First and Ten (24 page)

“I don’t know,” she rung her hands in worry.
“I just need her to get the meds right. Can’t we just take her to a
doctor? She took them tonight, didn’t she?”

“I’ve seen this before,” Mr. Trundell said.
“She needs at least thirty days of care where they can judge the
effects of the drugs and get her balanced enough. There are better
ones that can help with the sleepiness and fuzzy feeling. What she
has is chemical. If we can balance those chemicals she can go back
to being your daughter.”

“I… I feel out numbered. Pressured. I don’t
like that feeling, gentlemen.”

“Mama, what if I called your pastor.”

“Pastor Banister? You’d do that?”

“If you were my mama, yes, ma’am, I would.
This is a big decision and if God agrees with it, I know it will
set your soul at ease.”

After three hours and a dozen cups of coffee,
a deal had been struck. When the ambulance arrived they had come to
an agreement. Candace protested when they arrived, fighting to the
point the police officers had to take care of her. Jerome stayed
hidden in his bedroom with DeMonte playing music until it was done.
He wanted to call Dani, but there was no way he could until he had
every last bit of this settled, he promised her father that. At
least with Candace under lock and key, he wouldn’t need to worry
about any new pictures.

“She’s gone,” Stanton said as he opened the
door to Rome’s room. “Mrs. Powell asked if you’d be okay with
DeMonte tonight.”

“Yeah, I don’t have to go back to camp until
Monday.”

“At least you know what you can do with that
third floor.”

A mother-in-law suite would be nice, but he
wasn’t sure that it would be a long term solution. He wanted to get
in to William Albright’s good graces and he wasn’t sure having Mrs.
Powell in his home would be that.

“Either way, I’ll need to reach out to a
nanny service.” Rome looked down at his son and led him into his
own bedroom. “This is yours, little man. Everything in here is
yours.”

DeMonte’s eyes lit up as he got his second
wind. Sitting with a pile of toys, he made
vroom
noises and
he pushed a toy truck around the carpet. He looked up at Rome
anxiously.

“You’re good, DeMonte. Thirty minutes then
it’s time for bed.” Rome looked over at Stanton. “I don’t know how
I can thank you for this.”

“It’s not over, but it’s a good start.”

Dani stared at three different pairs of shoes
as she stood in her graduation robe. The stylist part of her brain
said heels, at least four inches. That way she could open her robe
and still be on point. The practical part of the brain said chucks
all the way. Barefooted and she could bring the heels for the party
afterward. Then there were the sandals with just a little heel, but
it was open-toed and she needed a good pedicure to pull that look
off.

It was three days before graduation and their
backyard was being mapped out by her mother at the moment with the
rental place. Dani watched her from her bedroom window as her
mother pointed out areas for the woman to mark on her
clipboard.

“There’s talk of a fountain, live statues and
swans,” her sister’s voice broke Dani out of her trance. Tawny
Albright had gone the hippie route after college. Made sense since
she’d smoked enough weed to satisfy a Grateful Dead concert. She
stood in a long peasant skirt with a flowered pattern and lace. The
turquois cami might have a shelf bra, but her sister needed more
than a shelf. She needed a structured plan. At least her long
honey-blond hair was being worn down and draped over her
breasts.

“They’re leftover from your cancelled bridal
shower. I’m sure she had a nonrefundable deposit.” Dani fell into
her sister’s arms for a hug and could smell the mix of patchouli
with just a hint of the herb. Pulling free she looked at her. “Why
are you here so early?”

“If you could believe it, I missed the old
place.”

“No, I can’t.”

Her sister gave her a smile, then kissed Dani
on her forehead before flopping back on Dani’s bed. “Well, I did
and I was worried about you.”

“Me? Why?”

“It’s been at least three days and you
haven’t been on the Down and Dirty?”

“Since when do you subscribe to the evils of
technology?”

