Seven Days (9 page)

Rhys admired Cera’s new look as he followed her to her
patio. She had gotten braids since he’d last seen her. Tiny ropes of tawny
brown hair hung down her back making her like even more exotic and earthy than
usual. She wore her signature look, a colorful print dress, this time in orange
and white that hung almost to her ankles and billowed against her legs in the
breeze. She placed a frosty bottle in front of him and settled into her chaise.

“What brings you to my door, Mr. James?”

Spending time with Cera was like going to the beach, her
positive attitude warmed him to the core and washed his cares away. That was
reason enough to visit. He sipped his drink and answered on a sigh, “Apologies
and quests.”

 “Ah, we’re being cryptic today. I like it,” Cera
observed him through half-closed eyes. “Apologies are boring. Let’s start with
the quest.”

He’d never thought of himself as being rash, but lately
Rhys had started to wonder at his own actions. He’d left New York with no
intention of returning. Now he was facing the reality of quitting his job.

“I came home without a plan. I’ve been scouring the
classifieds for the last few days and coming up empty,” he stopped to take
another sip. “Apparently, there is no work in Philadelphia.”

“You have to check the Sunday paper. There’s never
anything in there during the week, you know that.”

He did, but it did not make him feel any better. “Yeah,
well I need a job. After Saturday, my reason for being here is going to expire
and I haven’t told the siblings that, ’Surprise! I’m here for good!’ I figure
being gainfully employed will soften the blow.”

“Like they wouldn’t be thrilled,” Cera murmured.

Rhys sat forward and placed his hand on her leg,
squeezing gently, “About that other thing, I’m sorry about the other night.
Hope we didn’t ruin your grand opening.”

She made a show of rolling her eyes, “Like I said,
boring
.”

Carolyn answered her phone despite
the call coming from an unknown number. A deep voice identified itself as
Officer Something of the Philadelphia Police Department and asked to speak with
Caroline Jones.

“Yes, this is Carolyn James,” she
said, smoothly correcting him. She sat up straighter as the man continued to
speak.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry to tell you there’s been an accident on Lincoln
Drive…”

Carolyn gripped the phone tighter as if that would help her
to focus, but for the next fifteen seconds there was no processing at all going
on in her brain. Conscious thought froze as she was thrust three years back in
time. She’d been home with her brothers the last time she’d gotten this call.
It had changed her life irrevocably.
Please God,
she started to pray
silently while trying to catch bits and pieces of what the officer was saying.
Don't
let his be another life-changing event.

Moments after she hung up the phone, Carolyn’s lungs started
to function properly again. She sprung off the bed and darted around her room,
frantically gathering necessary items while those fateful words filled her mind
again and again.

Ma’am, I’m sorry to tell you there’s been an accident on
Lincoln Drive.

Purse, shoes, keys. Keys?
Keys
! She grabbed them and
dashed out of the house.

Ma’am, I’m sorry to tell you there’s been an accident on
Lincoln Drive…

How could this have happened? He’d left her barely an hour ago!
Carolyn slammed the driver’s side door of her car and froze. She had to get
ahold of herself. She’d need to call people and let them know what had
happened. Shoot! She didn’t even know herself what had happened yet. With
deliberation, she strapped on her seat belt, forced air into her lungs and
slowly exhaled. Then she repeated the process.

“Okay,” she whispered, “okay, Carolyn, you can do this.
She backed out of the driveway and took off down the tree-lined street. The
officer had said the ambulance was taking him to Chestnut Hill Hospital, which
wasn’t far.

At the intersection she put on her blinker to make the
left onto Lincoln Drive, but when the light changed she didn’t move. After a
while, the car behind her honked its horn and finally pulled out to go around
her. Two others followed suit. The light changed back to red and Carolyn stayed
where she was.

It was the first time she had been paralyzed with dread
at the thought of driving on this road. She had survived the devastation of her
parents’ loss, but she didn’t think she had enough strength left over to go
through another such loss. Losing Julian would qualify. She didn’t know his
condition, just that his car was totaled and they weren’t sure of the exact
circumstances. What if he…? Tears filled her eyes.

