Color of Forgiveness (14 page)

He’s still amazed at how easily he was able
to talk to Myra about… Mel. His brow furrows; it’s been so long
since he’s even allowed himself to
think
his son’s name let
alone say it. For the last few years, he’s just blocked it entirely
from his thoughts because it just hurt too damn much. It still
hurts… but that agonizing pain that normally leaves him breathless
and physically aching isn’t as bad as it used to be. But what does
that mean? Shouldn’t he always have that intense pain? His son
died
, for Christ’s sake; he can’t ever let himself get
comfortable with that fact. As his father, it’s his damn duty to
carry that pain as a reminder or some shit.

Pulling into his parent’s driveway, he parks
next to his dad’s work truck. He gets out of his truck and
stretches before walking up the steps and knocking. His dad answers
and his mouth drops open for a moment before he quickly recovers
and gives him a wide grin. “Come on in. How are you, son?” he asks
before grabbing him in a tight hug.

“Good,” Dylan says as he steps inside the
house. “Is this a bad time?”

“Of course not, I was just a little
surprised, that’s all. You’re always welcome son… anytime. Oh boy,
your mother is going to be so excited—”

“Dennis?” Sherri calls out, interrupting
him. “Who was at the door?”

Dennis grins, nodding his head towards the
kitchen. “Go on. Surprise her. She’ll be thrilled.”

Dylan smiles when he steps into the kitchen.
“It smells awfully dang good in here,” he says. “Whatcha
cookin’?”

His mom whirls around from the stove and
gasps. “Dylan?” she blurts out before running towards him and
throwing her arms around his neck and immediately bursting into
tears.

“Why are you crying? Do you want me to leave
or something?”

“No, no. These are happy tears,” she says as
she quickly wipes her eyes and grins up at him. “I’m just so happy
to see you. What are you doing in Boise?”

He frowns. “Uh, well, I… I don’t know, I
just—”

“Oh sweetie, it doesn’t matter. All that
matters is that you’re here,” Sherri exclaims happily. “You
couldn’t have come at a better time. Oh, goodness. I was supposed
to call you. Did you hear about Natalie?”

“Yeah, Chad told me.”

“Oh, good… I’ve been spending a lot of time
over there but Chad insisted I take tonight off. He ordered pizza
for them,” she says, smiling, “so I decided to cook your dad a good
meal since I’ve been gone so much. Are you hungry?”

“I’m starving,” Dylan tells her as he leans
over her shoulder to peek at what’s on the stove.

Sherri beams at him. “Go wash up. It’ll be
ready in about fifteen minutes.”

* * *

After the dinner dishes have been cleared
away, Dennis excuses himself, saying he has some work-related
things to take care of. Dylan knows better; that’s his dad’s way of
giving him and his mom some privacy.

“Want some coffee?” Sherri asks Dylan.

“Sure.”

She sets a mug in front of Dylan and sits
down across from him. “Are you doing okay? I worry about you all
the time.”

Dylan takes in a deep breath. “I’m
good.”

She looks at him with such sad, worried
eyes. Should he tell her about Myra? No fucking way. He needs to
keep his damn mouth shut. It’s way too early in their relationship
to be discussing that shit with his parents.
Relationship…?
What relationship?

He knows it’s his own damn fault; they have
nothing that could be even remotely considered a relationship. But
he does want something more with Myra. Something solid that would
define them as a couple.

He almost chokes when a vision of Myra in a
wedding dress flashes in his eyes. No way did he just think of
marrying
her. Marriage is out of the fucking question after
going through all the bullshit he did with Sabrina and the divorce.
He’s never getting married again but
girlfriend
doesn’t
sound quite right either.

“I know I’ve asked you this before, but have
you made any friends in Nyssa? I don’t like it that you don’t have
any friends there. Everyone needs a friend or two that they can
talk to.”

He chuckles, shaking his head at
himself.

“What?”

“I wasn’t going to tell you this but… I’ve
met someone.”

Sherri gasps, her eyes widening in surprise.
“A woman someone?”

Dylan chuckles again. “Yeah, her name’s
Myra. I’ve been doing some work on her house and... I told her,
about Mel.”

“Oh my goodness, you did?”