“Hippies created Silicon Valley.” Her sister
smiled broadly. “I’m more interested in my saintly sister gettin’
down and dirty with a Grizzly.”

“It was an experience, but you know baggage
can be heavy sometimes.”

“His was too much for you?”

“No, but I’m pretty sure Dad played nice when
Mom was around. When she was gone, he spoke to him when we got back
from a walk of the grounds.”

“You walked the grounds?” her sister asked
with air quotes. “And how is the guest cottage Mom never got
to?”

“In need of repair, but that’s not the
point,” Dani said as heat erupted across her face.

“My sister getting nasty in her old age.”

“I’m not the one hitting thirty with a trail
of broken engagements.”

“I don’t need you or Mom’s biological
I-need-a-grandkid-clock to point that out, thank you very
much.”

“Grandkids? Ha,” Dani laughed. “And I’m still
trying to figure out what to do after graduation.”

“Have you not had almost two weeks to figure
that out?”

“I have offers, but I’ve been thinking about
being a life coach.”

“What do you know about life?”

“There’s more to life than communing with
nature.”

“And you’ve just lost me as a client.” Dani
scoffed at her sister and went back to her shoe choice. “Tell me
about the Speed Demon of Love.”

“What’s to say, we dated a few times. I
thought I meant more to him than I did.”

“Was he at least good in bed?”

“How’s your latest man in bed?”

“Exs are allowed to be discussed,” Tawny
said, then wiggled her eyebrows. “Unless he’s not an ex.”

“He wasn’t a…” Dani stumbled to find the
words. “He wasn’t an anything.”

“That’s not what those pictures from the boat
looked like.”

“And when you were the stone cold sober
designated driver and a photographer caught you mid blink so you
looked high as hell, was that the truth?”

Tawny held her index finger and thumb apart
about an inch. “Smidge of difference. I didn’t have my tongue
halfway down a joint like you did his mouth.”

“Now you’re just making it sound dirty.” Dani
warmed at the memory of the boat. The feel of the waves rocking
them as Rome explored between her thighs.

“I’m not the one imitating a lobster,” her
sister teased. “Blush much?”

“Fine, the sex was amazing, mind blowing, toe
curling, make a girl break childhood mementos lost in an orgasm
type sex.”

“Not my dancing girl?” her sister whined
about one of many treasures they’d tucked away in the cottage
because it reminded them of their real home in South Shore.

“No, my Grizzly’s piggy bank from the first
game I ever went to.” Dani let out a sigh. “At least I ended up
finding three dollars and forty-seven cents.”

“You were able to count it? I now doubt the
intensity of that orgasm.”

“Doubt all you want,” Dani challenged. “It’s
been almost two weeks and if he walked through that door right now
I’d clench so hard a safe cracker couldn’t get in.”

“And why aren’t you with him?”

“I texted, I called, I even showed up on his
doorstep and I was ignored, sent to voicemail and dismissed by his
ex at the door.”

“His ex?” her sister asked as she pulled up
her phone and started typing then flashed a picture of Candace
being brought out on a gurney with police officers escorting her.
“This ex.”

“That’s her.” Dani took the phone and started
swiping down. “What happened?”

“I read she was committed to a psych ward.
And you let her tell you something. Bitch is crazy.”

“Well he’s with her. Maybe he likes
crazy.”

Rome sat across from Candace in the dayroom
at Harvest Pines Psychiatric Facility. The room had been cleared
and a councilor sat in a chair to Rome’s left. This was the first
time he’d been allowed to see her. She was the mother of his child
and as much as he wanted to dismiss her as an ex-girlfriend, they
had a bond that would lock them together until the end of his
life.

“Candace has made great improvements over the
last week,” Dr. Millstone explained as he put on his half rimmed
glasses.

“I don’t like those,” Candace said as if she
were being passed a snake.