A car had come up behind her and honked. The light was
green; she couldn’t just stay here. Turning off her blinker she went through
the intersection. She would go up Germantown Avenue instead. More lights, more
traffic, but it would take her where she needed to go.

On the move again she reached for her phone; she had to
call Rhys.

Seeing Rhys unsure of himself was painful. It had nearly
broken Cera when he left for New York, but she thought it was good for him to
get away so he could grieve fully rather than stay here and be strong for
everyone else. Maybe what he had needed was to stay in Philly so that others
could be strong for him. He was home now. She’d make sure he got the healing he
needed.

“I might know of a place that could use your talents,”
she said as if the thought had just come to her. Her piano bar needed a piano
player. Problem One: solved.  “I can put in a good word for you if you’d
like.”

“That’d be great. Thanks.”

Problem Two was a little trickier. They’d been skirting
the issue for almost three years now and if she let it, they would continue to
do so. Rhys was stuck and if someone didn’t intervene, he’d stay that way.

“I can’t do this again,” she started. No going back now.
“I understand why you left two years ago. I welcomed it because I thought it
was what you needed to make you whole again. But you’re back now, you say for
good, but—”

“Cera—”

She continued to speak over him, “but you’re still
broken, Rhys. Maybe you are doing a better job of hiding it from others than you
are from me, but I see it.”

“I’m okay,” he took a long swig and avoided eye contact.
She waited.

“I came back because I knew I had abandoned them. At the
time, I just wasn’t up to the task of caring for them. I convinced myself that
it would be better if I gave them room to find their own way. But really Cera,
I just couldn’t handle it. I was in no position to give anything of myself—you
know this better than anyone.”

She did know. The man sitting across from her (and no
longer avoiding her gaze) wasn’t the man who left for New York three years ago.
But he also wasn’t the man he had been before the accident.

“It wasn’t easy what you guys went through,” she said in
a soft voice.

“Yeah, it wasn’t, but it happens,” he placed his bottle
on the table with a clunk. “People die. It’s no excuse for how I treated you.
It’s one of the things I regret the most and I’m so, so sorry for everything.”

A flash of despair filled his eyes for just a moment and
then was gone. Tamped down by the sheer force of his will. But she’d seen it
and, just as she had all the other times she’d glimpsed it these past few days,
Cera kept herself from reaching for him to offer what comfort she could. That
wasn’t what he needed from her.

“Baby, what did I tell you about apologies?” she asked,
keeping her tone light. He relaxed as she’d intended him to and pulled his
phone from his back pants pocket. She saw the text message indicator on the LED
screen.

“Luke,” he said and started pressing buttons in reply
while paraphrasing the text’s content. “He wants to know if I’ve heard from
Julian who is late for his sitting and not answering his phone.”

Cera shook her head in answer to his unasked question.
She had not heard from Julian either. Rhys hit send and then kept his attention
on his phone as if he expected a response any second.

His distraction gave Cera a moment to gear up for what
she was about to say. She’d been thinking about it since he crashed at her
place the other night. It would be the best move for him but she was not sure
if he’d agree. She reached for his hand and suddenly his eyes were on hers.
Deep brown, intense and expectant. “Listen, if it’s too hard for you to be at
that house—and I think it is—I want you to move in here.”

It took Rhys a moment to respond, but when he did his
tone was  incredulous, “You want me to move in with you?” he asked.

“I want you to leave the responsibilities of being the
head of the family behind,” she said, and watched as he started to close
himself off from her. “Luke and Carolyn are adults. They can take care of
themselves. They can take care of you, if you let them. If you let me.”

He sighed and pinned her with a Rhys stare. “Cera, when I
left, I told you...we agreed that you wouldn’t wait for me—”

“I didn’t,” she interrupted, “I kept on living, but I
don’t think you did.” She let him pull away from her and walk the distance of
the patio. She’d thrown him, she knew, and he needed a moment. Rhys was the
caretaker, which made it very hard for him to let others take care of him.

