Always Conall (Bitterroot #2) (8 page)

“Now that’s not true,” I began. “We were just pretty secretive about being nice.”

“What are you talking about?”

I hesitated for a few minutes before I answered, unsure if I really wanted to spill my guts. “Do you remember that little shit who tied your braids to your chair in school?”

“Ugh, Bobby Richardson,” she groaned. “He was such a pain in the ass.”

“Yeah, that kid… he also threw rocks at your feet on the playground, shouting at you to dance. He was always picking on you, always doing something crappy.”

“My own personal bully. He never seemed to pick on anyone else like he did me.”

I looked at her for a minute as she sat there toying with the zipper on her hoodie, her eyebrows drawn together with the not-so-ideal memories.

“So,” I finally asked, “did you ever think that it was odd how he just stopped?”

She lifted her confused gaze to me.

“I never really thought about it, I guess. Until now. But now that you mention it, yeah, he just… backed off.”

“Your brother and I may have had something to do with that.”

“What are you talking about? Wait a minute, how did you even know about him? I never even told you guys. I didn’t tell anyone.”

“I know,” I said, looking straight ahead at the road. “You were never one to whine about shit. You never wanted to be a pain.” I looked back into her bewildered face. “We saw, though.
We saw you crying when you were all alone. So, we started watching closer. Saw him picking on you. And we had a little… talk… with Bobby.”

For a moment, Sage only stared at me with wide eyes, her teeth gently biting at her lower lip. “I didn’t know that,” she finally murmured.

“And then, there was that girl in middle school who used to make fun of you. Her dad was a lawyer or some shit, and she always had the newest and the best of everything. I think she was jealous of you, actually, because you were just sweet and friendly and people liked you more than her.”

“Hillary Smith?”

“Yeah, that was her name, I think.”

“And then one day she just quit…” Sage’s voice trailed off in a little bit of wonderment.

I nodded.

“You guys? Again?” she asked cautiously.

I nodded again, and my heart crumbled a little at the slight tremble of her lower lip before she turned back to look out the window.

“I never knew,” she whispered in wonder.

I twisted my mouth wryly. “We didn’t want you to think we liked you. It would have spoiled our street cred.”

For a short time, we were quiet, absorbing the moment.
Almost as though we were still communicating through the silence.

“Mommy, I’m hungry,” said Mattie in a pitiful voice.

“I’m not surprised, monkey. I’ll make something quick when we get home.”

“Want to run through a drive-thru?” I asked.

“McDonalds!” Mattie squealed.

“We’ll get something at home, Mattie,” Sage said more sternly, turning to look back at her.

“Noooo… I want chicken nuggets,” Mattie pouted.

“We’ve taken enough of Conall’s time tonight, and he’s still gotta go get the car.”

“It isn’t a problem, Sage,” I said.

“It isn’t a problem, Mommy,” Mattie chirped. “McDonalds!”

“Conall, it’s fine,” Sage stated emphatically.

“Sage, it isn’t a problem.”

“Yay, McDonalds!”

“Conall—” she barely got my name out of her mouth before I held up one finger and put it over her lips, followed by a quiet little
shush
sound. And, while she should have been indignant and irritated, she was clearly shocked by that touch of my fingertip on her tender, sweet lips.

It worked. She immediately shushed. And she didn’t
un-shush until we were parked in the drive-thru and I was asking her what she wanted. She mumbled something about a cheeseburger, totally plain. As I reached for my billfold to pay, she grabbed her purse.

“Here,” she said quickly, “let me—” Again, her voice abruptly cut short because I set my hand on hers, forcing her to keep her wallet in her purse. My fingertips practically tingled where they rested on her smooth, soft skin.

“I got it,” I said, catching her cornflower blue eyes with my own dark ones.

“
You don’t have to do this,” she suggested.

“
It’s only McDonalds. Plus I owe you two for the spaghetti dinner the other night. Besides, even if I didn’t,” I grinned, “I want to.”

Sage

No matter how many times I went over my bills, there just wasn’t more money.

I had forty-three dollars in a savings account, mostly just to keep it open because, at some point, I
would
start saving money. I kept telling myself that anyway. I had a little over a hundred in my checking account. Payday was next week, but I also had my cell phone bill and utilities to pay and groceries to buy, and rent was just around the corner.

So I went from checking out the local automotive deals online to checking out bus schedules. But, in a small city like Bitterroot where almost everyone drove, this wasn’t really conducive to my random shifts at the hospital. And the little bus system was the only public transportation.

Feeling incredibly broke, I began to look around my apartment, at the meager belongings I’d acquired over the past couple years. My furniture was all second-hand, but clean and comfortable. About the only thing I owned worth anything at all was my quickly-becoming-outdated laptop, purchased with grant funding when I started nursing school. Of course, that was over two years ago, and it hadn’t exactly been top of the line, just meeting the specs required by the nursing program I’d enrolled in.

