Page 44 of Second Chance

For a guilty woman, she looked rather willing leaning against the wall by the staircase. Her lips moist. Her teeth nibbling the corner. Her breath hitching as I leaned forward. If she doesn’t want me, her body hasn’t gotten the memo.

I’m turning for the other side of the house when I hear Dolores’s voice drift through the porch.

“Mati, Mother heard you were down here, and she’d like a word with you, if you don’t mind.” I step back, tilting my head for more information, but don’t hear anything. A moment later, Magnolia speaks.

“Poor Mati. Caroline’s doing all kinds of confessing lately.”

I have no idea what she means.

+ + +

I’m in the side yard, raking dry, fallen leaves from the trees which border the property. Most farm homes have trees and bushes to block wind, hold off the dust of crops, and form natural privacy screens around the main house. This old place is no different. A blower would be the best way to get all the leaves to the center of the yard, but I’m finding the physical exertion refreshing. Not to mention, there’s no gym in town and I need the workout. I’m hoping to hear from my agent any day about a shoot I’ve wanted for years. The only weight lifting I’ve been doing is carrying Magnolia up the stairs to see my mother.

“Put those biceps to use and carry me up to see my daughter.” A rather bold demand coming from a lady who typically tries to act prim and proper, but I would have offered anyway. She needs to see my mother.

My mind drifts, and again, I think of Chris.

“She’s so mad at me,” Chris said as we raked leaves in Magnolia’s yard. Chris felt working around her house was his way of paying my grandmother back for taking him in. I didn’t see why I had to be dragged into his unwarranted payment plan, and I also didn’t want to be discussing him and Mati fighting. Ever since Mati got the idea to go on a road trip together, Chris started acting strange about the three of us as friends. He couldn’t afford to go, although Mati had offered to pay his portion. They’d had a wicked fight about it.

“I just want her to understand I want things on my own terms. I don’t want a handout from her which is really from her daddy. I need to work next summer to save up for college expenses anyway.” I understood where Chris was coming from. I knew he didn’t have the financial means that Mati and I have, although he’d received a small inheritance which he named his college fund. Still, Chris was uptight, and I likened it to him needing to get laid. He had some honorable desire to wait until Mati was eighteen before they had sex. I found strange relief in his chivalry. It meant they hadn’t done the deed. However, I was a hypocrite in this area as I was fucking Kristy on the regular—then breaking up with her and then hate fucking her and then getting back together with her. It was a vicious cycle.

“She’ll listen to you.” The comment stopped me from raking a moment and I hold my breath.

Please don’t involve me, I remember thinking. I felt the weight of his eyes on me. He knew about Mati sneaking out her window to take rides with me. We hadn’t exactly kept it a secret, although we also didn’t feel the need to discuss it. Mati reassured Chris he was the one and only for her. I didn’t even want to consider how she did the proving. Then she had the accident. It put the brakes on the rides, and Chris was almost relieved. It somehow brought them tighter, and I was feeling like the third wheel, even though I had Kristy. Still, when they had a little tiff, Chris would come to me to work magic on getting him back in her good graces. Some days, it was harder than others to play the game.

“What do you want me to say?”

“You know my circumstances. She’ll listen to your reasoning. It’s not that I don’t want to go. I just can’t.”

“Are you telling her she can’t go without you?”

Chris hesitated for a moment and my heart dropped. If he told her not to go, she’d listen. She’d follow his lead, but she’d also be pissed off. Mati had really taken the idea of a road trip and ran with it. Maps. Pinpricks. Plans. She was out of control.

“No, man. I’d never tell her not to go. I trust you with her. I know you’d take care of her.” Somehow, there was deeper meaning in his words and the pressure of his eyes I could no longer ignore. I looked up at him, feeling like that look should have been burned into my memory forever. He was telling me something, but I couldn’t read him.

Fingers tap my shoulder and I nearly come out of my skin, tugging the earbuds from my ears where music filtered through my head drowning out my thoughts.

“Drink?” Cora offers, holding up a glass of lemonade. I’ve been drinking too many sweet drinks here, and need to double up on the water, but it’s well water and my taste buds haven’t forgotten the sulfury, mineral taste.

“Thanks.” I take the offered glass and guzzle the cool refreshment. I’m aware of Cora watching me, my chest on display as I removed my shirt a while back. It’s hot work in the sun despite the cool temperature.

“Like what you see, Corabelle?” I tease. Her eyes appreciate my body without batting one of her fake-lashed eyes nor pinching her face in the typical judgmental way I remember from her.

“I’ve seen better,” she snips, and I laugh. Little Miss Goody-Two-Shoes has never seen anything like my body up close in her life, but still, her snark is stimulating.

“Mati still with Mother?” It seems like a long time has passed and knowing Mati’s attitude about my mother, I’m hoping she doesn’t give her own confessions upstairs. My mama’s been through enough—going through enough—it’s time to let the past rest.

“Yes.” Cora looks around the yard, her nose scrunching up like she smells something rotten. “You know, you could sell this place for a nice price.”

I look up at the house, my eyes taking in the sagging roof and the caving back porch. The list of repairs grows.

“I couldn’t do that to Magnolia. Plus, I don’t need the money.” I don’t often gloat about my good fortune, but it’s true. I don’t need the funds. The royalties alone from our songs work in my favor, as do the modeling shoots, not to mention my own photography. I’m doing well.

“Maybe you should share a little here then.” Cora’s comment startles me, like a little slap on the cheek to wake someone up. I blink in the direction of the house.

“It might take a lot more than what I have to fix this.”

“How about her?” Cora adds, and I stare back at her, uncertain of her meaning. “Got enough to fix Mati?”