Page 28 of The Saint

Too close.

“Yeah.” It was nothing more than a rasp, that word. Barely heard over the alarms blaring in my ears.

Forgiven, but not forgotten.

“I should go.” I swiped the ice pack from the floor, but my body moved like I was swimming against the tide.

“Yeah. Okay. That’s… Yeah.” Jael nodded, straightening up as I rose to my feet. She stood too, reaching for the ice pack without looking me in the eye. And as she limped away from me toward the kitchen, that tide seemed to tug me to the bottom of the sea.

Forcing myself to move, I walked to the front door. Jael stood out of arm's reach, hands shoved in the pockets of her pants, a stony expression on her face.

With the steel cage surrounding my heart tightening around my chest, I told her, “Take care, David.”

The smile she gave looked forced and unreal. “You too.”

“See you around.”

8

ROLLY

Mrs. T laid down the little white tiles in her hand, then snagged the number six tile from the set I’d just put down on my turn. With a smile on her face, she lined up the plastic pieces, creating two separate runs. Those light brown eyes lit up as she glanced at me, and she tapped the single remaining tile on her rack.

“I was seventy years old when I went roller skating for the first time.”

A chuckle worked its way through me as I tried not to let the old woman distract me from the game. “Were you now?”

“Sure was,” she said, nodding as she grabbed a cracker from the plate at her right. “Sure was,” she said again before popping it in her mouth.

My gaze roved over the plastic tiles on the table, searching out the numbers I could swipe or the runs I could add to in order to get rid of the most tiles. This was her thing, Mrs. T’s. Distracting me from this game she taught me the first day I’d come over to her place.

“It was my birthday,” she continued on, reaching for her glass of clear soda. “I decided I wasn’t done living. My Edgar might not be with me anymore, God rest his soul, but it didn’t mean I was dead just because he wasn’t here.”

Snagging a few tiles off my board, I rearranged the ones on the table, playing out my hand and leaving only two left on my rack.

“Penny tried to talk me out of it. Girl’s always so stubborn. She was sure I’d get hurt. But I’m still here, in perfect health.”

Mrs. T picked up a tile from the pile, adding it to her rack. Then she gazed up at me, her eyes clouding a bit, as if that lie about her health was too much. “Went water skiing for my seventy-first.”

Leaning back in my chair, I raised a brow at the old lady. “You trying to fool me, Mrs. T?”

“Now why would I go and do that?” The old woman had a look of genuine concern on her face, and I didn’t need to be a betting man to see through it.

I’d known her for more than five years. I’d seen her at the peak of her health. I’d seen her deteriorate, her mind leaving her in increments. Coming back in short bursts only to worsen a little more.

“You do know it was me who drove the boat, right?” I asked gently before swiping a tile from the pile. “It was my boat, and you had to convince me as much as Penny to take you out?”

A crooked smile split her face before she grabbed the last two tiles on her rack and laid them down.

A joker and a ten, added to the run I’d played only minutes before.

“‘Course I do, boy.” She winked, then said, “Rummikub.”

With my finger pointed at her, I shook my head. “I’m beginning to think you’re cheating. Five games now and you’ve won every time. Why is that?”

Mrs. T shrugged, palms facing up like a picture of innocence. “Blame it on your teacher.”

“You were my teacher.”