Maribelle wasn’t related to me by blood or marriage or in any way that people associated with family. I could say she was an employee, but it wasn’t that simple. She did work here, cooking and taking care of us, but without a clan of people claiming her, she’d made us her own. She’d been here as my mom and uncle grew up, just like she’d been here while I grew up. After nearly sixty years of being the backbone of the household, there was no memory of Wellsley Place that didn’t include her.
She finally spoke. “It’s been too long.”
There was no scold in her tone, just warmth.
Maribelle looked over my shoulder and said, “Who is this you’ve brought with you?”
The wonder in her voice was well-deserved. I hadn’t brought anyone home since I’d been shipped out to military school my freshman year of high school. Not a single person had crossed the threshold with me.
“This is Dani. Dani, this is Maribelle,” I introduced them.
Dani stepped forward to shake her hand, but Maribelle pulled her into an embrace much like the one she’d given me: shaky, warm, and heartfelt. Dani looked startled. Seeing the two women together sent shock coursing into my bones. It was as if my past, my present, and my future were colliding into one thing instead of remaining the separate entities I’d always imagined them to be.
Maribelle let go and stepped back into the house with Dani following her. I picked up the bags I’d tossed aside and closed the door behind me.
In the late morning sunshine, the stained glass surrounding the heavy mahogany doors was casting patterns onto the staircase, the colorful shapes of the light merging with the fleur-de-lis pattern on the burgundy-and-cream carpet running up the middle of the dark wooden steps. The gold marble floor in front of the stairs was also sprinkled with the colorful light, and my mind filled with memories of me in this entryway, displayed just as it was now, in a multitude of colors and patterns. My heart didn’t lighten at the images. There was no sense of relief in being here.
“Carson didn’t tell me you were coming,” Maribelle said, looking up into my face, searching for something I couldn’t give her.
“He didn’t know.”
“I see,” she said. This time there was a hint of reprimand there. The fact that I had limited communication with my uncle was the reason for it.
Dani punched me in the shoulder, her fist tight, landing with force as she didn’t hold back. I wanted to smile and pull her hand to my face and kiss it, but her brows squinting together told me it wouldn’t be received well.
“How could you just show up with me in tow?!” Dani said and then turned back to Maribelle. “I shouldn’t be surprised, but I’m so sorry if our visit puts you out.”
After carefully watching Dani hit me, and my nonresponse, Maribelle smiled at Dani with warmth. “Not at all. We’re always glad to have Nash home.”
It was a credit to Dani’s time in politics that she could maneuver an awkward situation with grace and poise. She seemed to belong in the house more than I did. As if the old walls were leaning in and sighing at her sudden appearance, the ghosts haunting the halls running to greet her.
The grandfather clock, which was twice as big as I was even now, fully grown, chimed out the hour, the warm tones of the bells taking me back again to a childhood which was hard to believe was mine. To me running up the stairs with Mom smiling and chasing me, racing to see who would make it to the top first. Dad claiming me the winner. I was never sure if I actually beat her or if she always let me.
“Shall I put Dani’s bag in the green room?” I asked. It was where we normally put the guests on the rare occasions we had them.
“Unless she’s going to stay with you, that would be the right place,” Maribelle said with a wink and a smile. Dani flushed a color that rarely graced her cheeks. A color I remembered on them for a different reason while we’d been moving together, skin to skin.
“No. It’s not… We’re not―”
“I’m her security detail,” I interrupted so Dani wouldn’t have to continue to stutter out an explanation.
Maribelle’s smile only widened, mischievous, like she was once again getting me to hide Carson’s cigars from him. “Well, you do know how that movie, The Bodyguard, turned out, right?
I couldn’t help the chuckle that ripped out of me. Only Maribelle would suggest such a thing.
“I’m going to put the bags away, but I believe Dani might need some of your biscuits.”
I headed up the stairs before either woman could reply. I headed up the stairs, wondering if this spontaneous decision was going to be yet another thing I’d regret in my time with Dani. Would I be able to walk away from it a whole man, or would I be in pieces? As if an IED had exploded in front of me again, this time fracturing my insides as well as the burnt muscle I used to call a heart.
Dani
SWEETER PLACE
“Is there a place where I can hide away?
Red lips, French-kiss my worries all away,
There must be a sweeter place.”
Performed by Selena Gomez w/ Kid Cudi
Written by Kirkpatrick / Love Seguro Mescudi / Gomez / Emenike
Nash left me in the entryway as he jogged up the stairs. I was astonished by all of it. The huge estate. The white-haired woman who hugged him with a fondness you could see etched around her. The antiques, paintings, sculptures, and tapestries scattered about which belonged in a museum. Our house in Wilmington had its fair share, but this place reeked of a
