Gold Hill (4 page)

“
I know,” Dale said. “Beth
would say that he was doing his best. He doesn’t know any better
and stuff like that. I miss her today too.”

The doorbell
rang.

“
Come on,” Dale said.
“Let’s eat and you can leave for work.”

“
What about painting?” Ava
worked to control the tears that dropped from her eyes.

“
It will all get done,”
Dale said. “That’s what O’Malley says. One way or another,
everything eventually gets done.”

“
We’re lucky our friends
are so wise,” Ava said.

“
Makes it harder when
they’re gone.”

Ava nodded.

“
Beth would say that we
shouldn’t give too much time to
this . . . ”

“
Crap,” Ava
nodded.

“
Let’s eat.”

Ava followed him into the
kitchen.

~~~~~~~~

Monday evening — 8:57 p.m.
MDT

“
There you are,” Tanesha
said as she entered the den of the Penthouse. Jeraine was sitting
on the couch watching a final version of their interview. “What are
you doing?”

“
We have last right of
refusal on this interview,” Jeraine said. “It’s something the
Schmidtys are known for putting in their contracts.”

“
Contract?”

“
Jammy had contracts
prepared when Primetime said they wanted to catch us on Sunday,”
Jeraine said.

“
But my publicist is Jen,”
Tanesha said. “She’s the one who called us after
church.”

“
Jammy worked with Jen,”
Jeraine said. “Now we have to look at this to make sure it’s
right.”

“
I wanted to talk to you
about something.” Tanesha sat on the couch next to him.

“
Ok,” he said. “But let’s
finish this then talk.”

Tanesha nodded.

“
Jammy tagged a few places
he wanted us to check,” Jeraine said. “I’ve been through it a
couple of times. The only place I’m stuck is here. Can you take a
look?”

“
Ok,” Tanesha
said.

He clicked the remote
control and the video began to run. She and Jeraine were sitting on
the patio with City Park and the Denver skyline in the
background.

“
You know there are women
who say they were . . .
with
Jeraine last night,” the host
said. “Two women. They’ve posted some photos on Facebook. Have you
seen them?”

Tanesha shook her
head.

“
How do you feel about
that?”

“
Feel?” Tanesha asked.
“Confused.”

“
Confused?”

“
I’m never sure why a
woman would brag about something like that,” Tanesha shrugged. “I
mean, this man has a problem. Two
years
ago, he told the world he had
a serious sex addiction. And still girls brag about screwing him. I
mean, what would the world say to the crack dealer who sold drugs
to Robert Downey, Jr.? Broke his sobriety? Would he or she be on
the cover of magazines? The topic of so called news
programs?”

“
We minimize sex
addiction,” the host said.

“
We’re all ‘oooh it’s sex’
like we’re in Junior High,” Tanesha said. “Have some self-respect.
I mean seriously. If these girls were with Jer last night, they
broke almost six months of sobriety. Plus, he left here saying he
didn’t want to be with other women. When we found him, he said he
hadn’t been with other women. So, these ladies got together with a
guy who was too high to know what he was doing. Nice. I bet your
Momma’s proud now.”

“
So you don’t think he
just told you one thing and did something else?”

“
I look at people’s
intentions,” Tanesha said. “I don’t believe that he intended to get
high. I don’t believe that he intended to be with
those . . . women, if he even was. In the last year,
he’s worked hard to change his life. That means more to me than
some grainy cell phone picture from the inside of a
limo.”

Jeraine clicked the remote
control to stop the video.

“
What’s wrong with that?”
Tanesha asked.

“
A lot of people will say
you’re a fool,” Jeraine said. “That I’m a dog who won’t change his
ways.”

“
You are a dog,” Tanesha
smiled. “But I like dog training. Hey, I wanted to talk to
you . . . ”

“
So you’re all right with
this?”

“
I don’t care,” Tanesha
said. “Do you?”

“
Not really,” Jeraine
said.

“
So why don’t we give
Schmidty the last right of refusal? He can take out what he wants
to take out and we can live our life. I think that’s what you pay
him for.”

Nodding, Jeraine picked up
his cell phone and texted Schmidty. He turned to face
Tanesha.

“
What did you want to talk
to me about?” Jeraine asked.

“
First, I wanted to thank
you again for picking me up at school,” Tanesha said. “I was
surprised when I saw my Dad’s truck and thrilled when you got out
of the driver’s seat. Thanks.”

“
Your Dad let us borrow
the truck all week,” he said.

“
For the tear out,”
Tanesha said.

“
Right,” he
said.

“
I also wanted to thank
you for having everyone over tonight,” Tanesha said. “You had
dinner ready when we got home and then wham, everyone was here –
Jill and Katy, Jacob, Sandy and her tribe, Heather and Mack with
Blane, Honey, MJ, Valerie, Mike, and Sam, your parents, and even my
Dad and Gran and Delphie. I had a great time.”

“
I wanted to celebrate
your big day. Turned out, everyone had a big day,” Jeraine smiled.
“Nice people. Well, except for Scully.”

“
I saw you laughing with
MJ,” Tanesha said.

“
He’s still a wild man.
Did you know he was in Special Forces and now he’s a Marine?”
Jeraine shook his head. “And I can’t for the life of me believe he
married his ‘sweet little Honeybee.’ He said, ‘You know Honey’ and
gestured to her. My jaw dropped.”

“
Jill
was . . . uh . . . tentative about them
living in the Castle,” Tanesha said. “I guess they were pretty
volatile.”

Jeraine gave a vehement nod
and Tanesha laughed.

“
They’re crazy about each
other now,” Tanesha said. “Baby on the way and
everything.”

“
It was great to see him,”
