Nightly Confusion

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

When I got to the house mom was the only person there, Dad was still at work. He drove a shuttle for the airport part time since he was retired after slaving away at a steel mill for more than half his lifetime. Mom said grandma was out with Louisa; a friend for the last twenty years. So it was just me and mom, great she couldn’t dodge my questions now.

“Why are you here so early?” she questioned, it was still two hours to dinner, that was early for me since I came right at dinner time and left right after.

“I wanted to talk to you about yesterday when you fainted. I wanted to talk to you about Art De Luca.” I explained as I leaned against the counter while she tended to the stove.

“I told you Sam I don’t know anything.”

She was avoiding me and fighting emotions it seemed. “Mom I know that’s a lie, I know you and Art were once madly in love.” I softly said.

She dropped the big cooking spoon to the stove and looked at me. “How do you know?” she looked relieved and shocked that someone in her family knew her past.

I mentally groaned. “I know his son and he knew your name. Art told him about you.” No one except Zack and Nikki knew I knew Joey. The town knew someone was found in my bed with a gunshot wound but no details were leaked to the papers and no one knew the wiser.

“How do you Joseph?”

“Just from around, he helped me with a problem I had awhile back and I saw him last night.” I couldn’t lie to my mom but I didn’t have to give her the whole truth. “Do you know him?”

“Met him a few times as a child. Arthur and I ran into each other while you were children at the park, you were with me actually you were about five at the time. He and I talked for a few minutes then we never saw each other again.” Mom explained.

Joey and I met as kids? I didn’t remember that day. “Do you regret leaving him?” I couldn’t shake that question from my head.

“No.” She said with a small smile. “It was the best thing I did, I got away from the danger and I met your father. We fell madly in love got married and had three wonderful girls, that’s all I ever wanted. A part of me would always be with Art, it comes with him being my first love but I’ve moved on from that time.” She finished explaining and went back to tending to the stove.

I saw her in a new light, I always thought of her as just mom. I never thought of her past or her as anything than what I saw, loving mother and wife. It felt good to know her as a person. “There’s something else I have to tell you. Alissa and Jimmy broke up.” Might as well stick that in there now.

“I don’t understand why this always happens. Alissa broke up with him right? She always does that.” Mom said.

“Yeah I got the feeling she did. I think it’s the pressure of where does it go from now that bothers her.” I pointed out.

“She’ll find someone right for her.” I was right, hearing about Art then Alissa and Jimmy caused her to be less like mom, she didn’t rant about the fact Alissa was getting older, and it was time to settle down and all that. “About you and Zack.”

Ah no that was not part of the plan. “Yes?”

“Do you love him?”

Huh? Not the question I was expecting. “It’s complicated.” And it was, I loved Zack for years but right now we were different people and these sides of us had to get to know each other and find love. “We’re going slow and seeing if this is what we want, please Mami don’t start talking about marriage and babies.”

She smiled at that. “I’ll try not to.”

I smiled back just as my cell phone rang. “Yeah?”

“Come outside.”

I thought of the fact Giovanni was dead and Joey was the suspect, I thought of last night, all of it made my heart jump. “Why?” I asked hoping if I had more information I could make a decision because right now I didn’t know what to do.

“Are you scared?”

“No I’m curious.” Ok so I might be a little scared, not of Joey hurting me, just scared to see him.

“I just want to talk to you, maybe say I’m sorry for last night.”

Sorry? I could go for a sorry from Joey. “Fine.” I hung up the phone and told my mother I’d be right back. She was too busy focusing on the food that she just nodded. I stepped outside but saw no one, I left the porch and that’s when he grabbed me and pulled me between the space between the houses.

“This neighborhood has a lot of eyes, this is better.” He explained. 

“I guess that makes sense. Ok I’m ready, say I’m sorry.”

“I lied. I just used that to get you out here.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “More sneakiness well I guess we have nothing to talk about.” I began to walk away but of course I should’ve seen this coming, he grabbed my arm and kept me in place.  I gave up and looked at his face. “Did you kill Giovanni?”

He was silence for a second. “I don’t know anything about that.”

As I looked into his eyes I knew there was more to it but I wasn’t going to ask, I feared what I might learn. “What did you want to see me for?” I needed to get away from him now; it was awkward and felt weird.

“Did Myers tell you about Giovanni?”

“Yeah.”

“Did he tell you anything else?”

I couldn’t help but smile, Joey wanted answers from me. “Just to call him if I see you.”

“Did you call him?”

“No.” I softly said, but I should call Zack and make Joey go through questioning.

“I thought so.”

“What does that mean?” I snapped.

 “Like I said before you want to help me.” Joey said and he sounded so sure. That always annoyed me about Joey; he spoke as if he could read my mind.

“Like you said last night I helped you and now you’re on your own. I should get back inside.” I wanted to walk away but Joey stood in front of me.

He didn’t say anything he looked into my eyes and I looked into his. We stayed that way for a few minutes until I heard a car door slam. I waited for him to move giving him a ‘well?’ look. When Joey would look at me like that it drove me crazy because I couldn’t read anything off of him, what the hell was he thinking?

He moved a little to the side and I walked past him. The car door was grandma’s friend dropping her off. “What are you doing back there?” Grandma Loupe wanted to know.

“Just checking the grass and the flowers for Mami. She saw a dog trespassing earlier.”