Waking Charley Vaughan Part 13

" I will be," I told her. "Wait, how did you know that's why I was calling? Are you okay? How are your parents?"

"We will be OK, too," she said. "There's just a lot to sort out right now I guess. I was at Adam's shop shortly after he figured it out and called Brennan I guess. I just know I was talking to Brennan and he told me they'd found the car. I showed up at the shop, and recognized it was Matt's."

"Oh," I said. Even though I had suspected something was up when Matt never called, and I knew what the police had said, there was something about Sara confirming it that made it feel more real.

I added, "Sara, I'm so--"

"Don't you dare apologize, Charley," she said sternly. "This is in no way your fault. Whether Matt meant to hit you or not, he made the choice to drive off," she sounded angry.

"I know," I told her. "I'm just sorry about the whole stupid situation," I explained. "Tell your parents that for me, OK? Tell your mom I love her, and please let me know if you need anything. Any of you."

"You, too Midge," she said. "Do you need someone to go with you? I a.s.sume you're going to have to talk to the police? Eventually someone is going to have to clear up the whole fiance mess, too, I guess."

"Oh yeah," I said, "I'd completely forgotten about that. Do you think Brennan will be in any trouble?"

"No idea," Sara said. "But I hope not."

"Brennan's going to go with me. You stay with your parents. Give them my love," I said, and promised several times that I would call her after my interview.

I hung up the phone and went back to the mirror and trying to make myself presentable. I didn't see much point to it. The truth was, it was just something to busy myself with until I had to go and tell some police officers that I couldn't remember my ex-fiance hitting me with his car, despite all the evidence pointing to that conclusion.

It was no wonder he hadn't called or tried to get in touch until I'd dropped the ring off. What I didn't get was why he got so indignant when I ended the engagement. Had he thought he'd gotten away with it by then? Would he really have married me knowing he'd almost killed me? What was wrong with him that he could be so selfish? What was wrong with me that I could be so stupid?

My eyes were beginning to fill up with tears, more out of frustration than sadness. Just then I saw Brennan's figure in the door way.

"You OK, Charley?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I sniffed. "This crying isn't over Matt. It's frustration over the whole situation."

Brennan nodded. "I understand. This is a lot to take in," he said, putting his hands on my shoulders. Without thinking, I leaned into him, putting my head in his chest. It was so natural to be close to him. He felt safe. I let him wrap his arms around me and hold me as I cried my angry tears.

"That jerk!" I sobbed. "He would have married me anyway, knowing that he almost killed me!"

"I know," Brennan said. "At least you didn't make the mistake of marrying him," he tried to rea.s.sure me.

"He had the nerve," I began. "The audacity," I continued. "he was angry at me. What kind of person hits another person with their car and then gets mad at the person they hit?!"

Brennan just stood there, holding me in his arms, and letting me yell out every angry word I felt. After about five minutes of this, I pulled myself together, and we headed out of the apartment, and down to Brennan's truck.

During the short trip to the police station, we somehow landed on the subject of my family.

"Do you think you'd feel any better if you confronted your mom?" Brennan asked me.

"It won't do any good. She's not going to budge."

"That's not what I asked. Would it make you feel better to get things off your chest?"

I just shrugged.

"Well, the way I see it, if you have nothing to lose, then why not at least talk to her? It can't make the bakery situation any worse, and it might help you."

"Help me?" I asked him. "You think I'm pretty messed up don't you?"

'No, Charley," he said, dismissing the idea. "It's not that. I do recognize that she's hurt you though. You have every right to tell her as much. In fact, I think you owe it to yourself to tell her."

I thought about that for a while. Maybe he was right. He was certainly right about the part where I had nothing to lose. Then he added, "You know, you do have something to gain from confronting your mom."

"Yeah?" I asked him, "What's that?"

"Your sisters," he said simply, offering no further explanation. We both knew that no more explanation was needed though. He knew the situation between Casey, Codey, and myself. I thought that maybe he was right in that respect, too.

"How the h.e.l.l did you get so wise, Yoda?" I asked him playfully.

"Wise beyond my years am I," Brennan said in a horrible impression of the Star Wars character. Despite the tone of the day, I couldn't help laughing out loud.

"That was awful," I chuckled. "Worst Yoda ever."

He laughed with me, and the sound of it filled the small s.p.a.ce of his truck. For a moment, I was surrounded by the sound of happiness, and I loved it. For the first time in what felt like years, but was actually weeks, there was no ex-fiance to worry about, no family, no accidents, and no drama. Inside the cab of Brennan's truck, for that moment, there was just us and our laughter. I wanted that to last forever. I wanted us to sit inside his truck and be safe from all of the horrible things that could happen to you outside of it.

