Second Chances: The Seahaven Series - Book One (17 page)

“I think you're a good guy,” says Matt. “I think you know the right thing to do.”

I smile to myself, because it's the perfect answer. It puts the decision into Cesar's hands, which will make him feel powerful and capable. I know who else is a good guy around here. I feel lucky to be in a room full of them.

“Shit, though!” yells Cesar, breaking the thoughtful silence we've had going on. “I'm not going to jail for something I didn't do! It's bullshit!”

Cesar buries his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes. He isn't crying, he's frustrated. I get it, I'm frustrated for him.

The right thing to do is to turn himself in, but what happens then? Will they keep looking for the real killer? Or will they give up, assuming it's him? Will he get a fair trial as a young Latino man with a spotty record?

Part of me wants to drive him to the docks and put him on a boat to the Bahamas so he can just live his life. But I can't, it wouldn't be right. And I know he wouldn't go.

“All right,” Cesar says, looking up at us. “Let's go back. But you guys better all stand up for me. Don't let them put me in jail.”

I hug Cesar, and Danny and Matt both sit back, breathing a sigh of relief.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I left Cesar with the detectives in his hospital room earlier this morning and it wasn't pretty. The detectives wanted to take him right to jail since he was an escaped murder suspect, but by the time we'd gotten to the fifth floor his wound had opened a little bit and was bleeding. Matt gave doctor's orders for keeping him there another few days, and they compromised by handcuffing him to the bed. Cesar wasn't happy but I talked him through it.

Detectives are quick to pounce on any signs of guilt, and I know this whole thing was a big red flag from their viewpoint. I can only hope they keep looking for the real killer.

Now I'm back at the hospital downstairs in the ER heading for my break. I'm coming around the corner into the break room, and Maria's sitting at a table reading a trashy magazine.

“Her butt is unreal,” she says. “And by unreal, I mean it's not real. They found out she wears a fake thing, like how we used to stuff our bras.”

“All the years we wanted our butts to be smaller, and now this,” I say.

“Right?” she says. “Everybody wants a big, fat ass. It's crazy.” She pushes a container of carrots and hummus towards me. “Want some?”

I hold up my hands to say no thanks. “Where's your 6pm cereal and coffee? It's breakfast time.”

She crunches a carrot. “Look at me, making healthier choices.”

I must be making a face.

“What? It's not like it's beer for breakfast or something.”

I stifle a laugh, remembering the beer this morning. That seems like five days ago now.

“What?” she asks.

“Beer for breakfast. That's crazy.” I smile to myself, remembering his hands, being on top of him in the water.

She looks at her watch.

“I got three more minutes. Fill me in on what's new.”

I sigh and rub my temples. “My brother kind of escaped this morning.”

She gasps. “Did they catch him?”

“He hid out in Danny's car and Danny brought him to my house.”

“No shit,” she says. “And you brought him back here?”

I nod again. “Danny and Matt and I brought him back here.”

Her eyes go big. “So Matt was at your place when they came over?”

“Si, senorita,” I say, giving in to the carrots and hummus. I dip and crunch.

“Were there fireworks? Did anybody punch anybody?” she asks, wide-eyed.

“The fireworks had already happened before they got there,” I smile. “Sorry I didn't text you.”

She punches me in the arm.

“Danny and Matt were both great with him. I'm just glad Cesar came back willingly. Matt was a big help with that. When we got here the cops were pissed because he'd slipped out right under their detective noses and they wanted to take him to jail, but Matt officially ordered him to stay in the hospital.”

“Okay, so Cesar's here and is doing good. Back to Danny and Matt being at your apartment at the same time,” she says, leaning in.

“You've got a one-track mind, sister,” I say.

“I don't even want to know about the sex right now, I just want to know why Danny didn't knock Matt out!”

I look around the room. “Okay, shh. We're still in relationship lockdown mode.”

She nods, putting a finger to her lips promising to tone it down, and leans back in her chair.

“Okay, now go.”

I shake my head and throw up my arms. “Nothing happened. They were totally civil.”

She throws up her arms, too. “Aye! Mami, you do not know how to tell a story! Something crazy must have happened—they're two dudes both into you coming face to face in your apartment where you just had sex with one of them!”

