There was something in her voice that made me think she was looking at it as something other than that, though. “Usually?”
She guided me toward another table, which we picked up and slid over near the other one.
She took another deep breath. “Just with everything that's been going on, I'm not sure who's coming or bringing anything or really anything at all.” She surveyed the picnic tables. “I'm not sure this is all worth the effort at this point.”
We moved a couple more tables into place and I offered to give her a hand with the plastic table cloths. We covered each table with a red-checked cloth, securing each in place with metal clips. By the time we were done, the entire pavilion had been transformed from a drab-looking eating area to something fun and festive.
Delilah eased her frame on to a bench. Her pink t-shirt was damp with sweat. “Thank you for helping.”
I sat down next to her. “Of course. It's a lot of work for one person.”
She nodded. “It is. Harvey was really good at helping me get things ready. He was far more organized than I am.” Her voice trailed off and she looked away.
“What did you end up doing with those girls last night?”
She rolled her eyes. “I wish I had the heart to call the authorities and have them locked up. But I don't, of course.” She shrugged. “I made them promise to stay away from Harvey's and they brought me a check for the cost of the window this morning.”
“So you don't think they had anything to do with Harvey's death?”
She stared at a crack on the concrete floor. “I don't want to think they did.”
“But you do?”
“Honestly?” She looked back at me and I saw the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “I have no clue. They were always harmless when it came to him. Like puppies following around their owner. But after he broke up with them? They went a little crazy.” She offered a half-laugh. “No. Not a little. A lot.”
“The hammer and the fire?”
Delilah nodded. “They blew it off. Said they were accidents and what-not. And Harvey didn't give either incident another thought. But they just seemed to turn a corner after that. Like, if they couldn't have him, no one else could, either.”
I tended to agree with her and a tingle shivered up my spine as I thought about our encounter with them the night before at Harvey's camper. What if they'd freaked out when Jake confronted them? They'd had a potential weapon and it wasn't like they'd had a problem attacking someone before.
“Did he really like them?” I asked. “I mean...for more than just...?” I couldn't force myself to finish the sentence.
She smiled. “Harvey was a good person, but let's be honest. I mean, he was still a man and both of those girls are very attractive. Pickings are slim up here for relationships, and they basically threw themselves at him.” The smile faded. “But even with what they had to offer, they wore thin on him quickly. I think he ended up tolerating them more than liking him and that was because he knew it was his fault for becoming involved with them in the first place. But he certainly didn't dislike them.”
I believed her. As creepy, even sinister, as the sisters seemed, I could see how they'd be attractive to a guy in his twenties, particularly if they were the aggressors. I didn't fault Harvey for that, particularly if he wasn't running into other people his age at Windy Vista.
“You haven't asked me yet,” Delilah said.
“Haven't asked you what?”
“The one thing you probably really want to ask me,” she said. She tugged at the collar of her shirt. “The one thing people have probably been sure to tell you. About me and Harvey.”
“People talk and they like to create drama. It's none of my business.”
She smiled like she was grateful. “That's kind of you to say, but you wouldn't be normal if you weren't wondering, Daisy.”
I felt embarrassed by the fact that I was actually wondering.
“Harvey and I were not in a relationship,” she said, leveling her eyes with mine. “But everything you've probably heard is the result of one dumb thing I did a few years back.”
I wasn't sure what to say to that even though I was dying to know what the mistake was. I pressed my lips together and kept my mouth shut.
She sighed and clasped her hands together in her lap. “A couple of summers ago, I'd had a lousy day. Campers were complaining, we'd lost power for part of the morning, and the well went down for a bit. Just one of those days where everything went wrong. So after I got everything up and running and made sure everyone was semi-happy again, I cleared out of here and went into town to relax and have a couple of drinks.” She paused. “But a couple of drinks turned into a lot of drinks.”
I could think of a few nights where I'd thrown the kids at Jake, started a campfire out back, beer in hand, ready to unwind. There was no shame in that and Jake would usually end up joining me after the kids were in bed. There might've been a night or two when I'd knocked back more than I'd intended but I didn't think there was an adult on the planet who couldn't relate.
“So I'm just ugly drunk at the end of the night and I know I can't drive back here,” she continued. “I don't know anyone at the bar. The few friends I did know had already gone home. So I called Harvey.” A thin smile crossed her lips. “I knew he was around and I knew he'd come get me. He told me he'd be there in fifteen minutes, so I went outside and waited and tried not to fall over.”
Delilah wrung her hands a little more and glanced back at the concrete floor. A trail of ants followed the seam in the pavement, disappearing into a tiny crack. “So Harvey shows up and loads me into his car. Tells me he'll bring me back to get my car the next day. I'm three sheets to the wind and just trying not to pass out in his passenger seat.” She sighed. “We drive back to Windy Vista and he helps me out of the truck. Because I needed help. I could barely stand.” She shook her head, clearly embarrassed at the memory. “So he's kind of shuffling me along toward my cabin and I stop and try to kiss him.” She cringed. “I tried to kiss him.”
There didn't seem to be any pleasure in the retelling at all and I didn't think it was because she was telling it to someone she didn't know that well. I thought she was cringing because she couldn't believe she'd acted like that.
“I don't know why I did it. He'd always been like a son to me, which just makes the whole thing creepy and horrible. But he was taking care of me and I didn't have a man in my life doing that sort of thing for me, you know? I just...I wanted to thank him somehow, and that was the way I thought to do it.” She sighed and shook her head, a disgusted look on her face. “Anyway, he stopped me before I could really make a fool of myself and helped get me into my cabin. He laid me down on the couch, covered me with a blanket and sat there until I passed out. Which was probably about two minutes.” She took a deep breath and scratched at her knee. “Next morning, he comes by to check on me and I can't apologize enough for making a fool of myself. Harvey being Harvey, he just blew it off, told me it was no big deal and said he wasn't giving it a second thought.” She paused and the corners of her mouth twitched. “And that was it. It was never awkward and he forgave me for acting like an idiot. I finally got over it, too, and chalked it up to just being one of those stupid things we do that we have to learn to live with.”
My list of stupid things included something far worse—marrying Thornton ranked right up there at the top—so I understood completely.
“So we were never together,” she said, glancing at me. “We were never a couple. We were never anything other than friends.”
“So how did it get so blown out of proportion?” I asked. “It doesn't sound like Harvey was the kind of guy who'd go around telling people what happened.”
“He wasn't,” she told me. “But several people saw him unloading my drunk self out of his car that night. They saw him take me in...and then stay for a bit. And they've seen us spend a lot of time together over the years. They all jumped to the conclusions they wanted to jump to.”