The Debra Dilemma (The Lone Stars Book 4) (6 page)

This was pathetic…he was pathetic. He knew it, but didn’t care. He needed to see her, if only from across the street with opera glasses. Okay, maybe he was willing to admit that the opera glasses were a little creepy after all, not to mention uncomfortable, and they didn’t focus all that well. Maybe next time he’d opt for a digital camera with a zoom lens. Yeah, because that wasn’t creepy at all.

Someone knocked at the passenger’s side window. He jumped about a foot in the air.

Sweet Louise’s face stared down disapprovingly at him from the passenger’s front window. She shot him a “one eyebrow up” look that said that he’d better open this door or else.

Reluctantly he pushed the unlock button. She was going to kill him. He glanced around. Right here on the corner of South Congress and—he squinted but couldn’t read the cross street name. Wasn’t his life supposed to flash before his eyes? He waited and waited but all he got was some acid reflux from the Slurpee.

Sweet Louise opened the door and slid into the passenger’s seat. She took her time smoothing out the wrinkles in her red slacks. He’d never realized until now how much she was always dressed up. Continuing to primp, she appeared to be gathering herself. That was a scary mom tactic. It was like waiting for the executioner to straighten his black mask and sharpen his ax. Every second quadrupled his anxiety.

“Aren’t you going to yell at me?” He put a hand over his rolling stomach. Maybe potato chips and Slurpee mixed with peanut M&Ms and SweetTarts were a bad idea. For a man who’d prided himself on eating organic for the last seven years, in the last sixty-three days since he’d heard about Debra’s one-eighty, he’d descended into junk food and candy. He was eating like a sleep deprived college student…only his college days were long gone.

Sweet Louise crossed her arms and looked at him like she was waiting for an explanation of why her favorite vase was in a million pieces on the dining room floor. Mom tactic number two—stare down the victim until he confesses to the crime.

Warren tried to make eye contact but stared at the dash instead. “Okay. I followed you to Debra’s. I wanted to know where she lived.”

“I can see that. What do you have to say for yourself about what you did to her ten years ago?” Sweet Louise was using her loud voice.

There was no explanation for what he’d done all those years ago. He’d abandoned her. “I don’t know what she’s told you, but whatever it is, I’m sure it’s accurate. In my defense, I thought I was doing the right thing. After the—” he couldn’t bring himself to say “abortion,” “after the baby, her father offered me a million dollars to break things off with her. I took it—not because of the money, but because I thought it was best for her. She was young, impressionable, and in love, she’d have walked away from all of her father’s millions for me. I was used to scraping by. My family didn’t have two nickels to rub together. I didn’t want that for her. When we met, I was cleaning pools during the day and going to night school. I lived on a friend’s couch, for God’s sake. All I had to offer her was poverty and homelessness.”

When he said it out loud, it sounded like a copout. And it was. But at the time, it had seemed like the only way to save her.

Quick as a snake striking, Sweet Louise slapped him on the back of the head. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. When will men learn that we women are capable of making our own decisions?”

He rubbed the spot where she’d slapped him.

“You’re so lucky that I didn’t punch you in the neck. Trust me, it took restraint.” Her mouth was a mean straight line and there was nothing but hatred in her eyes. “You knew about the baby?”

“Her father told me.” That bastard of an old man had been more than happy to tell him that Debra had aborted his baby. He’d told Warren about the ultimatum—abort the baby or leave the house. Warren didn’t fault Debra too much, it’s not like he’d had a place for her to run to.

“Unbelievable. You let her go through that alone? You’re an asshole.” Sweet Louise opened the passenger’s door and stood. “Stay away from Debra. You have five minutes to leave before I call the cops and report a stalker. If I ever see you out here again, it’s restraining order time. Dinner is off tonight. You are no longer welcome in my home. I can’t believe you’re the kind of person who would let her,” she pointed to the condo building, “suffer nine months alone only to have her heart cut out at the end. Debra hates herself so much because she thinks that AJ was all her fault. I wish she could have found a way to hurt you more. You deserve to suffer the same pain she has. I hope you enjoyed that million dollars, because it cost her everything.”