Jeraine said. “We’re going for a run tomorrow morning. I feel
like . . . I’m finally home. You know some nice
people.”

“
I know,” Tanesha said.
“Pretty lucky, eh?”

Jeraine nodded.

“
The barbecue was
fabulous,” Tanesha said. “Did you make the marinade and
sauce?”

“
I did,” he said. “Aden
mastered the grill though.”

“
You were nice to let him
do it,” Tanesha said. “He’s more comfortable when he has a way to
participate.”

“
Hey us guys have to stick
together,” Jeraine smiled. “Jake and I are close to having our own
secret handshake.”

Tanesha laughed.

“
Hey, I saw you talking to
Delphie.” When he didn’t respond, Tanesha let her statement
linger.

Jeraine was
silent.

“
And?”

“
That woman,” Jeraine
shook his head.

“
She’s a trip,” Tanesha
said. “Anything you’d like to share?”

Jeraine took a deep breath,
looked at Tanesha, and let out his breath. He shook his
head.

“
Well, I wanted to
see . . . ” Tanesha’s eyes scanned his face. “I
wondered what you’d think if we stopped talking about the
past.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
I mean that talking about
the past just brings all of that garbage into today,” Tanesha said.
“I get hurt all over again. I’m tired of being hurt by things that
are over and done with.

“
I mean, I had this
amazing day. Our house remodel started. I walked out of eight hours
of med school orientation that I’ve dreamed of all of my life to
find you waiting for me. We came home and all of my friends and
family were here. I ate great food, laughed, and hung out with my
friends and their families, our family. And now I end the day by
sitting on the couch with you. I don’t think it gets
better.”

Tanesha beamed and then
shook her head.

“
I don’t want to talk
about the past,” she said. “Because today is pretty
great.”

“
What if something comes
up?” he asked.

“
If it’s relevant in the
present, then I want to talk about it,” Tanesha said.

“
Ok, I have something,” he
said.

“
Go ahead,” Tanesha
said.

“
You say that I tricked
you into getting married,” Jeraine said. “And, I told you I needed
to change my name . . . ”

“
To
Jermaine . . . ”

“
I was going to meet you
at Jill and scumbag Trevor’s wedding. Right?”

“
You met me at Jill’s
wedding,” she said. “And you had the license and asked the Judge to
marry us when they were done. They were all excited about being
married and stuff I felt manipulated into doing it too.”

He nodded.

“
So?”

“
Did you want to be
married?” he asked.

“
Oh Jer,” Tanesha sighed
and rubbed her forehead. “I . . . ”

“
Sorry, I need to know,”
he said.

She gave him a long look.
Seeing that he needed an answer, she nodded.

“
I wanted to be married to
you,” Tanesha turned away from him and stared at the wall. “But I
didn’t know that just eight hours before you’d screwed five girls
and five more the day before and whatever other nonsense. I didn’t
know you would do that whole ‘let’s enjoy the cheerleaders’ event
on the football bus and then leave . . . and
then
leave 
. . .
forever 
. . . a week
later. I . . . ”

She clenched her jaw to
hold in her heart wrenching pain.

“
I wanted a wedding dress
and . . . nice shoes . . . and an
engagement ring I could show off for a while,” Tanesha said. “I
wanted my Gran to be there. Your parents . . .
They’re like parents to me. I wanted flowers . . .
and . . . a gospel choir singing Amazing Grace
and . . . Well, mostly I wanted you – day in, day
out, coming home, waking up to. I wanted you. You were my life, my
soul, my every waking thought, my . . .
everything.”

When she looked at him, he
was crying.

“
So did I want to marry
you? Yes.”

He put his arms around her
to touch the top of his head to her shoulder.

“
I’m so sorry,” he
whispered.

“
I know,” she tipped his
head up so he was looking at her. “I want to be right here, right
now. You?”

He nodded.

“
Then let’s just be here,”
she said.

“
What about all of that?
How . . . ” He shook his head as if to say even
the words were more than he could make up for.

“
Maybe the past doesn’t
need to be made up for,” Tanesha said. “Maybe it just is – not good
or bad or whatever. It’s all just stuff that happened.”

“
But
how . . . ?”

“
Let it go, Jer,” Tanesha
said. “It’s over and done with. There’s nothing we can do to fix it
except live right now.”

“
Will you wear your ring?”
He held up his left hand to show that he was wearing the gold band
she’d bought him when she was sixteen years old.

“
I have been this whole
time,” Tanesha pointed to the gold band on her right hand. “I put
it on this hand and never took it off.”

“
May I?” he
asked.

She nodded. He tugged the
ring off her right hand and slipped it on her left ring finger. She
smiled.

“
It looks good there,” she
said. “Like it belongs.”

He smiled. For a moment,
they held each other.

“
I love you,” he said in a
low tone. “More than you’d ever know.”

She kissed him and they
hugged again. Knowing she had to do something to get them back on
track, she took a breath and moved back.

“
Well, I do know what I
want right now,” she said. He looked up at her. “More of that cake.
Did you see Sandy
and
Blane commenting on how good it was? And they’re our pros!
Did you really make it yourself?”

She got up and walked out
of the room.

“
You know what would be
really good? Some tea,” Tanesha said. “You coming?”

Smiling, he followed her
into the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~

Monday night — 9:57 p.m.
MDT

“
How are you feeling?”
Mike asked Valerie when she got into bed.