About Time (Broken Vows #4)

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Charlie Past- Age 36

“Remind me why we’re working on your truck at your house in the pouring rain when I own a garage with all the tools we need? You don’t even have the right set of wrenches here,” Griffin says.

“Relax, we’re under my carport. I’m sure I’ve got all the tools we need somewhere.” I search through my large tool chest and see that he’s right, I’m missing an entire set along with another set of sockets. We aren’t going to be able to finish changing the alternator without them.

I groan. “I loaned them to Martin.”

Griffin winces. “You let Martin Parker near a set of tools?”

“He was working on a riding lawnmower for Mrs. Howell. It’s not like I’d let him work on a vehicle alone. We can go and see if he’s home and get them back,” I suggest.

We jump in Griff’s truck since mine has parts missing and drive the few blocks over to the Parker house. “Did you know Liam would be over here?” I ask him.

Before he has a chance to answer I look around and realize that Elisa’s car is gone. I forgot tonight is their monthly date night. “They’re alone by the way,” I let him know, and point to the empty spot in the driveway.

Griffin shrugs. “He’s been dating Wren for over a year. I imagine they spend a fair amount of time alone. We’ve had ‘the talk.’ He’s already made it past high school without making me a grandpa, so he’s doing better than his old man already.”

“Yeah? Then why is there a cop car in the driveway?” I point to the cruiser.

“That’s a good question. It’s never good when there’s a cruiser in front of a house at this time of night. Let’s go find out what he’s doing here.”

My stomach drops with the fear that he’s right. Officer Mike Windsor is sitting in his car, and I can see his shoulders shake. Griff and I walk up to his window and wait for him to notice us. He’s distracted, so after waiting for nearly a minute, I tap on the glass.

When Mike looks up at us, he doesn’t hide his emotions, and wipes his eyes. Griff and I exchange a look.

“Fuck,” Griff mouths.

I nod, and I motion to the porch with my thumb. It’s coming down in sheets, and we’re already half-soaked in the minute we’ve been standing out here.

“What’s going on, Mike?” I ask when he finally joins us on the porch.

He exhales a weary sound. “I’m trying to find the stones to go inside and tell the girl I watched grow up, that her mom and dad won’t be coming home. Usually, I have another officer with me, but we’re a small department and everyone else is still on the scene.”

Harriston is such a small town most of us know everyone. Mike was in the same graduating class as Martin and Elisa. He has played softball with us for years.

All those years unfold in my head like I imagine they are in Mike’s. Elisa pushing a stroller up to the dugout to wish us luck. Martin pitching a wiffle ball to Wren as soon as she could hold a plastic bat. Memory after memory flashes through my head showing me visions of Wren up to today.

I have to blow out a breath and wait a second while I try to compose myself. This isn’t fair. We shouldn’t be here trying to figure out how to tell a seventeen-year-old girl that her parents are dead.

My voice wavers when I am finally able to speak. “What happened?”

He gestures to the sky and the torrential downpour still coming down. “As you can tell it’s been raining really hard. From what we can tell so far it appears that the rain impaired visibility and caused them to lose traction. They spun out and slammed head-on into a tree. I can’t even let that girl go see them to say goodbye. The only thing giving me comfort is that the paramedics said they died on impact.”

I pat him on the shoulder. “Do you want me to come in with you?”

Taking care of Wren at this moment is the last thing I’ll ever be able to do for my friends. I’ll only be able to do it until Hattie comes back to town. I lost the right to interfere in her life when I shoved her out of mine.

Griff jerks his thumb over his shoulder toward the garage. “I’m going to look for those tools to give you some time. She doesn’t need her boyfriend’s dad hovering over her right now. You let me know if you need me though.”

I nod. It’s the right choice. This is going to be the worst moment of her young life, and she should be given space to deal with it. She shouldn’t have to face all of this under the watchful eye of people she only kind of knows. Not that I’m super close to her, but at least I’ve spent a lot of time with her parents.

The person she really needs is her aunt, Hattie. I don’t know if I’m strong enough to see her again, but this isn’t about me. It occurs to me as Mike knocks on the door that Wren is a minor. Someone is going to have to take care of her. I hope I didn’t push Hattie away only for her to end up trapped in this town with a kid anyway. If she stays I lost her for nothing. I’m not sure what the alternative is, cause more upheaval in Wren’s life?

Wren opens the door laughing. She has pulled the door open, but her head is turned still carrying on a conversation with Liam in the living room. He sits up straighter and goes on alert, but Wren still hasn’t clued in that anything is wrong.

“Did you lose your keys, mo—” Her eyebrows scrunch together, and I can see her knuckles turn white by the way she’s squeezing the door knob. “Officer Mike? Did you come by to see my dad, because he's out with my mom right now.”

Hope is a bitch. It can lift us up when we need it, but it can also help you bury yourself in denial. This is the last moment Wren can hold the belief that her parents are going to come home. After he tells her what he came here to say everything will change.

“No, sweetheart. Can I come in?” he asks her.

Mike is waffling, and still too uneasy to tell her what he needs to. He’s been trained for this, but I find myself stepping forward and taking charge.

“Wren, let’s all go sit in the living room.” I sweep my arm out and gesture for her to lead the way.

