Page 39 of Against the Current

“They hate me, huh?”

Ryan sighed and curled up next to her in bed and kissed the back of her head. He couldn’t believe the torment of the previous week. They’d lost the baby, and they’d nearly lost each other.

“Ryan?” Trisha whispered through the darkness.

“Hmm?”

“You really didn’t know the car was taken?”

Ryan shook his head, shifting the pillows and sheets.

“Your grandmother didn’t notice?” Trisha asked.

“Not yet, I guess. My grandfather’s cars are kept in a garage a little ways away from the house. I doubt she goes in there very often.”

The doorbell rang. Ryan got up to pay the pizza deliveryman and open the box on the bed. Trisha sat up and crossed her legs beneath her and took a cheesy bite. Her lips glistened, and Ryan felt consumed with love.

Ryan said, “I don’t want your brothers to go to prison for this.”

Trisha closed her eyes. “Me neither.”

“I don’t want a big family dispute, either,” Ryan said quietly. He could already picture it: Grandma Dana versus the Reeds in the battle of the stolen car; court dates and lawyers; the Reeds racking up enormous legal debts they would never be able to pay back; Grandma Dana’s attitude toward Trisha getting worse and worse.

Ryan bowed his head. “I don’t know what to do.”

Trisha touched his shoulder gently. She didn’t say anything.

“I’ll go over there tomorrow and see if anybody knows anything,” Ryan suggested. “But if Grandma hasn’t noticed yet, maybe she never will.”

What troubled Ryan was that somebody on the Sutton Estate must have noticed. His grandfather had hired people to look after his cars and give tune-ups every now and then. Why hadn’t one of those workers said anything about the missing car?

Were they working with the Reeds?

For the time being, Ryan shoved the topic out of his mind and returned to the present—a beautiful evening of celebration and reunion. But the following evening, he drove over to the Sutton Estate to investigate. He felt like a sleuth. By chance, his mother and father had stopped by to say hello to Grandma Dana, and they were on the back porch, watching the waves roll onto shore and drinking cocktails that glinted with the orange light of the dying sun. Grandma Dana brightened when she saw him.

“The prodigal son returns!” she said, getting up to give him a hug. She put her hands on his shoulders and said, “Tell me it’s over. Tell me you finally finished it.”

Ryan was filled with revulsion. Over and over again, his grandmother reminded him of how little she respected him, his belief systems, and his heart. Did that mean he would eventuallyhave to turn his back on her forever? Did it mean he had to close this door?

“Mom,” Jackie warned, “let’s let Ryan sit down and tell us what happened.”

Ryan’s father looked nervous. Ryan knew for a fact that Josh was always on edge around Grandma Dana. Dana liked Josh, but she was always about two seconds away from deciding she hated anyone and throwing them under the bus. Josh wasn’t family. Not really.

When Grandma Dana prodded him about where he was staying, Ryan just told her, “In my apartment.”

“He pays rent,” Jackie reminded Dana with a shrug. “It makes sense that he wants to go back.”

They didn’t know Trisha was back, but what they didn’t know couldn’t hurt them.

Ryan had to twist the conversation. He had to find a way to his grandfather’s vehicles. It took him a little while to figure it out. But eventually, when the subject of his grandfather’s old sports coat and suit jacket came up, Ryan interjected to say, “I’d really love to have more things that belonged to him.” This wasn’t a lie. The loss of his grandfather was an ever-present wound.

Grandma Dana began to list the rest of the items of clothing Grandpa had upstairs—all of which, she reminded Ryan, she wanted him to try on. “You’ll be dating again soon. I imagine you’ll want some of his finer things.”

“The kids don’t dress up anymore for dates,” Jackie said.

“We didn’t much when we were dating, either,” Josh reminded her with a laugh.

Dana raised her shoulders as though the inappropriate ways in which kids today behaved were beyond her. “Well, take whatever you want. You’re growing up. You’ll be a family man someday when you finally settle down.”