Color of Forgiveness (35 page)

Never looking up or acknowledging Myra in
any way, Dylan abruptly turns and walks out of the kitchen, his
head down and shoulders slouched. Myra’s eyes stay on him all the
way down the hallway until he disappears out the front door. With
misty eyes, she wonders how long it’ll be before she sees him
again.

* * *

Dylan unlocks his front door and drops his
bag on the floor. He frowns.

“Why’s it so cold in here?” his dad
asks.

“I don’t know,” Dylan mumbles. “Probably the
furnace or something…” He walks towards the kitchen to down some
pain killers for his headache when his eyes widen. His glass patio
door is wide open.

Some fucker has been in his house.

“Dad?” he calls out, as he takes in a shaky
breath. “Somebody’s been in here.”

“You’re kidding.”

Dylan pulls out his phone and calls Porter,
asking him to send someone over. He makes sure to tell Porter to
not mention anything to Myra about it. She’s got enough shit to
worry about.

After tucking his phone back in his pocket,
he walks out onto the patio where his dad stands, visually
inspecting the exterior. “Looks like it was pretty easy to get in,”
Dennis says. “Probably only took a screwdriver to do it.”

“Yeah,” Dylan agrees with a sigh as he looks
at it. He runs his hand over his jaw. “I’ve never cared about
anybody breaking in or shit like that because I sure as hell have
nothing to steal.”

“Well, let’s look around and see if they’ve
taken anything.”

They find the flat screen TV still on the
wall, which is about the only thing of value Dylan owns.

“Well, nothing’s missing that I can tell,”
Dylan tells his dad after a quick inspection of the house. “I’m
gonna go change.”

“All right,” Dennis says as he sits down on
the couch. “I need to make a couple of phone calls.”

Dylan grunts in response and walks into his
bedroom. In seconds, his shirt hits the floor, and he rips off that
fucking nicotine patch, throwing it on the floor. He’d love to
stomp on that damn thing. He digs around in his room, trying to
remember if he has any smokes stashed anywhere. “Fuck,” he snarls
when he can’t find any. He’s so goddamn desperate for a smoke right
now that he’s almost salivating for it. As soon as Porter gets
here, his ass is going to the store to fix that little problem.

He starts sifting through his clothes to
find something to wear, and he gets more and more pissed when he
can’t find what he’s looking for. He searches everywhere for his
black T, but he can’t find it. He looks in his hamper for one of
his flannel shirts that he knows he put in there and can’t find it.
“Fucking shit,” he growls under his breath as he starts flinging
clothes everywhere. He finally just gives up and throws on the
first shirt he finds and concludes that he must be losing his
goddamn mind.

Walking into the kitchen, he throws open the
fridge and stares at the two beers on the shelf. That’s another
little problem he’s gonna have to fix. Grabbing both of them, he
walks into the living room and sits down next to his dad on the
couch, who’s quietly talking on his phone. He holds a beer up to
him, but Dennis shakes his head no. As Dylan goes to set the spare
beer on the coffee table, he freezes. His chest tightens and his
heart starts pounding.

He swallows hard before slowly setting the
beer down on the
empty
coffee table. When he left his house,
there was a picture album sitting on that table. Who the hell would
steal a photo album? He gulps, his stomach twisting into a knot as
an answer hits him.
Sabrina.

Could she be the one that did all of this
shit? Who else would steal a photo album? He could see Sabrina
taking the album, but what about the tire slashing and break-ins
and fucking up Myra’s car? Is Sabrina capable of doing something
that despicable? Why the hell would she do it? Is she so desperate
to get him back that she’d go to any length to destroy his
relationship with Myra? Would she ever
hurt
Myra?

He feels like he can’t breathe. What if Myra
decides to go to Boise with his parents and is that close to her?
His stomach lurches as he jumps off the couch and rushes back to
his bedroom, quickly grabbing some clothes. He doesn’t know what
Myra’s plans are, but whatever they are, he’s going to be there. He
won’t be letting her out of his sight.

* * *

It’s been half an hour since Dylan left, and
Porter and his men just left a few minutes ago. Sherri’s been
trying to convince Myra the entire time to come back to Boise with
them. Even though their offer touches her, Myra really doesn’t want
to. It’ll probably be awkward with how questionable things are
between her and Dylan right now, and she doesn’t want to come
between him and his family. He needs them now, and she doesn’t want
to hinder that.