There were a few things I’d brought from my mom’s when I’d moved in right after Mattie was born, but nothing of any real value. Sentimental things that meant something to me, but would
be  worthless to anyone else. Certainly nothing that I could sell to get money for a car. I’d been so frugal over the years, being a little proud of myself for living simply and not accumulating a bunch of unnecessary stuff. Waiting to be done with school… waiting for things to be easier.

But things only seemed to be getting harder.

What the fuck was I going to do?

I still had a couple weeks or so before I’d hear the final results of my NCLEX. So, no
raise for a while.

And, just as Conall had suspected, my tranny had crapped out. My car was worth about three-hundred dollars less than it would cost to have a rebuilt tranny put in. I didn’t even have
that three-hundred dollars, much less the rest of it.

Feeling utterly defeated, I got up from my computer and made Mattie a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I cut off the crust that she’d never in a million years eat anyway, and spread a little peanut butter on them for
myself.

It was a good thing Mattie liked peanut butter. We’d likely be eating a lot of it until I could get something figured out.

A knock sounded at my door as Mattie slurped down the last of her milk. For a second, she looked at me with an inquisitive expression, then she jumped up and ran to the door.

“Mattie, wait…”

That kid was too fast, though, and had the door swung wide open before I even made it into the hallway. We needed to have a little chat about that.

“Conall!” she squealed.

“Hey, kiddo,” he said, smiling down at her. “Where’s your mommy?”

“Her mommy is right here,” I said rounding the corner. “Mattie, you’ve really got to stop opening the door before I can check who it is.”

“But, Mommy,” Mattie grinned, “it’s Conall.”

“Yes, but did you know that when you opened the door?”

Guiltily, she shifted her feet and looked down at the floor. “No,” she muttered with a pout.

“You’ll work on that, though,” Conall said as he squatted down beside her, “right, Mattie? Your mommy just wants you to be safe. It was me this time, but it could have been a stranger.”

“Stranger danger…” Mattie recited as she looked back up at him with puppy dog eyes.

“Just wait for your mommy next time, okay?” Conall asked, brushing her silky little blonde bangs back from her eyes.

She nodded and looked back up at me. “Sorry, Mommy.”

I felt strangely enthralled, and yet mildly uncomfortable, watching this exchange. Conall really seemed to be very good with her, which surprised me since he had next to no experience with little kids.
None that I knew of, anyway, aside from me when I was little, and he was only a couple years older so that didn’t really count. But he seemed to be able to get to her level, to explain things to her in a way that made sense to her four-year-old mind.

Quite simply, he was a natural.

“So,” I finally managed to croak out nervously, “why, um… what are you doing here?”

He smiled wide, his white teeth flashing as he straightened and cocked his head slightly. “I want to show you something. Grab some shoes.”

“Okay!” Mattie hollered as she went zipping by me in the hallway towards her room. I pursed my lips and narrowed my eyes. He seemed absolutely giddy and a bit mischievous. It was a look I hadn’t seen on his face in a long, long time.

A look I had really missed.

It was also sort of contagious, and I found myself smiling back as I slipped on my flip flops. Mattie came bustling out of her room and skipped through the door while I quickly grabbed my purse and keys.

Conall started down the stairs, grabbing Mattie up in his arms to speed up our descent. She giggled and clutched her pudgy little arms around his neck as I followed behind and listened to her give him the third degree.

“What’s the surprise?”

“How big is it?”

“Is it a pony?”

“Is it a kitty?”

“Is it purple?”

All the way through the front door of my building and down the sidewalk.

“What do you think?” Conall asked, putting Mattie down and motioning to a shiny new Subaru Forrester parked along the curb. Glistening chrome and glittery silver paint dazzled me, even on this hazy, smoky summer day. It almost seemed to cast an angelic glow, and I could have sworn I heard angels sing with the freedom, comfort, and reliability it represented, especially compared to my crapped out Taurus.

“What, this is yours
?” I asked in confusion. “A Subaru? Didn’t you just buy a pickup?”

Conall shook his head with a smile. “No,” he grinned. “I mean, yes, I did just buy a pickup. But this isn’t mine. It’s yours.”

“Pretty!” Mattie exclaimed and ran to press her nose against the passenger-side window.

My smile faded and a weird feeling began to settle in my stomach.
A
what-the-fuck-is-going-on-here
feeling. “What are you talking about?”

“You need a new car. Here’s a new car.” He held his hand out, gesturing to the shiny vehicle before me.

“It’s so sparkly!” I could barely hear Mattie’s voice over my heartbeat. A glance over at her revealed that she was closely examining the gleaming silver paint.

I turned back to Conall. “I can’t afford—”

“You don’t have to,” he interrupted. “I took care of it. Paid in full.”

“Conall, I can’t even afford the insurance on this,” I tried to find reason in his pure unreasonableness. This was simply insane.

“You don’t have to,” he said emphatically. “I’ll take care of that, too.”

“No,” I argued, shaking my head defiantly. “I can’t ask you to do this.”

