Chapter 17-2
692 Words
Russell caught Bill around the chest before he was five steps out the door. It was like running into a wall.
“Go!” Russell shouted at Cassidy, who had already taken off after Perrin.
Bill pushed against Russell, but to little effect. Ten, twenty, thirty seconds later, whenever he stopped his futile struggling, it was too late. Perrin, with Cassidy trailing far behind, was long out of sight.
Russell’s clasp turned into a friendly arm around the shoulder, with a grip that not even a grizzly bear could break free from. Russell led him back inside.
“Wonder what got into her?” Russell offered it conversationally.
Bill didn’t know. Her words had made no sense. His kids were crazy about her. It was because of Perrin they were in the opera production, becoming more involved every day. Tammy couldn’t stop talking about her. And Tammy was really smart about people. Her response made Bill trust Perrin all the more. Quirky as she was, the woman daily proved her ability to be a positive role model for his daughter.
So what had happened?
“She couldn’t mean what she said, could she?” he asked Russell.
Russell guided him back to the very chairs he and Perrin had been sitting in moments before. The big man opened his mouth to respond but the fear was too big for Bill to give him a chance to speak. The fear just kept stumbling words out of Bill’s mouth.
“About never coming back? About never seeing me again? She couldn’t mean that?”
Russell’s face turned grim, “She said that?”
Bill could only nod.
“s**t,” Russell muttered under his breath. “You never know with Perrin. Mama Maria practically adopts her, Cassie worships her, and to me she’s flighty and damned stubborn. You wouldn’t believe how good that woman is at getting her way.”
Bill buried his face in his hands. He understood the stubborn woman, the one who drove herself so hard. She’d done six months of work in the last four weeks, totally charming Tammy and himself in the process. Charming? Dammit! He loved the woman. He even loved her for her pig-headed protection of his children.
“Dad?”
Bill jerked his head up at Tammy’s voice.
“He’s asking for you. I don’t think he wants to see either of us, but he’d rather it was you than me.” She looked around, her face still tear-streaked, her eyes almost blood red. “Where’s Perrin?”
Behind Tammy, Cassidy came in through the door still breathing hard. She shook her head once, “no.”
Bill rose, nodded to Russell and Cassidy, then, wrapping an arm around his daughter’s shoulders, they went to see his son.
* * * *
Perrin was so lost. She’d zig-zagged through streets, alleys, backyards. No way she could face Cassidy, but Perrin’s long legs and the speed she’d learned so many years ago in college field hockey had outdistanced her quickly.
It was her own self she couldn’t seem to get away from. She glanced up at a street sign. Yesler and 34th. She forced herself to turn away when she saw the Ascension yarn-bomb climbing the crosswalk sign’s pole that she’d been leaning against.
She became aware of the traffic sounds, the afternoon cooling into darkness, the pedestrians eying her strangely as she leaned there trying to recover her breath.
She was so totally lost.
And she had nowhere to go. She had no bolt hole, no safe place where none could find her. When had she let go of that? Stupid! Where was it now that she finally needed it?
Even now Cassidy would be rallying the troops, Jo and Maria. She knew how relentless they could be, she’d done the same for Jo and Cassidy a couple of times herself.
Now when she needed to be alone, she had nowhere safe. They’d check her store and apartment, thankfully she’d left her cell phone home for the day so she didn’t have to feel guilty… guiltier for not answering when they called her.
She couldn’t go to a hotel. For a day out with Bill and the kids she’d stuffed her apartment key in one pocket and her driver’s license and a twenty-dollar bill in the other. Twenty bucks wouldn’t even buy her a bus ticket out of town.
“s**t!” Her curse startled several people she hadn’t noticed waiting for the light.
Out of options, all she could do was select the least painful one.
Turning north and west, she started walking slowly back toward downtown.
- Writer