Myra doesn’t want to stay with Susie either.
Even though she knows Dylan would probably rather have her as far
away from him as possible, she can’t stand the thought of being
away from him. She has no idea what she’s going to do.

She sighs when her phone rings. Mumbling a
quick apology to Sherri, she pulls it out of her pocket.

“It’s my next door neighbor,” she
explains.

“Oh. Do you want me to give you some
privacy?” Sherri asks.

“Oh, no,” Myra says with a wave of her hand.
She flips open her phone. “Hello?”

“Myra? What the hell is going on? I just got
home from work, and I saw a bunch of cop cars leaving your
driveway. Are you okay? I’m on my way over. What happened?”

“Someone tried to break in.”

“What? Oh my god. Okay. I’m at the front
door. Let me in.”

Myra hangs up and looks at Sherri. “My
neighbor’s here.”

“Oh, okay.”

As soon as Myra opens the front door, she’s
tackled by an agitated Jackie.

“I can’t believe someone broke in. Did they
take anything?”

“No. They just vandalized my car again. This
is Sherri, Dylan’s mother. Sherri, this is Jackie, my friend and
next door neighbor.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Sherri says
warmly as they shake hands.

“It’s great to meet you too. Dylan looks
just like you,” Jackie says with a sweet smile. She doesn’t give
Sherri a chance to respond; she immediately turns back to Myra and
starts talking rapidly. “I’ve been trying to keep my eyes open for
anything unusual, but I swear I didn’t see or hear anything. And oh
my god, I saw all the glass outside. How could I have not heard
that glass breaking?”

“I don’t know. They broke out several of the
small basement windows, so it would’ve been too low for you to see
from your house. Then they popped the lock on the garage door, but
pulled the door shut so it didn’t look like anything was wrong.
Unless you would’ve actually come over here, you probably wouldn’t
have seen it from your house.”

“Oh my god,” Jackie says with a shudder.
“This is just scary.”

“I know,” Myra says. “Come on into the
kitchen.”

Jackie talks as they make their way down the
hallway. “I can’t believe all of this stuff is happening to you.
I’m so glad I’m moving back to Boise, but I’m really frightened for
you, Myra. You might need to move in with Dylan. I definitely don’t
want you staying out here by yourself.”

Move in with Dylan.
Myra’s heart
aches when she hears those words. Jackie knows nothing about the
pregnancy, and everything else that’s happened. Myra has no plans
of telling her anything either. That’ll have to wait for another
day.

“I’ll figure something out,” Myra quickly
mumbles.

“Jackie?” Sherri says. “Dylan’s not feeling
too well so Myra can’t stay with him right now.”

“Oh, no,” Jackie says, her eyes widening.
“Is he okay?”

“He will be,” Sherri says, glancing quickly
at Myra. “I’ve been trying to talk Myra into coming to Boise to
stay with us for a little while or fly out to Philly to be with
Susie, but I’m not having any luck.”

“Myra, you need to listen to her. Why don’t
you want to go to?”

“I don’t know.” Myra doesn’t feel like
explaining herself and no matter what she says, Jackie isn’t going
to understand because she doesn’t know the whole story.

“Wait, I have a great idea. How about you
come and stay with me for a few days?”

“That would work,” Myra tells her. She turns
to Sherri. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. The whole point is getting
you away from here, but it’s your decision. At least you wouldn’t
be alone in this house.”

Myra looks at Jackie. “I’ll stay with
you.”

“Great!” Jackie shouts in glee.

“Do you want some coffee?” Myra asks
her.

“Certainly,” Jackie responds.

“So, you’re moving to Boise?” Sherri asks
Jackie.

“Yeah, I’m originally from there, but I
moved here when my grandpa died just like Myra did. I took over
running his bookstore. But I’m selling it and moving back.”

Jackie and Sherri chat about where their
families live in Boise. They’re surprised to find Sherri lives just
a few miles from Jackie’s parents.

“What are your parent’s names?” Sherri
asks.

“John and Barbara George… dad’s an architect
and mom teaches third grade.”

“George… that name sounds so familiar. What
school does your mom teach at?”

