Cherry’s beautiful heart. Taking out a clean
sheet of paper, I took a seat at the desk.

Cherry,

What James said was true. I was paid to
either prove you were with someone else or sleep with you myself.
But as always, plans never go as planned. When I first saw the
pictures of you, I wanted to know you. I couldn’t figure out why.
No woman had ever given me those feelings before. Then I watched
you for three solid weeks. Just being near you silenced the demons
in my head. I got memorized by your voice, the way your hips moved
as you walked, the way you love your kids. Then we met. You fell at
my feet and ripped my heart from my chest all in one brief moment.
I’m different with you. I actually care about what you have to say,
how you feel, if you’re happy. I never cared before.

After knowing you, I couldn’t in my wildest
dreams figure out why someone would throw a love such as yours
away. So I started to look into James. The time I left for work,
this was what I was doing. I never left you. Shit, I’m bad at this.
I’m so sorry I didn’t call you. It killed me knowing it was going
to hurt you when you learned the truth. The guilt was overwhelming.
Now, I realize not calling hurt you even more. I’m so fucking
sorry.

What I learned was . . . God, I wanted to be
holding you when I told you this shit. He did cheat with Linda but
coerced her into the affair. He needed you to leave him but for
reasons he never wanted you to know. My beautiful soda pop, he did
buy a business in Raleigh, NC for his wife. Ten years ago, the
hospital hired a twenty-one-year-old research assistant by the name
of Brenda Taylor. James fell head over heels for her. They had
already been together two years when she announced she was
pregnant. James was going to leave you than but at the same time
you learned you were expecting Noah. James hated the idea of
walking away from his children, but most importantly, giving you a
cent of the money he believed was his. So he moved Brenda to
Raleigh, her hometown, and bought the pharmaceutical company for
her. It was her dream.

A week before Noah was born she gave birth
to a son, James Allen Webb Jr., JJ for short.

Though not a legal marriage, he viewed it as
a marriage in every sense of the word. He had lived this lie for
seven years until Brenda found out she was pregnant again and
demanded he leave you for good. By this time, you had Henry too.
James couldn’t stand the idea of giving up his sons to you. So he
conceived the idea he would get you to leave then frame you into
being an unfit mother. He even seduced your boss, Amy, to help him
out with his plans. She sent you to me. He wanted proof you were
fully submersed into an unfit lifestyle. Amy was even going to
falsify a drug test on you.

I am so sorry, baby. I would give anything
to have you in my arms when you learned the truth. All the
information you need to send to your lawyer is in the envelope.

If you need anything I will always be here
for you.

I love you, Drake