“Okay—” he started, but cut himself off and looked down
at the ringing phone in his hand. “Hang on.”

To Cera’s ears, it sounded like he was just about to
agree, but then his phone rang. She sprang up, suddenly full of nervous energy.
She grabbed their half-empty bottles and took them over to the recycling bin,
turning her back to him because she needed a second, too. There was unfinished
business between them. Now was as good a time as any to address it, she
figured.

He’d stopped talking and she turned back around, ready to
delve into their layered past, but froze when she saw his face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, scared of his answer.

“That was Carolyn,” he said, and started to tremble.

Carolyn hit every light on Germantown. Got caught behind
the SEPTA city bus, which had a passenger either getting on or off at each
corner. By the time she got to the hospital at the top of the hill, she was
frustrated and anxious and most of all scared. She had no idea what condition
Julian was in, but at least he had to have been alive to have given the EMTs
her contact information.

She rushed to the desk in the Emergency Room, “Julian
Todd, car accident.” That was coherent enough, wasn’t it?  Before the man
behind the desk responded, she heard Julian calling to her. He was lying on a
bed in a curtained stall across the room. His leg was suspended in a
contraption she’d only seen in the movies. It was so good to hear his voice.
She hurried over to him, taking in the scratches on his face. “Julian! God,
look at you. Are you okay?”

She hadn’t meant to cry but her tears started to flow
anyway. Leaning over the bed, she tenderly pulled him into an awkward hug. “Are
you okay,” she asked again, “What happened?”

“I’m fine,” he said and she glanced worriedly at his leg,
which was horribly bruised and just didn’t look right, “except for my broken
leg and some scrapes.” He pushed back against the bed trying to sit up more but
the leg made it difficult. She repositioned his pillows to give him more
support. “Thank you. Here, come here. Don’t cry. I’m going to be okay.”

She nodded and let him comfort her. “I’m sorry. It’s
just—getting that call, it kind of freaked me out,” she sniffed and shook her
head, embarrassed by her reaction.

“I know. I’m sorry. You were the first name that came to
my mind when they asked me. I hate that I’ve put you through—”

“No, don’t. It’s okay, I’m glad you called me,” she
stopped him. This was ridiculous. He was the one lying in the hospital. He
shouldn’t be comforting her. “Tell me what happened. You left me barely an hour
ago and now you’re here.”

He gripped her hand tightly and she was glad because she
couldn’t stop touching him. She needed that connection to confirm that he was
still with her.

“I was running late when I left your place. I was
supposed to meet Luke for my sitting—shoot, he’s probably wondering where I am.
Anyway, you know that tight s-curve on Lincoln? I was heading into it and there
was a car pulling into traffic from that little entrance to that historical
site—” He stopped and tried to recall the name.

“Rittenhousetown?”

“Yeah, that place. The car ahead of me on my right pulled
into my lane to avoid the one coming onto the road. I couldn’t avoid it. It
slammed into me, pushed me into the barrier—I nearly went over it and into
oncoming traffic.” Carolyn gasped, and Julian abruptly stopped giving details.
“It was crazy. It happened so fast. Man, my car is a complete wreck.”

She could picture the location exactly as he described
it. She knew the spot well. “That road is a menace.”

“Yeah, I kept thinking at least I didn’t flip the other
way and end up in the creek. That would suck.”

She gave him a sad smile. “So your leg is going to be
okay?”

“That’s what the doctor says. It was a clean break. They
are supposed to come and give me a walking cast. There’s an aisle I’m going to
need to limp down in a few days, although this is as good a reason as any to
postpone.”

She was encouraged by his humor, it was a good sign. She
raised her eyes from their interlocked hands. He was watching her intensely as
if gauging her reaction to his comment. Then she remembered their late-night
run and she started to wonder if maybe he was not kidding. “Are you...looking
for a reason?”

He did not answer right away and he didn’t look away.
“Maybe I already have one.”