“Daddy can be so exacting. He can be so hard. But we’ll see.”
Vince nodded.“Okay.”
“This has really shaken him.”
“Yes, I saw that.”
“But thanks for everything, Vince.”
Vince didn’t want to leave her. He was certain she’d be better off with him. “Are you sure you want to stay here overnight?”
“I’m positive. If we’re going to make changes, I’ll have to be here to make them. And I need my family. When I broke down at that café and I only had nine dollars to my name and not one friend I could really depend on, I realized how alone in this world I was. I mean, I already knew it, but that kind of brought it all home for me. So I need my family. And who knows? Maybe Erica’s death can bring us closer together.”
“You think that’s what will happen?”
“Probably not, no. But I have to try.”
Vince looked doubtful too. And strained, as if he didn’t want to leave her. “If that’s what you want to do.”
“Are you going back to Washington, or are you going to stay at your house here in Connecticut?” She was hoping he would at least stay in Connecticut.
There was no way Vince was going back to D.C. with their situation so unsettled. “I’ll be at my house outside of New Haven,” he said. “That’s only an hour away. So call me if you need me. And that hotel room is yours for as long as you need it. You have options now.”
Ricki smiled. It was great to know that. “Thanks to you.”
Vince exhaled. He wanted to hug her, and to tell her something that he couldn’t even bring himself to say out loud. But he wanted to tell her anyway.
But that was when the door of the house opened and her father stepped out as if Vince’s presence was holding up their progress. So Vince didn’t say another word, and didn’t touch Ricki. He made his way down the steps, got into his Bentley, and took off.
Ricki hated to see him go. She just hated it. But her father was waiting, and there was no way they were going to be able to have difficult conversations with an outsider in the house. She seriously doubted if they were going to truly have a real conversation with just the family in the house. But she was willing to give it her all.
She stood on that porch until Vince was clean out of sight. She had hoped that he would wave goodbye. But he didn’t. Which was totally understandable to Ricki. She’d been nothing but drama since the moment he met her. She was certain he was done with her.
Her father opened the door, and she, and then he, went back inside. She could only hope it wasn’t a big fat waste of time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was a big fat waste of time. At least as far as Ricki was concerned. For the balance of that day, her and her parents and her big brother Davey all sat around that house talking. They talked a lot. Or at least her father talked a lot. Her mother said little of nothing, and Davey was, as usual, in his own world. Ricki spoke her truth. She didn’t hold back. She let both parents know how they failed her and her siblings. She let them both know how they never showed anything remotely resembling love to any of them. Especially to Erica.
But to her parents’ credit, they listened to her. Both of them disagreed with her assessment of her childhood, but they listened to her. Her mother disagreed tepidly.I did the best I could, she said. Her father disagreed with long, drawn-out, ridiculous disagreements.
But mostly they just sat around and mourned Erica.
Then nighttime came and they all retired to their various bedrooms. Ricki ended up in the front of the house, in her childhood bedroom in her childhood bed. And although she was emotionally spent, and otherwise exhausted, sleep was too difficult to achieve. She kept checking her phone. Vince had asked for - and she had given to him - her phone number earlier that morning. But he never phoned her once that day. She was more convinced than ever now that her initial gut instinct, that he was done with her when he left her at her parents’ home, was spot on.
Which was a shame, she thought, as she turned onto her side. There was something about him that made her feelso secure. He made her feel special for the first time in her life. Every man she’d ever been with turned out to be self-centered jerks who only wanted what they could get out of the relationship, not what they could put into it. They depleted her. Every single one of them.
But when her phone began ringing. She was so hoping that it was Vince that she quickly grabbed it off of the nightstand. But it wasn’t Vince. It was Geraldine.
“Hey, Dean.”
“Just checking to see how you’re doing.”
“I’m okay. Still at my parents’ house.”
“I been around for years, and I know black folks are changing, but I ain’t never known one to commit no suicide yet. Not me personally.”
“It’s happening more than it used to, that’s for sure,” Ricki replied, “but my sister didn’t do that. I know her. There’s no way she did that.”
