“You’ll have plenty of time to explain at the Ridge,” Brandon said.
Amy glanced at her husband and then back at Arthur. “Brandon and Sam both say you’re a good man and I trust their judgement. But I won’t stick around for you to break my heart a third time.” She strode out.
Brandon glared at him. “Time’s up, Sherlock. Get your shit together, because if you hurt Amy again, you’ll be dealing with me.” He followed his wife out of the cubicle and into the corridor. Brandon murmured, “Don’t cry, Ames. It will be all right.”
Arthur flinched. Why was she crying over him? He wasn’t worth it. He looked at Sam and his question must have been written on his face.
“Ames is tough. She’s been through a lot, and it took some convincing for her to agree to even speak to you the first time. It was enough to make her hope to reconnect and you’ve hurt her again.”
“I didn’t ask you to be here.”
Sam smiled, bemused, with a hint of irritation. “No, but we were on a plane within an hour of discovering what happened. Now, what does that tell you?”
He didn’t want to think about it. “You should all just leave me be.”
“We can’t do that, Sherlock. Like it or not, we care for you. You’re like a brother to me and Brandon, and we don’t give up on family.”
Family. A curse word if ever he heard one. He’d spent a lifetime trying to live up to his father’s expectations, to earn his love, and it had amounted to nothing.
Sam stepped closer. “This is how it’s going to be. I’m going to talk to your doctors and find out exactly what you need. Then I’ll arrange you that help. You can choose to stay at the Ridge with Brandon and Amy, or you can stay in town with me. If you stay with me, you’ll be my deckhand, and if you stay with Brandon, you’ll help on the station.”
Arthur scowled. “Haven’t you forgotten something?” He threw back the blankets to reveal his ugly stump.
“You don’t need a leg to chop a salad or cook sausages,” Sam said. “And you were always a damned strong swimmer. We’ll make it work.”
It was more of his positive vibe bullshit. The stuff Arthur wanted so desperately to believe, but couldn’t. Hoping and failing would destroy him.
He’d never even been good enough when he’d been whole.
He had no chance of pleasing anyone now.
***
Gretchen Wintie suppressed her impatience with her ten-year-old son. “Jordan, we need to leave right now. I’m going to be late for work.”
He wandered out in his yellow and brown school uniform, dragging his backpack and his feet. “Can’t I go later? I hate hanging around by myself, waiting for my friends to arrive.”
“No.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the front door, ignoring the stab of guilt. “We discussed this, and you’re not old enough.”
“But Cody walks to school every day.”
“Cody walks with his sisters,” she corrected. And unlike Jordan, they didn’t have a psycho father threatening to make them disappear on their way home. Goosebumps prickled her skin as she locked the door and then scanned the neighbourhood, looking for anyone who shouldn’t be there. Lindsay from the grocery store walked her dog, and Mitchell from Parks and Wildlife jogged past, raising a hand in greeting. She waved back.
Quiet. Normal.
“Then can’t you drop me at his place instead?”
She could appreciate Jordan was intelligent enough to form reasonable arguments in his favour, but right now, it wasn’t helping. She relied on Cody’s parents far too much as it was. “Not today.” She drove the short distance to school. “Miss Simpson tells me she appreciates your help in the morning.”
He folded his arms across his chest and pouted. “This sucks.”
He was right. Before the threat, the year twelve student across the road walked Jordan every morning. But she had finished school and was studying for exams now. Gretchen had been considering letting Jordan walk on his own before Kurt’s threats. But she couldn’t even tell Jordan that. He had no idea Kurt had been in town and it was better he stayed in the dark. He didn’t know the terrible things his father was involved in, had been too young and innocent to recognise the smell of alcohol and marijuana which often permeated his father’s skin. Jordan only remembered the three or four good times when Kurt had spent more than a few minutes with them and that had been because Kurt had used them as cover for one of his illegal activities.
Gretchen suspected the only reason Kurt had wanted a child was so he could control her. She’d begun to have doubts about their relationship, had become suspicious about exactly what kind of work he did for her parents. She’d been planning to leave until she’d got pregnant.
It wasn’t until she’d had a falling out with her parents that Kurt had decided she wasn’t worth his time either. Broke, scared and with a baby to care for, she couldn’t afford to leave.
Then Kurt had started manipulating Jordan in order to control her.