Dylan nods.

“She must be very important to you.”

He stares at the table and nods again.

“I’m so happy for you. You know how much I
loved Sabrina. I was completely heartbroken when you two broke up.
I really hoped you two could work it out, but with her drug
problem, I knew that couldn’t happen. You did the right thing. I
want to see you happy again. You deserve so much happiness.”

“Myra makes me happy.”

Sherri lets out a little shrieking
noise.

“
Mom
,” Dylan says, rolling his
eyes.

“I’m sorry but this is so exciting. When can
we meet her?”

“God, slow down. Things with her have been
kind of… rocky. I’m trying to take things slow. I don’t want to
scare her off by introducing her to my family right off the
bat.”

“But—”

“No buts,” he says with a glare.

“Fine, but I really want to meet her soon.
What’s she like?”

“I don’t know. She’s kind of quiet. She’s a
writer. She used to live in Philly, but moved to Nyssa when her
grandpa died. She lives in his house; it’s old and rundown so
that’s why she hired me. She doesn’t have any family—”

“No family? Bless her heart.”

“Yeah, I just flew in from Philly today…”
Dylan then proceeds to spill his guts and gives his mom a slightly
altered version of what happened between him and Myra. He tells her
about Sabrina showing up on his doorstep but leaves out the fact
that she was half-naked when Myra knocked on the door.

“My goodness,” Sherri says. “So Sabrina’s
doing okay? I’ve been so worried about her, especially since we
never hear from her.”

“She seemed good. She said she’s been clean
for nine months.”

“That’s such wonderful news. Please tell her
that she’s always welcome here. I’d love for her to stop by and see
us.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just awkward now that
we’re divorced.”

Sherri leans over and touches Dylan’s hand
on the table. “You’re right. I just miss her.”

His dad steps into the kitchen and clears
his throat. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I just talked to Chad,”
he says looking directly at Dylan. “I may have accidentally
mentioned that you were here and he may have accidentally mentioned
it to Natalie who is now demanding that you come over to see
them.”

Dylan chuckles and shakes his head.

“Why don’t you stay the night with us and
you can leave in the morning?” Sherri asks. “That way you can spend
more time with Chad and Natalie.”

Dylan purses his lips. Myra’s flying home
tomorrow; if he stayed the night, he could meet her at the airport
and follow her back to Nyssa.

“Why not…?” Dylan says with a shrug of his
shoulders as his mom smiles from ear to ear.

* * *

“Oh god, here I go again,” Susie moans as
she grabs a tissue out of the box that sits in the middle of her
bed and dabs at her puffy red eyes. “I can’t stop the leaking.
You’re killing me, Myra. You know I act all mean and tough on the
outside with my expert verbal Kung Fu skills and all, but inside
I’m really just squishy and filled with marshmallows and yellow
Peeps and creamy nougat. ” She stops to blow her nose loudly,
tossing the dirty tissue on the floor beside her bed before
grabbing another. “Please make it go away,” she says before
throwing her head back on her pillow and sighing.

Myra grabs a Kleenex and wipes her eyes. “I
don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard in my life,” she says. She told
Susie Dylan’s story last night after he left to go back to his
hotel. They stayed up crying together and talking about it for
hours.

“Me either,” Susie says before sniffing
loudly. “I swear they’d have to put me in the loony bin if I ever
lost one of my boys like that especially at that age. He was
three
. He was just a baby.” She turns on her side to face
Myra. “Three is one of those magical ages. They’re so sweet and
innocent and precious and constantly saying new and funny things. I
swear they’d have to put me in a strait jacket and in one of those
Hannibal the Cannibal masks because I know I’d go completely
psycho. Psycho Susie, that’s what they’d call me.” She pauses to
blow her nose loudly, making disgusting, unladylike sniffs and
snorts at the end. “I feel like my sinuses have been reamed out. My
head hurt so bad last night after all that crying we did that I had
to overdose on the Advil.

