ON: Right now it’s a death investigation.
LK: Well, nothing would surprise me. I’m not one to willingly come down to the police station and tell anyone my business, but we love Caroline like she’s our own. There have been other…things that have happened in this town…things I wish God had reached down and stopped. Like what happened to my friend Angie Fritz. I miss her. So much. She didn’t deserve that and neither did Caroline. I wouldn’t be surprised if God Himself came down this time around and snatched Trey away to make sure he couldn’t touch Caroline again. I bet, as long-suffering as the Bible tells us He is…that even God can only take so much.
45
Caroline
Caroline was released from the hospital on the Fourth of July. Grandma Mimi took her to the trailer and had a big pot of Caro’s favorite homemade vegetable soup on the stove and a berry flag pie cooling on the counter. Caroline’s shoulder was secure in a sling, but her eye was still swollen enough that looking through it made her feel dizzy, and the dizziness gave her a headache. Had it really been not even two weeks ago that Trey had done all this? You’re the one who needs help were the last words she ever said to him, and she hated herself for not saying more. For not telling him that no one had ever crushed her like he had and she’d make sure no one ever could again. When she checked her heart for grief, she didn’t find any for Trey or even for what they once had, because those fleeting moments felt foolish and one-sided now after all he’d done.
What she found was grief for the woman she was before she married him. The woman she was in that trailer with her grandma and the woman she was when she was with her sisters. She wanted to make sure her sisters never had to suffer for protecting her. It’d be too much to bear.
She’d gotten into the habit of putting her hand on her stomach to protect the baby, even though she knew it was safe and snug. Trey could never hurt either of them again. The urge to cry about it was overshadowed by the flood of joy she got thinking about how quick and easy Beau had agreed to pretend to be the father. That filled her aching bones with light.
Kasey had invited her to come stay at the farmhouse, and Ada told her she was welcome to stay with her if she didn’t mind the boys tearing through the house or the noise that came with it. Rosemarie also offered up her parents’ place, which had always been a spot of comfort for Caroline with its rainbow colors and clucking chickens. But it felt so natural and normal to be back in Grandma Mimi’s trailer, even though Caro had been living in that big house for the past six months or so—a big house she’d never set foot in again. She was glad it was tucked away on a side street she didn’t ever have to drive down if she didn’t want to. The house was never hers to begin with; her name wasn’t on anything. It all belonged to the Foxberrys. Caroline didn’t have a house, but she’d get one. She’d get a little house and raise her baby in it. A little house on the water, nowhere near where they found Trey.
Caroline kept telling Paula that she didn’t know what happened to Trey, but Paula was having none of it. She’d been in a rage after they found Trey’s body, and made such a scene at the hospital that an officer had to tell her to calm down or he’d have to ask her to leave. He apologized when he said it, but hospital security was involved at that point, and Caro’s doctor had told Paula the stress would be too much for her; Caro prayed she wouldn’t put it together that she was pregnant yet. She was so grateful when Paula left. But before she walked out the door, Paula told Caroline that she had warned Trey he shouldn’t marry her, because she came from nobody, and that if anyone had harmed her son, she’d find out. Caro felt nothing. She was floating, and the painkillers either emptied her out completely or turned up her emotions as high as they’d go. She was up by the ceiling while Paula went on and on about how worthless she was, and Caro’s feelings circled the drain and disappeared.
The feelings were back now, and she felt a lot of them about being on the couch in Grandma Mimi’s trailer again. She felt a lot more complicated feelings when Beau stopped by later to see how she was doing.
“I’m not gonna stay too long; just wanted to drop by. I’m glad you’re home,” Beau said, standing by the door. The trailer park was filled with firework smoke already, and Caro could smell it slipping inside. The word home smoked through the air too and wrapped itself around her. She was tired and thirsty, and this was home. She was tired and thirsty, and Trey was dead.
“Come in here and sit down, Beau Bramford,” Mimi said, waving him all the way in. A small, rowdy group of laughing children and a yellow mutt tore through the gravel behind him. Caro watched them disappear.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, obeying. “I was thinking about you the other day when they had that tornado in Adora Springs. You always run right out of here when the weather’s that bad?” he asked Mimi.
“I do. I usually go to Myrtle’s when they start talking about tornadoes, but the other night I was still up at the hospital with Ladybug,” Mimi said.
“Good. I don’t want to have to worry about you,” Beau said.
“No, don’t you worry a bit about me,” she said back to him, slapping his shoulder.
“Thank you for coming to see me,” Caroline said.
“How are you feeling? Better?” Beau asked as Mimi handed him a piece of pie with a big scoop of whipped cream on top. He thanked her and she motioned for him to go have a seat next to Caroline. Mimi sat at the table in the kitchen and took the pencil from behind her ear, scribbled on her pattern. Her grandma had been listening to a new romance audiobook in the hospital when Caro was trying to get some sleep. Mimi turned it on now and put her earbuds in, started knitting.
“Is it good?” Caro asked him after he’d taken a bite of pie.
“Of course it is,” he said with his mouth full. He put some on a fork and offered it to Caroline, held his hand under her chin to catch the crumbs. He made a joke about her eating for two, and it was awkward and tender and funny, like so many of their encounters had been the past week. When she was in high school working at the diner, their relationship had been oiled-up and easy. She never had to think about it. Now he was divorced and she was a pregnant widow and her grandma was surely listening to everything they said.
“Beau, when I asked you to say the baby’s yours, I wasn’t meaning you had to stay around or anything…I just meant if anyone asks. That’s the story I’m gonna tell because it’s the best thing for me and the baby right now. I need to get a lot of distance from Trey’s family, and this is the best way,” Caroline said. Her head was gauzy and the pain medicine made her tongue thick. She’d spent a lot of energy focusing on speaking clearly when she told him all that, and now she wanted to sleep for a week.
“I understood you and I plan on staying around for a little longer if that’s okay.”
“That’s okay,” Caroline said, putting her head on his shoulder. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. The sun was out but it was raining now too, soft patters against the window, and Beau’s shoulder was warm, and the berries—the whole trailer smelled like berries.