“Get it out, sweet ‘ums, give it to Ralphie,” he muttered finally.
“I have to go home,” I said into his shirt.
“You can’t go home,” Ralphie replied.
“I have to go home. I have to get out of here,” I said back but I didn’t take my face from Ralphie’s shirt.
“You’ll go home,” Buddy said from close to our side and I felt another hand slide around my waist as Buddy got closer and affected a group hug.
“Thank you,” I whispered, not looking up, not looking at Ralphie or Buddy and definitely not Hector or Daisy.
“You’ll go home, Sadie,” Buddy said. “You’ll go home with us.”
Chapter Three
I Waited
Hector
Hector sat, leaned forward, elbows on his knees, his left hand dangling, his right hand holding a Jack and Coke.
Actually, he’d started out the night adding Coke but he hadn’t bothered with it for the last two drinks.
“Hermano, you gotta talk,” Eddie said to him.
Hector looked at his older brother. Eddie was sitting across from him in Hector’s living room.
The living room was a pit, he’d been working steadily on the house now for months but there was a lot of work to do, he’d barely scratched the surface. The living room was a jumble of unpacked boxes and furniture most if it covered in heavy, plastic sheets. Hector was refinishing the floors in the study and dining room. He should have started with the living room.
Hector looked back to the floor and said, “I f**ked up, I know it and I’ll fix it.”
Then at the thought of “fixing” Sadie, unwanted and disconnected memories flashed through his brain.
Her standing at the sink in the bathroom at the hospital.
Her crying silently into her friend’s chest.
Her saying she wanted to take a walk instead of admitting she had to use the bathroom.
Her bloody face, bloody legs and the limp body he held as she told him there was no one to care if she woke up.
He lifted his glass to his mouth, threw back the Jack, draining it dry. He leaned forward and tagged the mostly empty bottle which was on the floor by his boot. He poured another heavy measure and then set the bourbon back down.
He was drunk, he knew he was drunk and he didn’t give a f**k.
“Tell me how you f**ked up,” Eddie prompted.
Without hesitation, Hector replied, “I waited.”
That was it. He’d waited. He’d waited for Sadie to come to him.
After that night in her father’s office, he should have taken what he knew was his.
And he shouldn’t have f**king waited.
* * * * *
At first, when Hector Chavez started to get close to Seth Townsend, he thought Townsend’s daughter was a useless rich bitch, a beautiful one but still useless.