Making a Play Page 18

  That is if things are okay and she can get out of her house.

  That was the next text when I hadn’t responded yet. The fact she still hadn’t texted me concerned me. I wasn’t sure what was going on, or if she was just still asleep.

  I’ll let you know, I sent back before he could start hitting me with questions I didn’t know the answers to just yet. I found it hard to believe she was still sleeping.

  Don’t do anything stupid. Just 2 weeks until State. Don’t fuck up.

  I wasn’t responding to that text, but he knew I wouldn’t. He was being an ass. I finished off my lunch and cleaned up my mess, or my mother would have me in here cleaning the kitchen with a fucking toothbrush when she got home. I had made that mistake a few times. She made sure each time the punishment was worse. She was a small woman, but I feared her.

  When it was almost one and there had been no response, I made up my mind to get dressed and go to the damn Maclay house myself. I wasn’t scared of her dad, and I’d like a chance to get through to him that I wasn’t bad for his daughter. I wasn’t the guy he assumed I was. My skin color didn’t define me. I would spend forever making myself worthy of Aurora, and if I could just tell him that, then surely he’d believe me. He’d listen. I loved his daughter. I would do anything for her. The difference in our skin didn’t mean a damn thing. I could make him see this. He just needed to know how much she had changed me.

  Nahla was coming down the stairs with her face in her phone when I headed for the door.

  “Where you going?” she asked. Neither of our parents was home, and she hated staying here alone. Not because she was scared, but she was bored. I wasn’t taking her with me to do this, though.

  “To talk to Aurora’s dad,” I said without pausing.

  “Uh-oh, I heard about that.”

  I didn’t even ask how she had heard about it. I figured the whole town knew about it by this point. There had been enough witnesses to talk last night.

  “Lock the door behind me,” I called out, and closed it firmly.

  Now that I had decided to do this, I was ready. I didn’t like hiding from shit. I faced it and conquered it. I sent Aurora a text in case she was awake and had not been able to respond yet. I couldn’t think of why she wouldn’t, but I knew she had a reason.

  I’m on my way to your house. I’m going to talk to your dad.

  After sending it, I pulled my truck out of the drive and headed to her house. My dad wouldn’t agree with this. I already knew that. But I didn’t care, and if he knew I was doing it, he wouldn’t stop me. He’d taught me to be a man and handle my problems. That was what I was doing. Aurora’s dad just needed to get to know me. See I was serious. I respected his daughter. Since I hadn’t told her I loved her yet, I wouldn’t tell her dad that.

  I didn’t think he’d react to that as well as my dad had. He may send her to live with nuns. Smirking at the ridiculous idea, I turned the radio up and cleaned my head of anything else. I could do this. There was no reason to be nervous. I spent the short trip with an ongoing pep talk and glancing at my phone for a response from Aurora.

  When I pulled into her drive, there was still nothing. Hunter’s truck was in the drive, but I didn’t see her father’s SUV. Didn’t mean it wasn’t in the garage, though. Regardless, I knew someone was home. And if Aurora wasn’t responding, I needed to know why. There was always the chance someone had told her some of the bad shit I’d done in the past.

  That made me sick to my stomach. She’d eventually hear things, but I was hoping when she did, she’d let me explain. Tell my side of the story. Which wasn’t that great. Basically, I was a jerk. I’d messed up a lot. If I’d only known I’d meet her one day, I would have been much different.

  I wasn’t even to the front door when it opened, and I saw Hunter standing there. He looked serious. He definitely didn’t look like he had good news to tell me. It was the exact opposite. That made me pause in my step. What was I about to walk into? Was she mad at me? Was her brother here to stop me from getting to her? Fuck, I hated this. Not knowing.

  “She’s gone.” He said the words before I reached the door.

  I stopped completely then. “Where?” I asked, thinking maybe she’d gone with her dad somewhere today to talk. Was he not letting her text? He possibly took her phone away while they had one-on-one time.

  “To our grandmother in North Carolina.”