She slammed the door, turned her back on him, and jaywalked across the street.

He jumped out of the car. “Who’s AJ?”

Sweet Louise didn’t turn around, she only held up her right hand with all five fingers outstretched letting him know he only had five minutes.

There was no doubt that she’d call the police, but he didn’t care. Something wasn’t adding up. Clearly Debra had told Sweet Louise about the abortion, but something was missing. Was there more to the story?

Screw leaving. He was staying. His eyes went to the “for sale” sign next to the front door of the condo building. Yep, he was staying for good.

“I think all kids’ birthday parties should include pina coladas.” Grace sprinkled cinnamon on top of her frothy drink. “And the cinnamon on top is a killer good idea.”

“Thanks. I was a bartender back before they were called mixologists.” Debra didn’t drink, but she sure didn’t begrudge anyone else from drinking. “Actually, that’s how I paid off AJ’s and my medical bills.”

That had always been a point of great pride for her. She hadn’t run to her daddy to pay off her hospital bill, she’d done it all on her own. Even after he’d died and she’d inherited millions, she still paid off that bill with her own hard-earned money. Now that she had a job, she was supporting herself again. Not many people would understand her need for financial independence, but that didn’t matter. She needed to pay her own way, and some months making ends meet involved eating lots of pasta and rice until her next paycheck, but she’d already spent too much of her father’s money on herself. Now, she only spent it on others.

Summer dunked an oatmeal cookie in her pina colada and swirled it around. “I love these oatmeal cookies. The dried cherries and toasted coconut are so much better than plain raisins.”

“Thanks.” Grace grabbed another cookie from the plastic container she’d brought. “I don’t like raisins. They always remind me of fruit cake, which of course is a crime against humanity.”

She dunked her cookie in her pina colada like it was a tall glass of milk.

Debra reached across the coffee table and swished her cookie around in CoCo’s virgin pina colada. She bit into it. “Those are really good together. I think Oreos and milk have just been replaced.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Sweet Louise picked up a cookie, dunked it in her pina colada, and tasted it. “I spoke too soon. This is fantastic.”

They all sat on the floor cross-legged. They’d eaten their way through AJ’s birthday cake, the pan of brownies, and were working their way through the oatmeal cookies. Lots of tears had been shed, but the company and the calories had helped.

“I think it’s time for presents.” Sweet Louise climbed to her feet, swayed a little, staggered over to the kitchen table and picked up the pile of presents.

Thank God they weren’t driving home. Grace’s husband Chord was coming to pick them up in about an hour or so. It was funny, she didn’t want them to leave. Solitude was her worst enemy.

“Presents?” Oh God, please don’t let them have gotten her baby things for AJ. She couldn’t handle having things for him around the house. She only survived because there weren’t reminders of him everywhere. The day she’d come home from the hospital alone and heartbroken—and then had to face down his freshly painted room with its cherry crib and a mountain of stuffed animals—rated in the top five worst days of her life.

Sweet Louise picked up a box wrapped in glossy blue wrapping paper and handed it to Debra.

“This one’s from Summer. FYI—she’s an incredible gift buyer. She will always give you that one thing that you never knew you always wanted.” Sweet Louise shook her head and looked at Summer. “Kiddo, I love you, but it’s so damned annoying and intimidating that you’re so good at this.”

Summer blew her a kiss. “We all have our crosses to bear.”

“Open it.” Grace pointed to the gift. “So that I can go, ‘damn, that’s the perfect gift, why didn’t I think of that’? I love feeling inferior. Thanks for that, Summer.”

Summer patted Grace’s arm in mock sincerity. “You are so welcome. That’s what friends are for.”

