The Long Way Home (23 page)

His face went slack. “I didn’t mean to offend anyone,” he said, backpedalling. “Just wanted to help.”

“I know,” she said, her voice softer. “But we’re very capable. We got here on our own, and we can get back the same way.”

The group nodded in agreement, nobody pointing out that technically they didn’t get there on their own, since the car broke down and they had to be saved. No one mentioned that the ladies would have been completely sunk if not for the motorcyclists coming to the rescue.

“We’d have to take the rental car back,” Glenn said, “but that’s not a big deal.” He nudged Rita. “What do you think? I’m game.”

“You really don’t mind if I go?” Rita asked Jazzy, getting a sudden surge of guilt. She knew she wouldn’t like it if one of the other women changed the plan and left her in a bind. And the timing wasn’t the best now that Marnie would have the boy with her. Still, with Glenn here, the thought of getting in the car and just driving home was appealing.

“Of
course
I don’t mind,” Jazzy said. “I took a look at Marnie’s wallet. She’s got like four credit cards. We can rent a car as easily as anything. There’s no point in you sticking around here.” She made a shooing gesture. “Get out of here, lady. Why are you still hanging around?”

Marnie still felt under the influence, so she didn’t argue when Laverne said she’d take the first shift for the drive back. Before they took off, Laverne rooted through her Ziploc bag and found some over-the-counter medication to bring Troy’s fever down, and more pain medication for Marnie. Then she popped something in her own mouth. She called it a “pick-me-up.”

Marnie, once disapproving of Laverne’s pharmacy, now felt something more like gratitude. Really, who was she to judge? Maybe doctors in the United States were too strict about medication anyway. Whatever worked was her new philosophy. At least for the time being.

Troy took the left side of the backseat, curling up and resting his head on a pillow the camp had sent along with him. Marnie was on the other side—just an arm’s reach away, but close enough to check on him. Having both of them in the back was Laverne’s idea. They’d be out of the sun for the most part. The GPS told them it was a twelve-hour drive back to Mike and Beth’s house. The thought of twelve more hours in the car was almost more than Marnie could bear. But they needed to keep going. In her mind, the interstate was the yellow brick road, and Wisconsin, the Emerald City.

For someone who hadn’t driven in a long while before that morning, Laverne drove smoothly. Marnie relaxed once they made it to the freeway. There was something soothing about the hum of a car moving at top speed.

“Marnie?” Troy said, his voice slightly muffled by the pillow.

“Yes, Troy?”

“I miss my dad.”

This was not what she expected to hear. He missed Brian? Brian, who kept everyone at arm’s length? Brian the workaholic? She drew in a breath before answering. “What do you miss the most, hon?”

“Everything really.” Troy sounded like he was holding back tears, which made her want to cry herself. “He always had good advice if I had a problem. He never got mad like some dads. He always said, ‘Just do your best.’ And when I got good grades he’d say, ‘That’s the way to do it!’”

True enough, she thought.

“And remember how he always loved your cooking? He’d always eat like three helpings of your roasted vegetables. He said you made the best vegetables in the world.”

“Yes, he loved my roasted vegetables.”

“We were so happy,” Troy said miserably. “No one ever yelled or argued at our house. You and Dad always got along. I could do what I wanted.”

“Was there yelling at your mom’s house?” Marnie asked.

“There was nothing at my mom’s house,” he said, getting more upset with every word. “I’m not talking about my mom. I’m saying I miss Dad and how things were at
our
house.” He turned his head toward her for just a second and she saw him blink away tears.

“Okay, I’m sorry I interrupted,” she said. “I should have let you talk.”

“I just miss my dad is all,” he said, and settled back into the pillow sniffing.

Memories came flooding back to Marnie. Brian in the kitchen, lifting lids from pans on the stovetop in anticipation of a good meal. Brian writing checks for charities at Christmastime. Brian reorganizing the garage. None of it benefitted her, but she saw now that even with all his faults, Brian had good qualities. He was a decent man, a reliable guy, and apparently a good-enough dad to Troy. She’d been too busy feeling shortchanged to acknowledge the loss. “I know you miss your dad,” she said. “I’m sorry that you’re having such a hard time, Troy.”

“I missed you and all my friends too. My mom said I shouldn’t bother you. She said you probably had another job with another family.” His voice quavered. “She thought you were a housekeeper.”

“I know. There was a misunderstanding.”

“When you called I was really mad at you.”

“I could tell.”

“You didn’t even try to stop my mom from taking me to Las Vegas,” he said. “I kept waiting for you to say something, but you never did. And you could have, if you wanted to.”

“It wasn’t really up to me,” Marnie said. “But you’re right. I should have tried harder.”

He drew in a big breath. “I’m not mad at you anymore.”

“That’s good,” Marnie said. “When we get back, you’ll have to give Matt a call so you guys can get together. What do you think?”

“Okay.” He shifted and stretched so that his legs pushed against her, but she didn’t object.

“Get some sleep, Troy. It’s going to be a long drive.”

On the expressway a few states away, the Crown Vic headed eastward with Glenn at the wheel and Rita next to him, enjoying the view. “It’s so nice to have someone else do the driving,” she said.

“Does that mean you’re not going to take a turn?” he asked.

“Oh no, I’ll definitely do my part. It’s just nice not to have to do all of it.”

“So, are you sorry you went?” Glenn faced forward. The road ahead had his full visual attention, but his hearing, Rita knew, was tuned in for her response.

