Bent Road - Lori Roy [69]
“Everyone is fine, Reesa,” Celia says, rubbing her tailbone. “We had a little car accident but everyone is fine.”
“Well, from the sounds of Ray,” Reesa says, motioning toward the closed doors, “things are not fine.”
“Nobody’s worried about Ray right now,” Arthur says, shaking Jonathon’s hand and slapping him on the back. “Ruth is in there.” He nods toward her room. “Doctor checked her out. The baby’s fine. She can come home in the morning.”
“Seems that Ray plans on being the one to take her home. He knows, doesn’t he?” Reesa scans the room before finally resting her eyes on Celia as if she wears the most blame. “He knows about the baby?”
“He does,” Arthur says, pulling a speck of fuzz from Celia’s hair. “You okay?” he asks.
Celia swallows and nods.
Reesa snorts, shaking her head at Celia and scoots Jonathon away from Ruth’s room, sending him back down the hall to stand with Elaine. “Well, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Reesa says, taking Jonathon’s position as guard. “I think Ruth should move in with me.”
Arthur wraps one arm around Celia and rubs his forehead with his other hand. “No need for Ruth to move anywhere. She’s fine where she is.”
“Ray is going to come knocking now that he knows about the baby. She needs to live farther away. She needs to move home.”
“Ruth is not living in that house.” Arthur’s voice is calm but his body is rigid, and the arm around Celia’s shoulder is like a clamp.
“Maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” Celia says. “Only because you seem to upset Ray. Maybe he’d be less upset by Ruth living with your mother.”
“And you think we should care about making Ray happy?” Arthur says.
Down the hall, Daniel sits alone, his shoulders slumped, his head in his hands.
Shaking his head at Daniel, Arthur continues. “You think I give two God damned cents about making Ray happy?”
“I think nothing of the sort. But I do know we’re trapped in a terrible place. All of us, but mostly Ruth and her sweet baby. You were the one who said you wanted to keep the peace. I want whatever will keep Ray away from them.”
Celia doesn’t want to say it, or even admit it to herself, but mostly she wants Ruth to move so Ray will never come near her house again. She doesn’t want him near Evie. Doesn’t want him to start thinking that Evie is close enough to Eve, something that he might have thought about Julianne Robison.
“I will keep Ruth and this family safe,” Arthur says to Reesa. “And keeping the peace ended the second he found out about the baby.”
Reesa takes a breath to say something back to Arthur but stops when the door opens behind her. Ruth peeks through the small opening, hiding her body with the door, and motions for Arthur to come inside.
Jonathon stands next to Elaine, one arm wrapped around her waist, the other cocked on his hip as if he is wearing a holster and gun and is ready to draw if Uncle Ray returns. When Dad disappears into Aunt Ruth’s room, Jonathon turns to Daniel.
“You okay, sport?” he says.
Elaine looks at Daniel, too, as if she were Mama and he were Evie.
“I’m fine,” Daniel says and shoves away the hand that Jonathon holds out to him. “I can stand by myself.”
Jonathon steps back. “Suit yourself.”
Daniel stands from his chair and, crossing his arms over his chest, he leans against the wall. Ian says that the morgue is in the basement floor of the hospital and that’s where the police will take Jack Mayer when he and Daniel shoot him dead. He says they’ll take Julianne there, too, if they ever find her. He says that maybe he and Daniel will sneak into the basement morgue to see them both. Next time, Daniel will be ready for Uncle Ray. He is a good shot, a damn good shot, probably even better than Jonathon. Just like he told Mama and Aunt Ruth the night Uncle Ray showed up at the house asking for dessert and a jump start. He could make a real mess of Uncle Ray with Dad’s shotgun. Next time, he’ll damn sure be ready.
Ruth shuffles across the cold tile floor in her paper slippers and crawls into bed, using her good arm to hoist