I shake my head no. “They introduced themselves and shook hands. It was fine. I guess the talk I had with Danny the other day worked.”

“Oh,” she says, leaning in again. “You had the talk. Tell me.”

I nod. “He gets it that it's not happening, that he's got to find someone else who'll love him the way he deserves.”

Maria grunts. “Don't we all.” She thinks for a second. “Maybe that dumb girl who works nights at the desk would be a good way to get his mind off you.”

The dumb girl who wants to sleep with my boyfriend. I sneer. Then I remember what else she said.

“Have you heard any rumors around here about Matt leaving and going back to Australia?” I crunch another carrot.

Maria doesn't look me in the eye. It's a beat too long before she answers. “Not really, I mean not anything official.”

I stop chewing. It means something that she's not looking at me.

“You have,” I say. “You tell me everything you know right this second.”

She looks up and past me and her eyes go big. “Que chingados. What's he doing here?”

I look to see what she's seeing, and it's Paul walking past the break room window.

“Go hide or something,” Maria says. “I'll take care of him.”

He's the last person I want to see right now, but there's no sense trying to avoid him. “It's too late,” I say. He's seen me through the window.

“Just do me a favor and stay here,” I say to her.

“Oh, I'm not going anywhere. I got you,” she says.

He opens the door and comes in, smiling, like it's totally normal that he's here.

“I was looking for you,” says Paul. “I figured you'd end up here at some point tonight.”

“What do you want, Paul?” Maria says to him, no-nonsense. Sometimes I forget that she's known him almost as long as I have. She was the maid of honor at our wedding, and she's been through all my ups and downs with him with me. I cried on her shoulder long distance when he was cheating, and she was the first one I told that I was divorcing him, a long time after she told me I should do it. And now she's protecting me.

“Hello to you, too, Maria,” says Paul good-naturedly, trying to be charming.

She rolls her eyes.

“Could I have a moment alone with Ellie?” he says to her.

She crosses her arms. “No.”

He looks at me. I shrug.

“Okay, then,” he says, resigned to her staying put. “I heard about Cesar and came to visit him, but the cops won't let me in his room. How's he doing?”

This is typical Paul. All caring concern on the outside, which is most likely covering something nefarious and scheming underneath it. I'm immediately suspicious.

“He's fine now,” I say. “He was stabbed in a fight. He almost didn't make it, it was close. Really close.”

Paul's eyes go big. “Oh, my God,” he says. He's acting, hoping to win points by being concerned for my brother. I can see right through it.

“Is he okay?” he asks. “Are you okay?”

Before I can answer, Maria looks at him skeptically. “How'd you know he was here?” she says.

I look from her to him, surprised I didn't think of that. He didn't hear it from me, Cesar, Danny, or Matt. And he sure didn't hear it from Maria. He looks like he's trying to figure out how to answer it, looking back and forth between us.

“I... I bumped into your dad, and he told me,” says Paul.

I narrow my eyes at him. He bumped into my dad?

“Her dad is in a nursing home,” says Maria, suspiciously. “He's not doing a lot of bumping into these days.”

Paul shrugs. “I went to visit him. I missed him.”

I feel the anger well up fast. “You went to visit my father?”

“Is that a problem?” asks Paul innocently. “I always liked your dad.”

“Is that a problem? You liked my dad?” I practically yell, moving toward him angrily.

Maria puts an arm out to both of us to separate us. “Tómalo con calma!”
Take it easy
.

Now my blood is boiling. “It makes sense you'd like him, because the two of you are the same. I was going to tell you to stay away from him, to stay away from my family, but you know what? Visit him all you want. Spend all your time with him. Just stay away from me, and stay away from Cesar.”

I don't need to be here in this room with him, we're divorced. I don't have to see him or talk to him ever again if I don't want to. I push past him and walk to the door. He puts a hand on my arm to stop me.

“Get your hands off her!” says Maria, loudly. I shrug out of his grip quickly.

He moves his face in close to mine. Maria tries to pull him away but he holds her off with an outstretched arm.