By the time we pulled up to the police station, I had surrendered to the fact that horrible things could not be avoided, and if I tried to avoid them by staying in the truck, it was likely that an anvil or piano would just fall on it instead. The bad stuff was unavoidable. I took a few minutes to gather my thoughts before going inside for my interview.

The interview itself wasn't as long as I'd feared. It also wasn't as short or simple as I had hoped. Instead of meeting with officer Vasquez, I met with a detective named Schmidt. Only minutes into the interview, it became clear that I was going to have to reveal Brennan's lie. I hadn't wanted to, and I had even toyed around with different ways I could avoid having to tell the Detective that Matt was my fiance. None of the scenarios that I played in my head went well, and I figured that was a sign that I needed to just come out with the truth, and hope Brennan didn't get into trouble.

After I finished spilling the beans on Brennan in a very high-speed, Sara-like fas.h.i.+on, detective Schmidt gave me a slight smile.

"Thank you for being honest," he said in a kind voice. "But, your friend Brennan beat you to it earlier today when he walked me out of his brother's shop. I already told him it isn't likely that any charges will be pressed against him." My relief must have shown on my face when he said this because he added sternly, "Although, it could be argued that his lie prevented us from investigating someone who should have been a key suspect. He also, ultimately lead to the capture of the individual. Charges against him are a very low priority at the moment."

Hearing about Matt's confession made any hope I'd been holding onto vanish. Not hope for him and I, but hope that I hadn't been engaged to a total sleaze ball. Hope that I hadn't meant that little to someone I had been months away from promising my life to. Hearing his confession made me question whether I'd ever really gotten to know Matt, or myself. All the evidence before me pointed to "no". It was scary to think of how close I'd come to throwing my life away by giving it to someone like him.

As I was leaving the interview room, Detective Vasquez gave me one last fun fact to chew on. "Matt has expressed an interest in talking to you. He wanted to see you face to face. Given the fact that he has confessed and will be pleading guilty, you would be allowed to see him. It's really just going to be up to you. No one will blame you for not allowing contact, but if you need the closure, I would take advantage of the opportunity now so you can move on."

I didn't know what to say to that. I ended up just telling him I would think about it, and thanking him for his time. I walked out into the waiting area and met Brennan. He wrapped one arm around my shoulders and walked me out to his truck. He acted as a s.h.i.+eld against the cold air. It was gloomy outside, and it looked like we could be in for more snow. We'd already gotten over a foot in the past week. I usually loved snow. I was surprised that I hadn't fully noticed how much we'd gotten until that day.

When we were both inside his truck, he looked at me. "You need some light," he said.

"Huh?" I asked him, still thinking about the snow, and having no idea what he was talking about.

"Some light," he repeated. "You've had too much heavy today. You need some light. Some fun. Some silly," he explained.

"Oh," I said, understanding. "I don't really feel light," I told him.

"Of course you don't," he said. "That's because you need it."

I shook my head, starting to protest but he cut me off.

"Look," he reasoned, "let me take you on our date tonight. If you aren't having fun within the first half hour, I'll take you home. I promise."

I thought about it. Once again, I had nothing to lose but time.

"Okay," I agreed. "Let's see what you've got."

The sun was trying hard to s.h.i.+ne through the snow clouds a little after midday when he pulled up in front of my apartment and put his truck into park. "Okay," he said with a sigh, "How does your arm feel?"

I looked at him, then looked at my arm. I was only in the cast. I'd finally ditched the sling for good. "It's fine," I said.

"And your head?" he asked.

"Fine," I said again, checking for tender spots with my free hand. Nothing hurt to touch, which was a huge improvement. Wondering what he was up to, I asked, "Why?"

"Just making sure," he said quickly, and he got out to open my door for me. "Do you have snow pants?" he asked me as we walked up to my apartment.

"Yeah," I said, drawing the word out. Still not sure where this was going.

"Okay, good," he said. "Go put them on," he said while making a shooing motioning. "And put on plenty of layers of tops."

"Okay," I said, again, drawing the word out, "why?"

"Just trust me. Get dressed for snow and lots of it. I'm gonna run to my place, do the same, and meet you back here in a few."

"Okay," I said as I searched my dresser for my snow clothes. I decided to call Sara while I rummaged.

"This place is like a morgue," she said as a greeting. "Mom keeps crying, dad is so quiet. I'm gonna go nuts!"

"Anything I can do?" I asked.

"Get me out of here?" she asked sadly. "But first, tell me what happened? Are you OK?"

"I'm OK," I told her, and went on to explain how the interview had gone, and what I'd found out. She seemed as relieved as I was that Brennan would probably not be in any trouble for lying, and as disappointed as I had been that Matt confessed. Her last bit of hope in him was gone, too.

