“Love you, too,” I replied, then nodded my head toward the steps leading up to our rooms. “Now, go. I’ll handle her. You stay locked in there.”
Addy gave me one last pleading look, but I pointed to the stairs, firm in my decision. Finally, she turned and quietly made her way to the bedroom that had once been a small office for my father. We had another guest bedroom that Addy could have been given, but my mother had moved her into the smallest room in the house. I often wondered if it was because it was the farthest room from mine.
With her door closed and locked behind her, I made my way to the kitchen to face my drunk and insane mother.
My mother’s hair was washed and freshly rolled. She was wearing a sundress and a pair of heels while she stirred something on the stove. There was another bottle of tequila sitting on the bar to her left, and a wineglass beside it full of the liquor. She was singing some old song she called her and Dad’s song. I knew tonight was going to be a bad one.
“What are you cooking?” I asked, hoping that distracting her from Addy’s absence would work. Announcing that I was home would only remind her of Addy, and lately, she hated Addy more and more.
She spun around. The black mascara running down her very made-up face wasn’t surprising. When she drank tequila, she usually cried. A lot. “Chicken and dumplings. The baby loves chicken and dumplings,” she said, smiling.
Shit. She was back on the baby thing again. Ever since Dad had a baby with the secretary, Mom would sometimes pretend that she and Dad had a baby, too. It was so fucking wacked. I’d told Dad and asked him to get Addy and me out of the house and get Mom some help, but he always blew me off. He didn’t believe it was this bad. Yet he never came home to see just how crazy his wife had become. All Dad did was pay the bills and keep money in Mom’s account.
“I’ve got homework. I’ll leave you to it. You and the baby enjoy the chicken and dumplings,” I said. If I played along, she usually stayed calm. It was when I tried to snap her out of it that she lost her shit.
“We will. You’ll come have some with us when Dad gets home,” she called out behind me.
“Yeah, sure will.”
Then the sobbing began, and I froze. Shit. This never ended well.
Rose
I wasn’t a quitter, but I’d thrown down the gauntlet last night in my moment of anger, and now I had to stick with it. Then I had to find another job. Pulling up to the restaurant, I turned and looked at Franny. I had to take her to her dentist appointment today. “You stay here. Lock the doors. I’ll be right back,” I told her, before getting out.
“I wish I could come inside and see it,” she said, studying the outside of the place. It really was a nice building. Arthur Stout hadn’t cut any corners, that was for sure.
“I know, and I’m sorry. But it’s not a good time,” I explained. I didn’t want to tell her I was quitting. Not yet. I needed to find another job first. My little girl could be a worrier.
I closed the door and waited until she locked it, then headed for the entrance. I needed to drop off my letter of resignation. I figured I wouldn’t get a good reference from him anyway, but I still wanted to do this properly.
“Thought you were quitting,” Captain’s voice called out, and I spun around to see him getting out of his truck. I hadn’t seen him parked there, but I’d been focused on my task at hand.
I held up my resignation letter. “I am. Just came to give you this.” I kept my spine stiff. He had no idea of the hopes and dreams he had shattered. Not just mine but Franny’s. She’d never know her dad now, because I didn’t trust him to be the man she needed.
I couldn’t see his expression behind his sunglasses, but at this point, I didn’t care. I knew how detached and cold he was. He’d probably throw the paper into the trash as soon as he got inside and never think of me again.
“You sure you want to do this?” he asked, surprising me.
I paused. Why was he asking that? He’d been mad at me last night for something I hadn’t done. “You aren’t a fair boss. You don’t like me, and I’m not sure why. I work hard, and I try my best to be as professional as I can. But last night you were—”
“Wrong,” he finished for me. “I was wrong.”
I closed my mouth, then opened it again, before closing it one more time. I didn’t know what to say to that. I’d seen this side of Captain before, when he’d apologized about being hard on me when Franny was sick. But I hadn’t seen it since then.
“Listen, Rose, I’m not going to be here much longer. The place is open now, and I’ll be training the new manager over the next few weeks. We have a rub between us, but you’re a good worker. The place needs you. Just because we don’t . . . work well together, that doesn’t mean you won’t work great with the new guy. Stay. Give it a chance.”
He was leaving soon? What? “Where are you going?” I asked, completely ignoring the fact that he’d just asked me to stay.
He shrugged. “Don’t know yet. Just not here.”
It shouldn’t matter. But somehow it did. Quitting was one thing, but knowing where he was helped. I couldn’t change the fact that I wanted to know that River was safe and OK. I had made it through ten years of not knowing where he was, and every day I worried and hoped that he was happy.
Knowing he had become this man who was so different from the boy I had loved was hard, but at least I knew where he was. That he had family here. I wanted to have that peace. If he left, I’d lose that again. And just because my River had become Captain, that didn’t change the fact that I cared. I would always care, because I would always love River. He was a part of me.