  That took a minute. I stared at him, thinking I’d heard him incorrectly. Why had he sent her back there? Was it where she had lived with her mother? Was he leaving her there?

  Denver was there.

  “What?” I asked, wanting to be wrong. Wanting the fear now clawing inside my chest ready to erupt and cripple me to go away.

  “Dad took her to the airport early this morning. Put her on a plane.”

  My knees felt weak, and the next intake of air was difficult. It was like I had been punched in the stomach or, worse, I’d been hit with an illegal tackle by a defensive lineman leading with his head straight to my gut. I couldn’t talk. Breathing was hard enough. Motherfucking North Carolina was too far.

  “He took her phone before she woke up. Read her texts. Then packed her bags. I didn’t think he’d be this extreme. Neither did Aurora. We were wrong.” He said it as if he was apologizing.

  “She’s coming back, right?” I was grasping now. He couldn’t just leave her there. If that had been an option, she would never have been brought here. Right?

  “Yeah, Gran won’t be able to keep her. It’s just for the Thanksgiving break. Dad said Aurora needed space from . . . you . . . and to see her old friends.” He said it with reluctance. He wasn’t saying Denver’s name, but it was there, hanging in the silence. We both stood for several moments, letting his words sink in. Then he said, “I’m sorry. I can tell you care about her. I told Dad as much, but it didn’t matter. He said she’s confused.”

  I took a step back and felt white-hot anger well up inside me. “Because I’m fucking black? That’s it? My skin color means that much to the man?” I was yelling. I didn’t care. Let the neighbors hear me. Nothing mattered right now. Not one goddamn thing. All that mattered was on a plane headed northeast.

  Hunter didn’t respond, but I could see the shame on his face. He wasn’t like his dad. I couldn’t stay here. I couldn’t go home. I didn’t want to be anywhere. She was gone for a week. That was all, but she was gone back to her old life. Where Denver was. Where she fit in easily. Where friends who were also deaf lived. I was here. Without a way to talk to her.

  “Will she have a phone there?” I asked, praying Hunter was going to help me with this. I had to have some hope. I’d just found her, and I couldn’t lose her.

  “I’ll get you the number if she does. Mom isn’t in agreement with Dad’s decisions. I spoke with her two hours ago on the phone. Gran doesn’t know the exact reasons Aurora is being sent to stay with her this week. Mom is going to tell her, and she’s not gonna be real happy with Dad about it. Problem is, Gran still has a landline phone. I don’t think she’ll be getting Aurora a cell phone for the week. Gran also doesn’t have internet, so Skype is out.”

  Fuck!

  She was going to be out of my reach for a week. I had no way of knowing if she would change her mind, if her feelings for me were strong enough, if she’d realize Denver was better for her. That was hard to think about.

  “She cares about you,” Hunter said as if he knew what I was thinking. “She didn’t want to go,” he added. I could see there was more he wanted to say, but he didn’t. I just nodded, because I couldn’t say anything. My throat was so damn tight it was painful.

  With one last apologetic glance, he closed the door. I looked up at the window Aurora had told me was hers. Knowing she wasn’t there was so damn depressing I couldn’t stand here anymore. I had to get away. From this whole goddamn town. They all knew about last night. They’d all want to say something to me about it.

  I couldn’t talk about this. I knew it was o
nly a week. She was coming back to Lawton. What I feared was what would happen when she was back. Would her father keep her home? Would she have to do virtual school? Would he ship her off to a hearing-impaired school? Or would she come back and tell me she had been wrong about breaking up with Denver. Because being with him was easier for her.

  Was I worth the fight she’d face?

  Sulking Won’t Fix Nothin’, Honey

  CHAPTER 38

  AURORA

  One week was all it took to change my life. I’d been dropped off at my father’s house, never realizing that in seven days I would be a different person. That I’d want things I didn’t think I cared about. I found out I was stronger than I’d believed. Braver than I would have ever guessed. I’d also learned confidence I didn’t have before. All of this because of Ryker.

