This Heart of Mine (4 page)

She tensed as the vehicle drew closer. It didn’t whiz by with a blast of hot air, as she expected. It slowed and came to a stop a few feet ahead of her. Then the driver—a dark-haired man from what she could see through the back window—leaned over and opened the passenger door. “Would you like a lift?” he called out.

Because she had no idea who this person was or what he might do to her, she almost waved him off. But this was Whiskey Creek; there wasn’t any violent crime here to speak of. As long as he wasn’t connected to the Mansfields, she should be okay. Not
everyone
in Whiskey Creek these days had been around when she lived here before. This could be a complete stranger, his offer the simple kindness it appeared to be.

Grateful that she wouldn’t have to continue the painful journey on foot, she hobbled to the truck. “Thank you. It’s so hot out today. And these darn sandals...”

As soon as she recognized him, she choked back the rest of her words. He wasn’t connected to Lori Mansfield—thank God. But he
was
connected to Riley. This was Kyle Houseman, one of the many friends who’d hung out with Riley all through school.

Phoenix didn’t want Riley to find out that Kyle had discovered her in such a pathetic state, so she backed away. “Actually, never mind. I just realized there’s no way we could be going to the same place. But thanks!”

She slammed the door, praying that would be the end of it. But he didn’t drive off. He reached over and opened the door again.

“You might not be aware of it yet, but you’re getting sunburned,” he said. “And it looks like we’re traveling in the same
direction
at least. I don’t mind going a little out of my way.”

If he knew who she was, he didn’t let on. But he would figure it out if she had him drop her anywhere close to her mother’s property. And getting close to her mother’s property was the whole point of accepting a ride. “I’m fine. Really. It’s not much farther.”

His eyes narrowed as recognition dawned. “Wait a second...you’re Phoenix.”

“Yes. Another reason you should go on your way.” After closing the door, she forced herself to walk without favoring either foot. But he lowered the window and rolled along beside her.

“I know where you live. Let me give you a ride.”

“I can walk a couple of miles,” she said.

“You seemed to be struggling when I came up behind you.”

He’d noticed? From so far away? “These sandals are new, that’s all. I’ll break them in.”

“So you don’t need a ride.”

“No, thank you.”

“Come on!” he argued. “I can’t leave a woman limping on the side of the road.”

“According to most folks around here, I’m not a regular woman.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m a murderer, remember? Surely, you can leave
me
.” Instantly regretting the harshness of those words, she glanced over and attempted a smile. “I didn’t mean to be rude. I just...I’d rather not trouble you.”

“But it’s no trouble!”

Refusing was making a bigger issue out of this than simply giving in. Besides, she couldn’t tolerate the pain of marching beside him anymore.

When she stopped, so did he. “Fine. I guess I will take that ride,” she said, and climbed in.

As she put on her seat belt, he studied her with avid curiosity, and she supposed that was the price of his help. She was a freak in this town—the one person more reprehensible than all the rest.

“I’m sure you’ve got a camera on your cell phone,” she said. “Go ahead and take a picture.”

“I’m sorry.” He sounded a little abashed. “It’s hard not to stare. You look...different.”

So did he. Like Riley, he’d filled out, not that she cared. Anything that had to do with Riley—except Jacob, of course—was off-limits. She couldn’t even be friends with this man. “I’m nearly seventeen years older. Of course I look different.”

“What I mean is you look
good
,” he clarified. “You’ve aged better than the rest of us.”

He must not have noticed her scars. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

He leaned over to examine her feet. “You’re bleeding.”

Embarrassed, she raised the foot that hurt the most so it couldn’t touch anything, but he was increasing his speed, so he obviously didn’t expect her to jump out. “You’re the one who made me get in.”

“This is a work truck, nothing fancy, so don’t worry about that. But you might want to grab a napkin from the glove box.”

She did. Trying not to show how badly it stung, she patted one of those napkins against the blister that had burst.

“How long have you been home?” he asked as he drove.

“If you’re still friends with Riley, you know the answer to that question,” she replied.

He grinned as if she’d caught him. “Right. I admit he’s mentioned it. You got back...what? Two, three days ago?”

She kept her eyes on her foot. Kyle was nearly as handsome as Riley, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that. “Look, I’m not sure why you’re helping me. But if it’s because you want the chance to warn me not to cause your buddy any trouble, I assure you I won’t. I’m not going to cause anyone any trouble, least of all Riley or Lori’s family. I plan to keep to myself, mind my own business and...and see if I can’t get to know my son before he’s an adult and off to college.” She almost added,
That’s not too much to ask, is it?
But she understood that for many people here, it
was
too much to ask. They didn’t think she deserved anything—even to breathe the same air.