"At least he told the truth," I said, trying to find some silver lining.

"Yeah, for once in his life," she said bitterly.

I was still on the phone with Sara and pulling on my last layers of s.h.i.+rts and socks when I heard Brennan knocking. "Where are you guys going?" Sara's voice was projected through the speaker phone as I let Brennan in.

"I'm not sure," I told her, giving Brennan a look. "He won't tell me."

"Snow therapy," Brennan said loudly so Sara could hear.

"He says I've had too much heavy and I need some light," I explained to her. Strangely enough, she understood without any more explanation.

"I could use some light, too," she sighed. Brennan gave me a look, one eyebrow c.o.c.ked.

"Ask her to come?" he mouthed.

I shrugged. "Hey Sara, do you want to come?" I said into the phone. "Maybe it will make you feel better," I added.

"I don't want to crash your date," she said, but it didn't sound like she was resisting too hard. "Being a third wheel is sucky."

I rolled my eyes as Brennan pulled out his phone and started dialing. "I think Brennan is taking care of that now," I told her. "Put some snow clothes on and meet us" I trialed off, looking at Brennan.

"Coffee shop?" he asked before going back to his call.

"At the coffee shop," I said into the phone.

" OK," she said, all the resistance gone. "Thanks, Midge," she said before hanging up.

It turned out that Brennan was calling Adam. I was not at all shocked to hear that, and I think Adam was glad to have an excuse to call someone else into the pub. Brennan said he was getting sick of his part time work there, and wanted to be able to just focus on his shop.

Both Adam and Sara met us at the coffee shop downtown, and from there we all got into Sara's Honda. Brennan drove, and before we left, he loaded the back of the SUV up with brightly colored plastic sleds and a helmet that he informed me was for me.

"Not a secret anymore," I told him from the pa.s.senger seat. Sara had insisted that I sit up front with Brennan. I wasn't sure if it was more because she wanted me close to him, or because she wanted to be closer to Adam. That was Sara for you. She was able to compartmentalize with the best of them.

Brennan drove us all up to what he called "The best sledding hill everwithin driving distance."

Snow was lightly falling as we got out and got our sleds from the back seat. Because it was the middle of the week, there weren't many people there. We basically had the mountain to ourselves, which was nice. We spent the entire afternoon sledding and laughing and forgetting about everything bad from earlier in the day. It was a nice escape. For the first time in weeks, no one was fussing over me or asking if my arm was OK or if I was sad. I was just part of the group. Not "poor Charley," just "Charley".

Adam and Sara were an instant hit. By the time we were walking back to the car, I noticed they were already holding hands. My hand was in Brennan's as we walked behind Sara and Adam. I stretched up and whispered, "looks like a good first date." He smiled down at me.

"I hope it was for them, too." I gave his hand a squeeze. It was hard to think of this as our first date. We'd spend so much time together anyway, and New Years Eve felt like our first date to me. I didn't correct him though. Whatever number date it was, I was happy.

We all stopped for pizza at a little shop near Brennan and Adam's place before going back to the coffee shop. We all separated there-- although, I didn't think Adam and Sara would separate for long-- and Brennan took me back to my apartment.

When we got up to my door, he kissed me sweetly and held onto my hands. "There's still time for a movie," he said coaxingly.

I smiled. "I'm beat," I said, and his face fell slightly. "How about a rental?" I added. I went inside to get cleaned up while Brennan went to do the same before picking up something on his way back.

"What should I pick up?" he asked me on the way out.

"I don't know," I said, shrugging. "Surprise me."

Brennan rolled his eyes, but was still smiling when he turned to walk down the steps.

When he got back to my apartment, it was about seven o'clock. He'd picked up about five movies, and before the night was done, we'd watched almost three of them. They were almost all romantic comedies, but Brennan didn't seem to mind. He was laughing almost as much as I was.

I was cuddled next to him for a while before eventually giving into to exhaustion, and laying my head down on his lap while he played with my hair. Before falling asleep, I remembered thinking that, once again, Brennan had managed to make a really bad day seem good.

When I woke up a few hours later, Brennan and I were still snuggled together on my couch. I hadn't remembered it happening, but we were now both laying on the couch, me with Brennan's arms wrapped around me, and him softly snoring in my ear. I thought of waking him up so he could go home, but instead, I just adjusted the blanket he must have put over us, and nuzzled myself comfortably closer to him.

He was still sleeping when I woke up later in the morning. His hair was messy, and his face was smashed against his arm.

I went into my small kitchen and started whipping up some breakfast. It wasn't anything fancy. I was just making some coffee and pastries. Brennan woke up shortly after eight with a huge smile on his face.

"It smells great in here," he said.