  He’d made me want more, gave me the desire to step outside my comfort zone, to trust myself and others; but most importantly he made me embrace my differences, not let them stand in my way. I had used my voice without even thinking about it with the airline attendants and even the elderly lady who sat beside me in first class on the nonstop flight to Raleigh.

  When I’d woken up to my father standing at the end of my bed with my suitcase at his side, I’d reached for my phone, already knowing it would be gone. He’d refused to give it back to me, even when I broke down and began crying. Being forced to leave without getting to tell Ryker bye had been unfair, but then the entire situation was cruel. Why would I expect my father to act fairly? I had refused to look at him after that. When he’d tried to tell me bye at the airport, I’d walked away from him through security and left him behind without a word or a wave.

  I had nothing to say to him. Not anymore. He’d not listened to me plead with him about giving Ryker a chance. When I’d called him racist, he’d taken a step toward me, and although I didn’t think he would have hit me, Hunter moved in front of him and blocked his path to me. I would never know what he had planned to do.

  Hunter’s back was to me, and I had no idea what he said, but my dad had taken a step back. Hunter had stayed by my side then until I was in the car and headed to the nearest airport big enough for nonstop flights to North Carolina, which was a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Lawton.

  My gran had met me at the airport and hugged me tightly. I didn’t know how much she knew about the situation, but she was here. The familiar scent of her perfume and the safety that came with being in her embrace brought on the tears I’d been fighting back. She patted my back as I cried in her arms, and I didn’t care if I was loud or not.

  We stood there like that until I could get control of my emotions; then I pulled back to wipe at my tear-streaked face. She held out a handkerchief she’d retrieved from her purse, which she called a pocketbook. I did the best I could to clear my face from my outburst, then handed it back to her.

  “Your father has always been an ass. I just didn’t know he was a bigot, too.” Gran was my mom’s mother, but that wasn’t why she spoke about my dad that way. She was just blunt. She’d quickly tell anyone who would listen my mother’s faults just as easily.

  I gave her a shrug. “Me either,” I said. Because, honestly, I hadn’t thought he’d react this way.

  “Bringing you back here only one week after you had to pack up and move. Shame on him. You need to adjust. He isn’t giving you time to do that.” Gran was signing now instead of just talking. She always fussed when family expected me to read their lips. She said it had to be exhausting for me.

  “He thinks me being back here will be enough to end my feelings for Ryker,” I told her.

  She raised one white eyebrow. “Will it?”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  She gave a firm nod then. “Good. Because Denver is coming over for dinner tonight. Your dad wanted you to be immersed in the friends you left behind in hopes of ending these feelings you have for Ryker. We will immerse you, then show him it won’t work.” She signed this with an expression on her face that said she truly believed it.

  But I was shaking my head when I said, “NO!” using my voice. I didn’t want to see Denver. The time I’d spent with Ryker might have seemed like a long time, but it hadn’t been. I’d only been broken up with Denver for a few days. Seeing him now was weird.

  “He was happy to come. I can’t take back the invite now,” Gran said with a frown.

  I moaned and covered my face with my right hand. This was going to be a train wreck. “We broke up,” I told her, dropping my hand from my face.

  She shrugged. “I know that.”

  We made it to baggage claim, and I found my luggage on the carousel without looking at Gran. She was serious about manners, and I knew she wasn’t going to cancel tonight. Dinner with Denver was the last thing I needed to deal with right now. I was still facing a week stuck here with no way to talk to Ryker and explain.

  I wasn’t sure Hunter would do it properly, and without a phone or internet, I didn’t know how I was going to communicate with anyone in Lawton. My dad didn’t seem to care about that, though. This would have been the first Thanksgiving I’d spent with him in four years, and he’d sent me off. I hoped he enjoyed the tofu turkey Ella would feed him.

  Rolling my luggage out of the airport, I followed my gran outside to the much cooler weather than what I had left this morning in Alabama. The sunlight made me squint, and I found my sunglasses in my purse, then quickly put them on before hurrying to catch up with Gran, who walked way too fast to be seventy-two years old.

