The Boarding House (19 page)

“. . . cut you up in so many pieces they’ll have to bury you in a sack.”

He flew out of bed and shoved the slide bolt in place, and then crawled back in bed, rolled over onto his side and cried himself to sleep.

It was just after 1:00 p.m.
when Ellie and Wyatt stopped window-shopping and headed for the food court.

“What are you going to have?” Ellie asked, as she scanned the assortment of options. “Ooh, look, Red Wok. How about Chinese?”

“Not in the mood, but you can. I’m looking pretty hard at that pizza,” Wyatt said.

“Umm, works for me. What kind—cheese or supreme?”

“Supreme. You want one or two slices?”

Ellie giggled. “Two. It’s our birthday.”

“I’ll get the food. You find a place to sit.”

Ellie nodded.

Wyatt headed for Pizza by the Slice and got in line. Within a few minutes, he was weaving his way through the crowd toward the table Ellie had chosen.

Ellie took a big bite of the hot pizza, then picked up a string of cheese from her plate and popped it in her mouth.

“So good,” Ellie said as she looked up. “Hey! Look who’s here!”

Wyatt rolled his eyes.

Ellie grinned. “Cinnamon! Are you eating?”

“Already did. I’m just hanging out.”

Ellie glanced at Wyatt, who gave her a “whatever” look.

“So hang with us for a while,” Ellie said.

“Sure brother won’t mind?”

“If I did, I would have already told you to get lost,” Wyatt said.

Cinnamon grinned. “Ha. A chink in the armor. I knew I could break him.”

“Don’t get too cocky,” Ellie said. “He’s just humoring me because it’s our birthday.”

“Like I already knew that,” she said. “I would have gotten you guys gifts, but no dough. You know how it goes.”

“We don’t need presents, just friends,” Ellie said.

Wyatt groaned. “Dang, Ellie. You need to go to work writing verses for Hallmark. That was seriously corny.”

It made everyone laugh and was the needed icebreaker that carried through the rest of the afternoon. When they finally left the mall for home, Cin was with them.

Garrett saw the car pulling up
into the driveway. He took the cake out of the refrigerator and quickly poked eighteen candles he’d already counted out into the icing and lit them as the door opened.

As they entered the kitchen, it was the first thing they saw.

“Cool,” Cinnamon said. She snuck a quick peek at Garrett when he wasn’t looking.

The man was obviously on edge. She’d seen happier men at a funeral.

“Doris brought your cake over this morning
 . . .
the traditional strawberry,” Garrett said.

“I love strawberries,” Cin said. “Ellie? Wyatt? Come on guys. Somebody blow out the candles so we can eat.”

Garrett watched without comment, wondering if Ellie would crumble. To his surprise, it was Wyatt who pulled her in.

“Come on, Ellie. We can’t disappoint Doris. She made it on her day off, right?”

“She left cards for you, too,” Garrett said. “They’re on the table.”

“For both of us?” Ellie asked.

Garrett nodded.

Ellie picked hers up. When she opened it, a ten-dollar bill fell out.

“Wow. Doris is cool,” Ellie said.

“Seriously,” Wyatt echoed as his produced the same.

Cinnamon sidled closer to the table. “Now the cake?”

Ellie sighed. “Now the cake. On the count of three, Wyatt.”

“One. Two. Three.” They blew until all the candles were out.

When Garrett began to cut the cake, the skin crawled on the back of Ellie’s neck. She watched him absently licking a bit of icing from his thumb and shuddered. Just the thought of him touching anything she was going to eat was disgusting.

“Easy,” Wyatt whispered.

“I’m fine,” Ellie muttered, then picked up a piece of cake and a fork and sat down at the table to eat.

“Oh my God, this is so good,” Cin gushed.

Sophie entered the room, frowning. “God is not responsible for that cake. Doris is.”

Cinnamon choked on her bite. “Oh, yeah, my bad. Sorry about that.”

“Cut a piece of cake for Sophie,” Ellie said.

Garrett did as she asked, and knowing Sophie’s proclivity for manners, added a napkin with the fork.

“Enjoy,” he said.

“Hey! Aren’t you having any?” Cin asked.

“Wasn’t invited to the party,” Garrett said.

Wyatt sighed. “Don’t make a big deal out of this. Just get a piece of cake.”

Garrett served himself some cake, started to sit down at the table, then caught the expression on Ellie’s face and walked out of the room carrying the plate.

“What was that all about?” Sophie asked.

“Who wants something to drink with this?” Ellie asked.

“I’ll take anything with fizz,” Cinnamon said, and Sophie forgot her question had gone unanswered.

After a second piece of cake, Cin carried her plate to the sink.

“I’m outta here, guys. Thanks for letting me hang with you today.”

“Don’t you need a ride somewhere?” Ellie asked.

“I’m good. See you when I see you,” she said, blew Wyatt a kiss and waved at Ellie.

Sophie frowned. “She’s very forward, that girl.”

“But she’s my friend,” Ellie said.

Sophie smiled. “Yes, dear, I know. I was simply making an observation. Times have certainly changed since I was a girl. My, my, I had no idea.”

“I’ll clean up,” Ellie said, and began loading the dirty plates and glasses into the dishwasher.

Sophie set her plate on the counter. “I believe I’ll retire for the evening.”

“Good night,” Wyatt said. “Thanks for helping us celebrate our birthday.”

Sophie smiled. “It was my pleasure.” She started toward the door, then stopped and turned around. “You know, Wyatt, there were times when I had my doubts about you, but you’ve turned into quite a nice young man.”

Once she was gone, Wyatt and Ellie looked at each other, then burst into laughter.

“I’m going to jump in the shower,” Wyatt said. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Want to go to church with me?” Ellie asked.

“Sorry, but I’m not
that
nice.”

Ellie flicked water at him.

He was still laughing when he left her.

Garrett sat in the living room
with the uneaten cake in his lap and listened to the chatter coming from the room behind him.

There was a part of him that wondered if this was his penance for what he’d done to Fern. He’d killed to keep his daughter, then ruined everything because of unjustified rage.

He wanted Ellie back, but was beginning to accept that it was never going to happen. Heartsick, he set the cake aside and went to his room.

He paused to lock the door, put one of his favorite tapes into the VCR, crawled up on the bed, and hit
Play
. When three-year-old Ellie Wayne danced onto the screen in fragile innocence, he took a deep shuddering breath. He watched as she walked toward him. On the screen, he took her tiny hand and put it on what was hanging between his legs. When she looked up, the trust on her face was there for the world to see.

Ellie didn’t know when Garrett
had left, but all that mattered was he was gone.

After a thorough sweep of the house, she paused in the hallway by the night light. As she did, she noticed they hadn’t turned the calendar from April to May and stopped to flip the page. She scanned the month, counting down the days until she was officially a high-school graduate.

“Ten more school days and then I’m gone,” Ellie muttered, and started to turn away, when a thought skidded sideways through her mind and struck her dumb.

She grabbed the calendar and flipped back to April.

April Fool’s Day had been the last day of her previous period. Today was May eighth. She’d never been late one day in her life, and now she was ten days late?

The rape.

She moaned. “No. Please God, no.”

“Ellie. I’m out of the shower.” Wyatt’s call, so ordinary in the face of new horror, seemed obscene.

“Yes
 . . .
alright, I’m coming.”

Wyatt was already in his room when she walked in, pausing long enough to lock the door. She got ready for bed on autopilot, turned out the light and crawled between the covers.

The room was quiet.

The night was dark with an absence of moon.

She stared up at the ceiling, unable to form a complete thought.