“I gathered that. But all the hype is dying down now.”
He turned a corner onto my street, and a depressing feeling consumed me. Duplex buildings with chipped paint and weathered doors lined both sides of the street. Lawn chairs, toys, and burnt grass peppered yards here and there. The neighborhood screamed of lost dreams and failed hope. But for low-income households, it was home.
“My place is up ahead on the right,” I said, even though the navigation in his truck announced we were close.
I’d finally had a chance this week to go to the impound lot and examine the damage on my Toyota. The cost to get it out was two hundred dollars. The damage was another story. The front end of my Toyota had to be fixed before I could drive it. Until then, I was stuck bumming rides or using Bailey’s Volvo.
Mrs. Lawrence, a sixty-year-old grandmother of five, was sitting on her small patio as Lucas pulled into the driveway of my house, watching one of her grandkids chalk up her driveway with hearts and arrows.
Lucas cut the engine, then we both got out.
Mrs. Lawrence got to her feet. “Mazzie, is that you?” She came over. “Oh, my. Where have you been? Where is your mother and Kaylee?”
I didn’t have to tell her, but she had been super nice to Kaylee and me, even going as far as babysitting Kaylee when necessary.
“My mom is in jail,” I said. “Kaylee and I are staying with a friend.”
She placed a hand on heart. “Oh, child. Your mother.” She knew my mother drank too much. “I’m sorry.”
I introduced Lucas to Mrs. Lawrence.
“Is he your boyfriend?” she asked.
“A friend,” I rushed out, unsure if Lucas and I were labeling our relationship yet.
“So is the other guy who stopped by your house a boyfriend?” she asked. “I think his name was J… Josh.”
Lucas and I exchanged a shocked look.
I’d been hoping Josh had forgotten all about Lucas and me until I remembered we’d been in the news. I was certain Josh wasn’t too happy.
“Josh is my ex. I probably have something of his,” I lied. Mrs. Lawrence didn’t need to know anything more.
“Speaking of that, the mail carrier mistakenly put two pieces of your mail in my box. Hold on.” She hurried into her house.
Her granddaughter ran in behind her.
Lucas draped his arm around me. “Why do you think Josh was here?”
“If I had to guess, he probably saw us locking lips on TV and got pissed.”
Lucas’s jaw snapped shut. He was clearly upset. I knew he worried about Josh hurting me, but Josh had never done more than grab me like he had at the casino.
Mrs. Lawrence returned and handed me the mail. One letter was addressed to me by a doctor’s office. The other was junk mail from a furniture store.
She smoothed her hands down her cotton shorts. “I hope you don’t mind, but I used the key you gave me and checked on your house. I’ve been worried. Anyway, I took out the trash because it was rancid.”
“Thank you for doing that.” I stabbed a thumb behind me. “Lucas and I have somewhere to be. So…” Another lie because Mrs. Lawrence could talk a person’s ear off. “I’m not sure how long before we can move back. So can you keep an eye on things?” Not that we had anything of value, except my mom’s money and a few important papers, which I would take with me.
“You let me know if I can do anything else,” she said then gave me a hug.
With the pleasantries out of the way, Lucas and I walked into a clean place, a far cry from how I remembered it before I’d gone to his birthday party.
I set the mail and my bag on the island. “I need to get a few things. Then maybe we can grab a bite to eat.”
“Wait.” Standing in the living room looking like a giant in the small space, he crossed his bulky arms over his chest. “I think it’s time we discussed Josh in detail.”
I guessed I knew the topic of Josh would resurface. In all our talks with Lucas since the pep rally, he had yet to broach the subject of my ex. “We had a bad breakup. He was too possessive. I couldn’t talk to another guy, and if I did, he gave me the third degree. He was suffocating me. Not at first, but as we saw each other more and more, he became a different person, or rather, I saw the real Josh Turley. Because of all that, I changed my cell number. That night at the casino, he gave me vibes that he wanted to try again with me. Then you showed up. You know the rest. And no, he’s never hurt me more than a grab of the arm.”