“Then today? Today I got hit with the guilt.
I feel like the scuzziest scuzz that every walked the planet. How
could I say all of those mean, wicked terrible things I said about
that incredible man? I think I went through every ass acronym
available. I’m vile! And the fuck names…?” she groans, covering her
eyes. “I won’t even go there. Oh, Lordy, I need someone to beat me
on my rotund ass for all the awful things I’ve said about that
sweet, dear, broken-hearted hunky man. I think I’m going to buy
some lye soap and scrub my mouth out with it. I hope it’s revolting
and makes me gag. I need to be punished for my horrendous
ways.”

“You should feel bad because you said some
awful things about him.”

“I
know
.” Susie suddenly sits up her
hands flying to her face. “Oh my god…”

“What’s wrong?” Myra asks.

“I’m going to hell. Did I say something
about ‘blendering his balls’?”

“Yes. You did.”

Susie groans and drops her head in her
hands. “Hell is waiting on me. I’m gonna burn in the flames one of
these days, Myra. I’m gonna burn. The
guilt
…” she moans
loudly before grabbing a pillow and covering her face with it. “I
feel so
guilty.
”

“Maybe you’ll think twice before you open
your mouth next time.”

“My mouth needs a mute button,” she says
into the pillow before ripping it away and tucking it under her
head. “I’m getting another headache. I cannot cry anymore.” She
turns on her side and points to her eyes. “Did you see the state of
my eyeballs this morning? Do you know what I did after all that
crying we did last night? Went off and boohooed some more until my
eyeballs almost fell out of their sockets.” She scoots closer to
Myra, waving at her eyes. “Look at them. They look like striped
peppermint balls. Do you see the bags under them? They’re so
swelled and saggy it looks like I grew some grannie tits under my
eyes overnight. I’m a mess. I snuck into the boys’ rooms last night
and laid down beside them and kissed their sweet, sweet cheeks and
touched their soft hair and bawled my brains out. They’d both vomit
if they knew I did that. I swear I didn’t know a human could
produce that many tears.”

Susie grabs another Kleenex and blows her
nose again. “Oh my head,” she moans, rubbing her temples. “I just
thought of something. Maybe I lost some weight. Surely all that
water added up to some poundage. I’m going to have to weigh myself
later. Anyway, sorry I keep getting sidetracked, but the whole
point of my story was to tell you that I was lying beside Wesley
when he suddenly turned over and punched me right in the boob while
he was sound asleep. It hurt like hell.” She thrusts her chest out
and looks down at her breasts. “Does one of my tits look bigger?
Because if so, I’m going in there tonight so he can punch the other
one so they match.”

Myra giggles. “You’re insane, you know
that?”

Susie sighs. “I know.”

She turns on her side to face Myra. “You
need to love on that man. Give him so much love that he can’t
handle it all. For him to fly all the way out here, spend all that
money and share his story with you like that… And then beg you to
give him another chance? Myra, are you ready for this?”

“What?”

“I have an announcement. And it’s huge.”

Myra shakes her head and chuckles.
“Okay…”

Susie clears her throat over dramatically.
“Dylan is in love with you.”

Myra gasps. “What?”

“He is. That man is so much in love with
you. I know he hasn’t said it but he doesn’t have to. His actions
speak loud and clear. He’s already slept with you so we know he’s
not after da pussy since he’s already gotten da pussy. Only a man
in love is going to do what he did.”

“Wait,” Myra says, holding up her hand.
“Trent flew out to Nyssa to see me.”

“Uh, that was because Trent is a fucking
stalker, Myra. You can’t even compare the two. Besides, you didn’t
see the way Dylan looked at you. It was written all over his face.
He is
so
in love with you. Do you love him?”

“I… I…” Myra stutters. She doesn’t know how
to answer that question. Could she be in love? Her life lately has
been a blur of activity. From the horrible incident with Sabrina,
to Susie’s dad dying, to flying to Philly, to Dylan showing up;
she’s not had any time to think about her feelings. She knows she
felt completely devastated when she found Sabrina at his house. It
was like her heart had been ripped to shreds. Then she’d been so
mad at him and confused when he’d shown up on Susie’s doorstep; her
emotions were all over the place. But hearing about his past, her
heart had literally felt like it tore in half for him. All she’d
wanted to do was take his pain away and give him… love. She finds
herself stunned by that realization.

Susie crosses her arms and nods her head.
“You don’t have to say anything because I already know the answer,”
she says in a sing-song voice.