I can see the foreboding starting to sink in. Everyone knows that when a cop shows up late in the evening they aren’t coming with good news. Not to mention that to my knowledge Mike has never casually swung by their house before, especially while on duty.

Martin is friends with a good quarter of the town, and each one of them knows that what he values most is time with his family. There are plenty of barbecues and other parties thrown by the Parkers to socialize with them. Meaning it’s very rare for people to drop by unannounced. Even I generally make plans with them before coming over.

Not is friends, was. Damn, that’s going to be hard to get used to. Not to mention the unjustness of this whole thing. Here I am walking around alive and healthy, and I have brought nothing of value into this world. My friends, who would stop at nothing to help someone in need, devoted parents, and just genuinely good fucking people, are gone in an instant. How does any of that make sense?

Mike exhales and leans forward as much as he can with his utility belt in the way. “Wren, I’m so sorry to come here?—”

She jumps to her feet and moves around to put the couch between her and Mike. Her hands are outstretched in front of her like she can possibly prevent what he’s going to tell her.

Her head shakes emphatically. “No, don’t say it. They’re fine. Everything is fine.”

Her arms wrap around herself, and she keeps repeating in hushed tones. “They’re fine. They’re fine. They’re fine.”

“Liam,” I say and jerk my chin her direction. “She’s going to need you to hold her together right now, are you up to this?”

He rises up from the couch and puts his hands on her shoulders, trying to stop her from pacing.

She throws his hands off, and her movements become even more erratic. Her breathing speeds up and becomes more shallow.

This would be a lot better if Hattie were already here. I think Wren is going to need some kind of sedation before this night is through. Hopefully, when the news has settled a bit she’ll be able to face it. Not that I imagine anything but time is going to make any of this bearable. I wouldn’t even say time is going to make it better. A loss like this one will leave a scar.

Wren is still muttering to herself as she moves through the house. It’s hard to know what to do. She’s going to have to work through this, but if she can’t then something will need to be done to help her.

I move closer to Mike and lower my voice. “What do you do when they don’t handle the news well?”

His fingers tap rhythmically on his knee. “I could call Ruth Lemons. She’s Dr. Anders’ physician assistant in his pediatrician office in Oakridge, but she only lives a few blocks away.”

Wren grabs her purse, and turns it upside down. Liam notices what she’s doing before I catch on, and tries to grab her phone before she gets it. They wrestle over it, causing her to drop it and knock a vase over in the process. She crawls over the broken glass to reach her phone before he gets a hold of it, cutting her hands and knees in the process.

I turn back to Mike, “Better make that call.”

Every minute that passes she seems to slip farther and farther into some sort of dissociative fugue. There’s blood running down her legs and forearms, but she seems to be more concerned with going through her phone. Whatever she’s finding is making her grow more and more anxious.

“Just give it a minute. They’ll answer. Any minute now. You’ll see,” she rambles.

Liam is floundering, and I know how much it hurts when the woman you care about is falling apart in front of you and you’re powerless to help her. He needs something to do, and I have an idea.

“Liam, go outside and get your dad. I need you guys to go over to Ruth Lemons’ house and have her grab her first aid kit and meet you back here. I’d call her, but I don’t have her phone number, just her address,” I instruct him.

He doesn’t hesitate to rush out and do what I asked. That gives me a chance to talk Wren down, or at least try.

I can see Mike squirming to go, and I honestly think it will be easier to reach her with him gone. “We won’t leave her alone. Give me a call with any details or anything you need to tell her until Hattie gets here. And even then, let’s gauge how well she’s handling the news,” I tell him.

Mike pushes himself out of the chair. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Someone will be here tonight?”

“Yeah, I’ll take the couch.” With my confirmation he shows himself out, leaving me to slowly approach Wren.

“Wren, can I see your phone?” I ask her cautiously.

“I want to have it in case my parents call back,” she says. I can hear the detachment in her voice, which worries me almost as much as the blood still trickling out of her wounds.

“Wren, I know this is hard to accept. I don’t want to accept it either, but denial isn’t going to make it better. I do need you to turn on your ringer in case your aunt Hattie tries to call. You guys are going to need each other.”

“She never comes home anymore,” Wren mumbles.

Guilt niggles in the back of my mind. When I pushed Hattie away, I meant to encourage her to spread her wings and move beyond this town, not never return to it. I don’t know if Hattie will come back now, or if she’ll take Wren with her. Either way, life is going to be different for both of them forever.

“How about you don’t worry about that right now. The only thing we need to do right at this moment is start getting this glass out of your hands and knees. Go take a seat at the table and I’ll get this glass cleaned up.”

She rises woodenly and makes her way to the table. She doesn’t even seem to notice the shards of glass still stuck in her skin. The front door closes while I go into the mudroom to grab the broom. I come back out and see Ruth, Liam, and even Griffin enter the house.

Griff looks in the kitchen warily and reaches out to take the broom from me. “Go be with her. My son is freaking out, and she needs someone steady right now. I can take care of this.”

In truth, having a task somehow makes it easier to manage everything, at least for now. Soon enough I’ll run out of things to do for Martin and Elisa, and it will be hard to ignore that my friend won’t ever be there to talk to again.