“No, I’m not sorry I went, but I’m not sure it accomplished anything.”

“Was it supposed to? Accomplish something, I mean?”

“I thought it might.” Rita fiddled with the sun visor, putting it up, then thinking better of it and lowering it again. “At first it was an adventure. I thought I’d help Marnie out in visiting with her stepson. And then it was exciting when the deer surrounded Jazzy at the rest stop. I was so happy to know she got a message from Melinda.” She stole a look in his direction to get his reaction, but his face was still. “I know you’re skeptical, but I could
feel
her. I was so hopeful that something miraculous would happen. But then the car broke down and it was stressful. And then seeing Davis dredged up all kinds of terrible feelings.” She thought of herself as a peaceful person, but the sight of Davis caused something deep and dark to come to the surface. If she’d had a gun in her hands, she’d have pulled the trigger and killed him right in the parking lot. “All kinds of terrible feelings. I almost think it would have been better if I’d never seen him at all. To know for certain that he’s out there…” She shuddered. “Officer Dietz said she’d have him questioned, but that if he denied knowing anything, there wasn’t much else they could do. Since I haven’t heard anything, I’m assuming that’s what happened.” Just talking about it brought back feelings of sadness. She turned on the radio, looking for a good song, but after a minute of trying and not finding one, she lost interest and shut it off.

In the silence that followed, Glenn spoke up. “I know you wanted more out of this trip than you got, but from my perspective, I think it’s good you went,” he said matter-of-factly.

“You do?”

“Sure,” he said. “It took you out of your comfort zone. You made some new friends and had some new experiences.”

“Did I ever,” she said, a bit glumly.

“And it gave you the opportunity to miss me.”

Rita gave him a smile.

“And just look how it ended up,” he said, drumming his fingertips against the steering wheel. “Here I am on a weekday afternoon driving with my sweetheart instead of sitting at a desk. Tonight we’ll stop somewhere for a nice dinner, and then we’ll stay at a nice hotel.” He smirked. “And you know I always get lucky at hotels.”

She laughed. “Well, we’ll see about that.” But there really wasn’t any question about it. He always did get lucky at hotels.

Jazzy decided to take charge of the last leg of the trip. She knew Marnie and Laverne would be rolling into Colorado in the wee hours of the morning, way too late to show up at Mike and Beth’s house. She came up with an alternate plan, but since she knew Marnie would never go for it, all the scheming had to be done through Laverne.

While the trio was at a rest stop in Utah—Marnie busy in the bathroom, and Troy getting Doritos from a vending machine, Laverne and Jazzy plotted over the phone.

“Here’s the deal,” Jazzy said. “Rita’s husband flew in earlier today, and the two of them took the car and drove back to Wisconsin. She didn’t abandon us. I told her she should go,” she added, just to clarify. “She really wanted to go home, so I said we’d manage on our own.”

“So how’re we going to do that?”

Jazzy could picture the way Laverne’s face scrunched up when she was puzzled. The thought made her smile. “I’m making an executive decision,” Jazzy said. “This is what we’ll do. You meet me at the Marriott hotel near the Denver airport. You can find it using the GPS. We’ll all stay there tonight and fly out tomorrow. I checked and there are flights available. Hopefully they’ll still be available when we’re ready to book them.”

“So we’re not driving back?”

Her voice was so incredulous that Jazzy almost laughed out loud. “Nope, we’re flying home. My brother said he can pick us up from the airport.”

Laverne said, “Well, isn’t that something! I’ve never been on a plane before, you know.”

“I figured as much.”

“I don’t know if Marnie is going to go for it though. You know she’s got that thing—that fear of flying.”

“I know,” Jazzy said. “But it’s going to be fine. Trust me.”

Several hours later, Jazzy and Carson sat on a couch in the lobby of the Marriott, waiting for the other three to arrive. Jazzy had already booked two rooms and left her suitcase in one of them. Beth and Mike had dropped them off at the hotel; the plan was that Carson would pick up his car from the ladies and say his good-bye from there, but he didn’t seem too eager for that to happen.

“I can’t believe you’re going back tomorrow,” he said forlornly, resting his arm on the back of the couch behind her shoulders. He was respectful, almost shy, surprising since they’d had a pretty intense make-out session at his parents’ house. But this was the lobby of a Marriott hotel, within earshot and eyesight of the two employees at the front desk and anyone who walked through the front door. So he held back. “I just found you and now you’re leaving.”

Jazzy felt it too, a kind of magnetic pull that would make it hard for them to be apart. Strange that they’d known each other for such a short period of time and she’d already memorized the angles of his face, the shape of his beautiful ears, the way he could speak volumes with his hands, his lopsided grin. They’d talked for hours, and he’d shared so much about himself, but she wanted to know more. There were stories from childhood right up through college left unsaid. Maybe she’d never know it all, but she’d know more as time went by. She was looking forward to that. “I
am
going back tomorrow,” she said. “So believe it. I have to get back to work, and I have a few other details to arrange. But don’t worry, we’ll be in touch.”

Truthfully, Jazzy wanted nothing more than to stay in Colorado for the rest of the summer, but she sensed that she needed to pull back. There would be time for this relationship to unfold. Plenty of time.

“What kind of details are we talking about?” Carson asked, moving in his lips close to her ear. “Anything involving me?”

“It might involve you eventually,” Jazzy said, suppressing a smile. “But for now I have to talk to a woman about a job.”