“I love you,” he says, intensely. “I want you back.”

I look him in the eyes so there's no mistaking what I'm saying to him. “We are divorced. It is over.”

He takes a step back from me and studies me. Maria lets go of his arm.

Then he moves in fast and grabs me and kisses me. I try to push him off, but he's too strong.

I can hear Maria yelling “Stop it! Let go of her!” as she tries to pull him off, but it's not working. Just as I'm about to knee him in the crotch I feel him yanked off of me quickly.

I stagger back a little and see Paul and Matt in front of me. It takes me a second to register that Matt has Paul subdued from behind in a chest hold.

“Are you all right?” Matt asks me, from behind Paul.

Paul tries to struggle away from Matt. Matt cranks the grip on Paul's bent elbow tighter and Paul grimaces in pain.

I nod, wiping off my mouth.

“Tell her you're sorry,” says Matt. “And that you won't come near her again.”

Paul looks the angriest I've ever seen him look. He tries to crane his head to look back at Matt.

“Let me go, you big kangaroo fuck.”

“I want you to tell her that this won't happen again,” says Matt calmly.

Maria is totally enjoying this.

“I can see,” says Paul to me, through gritted teeth, “That you're done with me. I don't feel the same way about it, but if you say we're through, then we're through. Now let me go.”

I nod slightly at Matt and Matt lets him go.

Paul moves towards the door, adjusting his jacket. “You're not the same person I married,” he says. “Something changed. You tell your brother hello for me.” And he leaves.

“Oh my God,” says Maria. “He is such a crazy asshole.” Then she sizes Matt up, smiling. “Thank goodness the big kangaroo fuck came in to save the day.”

Everybody laughs.

“Okay, kids,” she says. “Back to work for me. Good times, Ellie,” she says on her way out, and holds up her hand for a high-five. I slap it.

“Always a party,” I say.

“Loco fiesta,” she says back, and leaves.

When the door closes, Matt walks to me and hugs me. “You really okay?” he asks.

I nod into his chest. “He went to see my father. He said he 'always liked him.' After everything I went through, everything he knew I went through with him.”

Matt strokes my hair and keeps hugging me. “It's going to be all right,” he says.

“If anybody comes in I'm going to keep hugging you,” I say into his chest.

He chuckles. “Good. Because I talked to HR about it and we're fine. Since your ambulance company is a contracted service through the hospital, we technically have different employers. So while we might not want to have sex in the hallway at work, we can have all the hallway sex we want at home without being fired.”

I pull back from him so I can look at him, remembering what I was talking about with Maria before Paul came in.

“I heard something I need to ask you about,” I say.

“What?” he asks.

I look up at him. I don't want to ask, but I have to, especially now that Maria wouldn't look me in the eye about it. “I heard from a couple people—”

The door flies open. A nurse shouts back over her shoulder. “I found him!” Then she turns to Matt. “Doctor Runyon, there's a coder in 6, just came in. Head trauma.”

Matt squeezes my shoulders. “Keep that thought, I'll be back.” And he runs out of the break room.

I look around the room, at the emptiness. What it looks like now compared to what was going on two minutes ago. That's how fast life can change.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

After work Buster and I go to Matt's house and I let myself in. He isn't home yet, but I know his shift ends in an hour. I put Buster down and he initiates his beloved routine of sniffing out the entire place, starting with the kitchen floor, hoping for crumbs.

“Good luck, Buster,” I say. “He's a pretty clean dude.”

I put the two bags of groceries I've bought at the 24-hour supermarket down on the kitchen counter. I shake my head thinking about the people I run into when I'm shopping at 5am and how eccentric they are.

There's the man with the permanent dark circles under his eyes who I see frequently, but who I've only spoken with once. We were both buying the same kind of ice cream, and we started talking about upside-down work schedules. He was a nice enough guy, a little older than me, and told me his name and that he was a writer. He confessed that his most productive hours were in the middle of the night but that he'd never really adjusted to sleeping during the day, so his primary state of operation was exhaustion. I typed his name into a search engine when I got home while I was eating my ice cream, and it turned out he writes pornographic vampire novels. Now when I see him I smile and keep walking.