The Devil Has Dimples by Pepper Phillips Read Free Book Online

brought an orange juice container to his mouth and drank
straight from the carton.
    “Remind me not to drink the juice.”
    Grant jumped at my remark and had the grace to turn around
and look at me sheepishly.  “Sorry.  Maudie avoided orange juice, so it’s
mine.  Or was mine.”
    We continued to look at each other briefly.  I turned my
glance away first. There was something in his eyes that unsettled me.  It was
as if he could see deep inside me and knew all my secrets.
    “So, tell me, why are you renting a room?”
    Grant replaced the cap on the carton and put the juice back
into the refrigerator.  He walked to the living room and flung himself into an
overstuffed chair.
    He indicated that I should sit, so I did.
    “My mother died when I was thirteen.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Well, she died suddenly.  But I miss her.  To this day, I
miss her.”
    I knew how that could feel...to love someone so much, you
missed them for years.  When my father died, I was stunned by the suddenness of
it.  Then being sent to a distant boarding school so that my mother wouldn’t be
bothered by raising me hurt.  It hurt more than I was willing to admit.
    I drew my legs up on the chair and hugged them.  “Yes, I can
understand that.”
    Grant frowned, running his fingers through his hair.
    “Yeah, but I didn’t understand why my father remarried just
three months after she died.”
    A pain stabbed my heart.  Another man who cheats.  I’d had
enough of one to last me a lifetime.  That’s why I can’t stand jocks.  “Oh.”
    “Yeah, oh!  I was incensed.  At my father, my mother for
dying when I needed her, the world in general.  I started to get into trouble
and then Maudie stepped in.”
    I dug my fingernails into my legs.  “What did she do?”
    Grant gave me a grim smile.  “She rescued a scared,
rebellious, terrified kid and made a man out of him.”
    He was definitely a man.  “How?”
    “First she got my father to agree to let me live here. She
gave him some cock-and-bull story about being afraid of staying here alone and
hired me to sleep at night.  The deal was I was to be here at closing time, eat
dinner and sleep.  Saturday, I helped her in the store and did deliveries. 
Sundays, however, I stayed at home until dark then came here.  It gave my
father and stepmother a relief from my hate, and gave Maudie time to defuse that
hate and turn it into something else.”
    So he was friends with Maudie, was that the reason he was
rather cold to me at times?  I wondered.  “That was kind of her.”
    “Kind...it depends.  I was rebellious.  It’s a wonder she
didn’t throw me off the balcony and say good riddance.  I was testing everyone
until she made me see the light.”
    “How did she do that?”
    There was a long hesitation, Grant looked everywhere but at
me.  Almost as if he was afraid to say the words.  “With love.”
    I didn’t expect that.  “Love?”
    “Yes.  After one Sunday at home, I came here and was madder
than ever, Maudie just came up to me and wrapped her arms around me and began
to cry.”
    “Whatever for?”
    “I don’t know.  She just held me and then I started to cry. 
We both cried for a long time.  Then after giving me a great big hug she
laughed and said how silly we were to not accept life for what it was,
difficult.  She patted my face and said that she loved me, and I knew that she
loved me and that was all that mattered in life, that someone loved you even
though you had faults.  I wasn’t angry at my father anymore, and while I’m
still not comfortable around my stepmother, I am courteous in her presence.”
    “Then what?”
    “Oh, the usual. High school.  I went off to college, but
came here for summer breaks.  Got married, got divorced, and since my ex-wife
wanted everything, I just gave her the house, the car, the dog, even the water
hose.”  He gave me that killer grin again.
    I had to ask.  “The water hose?”
    “It’s so funny.