Hank ran a hand through his hair. He looked at Phoebe to see her reaction to what Arissa was telling him. When Phoebe felt his stare, she moved her eyes from Arissa to him and nodded in confirmation that her experiences with his mom were very much like what Arissa was sharing. Hank had to sit; all of the information was making him dizzy. This didn’t sound like his mother at all. Yeah, Catherine Weathers could be intrusive, overprotective but what he was hearing was more, so much more. He moved and dropped down on the wicker-cushioned bench. “Brianna? She’s Joanie Severs granddaughter. I never dated her,” he mumbled out loud but spoke more to himself. “Pictures off my wall.” Was muttered when he leaned his elbows on his knees. Looking up at Arissa, he asked the question he was sure she had asked herself many times. Even Phoebe…hell, maybe even the whole town since Hya had words to say about his mother. “Why?”
Love and understanding looked back at him. “I don’t know, but I wonder now if maybe there was more to losing Noah.”
That, what Arissa just said, hit him hard. What him and Noah had, he felt was solid, a buddy until one of them wasn’t walking the earth anymore. Hank put his head in his hands, closed his eyes and brought back the memories. One conversation was coming to the forefront. “You even had the balls to use a burner phone to text my girl. Fuck, Weathers, a burner phone. Anybody but you, man, never thought you’d play this kinda shit.” Then his mind wandered to another where Maisy’s voice rang loud in his head. “Saw your mom in here today. You didn’t hear it from me, but she bought you a new cell phone.”
The shooting pain that hit his chest had him sucking in a breath. Jesus. Fuck, that hurt. He rubbed his eyes with his palms, trying to scrape the memories from his mind. Hank lifted his head, his eyes red from the friction.
Arissa couldn’t take anymore; the play of emotions that were sweeping Hank’s face was breaking her heart. She crossed the deck to him, dropped on her knees in front of him, her hands coming to rest on his legs. “Tell me what I can do.”
Phoebe silently watched Hank and Arissa. They needed their time alone. Her heart ached at the sight of them because at one time it would have been her to comfort him, to love him. She’d had him and she’d let him go. That was on her, all fucking her, but at least he had Arissa to offer that comfort. Phoebe didn’t wait for Hank to answer Arissa when she offered lowly, “I’m going to head back to Charleston, let you all figure this out.” Phoebe would have liked to stay and be the one to help Hank but if this wasn’t clarification for her, she didn’t know what was. It was time to let the past just be that, in the past.
Hank looked to Phoebe, once the love of his life, and replied, “I’ll be in touch.”
Phoebe nodded and left without as much as a wave goodbye to Arissa. She was hurt and it was understandable that she felt Arissa was the one responsible for the ache that she felt. As she walked to her car, though, it dawned on her that she would have done the same, anything to hang on to a man like Hank, she should have, but she didn’t.
Once Hank heard Phoebe’s car start, he put his hands to Arissa’s on his legs. He looked her in the eyes, his burning, holding back emotions that he couldn’t swallow. “I don’t know,” he whispered in a husky tone.
She touched his face, his pain her own. “I’ll just stay here, with you, if that’s alright.”
He palmed her cheeks, holding her head so he could hold her eyes steadily. “Don’t ever, please, don’t ever fucking question my love for you…ever.”
Tears welled but she held his tender stare and whispered back, “I won’t again. I promise.”
He laid his forehead to hers, breathed in the air she expressed from her lungs, needing that connection. Then he said what he never thought he’d ever say in his lifetime when he whispered, “We need to call the Belles.”
Arissa’s expression shifted right before her jaw dropped. “Did you just say we have to call the Belles, like voluntarily call them, over here when you’re here? Did I hear that right?”
Hank moved a thumb across her cheek, watching as he did and seeing the slight lift of it as she held back a grin. “You did, and it only gets worse cause we need to call Sal and Elmer too.”
“I broke you.”
Even though Hank could barely feel his body, numb due to the beating of words he took, he grinned. “No, Baby, you’re just fixing me. But if anyone knows anything about this town, it’s the five of them. They all might be losing their minds, but together, they’ll put the missing pieces together.”
She hated that he had to do this, that he had to find the missing pieces to his own family, but for him she tried to keep it light. He’d had enough for one day. “We’re going to need a lot of alcohol and a lot of food.” She teased, and then pressed her mouth to his before she asked, “When?”
“Now.”
* * *
Hank walked to the side of the building, pulled his cell from his pocket and stared at it. He didn’t want to make the call for one reason; he didn’t want to give her false hope.
