The Day He Came Back

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT* * *RAVENGavin left for London two weeks ago. He hadn’t contacted me once.

That made me both sad and anxious—each day worse than the day before.

We’d left things on such a strange note. He was still in shock when last I saw him, and I never saw him again after he left my house that day.

I tried my best to return to my usual routine with Mr. M. Everything was normal, except Weldon was still here. He mostly kept to himself in the pool house, and I was pretty sure he was drinking. I suspected things hadn’t ended on a good note for him and Gavin, either.

Then he showed up in Mr. M’s room one afternoon with his rolling suitcase.

I stood up from my seat in surprise. “Are you leaving?”

“’Bout time, right?”

“I wasn’t going to say that.”

He walked over to his father, who was sitting in his recliner.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Weldon?”

“Yes.”

“I wanted to talk to you before I go.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going back to California.”

Mr. M placed his hand on Weldon’s arm. “Stay, son.”

That warmed my heart.

“Thanks, Dad. But I do have to leave. I’ll come back soon, though. I promise. It won’t be like before where years go by before you see me.” Weldon embraced his dad.

“Such a good boy,” Mr. M muttered.

Weldon shut his eyes tightly. “I promise the next time I’m here, I’ll give you something to be proud of.”

Mr. M was oblivious to Weldon’s troubles. And that was probably a good thing.

“Your mother and I are very proud of you, son.”

Weldon glanced over at me, and I knew he wondered whether Mr. M had forgotten Ruth was dead. In that moment, I couldn’t be sure. Every day was different in terms of what he remembered.

He patted his dad on the back. “Don’t give Renata any trouble, okay, you old geezer? You be good.”

Weldon turned to whisper to me. “I have a car coming in a few minutes. Can I speak to you downstairs before I go?”

“Of course.” I turned to his father. “Mr. M, I’m going to walk Weldon out. I’ll be back in a few.”

Once downstairs, Weldon and I went to the kitchen.

“So you’re really going back to Cali…”

“Yeah. It’s time.”

“What will you do when you get there?”

“Gavin called a few places. He got me into a program in Laguna Beach. He didn’t trust me to take the initiative, and that was probably a good call. Three months. I promised him I’d go. It starts Monday, so...”

“I’m really proud of you.”

“I wanted to make sure you have all my information and the name of the place I’ll be staying.” He grabbed a pad of paper from the drawer and wrote some things down. “Please let me know if anything changes with Dad. I need to be more involved in his life. I want to be better for him.”

“You will be.”

He looked down at his feet, seeming a bit ashamed. “I’m really sorry about what I did—telling Gavin the truth. It wasn’t my secret to tell. I fucked that all up.”

“There’s no need to apologize. You actually did me a favor. I’d decided to tell him before he left anyway, and you saved me from having to explain.”

“I still feel guilty. I promised you I wouldn’t say anything.” He sighed. “What happened with you guys before he left?”

“Gavin never said anything to you?”

He shook his head. “I knew he’d gone to see you, and he came back to the house that day looking like he’d been hit by a truck. But he didn’t want to talk, other than making me promise to let him find a rehab place for me. He said he’d let me stay here a couple of weeks under that condition. I don’t think he would’ve thrown me out, but I went along with it anyway. I knew I needed the kick in the ass.” He rolled his suitcase toward the door. “You haven’t spoken to him?”

“No. Not a word.”

“I hope it works out, Raven. I hope he comes to his senses. He’ll be really missing out if he doesn’t.”

“Thank you. I’m not sure anything will change in our lives, but I’m relieved he knows the truth. Please don’t feel guilty for anything. Just focus on getting yourself better. I know you can do it.”

“Thanks for believing in me.” Weldon leaned in and gave me a hug. In his arms, I smiled. He was now one of my favorite people, despite our volatile history.

I watched as he got into his Uber and took off.

Things felt emptier the second he left. Having the brothers back together had been so nostalgic. Their presence had breathed life back into this place. Now it was back to being a virtual nursing home, albeit probably the world’s most beautiful one.***Later that afternoon, Genevieve came across some old photo albums that had been collecting dust in a guest bedroom closet.