Sully turned to me, face very serious, and his sober expression broke into amusement. His head rocked back, his eyes closed and he laughed. “Jesus, they were pretty fogged up, huh? Damn it. You’ve turned me into a teenager, Lang.” He started the truck, gunning the engine so the tires spun, kicking up snow, and we burned out of there, leaving Hinchliffe on the side of the road.
When we got back to the lighthouse, I fully intended on picking up exactly where we’d left off before we’d been so rudely interrupted. My phone started ringing in my purse before I could even slip out of Sully’s t-shirt, though. Once upon a time I might have ignored the call, but not now I was responsible for two children; I couldn’t afford to pick and choose which calls I answered and which ones I didn’t. I picked up without looking at the caller ID, keen to get the call over so Sully and I could focus on each other again. Sully ran his hands over my shoulders, down my back, kissing at my neck as I spoke into the cell phone.
“Hello?”
“Ophelia? Oh, thank goodness, honey. Where have you been? I’ve been trying to call you for hours.”
It was Mom. Her voice was strained, frantic, and she was running her words together, speaking so fast I could hardly understand her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear my phone. What is it? What’s wrong? Mom? Are you there?”
A choked sob crackled down the line. “Oh, honey. It’s your father. I’m sorry, sweetheart, but he’s dead.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Consequences
Heart attack.
He’d gotten up early in the morning and gone down to the pier with his fishing gear. Mom had kissed him on the cheek and told him to be back by midday, which he hadn’t done. She’d stewed for most of the afternoon, ready to chew him out when he got home for not coming to help with lunch service at the restaurant, and then by four she’d begun to get worried. He wasn’t answering his phone. She’d walked down to the pier, but he was nowhere to be seen.
That’s when she’d called the police, and they’d told her what had happened. He’d grabbed at his chest and toppled over the railings into the water at nine in the morning. Two other men had jumped in after him, trying to save him, but he’d disappeared into the water and was nowhere to be found.
At two in the afternoon, his body had washed up onto the shore five hundred feet down the beach, out toward El Segundo. Three skaters found his body first, but they didn’t call for help. They went through his pockets, looking for anything of value. A woman walking her dogs on the strand had chased them off and called for the police. Dad’s wallet, his wedding ring and the Saint Christopher he always wore around his neck were gone, so the police had no means of identifying him until Mom called the station to report him missing.
“God, I am so sorry, O. Is there anything I can do to help?” Rose was fussing around me in the kitchen, offering to make tea, coffee, sandwiches, anything to try and make me feel better. There was nothing to be done though. I wasn’t going to be feeling better any time soon.
“Thanks, Rose. Really, it’s okay. I just need to get back home as quickly as I can. Can you watch the children? I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for.” Taking them with me was out of the question. And the thought of leaving Mom when she needed me most was difficult to comprehend, too. Rose rubbed my shoulder reassuringly.
“You don’t even need to ask. They’ll be just fine here with me. I’m owed about three years’ worth of vacation time anyway. You take as long as you need.”
It was dawn. The sun was rising up over the lip of the ocean, and I was waiting on the dock for Jerry, the boatman, to arrive when Sully’s truck came speeding up over the hill toward the parking lot. He’d driven me back to The Big House last night and kissed me long and hard, telling me to call him in the morning when I knew what was happening. He parked the truck and locked it up, then came running down the boat launch, a bag slung over his shoulder and a grim look on his face.
“You didn’t call. You were just going to leave?”
Guilt rocked me. I couldn’t stand the hurt look on his face. “I’m sorry, Sully. But what was I supposed to do? I can’t just ask you to drop everything and get on a plane with me across the other side of the country.”
He shook his head, frowning. “You are everything, silly girl. I’m not letting you go through this alone.”
I burst into tears. It was the only response I could manage. For the past twelve hours I’d been trying to keep it together, telling myself I could be strong for Mom, that I’d be able to make my way back to California without breaking down in the airport or on the plane, but I wouldn’t have been able to. I needed him. I needed Sully so badly, but I’d been too afraid to ask. Now that he was here, scolding me for not leaning on him, the relief I felt was just too much.