“You’re
not
asking. I
want
to do this for you and Mattie. I
need
to do this for you and Mattie.”

I glanced back over at Mattie who was tracing a thin pinstripe that almost looked…

“Purple, Mommy!” she exclaimed happily. “It’s got purple!”

“That
’s custom, just for you, Mattie,” Conall grinned and stepped over to the back passenger door. “Look in here,” he smiled as he opened it up to reveal a purple and silver booster seat. “Check this out. This is your seat.”

“Aaaaahhhh!”
Mattie squealed exuberantly, jumping up and down before she scrambled into the seat. “Buckle me in!”

“Conall, wait,” I tried again
, pulling him off to the side, not wanting to argue in front of Mattie. “This is too much. This is a really,
really
fancy car. It looks brand new.”

“It is brand new.
”

My jaw dropped and my eyes went wide.

“Sage,” he laughed at my astounded expression, “it’s not like it’s a Camaro or Hummer or something. It’s a Subaru.”

“I drive a ’96 Taurus,
” I mumbled.

“
No, correction… you
drove
a ’96 Taurus. Your car has
died
, Sage. Like I told you earlier, it’s going to cost more to fix the transmission than it will cost to buy another piece of shit just like it.”

“But this is brand new.”

“I know that, Sage,” he said, speaking with an emphatic slowness and raising his eyebrow. “I just told you that. I’m the one who bought it.” He stepped closer and put his hands at my shoulders, tipping his head down towards mine and looking into my eyes. “It’s reliable. You can trust it. It will keep you and Mattie safe. You won’t be breaking down on the side of the road or slipping around in the snow. It’s all-wheel drive, and I’ve got an extra set of wheels with studded snow tires on order for you.”

“I can’t—”

“Sage, honey,” he glanced up at the sky, almost as though he was looking for strength and patience from the heavens above, then looked back down at me, his dark eyes sincere and determined, “I’ve been in the Army for five years – five fucking years. Now, it isn’t like I made tons of money, but I barely touched
a dime
that I made…
for five years
. No clue why, but I felt like I needed to save it. So, do the math. Even at a low wage, I can afford this. And you need this.” His hand curved around my jaw as he brushed my cheek with his thumb. “Consider it a start towards some of the back child support I owe you.”

I couldn’t speak. Part of me knew he was making at least some sense, even if it was in a totally insane way. I could only stare back at him, breathless with his gift or payment or whatever he wanted to call it. But that breathlessness also stemmed from the emotion I saw deep within his eyes.
From that familiar pang of tenderness in my heart. The gentle, firm touch of his hand on my cheek. The tingle of my lips that I suddenly realized were only inches from his.

I could faintly hear my daughter’s voice chattering away behind me. “And there’s a spot for a sippy cup, and, Ooooooh, what’s that?”

Mattie continued to babble on in the back of my mind as I seemed to freeze under his gaze. It was taking every ounce of self-control I possessed not to lift up on my tip-toes and press my lips to his. His expression shifted ever-so slightly, his lids lowered heavily, and his own breath caught as he focused on my mouth.

“Mommy!”
Mattie’s voice jerked me from the spell that had paralyzed me. “Is that a TV in the back of the seat?”

That jolted me back into consciousness.
“A TV? You got a car with a TV?”

“Well, yeah… I thought Mattie would love that. As she gets older, she can even play video games on it and shit.”

“Conall…”

“Let’s take it for a ride,” he smiled as he tipped his head to the side. “Besides, I need you to take me back to get my truck.
”

“Where’s your truck?”

“At the dealership,” he replied.

“So, why don’t you just take the car back to get your
truck. Kill two birds with one stone.”

He straightened and folded his arms over his broad chest.
“Because the car is for you.”

“Don’t I get some kind of say in what type of car I’m driving?” I asked with a petulant frown. “Maybe I don’t like silver.”

Conall looked at me with eyes full of laughter as he lifted one brow. “You don’t like silver?”

“Well, okay, that’s a bad example. It’s a lovely color. But you didn’t even ask me. Maybe I hate Subarus. Maybe I wanted something different.”

“Do you? We have a few days if you wanted a different car.”

“Like a cheaper car?
Or an older car?”

He studied me closely for a minute, realizing what I was doing.
“Equal or greater value. I’ve paid cash. I won’t allow it to be less.”

“You won’t
allow
it?” I looked at my daughter who was engrossed in climbing over the seat into the back cargo area, so I pulled Conall further away from the car and quietly spat, “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

“You’re forgetting something… I grew up with you. I know how stubborn you can be. But, you may recall, I can be just as stubborn. I’m as hard-headed as they come. I’ve paid for the car. You can accept this car or I can get you a better one. But this car is already in your name. I’ve already got insurance on it, listing you as the primary driver.”

“Conall, I’m not comfortable with this.”

“Sage… you know you need this. I can do it for you. I should have been doing shit like this for you all along.” He held up the keys, dangling them in front of me. “Let’s take it for a ride.”