“You don’t have to be defensive with me,” he said. “I have no hidden agenda. I’m curious about you. Everyone is. But I don’t wish you any harm. And I’m pretty sure Riley can fend you off, if necessary.”

She folded her arms, wrapping them tightly around herself as she watched the scenery fly past her window. “He won’t have to fend me off.”

They’d almost reached the entrance to her mother’s property when Kyle said, “It was nice of you to send money to Jacob. I don’t think many people in your situation would’ve bothered.”

Riley had told him about her child support, too? He and Kyle must be as close as ever, she decided, but said nothing.

“The amounts you sent had to have been a sacrifice,” he added. “It’s tough to earn much inside.”

“I did my best.” God, wasn’t that the truth. She’d worked long, hard hours in the laundry, made bracelets on the side, thanks to the craft class that had inspired her business, and gone without everything she possibly could to provide that pittance for Jacob. “I wanted to do my part.”

“What did you say?”

Apparently, she’d spoken too softly. “I was happy to do it,” she said in a louder voice.

He pulled through the gate, which was sagging so much it couldn’t be closed, and her mother’s dogs, the three that weren’t inside Lizzie’s trailer, went wild.

She opened the door, which drew them, barking and jumping, to her side. The dilapidated condition of both trailers, not to mention the state of the yard, made her even more self-conscious about her situation here at home. She didn’t want Kyle to take note of all the junk, but she didn’t get out immediately in spite of that. He’d been surprisingly nice and, since she was prepared to meet hostility around every corner, she felt she hadn’t responded as politely as she should have. “Thank you for the ride. I apologize if I seemed...reluctant or ungrateful at first.”

With that, she managed to hop to the ground despite her blisters. Then she stood on one foot to watch him leave—it hurt too much to use the other—and was puzzled when, after he put the transmission in Reverse, he didn’t leave.

“If you ever need a ride, especially before your feet have healed, call me,” he said, and wrote his number on a scrap of paper, which he handed her.

3

T
he noise of the dogs brought her mother to the door. Because of Lizzie’s tremendous weight, she moved slowly and ponderously, so Kyle was gone by then. Phoenix was glad of that. But it was never easy to contend with her mother.

“What the hell’s going on out here?” Lizzie shouted, her words and tone containing the caustic edge she was so famous for.

Phoenix pocketed the slip with Kyle Houseman’s number, removed the sandal on the foot that hurt the most and limped close enough that she wouldn’t have to shout. She’d promised herself before she left prison that she’d be unfailingly kind to her mother. As ornery as Lizzie could be, she hated herself more than anyone else did. After what Phoenix had been through, she had greater empathy and understood that Lizzie sounded worse than she actually was. It was smarter not to react to all the cussing and yelling and the harsh things her mother said to drive people away.

Fortunately, the dogs stopped barking and settled down, so it became possible to speak in a normal voice. “Everything’s okay, Mom. Don’t worry,” she said, but a few calm words would never reassure Lizzie. She took nothing on faith and was always ready to fight, even if she was only shadowboxing some imaginary enemy.

A scowl creased what Phoenix could see of her face through the narrow opening. “Thought I heard a car.”

“You did.” Phoenix picked up her sandal. “My feet were hurting, so I caught a ride home.”

Now that she was no longer in danger of revealing herself to anyone else, Lizzie opened the door wider. “From
who
?”

“Just some guy who passed me.” Phoenix shrugged. Her mother didn’t need to hear the details.
She
wasn’t even sure what to make of Kyle, whether or not she could trust his kindness. She had few friends in this town and that probably wouldn’t change.

“You hitchhiked?”

“More or less.”

Her mother tsked. “You better watch out. Folks around here hate you, and you have no idea how they might decide to show it,” she said. Then she shut the door.

Phoenix stared at it, wondering why her mother had to be so difficult. Before she left this morning, Phoenix had told Lizzie she’d be having breakfast with Jacob. Why couldn’t she have shown a little interest in that momentous occasion?

She could have at least asked how it went...

Except that Lizzie thought reaching out to Jacob, holding on to any shred of hope that he might accept her, was a waste of time. She insisted that Riley would never allow either one of them to play a significant role in Jacob’s life and Phoenix was a fool for trying to prove she cared.

Maybe it was true.

With a shake of her head, she started back to her own trailer, which wasn’t easy with one bare foot. She had to thread her way through the refuse that had been dumped in the yard since before she was born. That meant circumventing old tires, two broken-down vehicles from when her mother did drive, a decrepit, hand-powered lawn mower, a washing machine. But it wasn’t the big stuff that worried her now that Kyle wasn’t there to see it. She was afraid she’d step on a nail or a piece of broken glass.

If she hadn’t been looking so carefully, she might’ve missed the banged-up bike peeking out from under an old mattress. Once she’d pulled it out, she saw that it had two flat tires and the frame was rusty, but...maybe she could fix it. Then she wouldn’t have to walk every time she needed to go to town.

