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Save for a few boxes that sat in the middle of the front room that had her name written on them, the entire house looked to be empty. They walked through the remaining rooms, spying a few more boxes, but the house was almost entirely empty.
Her voice a little choked, she said, “I can’t imagine having to pack up my own house, knowing I was going to die.”
Shrugging, Deacon said, “Maybe he wanted to make it as easy as possible on you?”
Wiping a few stray tears, she said, “There was nothing easy about the man. My mother got sick when I was fifteen. I was acting out and he caught me sneaking out a few times. Nothing serious. Just teenage shit. When she died, he basically told me that my behavior, my sins, whatever the hell they were, were the reason she died.
“Even then, I knew it wasn’t the truth, but that’s a tough thing to lay on a kid. Especially then. I was feeling so freaking guilty that until I left for college, my house was like a prison.
“I’d love to think he was thinking about what would make my life easier, but I find it hard to believe. He went off the deep end. Whatever shitty relationship we had had up until that point was basically obliterated. He blamed me when her cancer came back and that was the end of us. I didn’t come back once after I left for school.”
Angrily wiping tears away now, she said, “I’m fucking angry, more than anything. Even in grief, what kind of a monster says that to someone?”
“I’d guess he had some mental issues that weren’t diagnosed, honey. But I don’t know. It’s not the kind of thing that a rational person would say.”
Looking utterly exhausted, Sara asked, “Will you help me load this stuff into the trunk? I’m just going to ship it home. I can’t stay here.”
Nodding, not sure what to say to any of what she had just revealed, Deacon finally asked, “Sure thing. Where do you want to start?”
“Any place is fine.”
Systematically, they removed the boxes from the house until the trunk was full. Wordlessly they drove to a FedEx Kinkos and ground shipped it all back to her house.
Sara was almost eerily calm now.
Deacon wasn’t sure what was going on in her mind, but he guessed it wasn’t good. Driving them back toward the hotel for lack of a better destination, he said, “Did you have anything else you needed to take care of?”
Shaking her head, she finally said, “I’m exhausted. I feel like I could sleep for days. Let’s just go back to the hotel.”
Deacon asked, “Could we stop and get something to eat first? I’m starved.”
“Me too, actually. Let’s stop at Public Market and get subs. It’s one of the things I really miss back home.”
Blinking in surprise, Deacon said, “Sure. Sounds great. I haven’t had one in years.”
Chapter 19
Forty-five minutes later, armed with subs and lemonade, they made their way back to the hotel room. After they ate, Sara booked their tickets home. They were leaving at noon tomorrow.
With the house all packed up, there wasn’t much reason for her to stay. Wanting nothing more than to close this shitty, shitty chapter in her life, she was looking forward to leaving.
Turning on the television, Deacon had settled back against the headboard of the bed, and was idly flipping channels. He seemed to sense she wasn’t feeling all that chatty. He had been really great about this whole thing, actually.
Moving from the chair, she walked over to the bed and snuggled up against him and said, “I love you. You’ve been totally amazing. Thank you.”
Reaching up, she brushed her lips across his, enjoying the curve of his lips as he smiled.
“I love you too, Sara.”
Snuggling into his side, they both ended up dozing off.
Around 8:00 p.m., Deacon’s phone rang, waking them up. Chris was calling to discuss work stuff. Deacon told him they’d be back in town tomorrow. He’d come in the following day and deal with it.
Getting up, Deacon brushed his teeth and said, “I’m pretty awake now. Did you still want to sleep?”
Shaking her head, Sara said, “Wide awake now. A five-hour nap was a terrible idea.”
“So what’s there to do here? The town didn’t look like much.”