  The familiar blue 1988 Lincoln Town Car was parked in a handicapped parking spot, and I rolled my eyes. Gran thought that her age made her handicapped, when she walked faster than I did, and several miles a day at that. She opened the big trunk, and I put my suitcase in there before closing it and going to get in the passenger seat.

  The car smelled like vinegar and apples. It always had. Gran cleaned everything with vinegar water, but the apple-scented fragrance she sprayed in the car every week clung to the fabric on the seats. It wasn’t pleasant, but she didn’t seem to agree.

  I looked over at her when she still hadn’t cranked the car, to see she was watching me.

  “Sulking won’t fix nothin’, honey. Not a damn thing. Suck it up and deal.”

  I wasn’t sulking. I was angry at the unfairness of it all. “This isn’t fair,” I replied.

  She pursed her lips and tilted her head back and forth like she agreed. “Nope, it ain’t. But neither is the rest of this life. Might as well figure it out early and get tough.”

  Get tough. I thought I was tough. I didn’t say so, though. There was no point in arguing. I leaned back and buckled up as she finally started the car and backed out of the parking spot she didn’t belong in.

  Life may be unfair, but couldn’t we at least trust our own parents to be fair? It seemed a cruel reality that came along with sucking it up and getting tough.

  She’s Not Gone Forever

  CHAPTER 39

  RYKER

  The rest of the weekend I stayed home. I didn’t want to go anywhere or see anyone. Nash finally left me alone. My dad wasn’t saying much about it, and my mother was baking brownies and cookies to try and cheer me up, which meant she was seriously worried. I didn’t trust her culinary skills enough to eat any of it, but I also didn’t have much of an appetite anyway.

  Hunter hadn’t called or texted with any info on Aurora.

  Nova, Pam, and Mandy had all texted me, though. Each one offering to comfort me in many different ways and making comments about Aurora not being worth my time. I deleted each text, annoyed by the way they insinuated that Aurora was to blame for her father’s racist issues. They were another reason I hadn’t left my house. I’d face them and more if I went anywhere.

  It was Tuesday afternoon before Nash came to my house demanding I get out. He wasn’t going to let me stay here any longer. Tallulah was busy baking with her mother in preparation for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Apparently they’d be joining our
family dinner at my grandparents’ house. I’d heard Mom saying something about it yesterday on the phone with my aunt when they were deciding who needed to bring what to the meal. Tallulah’s mother was bringing all the desserts, except for my grandmother’s pecan pie, and was bringing homemade bread too.

  None of this I cared about.

  “I’m not leaving until you come with me,” Nash said, dropping down on the sofa in my den and propping his feet up on the ottoman in front of him before crossing them at the ankles. He would leave as soon as Tallulah called. His attempt to act as if he was getting comfortable and not moving was weak. I knew better.

  “You want to drive to North Carolina with me?” I asked him. I wasn’t joking. I’d been thinking about it since yesterday. My parents would be against it, but I was ready to leave without telling them. I’d call after I was gone and deal with the punishment later.

  “Please tell me you’re kidding,” Nash said.

  “Nope.”

  “Jesus, she’s coming back. She’s not gone forever. She’ll be back Saturday. Right? That’s a week. Hunter said she was gone for the week.”

  That was four days from now, which felt like a fucking eternity. Had she seen Denver? Maybe she would decide to stay with her grandmother. I’d only had five days with her. Denver had years. Could what we had withstand that?

  Fuck.

  “Some guys are coming over to my place to watch football and get away from visiting relatives in their houses. You’re coming with me,” Nash said this time after glancing down at his phone to read a text message. This was typical for Thanksgiving holidays. We watched a lot of football and hid from family gatherings until it was time to eat.

  Sitting here wasn’t helping matters. If I did take off to North Carolina, I wouldn’t know how the hell to find her. I didn’t know her grandmother’s name, and I was positive Hunter wasn’t going to give me any help with that. She would be home in a few days. I had to keep reminding myself of that.