Pushing the bike, she reached the trailer and leaned it up against the side. This was a project she’d have to tackle later.

She was just climbing the three steps to her door when her mother screeched her name.

From her new vantage point, Phoenix couldn’t see Lizzie’s steps—or Lizzie, either—but it wasn’t difficult to tell she was standing where she’d been before. She rarely came all the way outside.

“Yes?” she called back.

“My toilet’s plugged up!”

Phoenix allowed herself a grimace but was careful to keep the impatience out of her voice. “Did you try to plunge it?”

“You know I can’t bend over like that!”

So who’d played the role of plumber before Phoenix got home? The guy who’d delivered the groceries? Or did Lizzie call—and somehow pay—for a professional? Maybe she got a cut rate, like at the vet’s...

Phoenix didn’t bother asking. She went back and unclogged the toilet. Then she washed the blood off her feet and found some Band-Aids to protect her blisters.

“I’m hungry,” her mother announced as soon as she was done, so she warmed up some soup, hoping her mother would eat a healthy meal instead of the cheap pizza, soda, chips, cookies and candy she normally consumed. Only when Phoenix had finished cleaning out a small section of her mother’s kitchen—the one part not buried beneath all the things her mother hoarded—did she feel free to return to her own place, and by then it was after two in the afternoon.

The day was getting away from her, and she still had several bracelet orders to fill. She also planned to make some progress on the overhaul of her trailer. She’d been living out of the kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom—all she’d managed to put right so far. That alone was a major improvement over what she’d known in prison, but she was determined to turn her humble abode into a home she could be proud of, for its cleanliness if nothing else. People in Whiskey Creek might not believe that she was innocent of Lori Mansfield’s murder, but at least she’d show them she wasn’t willing to live in filth, like her mother.

She’d eventually have to clean the yard, too, if Lizzie would let her. It hadn’t been easy to talk her mother into allowing her to move the junk from the trailer into an old shed. Lizzie was terrified some of it would be thrown away, since the shed was full, too. And that was exactly what Phoenix had done. There wasn’t room for all the newspapers, plastic bags, paper sacks, balls of aluminum foil, empty soda bottles and other garbage her mother had collected. So when Lizzie wasn’t looking, Phoenix had made piles behind her trailer. Then she’d gone out early yesterday morning, on trash day, and dumped everything in the county’s container.

Phoenix was still frightened her mother would find out. Lizzie couldn’t bear to part with a single scrap of anything for fear she’d need it later. But she wasn’t as mobile as she used to be. Phoenix hoped that would save her from discovery. She had enough battles to fight at the moment. She didn’t need a big argument with her mother.

Once Phoenix removed her brown linen shorts and crisp blue cotton blouse—more damp than crisp after her walk home—she pulled on a T-shirt and a pair of old jeans she’d cut into shorts and belted because they were too big for her. The clothes had belonged to one of her brothers. She wasn’t sure which. She hadn’t seen Kip or Cary since she was ten. They’d both left town as soon as they could and never looked back. Kip hadn’t even been eighteen.

Phoenix had thought they might return one day, for her sake, and maybe they would have, if she hadn’t gone to prison. Her mother had spoken to them during her trial and asked them to send money for her defense. They’d helped a little, but it hadn’t been nearly enough to do any good, and they’d only written her a couple of times since. She guessed they considered her a lost cause, like their mother.

Finally beginning to relax after her anxious morning, she started the bracelets that had to be shipped on Monday. She planned to paint afterward. Although the gallon she’d discovered in the old shed at the back of the property wouldn’t go very far, there were another couple of gallons out there, and she found rehabbing the trailer to be a soothing exercise. She loved seeing the place transformed, figured she might as well do what she could with the paint while her mother had her favorite shows to entertain her and was less likely to need anything.

But she couldn’t work as fast as usual. She was too absorbed in thinking about her son, kept stopping to look at the picture of him with braces. She was just planning how she’d decorate his room, which was something she enjoyed imagining, when she put her head down on her wobbly excuse for a desk. She was only going to rest for a few minutes...

* * *

“What do you mean you gave Phoenix a ride?” Although Jacob had helped Riley do the prep work for the shower they were putting in the Victorian that was their current project, Riley had dropped him off at the high school so he could do some weight training with the rest of the baseball team. He’d purposely waited until he was alone to follow up on the text he’d received from Kyle at noon.

“She was walking along the side of the road when I was heading out to see Callie, who has some interesting news to share, by the way.”

Riley opened his mouth to ask for more information about Phoenix but was distracted by the mention of Callie.

“What kind of news?”

“I want to tell you, but...on second thought, I’d better wait and let her.”