“We’ve discussed this, Candace. I require
these to read and there will be others in your life that do the
same.” Dr. Millstone kept his voice calm and understanding with
just a hint of authority. “You want to live in the world, you’ll
have to start coming to grips with things that upset you. Remember
your coping drills. You don’t want to go back on Geodon do
you?”

Rome stayed silent as Candace touched each of
her fingers with her thumb as if she were doing a concussion test.
Coach Marshall had been understanding when Rome asked for a little
bit of time to process and deal with the situation. It was Dani he
prayed would forgive him. Her calls and texts stopped on Saturday.
He feared it wasn’t a coincidence that was the same night he’d
committed Candace.

“She seems worse than when we admitted her,”
Rome said. “She was functioning in society. Are you sure she isn’t
better off her meds?”

“We sent someone out to the home she had been
living in. The walls were covered with images of you, Danika
Albright—”

“Whore bitch,” Candace snapped and Dr.
Millstone put his hand up to silence her. “No, she stole him.
Bought him I bet. Rich people do that. Like the football team.
Traded him like livestock only he’s not. He’s mine. I paid for him.
I have a receipt.”

“Candace, Rome’s here,” Dr. Millstone
said.

Candace looked over at Rome and then smoothed
her hair and straightened her shirt. “Hey,” she meekly said as she
smiled. “Any chance we can work this out? I don’t like this
place.”

“Candi,” Rome said and she seemed to melt
into the chair.

“Remember—” she exclaimed. “Remember when I
brought DeMonte to see you? He had such a good time. He’s a great
kid. It doesn’t matter where we are he’s happy.”

“I see that.”

“But I can’t bring him to you when I’m here,”
she stated plainly.

“Where’s DeMonte?” Dr. Millstone asked.
“Candace, do you know where he’s staying. We’ve discussed it.”

“I can’t let Rome know,” she said, leaning in
close to the doctor. “If I let him know he won’t need me. He needs
to need me.”

“Candace, it’s time to go back to your room.”
Dr. Millstone motioned for an orderly to escort her out.

“As you can see, we’re still balancing her
out. Evenings are hard. She’s less violent than when we first
brought her in. It’s going to take longer than we thought. I’m
going to ask that you not come by for at least a month.”

“A month?” Rome asked, annoyed by the
conflicts in his life taking over. Life was supposed to be simple.
“I’ll pay for her, support her any way you can, but I need to know
she’s well enough so I can move forward with my life. For DeMonte
too. He should be starting pre-K in the fall. I need to get things
in order for that.”

“This disease doesn’t have a set pattern. I
can’t predict how she’ll react to drugs. This is an illness. She’s
not hearing voices like some of our patients, but socially she
doesn’t read people correctly. The paranoia is there. I’m going to
recommend she stay in a group home for at least a year when she
leaves here. Then maybe she’ll be able to get into her own
apartment. That isn’t going to guarantee she won’t go off the
cocktail we figure out.”

“How did I miss it?” Rome asked. Sure he
hadn’t really seen her since she’d walked out on him, but her being
moody before he would have never thought was this serious of an
illness.

“When we did the intake history with her
mother it seems she had her first break around twenty-two,” Dr.
Millstone began. “At the time they treated her more for bi-polar
depression, but when she got pregnant with DeMonte she went off the
meds. Then she went into hyper mama bear mode. To her, DeMonte was
a blessing and curse. Son of a superstar with expectations she had
to make sure he filled. I’m surprised she even went to the hospital
to have him. When social workers intervened she fled, sure they
were trying to steal him for his talent.”

“So that’s why she left me.” Rome wanted to
punch himself for assuming she’d just been a money grubbing gold
digger, instead of being a scared woman thinking everyone was after
her child. Then he blamed himself, how many times had he talked to
her about the scouts out for themselves who stalked him and his
mother.

Dr. Millstone flipped a few pages back in her
chart. “Candace wasn’t assigned a social worker like most with
schizophrenia do, especially one with a child. She now has one, but
she kept moving around to avoid being medicated and losing DeMonte
in the foster care system.”