Debra didn’t daintily ease up the corners of the wrapping paper, she ripped it in two. Presents were meant to be torn into, and she wasn’t a wrapping paper saver. Inside was a framed certificate. She read it, reread it, and tears flooded her eyes. “You had a star named after him.”

According to the small star map on the certificate, the star named August John was close to the Big Dipper. Later tonight she’d go out on the roof and see if she could find it.

Summer grabbed a handful of tissues and then passed the box to Debra.

Summer dapped her misty eyes. “Sweet Louise mentioned that you didn’t have a place to visit him. Now, all you have to do it look up and he’ll be shining down on you.”

“Oh my God.” Grace sniffled. “That is so perfect. I hate you so much.”

She punched Summer playfully on the upper arm.

“Open mine next.” Coco leaned back, snagged a small blue-and-white-striped wrapped gift off of the coffee table and handed it to Debra. “I hope you like it.”

Debra wiped at the tears running down her cheeks and pulled Coco in for a hug. She’d been horrible to this wonderful teenager and yet, Coco had bought her a present. The teen was a better woman than Debra could ever hope to be. She tore the paper off to find a small white box. It was the kind that holds jewelry. She flipped the top off and her heart absolutely melted. It was a silver charm bracelet.

“It’s a mother’s charm bracelet. My brothers and I got one for Grace when she married my father and became our mother.” Coco pointed to the little charms. “I picked out this one. It’s called Mother’s Love. And that one.” She pointed to a mother holding an infant. “That’s the Motherhood Charm. I picked out the oval with AJ on it too, but the rest, I’m not responsible for because the boys picked them out. There’s eleven, one for every one of AJ’s birthdays and one to grow on.”

Debra pulled Coco in for a hug. “It’s perfect. I don’t know what else to say.”

Debra sat back and looked down at the charm bracelet. Eleven charms—one for each year and one to grow on.

“May I?” Sweet Louise pointed to the bracelet.

“Sure.” Debra handed it to her.

Sweet Louise opened the clasp and wrapped the bracelet around Debra’s right wrist and then closed the clasp. “Is that a Quinceanera charm?”

“I told you, I only picked out three. The boys each picked out four so there would be no fighting.” She grinned. “My favorite is the twenty-six point six charm. You know, in case you run a marathon. That was Cart’s idea. All of HW’s charms are food. He chose the pizza charm, the donut, the popcorn charm, and the peanut charm. At least he had a theme. Cart was all over the place.”

Debra touched every single charm and giggled. It was a bracelet commemorating the life of her little boy and much of it was actually created by little boys. It was beautiful. “If I ever join the Coast Guard, I’m set because I already have the charm.”

“Now mine.” Laney plucked a small envelope off of the table. “I didn’t wrap it. I could tell you that I didn’t have time, but honestly, it never occurred to me.” She handed the envelope to Debra.

She slipped her thumb under the flap and ripped the envelope open. Inside was a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it to find a picture of a fountain.

“It’s the fountain I donated in AJ’s honor to the Healing Garden at Dell Children’s Hospital. It’s going to be big and have a huge basin. I was thinking we could call it AJ’s Wishing You Well. The kids could throw money in and make a wish.” Laney leaned closer and pointed to the picture.

“That is amazing.” Debra couldn’t believe that these women had done so much for her and her precious son in such a short time.

“I hate you all. I’m surrounded by excellent gift givers. You are all evil and must be destroyed.” Grace grabbed a shoebox-sized present from the table. It was wrapped in light green paper. “Don’t expect much.”

Debra ripped off the paper and pulled the top off the shoebox. Inside was a CD and some sheet music. “I don’t understand.”

Debra wasn’t musical in spite of all of the piano lessons her father had shoved down her throat.

“See, I’m a terrible gifter.” Grace picked up the CD. “I recorded it last week, but I didn’t know who it belonged to until Sweet Louise called me this morning. It’s AJ’s song. It’ll be released some time next month. All the proceeds will go to NORD-National Organization of Rare Disorders.” She chewed on her top lip. “I’m sorry. I can get you something else.”