“Is something wrong? She’s okay, isn’t she? I mean...nothing’s wrong with the transplant?”

Due to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, their good friend had a liver transplant a couple of years ago, just before she married her husband, Levi. She seemed to be doing well since, but she had to take immunosuppressant drugs every day, and they had some unfavorable side effects. Riley had always been a little uneasy about her, terrified that there might be a problem with her new liver. If the transplant hadn’t become available when it did, they would’ve lost her.

“She’s fine. It’s not necessarily a
bad
thing.”

So what, then? Riley reflected on what they’d been talking about yesterday, when the entire group met at Black Gold Coffee, like they did every Friday. “She’s been planning to expand her photography studio. Is that what’s going on? Did she find the right location? Are you looking over the lease for her?”

“No. I’m sorry I brought it up. I spoke without thinking, because it’s been on my mind so much. But it’s her news. I should let her share it.”

“Why would she tell you and not me?” Riley asked. “If the space she’s considering needs improvements, she’d come to me.”

“You’ll understand later,” Kyle replied with a laugh.

That laugh reassured him. Kyle wouldn’t be jovial if Callie’s life was on the line again. “As long as her new liver is functioning properly...”

“It is. I swear.”

Riley took a deep breath. “Then back to Phoenix. She was probably walking home from Just Like Mom’s, where we had breakfast this morning. I told her it was too far in those sandals.”

“By the time I saw her, she’d gotten about halfway and had such bad blisters she could hardly walk.”

The mental picture made Riley wince, since he could’ve spared her that. “Did she recognize you?”

“Immediately. That’s what made it so difficult to get her into the truck.”

“Why? You don’t have any history with her.”

“But you do, and I’m part of your circle.”

Riley had gone from being the object of her desire to being anathema to her. At breakfast, she was careful not to show her dislike, but she’d barely looked at him. “How’d you convince her?”

“I wouldn’t take no for an answer. I couldn’t bear to let her continue walking on those bloody feet.”

Riley supposed
he
should’ve insisted on giving her a ride. She wasn’t his responsibility, and yet she sort of was. “Did she tell you we met up this morning?”

“No. She didn’t say much of anything.”

Then what was the purpose of this call? “That’s all you wanted to tell me? That you gave her a ride?”

Kyle cleared his throat. “Actually, no. I wanted to see if you’d mind if...”

“What?”

“If I bought her a few things.”

Riley pulled to the side of the road and sat there with his engine idling. He had his Bluetooth on, so he could legally talk while he was behind the wheel but at the moment, he couldn’t concentrate on anything besides the conversation. “What are you talking about? What kind of
things
?”

“A few necessities. Nothing big.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I feel sorry for her, okay? She has nothing. I don’t know how long it’s been since you were out at Lizzie’s place, but...it doesn’t look good. When she gets rid of something, she just throws it in the yard. With that kind of start, it won’t be easy for Phoenix to rebuild her life. She couldn’t have saved much in prison, not with the money she kept sending you.”

Riley shook his head in disbelief. “Since when did you develop such compassion for my ex-girlfriend?”

“Since I saw her hobbling down the road, and she was hesitant to accept even the slightest kindness for fear...I don’t know, for fear it would turn out to be another kick in the teeth. She reminds me of an abused animal, the way she tries to avoid people or skirt around them.”

“You learned all this from one encounter.”

“Even after she got in, she hugged the door. She looked like she’d jump out if I so much as raised my hand to scratch my head. She’s got a difficult road ahead of her, especially here in Whiskey Creek. But she’s facing down her detractors for the sake of her son. That takes guts, man. I can’t help admiring it.”

Riley felt the same grudging admiration, but he hated to acknowledge it. Hated to acknowledge that he’d probably go anywhere
but
Whiskey Creek if he were in her shoes. Not many people could withstand so much negative sentiment, and that wasn’t her only challenge. “Her mother lives here, too,” he pointed out, as if Lizzie gave her a second compelling reason to return.

“If anything, that impresses me more. It’s damn noble of her to come back to that kind of situation.”

Noble
wasn’t a word he’d ever heard in conjunction with Phoenix. “You’re serious.”

“I don’t want to debate whether or not she’s really a murderer, Riley. As far as I’m concerned, that’s in the past. Who can say what was going through her mind when she did whatever she did? I only know that according to the judicial system, she’s paid her debt to society. Maybe the Mansfields aren’t satisfied, but seventeen years is a long time and I, for one, am ready to let her move on.”

Riley rubbed a hand over his face. If what she’d said in court—and reiterated this morning—about her friend yanking on the steering wheel was true, she wasn’t even responsible for what had happened. But he didn’t see anything to be gained by dredging that up. The truth was, Kyle’s offer to help her bothered him for other reasons, none of which he wanted to examine too closely. “What are you thinking of buying her?”