Jackie tells her and it happens to be the
same school that Chad’s boys go to, and they figure out that
Jackie’s mom is Jackson’s teacher.

“Wow. It’s a really small world, isn’t it?”
Jackie asks, beaming with happiness at Sherri.

“It sure is,” Sherri agrees with a twinkle
in her eyes. “I’ll have to introduce you to my son, Nick, sometime.
He’s going to be a doctor someday.”

“A doctor? Yes, you must,” Jackie squeals as
she claps her hands together and vibrates with excitement.

* * *

“You said the photo album was missing. Is
there anything else?” Porter asks Dylan.

Dylan frowns when he thinks back to his
shirts. He knows he put them in the dirty clothes because he’s been
trying to keep the house picked up since having Myra over. He gets
a flashback of that day Myra showed up on his doorstep and Sabrina
was wearing one of his
dirty
flannel shirts. He feels
nauseous.

“I think a couple of my shirts are missing.
Or they could be somewhere else, I don’t know.”

“All right, give me a description of them.”
Dylan gives Porter the information.

“Okay,” Porter says. “We’re going to need to
dust for prints.”

Dylan nods. “Can you lock up when you guys
get done? I need to get back to Myra’s.”

“Sure,” Porter agrees with a nod. “We’ll
take care of everything here.”

Dennis steps back into the living room from
the kitchen, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “That was
your mom. She said Myra is going to stay with Jackie for a few
days. She can’t convince her to go to Boise or Philly.” He looks at
Porter. “You’ll make sure they’re watched after, right?”

“Absolutely…”

Dennis looks at Dylan. “Let’s go outside for
a minute.”

They walk outside and sit down on the porch.
Dennis clears his throat. “Your mom and I talked, and we feel that
you shouldn’t be left alone right now.”

“Jesus Christ, I don’t—” Dylan snarls before
Dennis holds his hand up.

“Hear me out on this. You won’t go see a
doctor, you’ve refused to come back to Boise with us and we’re
worried about you. So I’m going to stay here a few days whether you
like it or not. Your mom and Chad need to get back to Natalie and
the boys. The boys are at a neighbor’s house, and Natalie’s best
friend is staying with her right now. Chad can take care of things
at work for me until I get back. We’re not giving you a choice in
this. What happened this morning scared us, and we need to make
sure you’re okay.”

Dylan takes in a deep breath and nods. “I
need to go to Jackie’s. I can’t leave Myra alone… in case something
happens to her or…” He swallows hard. “You know.”

Dennis smiles and nods at him. “That sounds
like a good idea.”

Since Dylan and Dennis are about the same
size, Dylan pulls out some clothes for him and shoves them in a
bag. Dennis insists on driving to Myra’s, which pisses Dylan off.
On the way, he makes his dad stop at Marshall’s. He stocks up on
smokes and grabs a six pack of beer in case of an emergency.

As soon as he gets outside of Marshall’s, he
pulls out a pack of cigarettes and his hands shake as he tries to
get one of out of the pack. When the smoke from that first
cigarette hits his lungs, he feels almost fucking euphoric. He
closes his eyes and his anxiety calms slightly for just a
moment.

* * *

“I’m a little embarrassed to say this,”
Jackie says, “but I don’t really have much food in the house. You
know I’m not much of a cook.” Myra smiles as she remembers the
inedible dinner Jackie prepared for her.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got food,” she says as
she grabs a bag and puts items in it she’ll need for breakfast and
a few snacks as well as her Saltines. She figures she can come back
over tomorrow and get anything else she might need.

“This should do for now,” Myra says, handing
Jackie the bag.

“Are you sure you don’t need me to help you
pack?” Jackie asks.

“No, I’m done. I just want to stay here with
Sherri for a little bit longer. Chad’s going to go pick up Dennis
and bring him back here.”

“Um…” Sherri says interrupting. “Those plans
have changed slightly.”

“What do you mean?” Myra asks.

“I’ll tell you about it later,” Sherri says,
quirking an eyebrow at Myra like she doesn’t want Jackie to
know.

“Oh, okay,” Myra says, nodding. She turns to
Jackie. “I’ll be over there in just a little while.”

“Okay,” Jackie says with a nod.

Jackie smiles at Sherri. “It was so
wonderful to meet you. I had such a great time talking,” she
gushes.