Oklahoma Sunshine

by Maggie Shayne

  "Pretty and bright. Everything around you is pretty and bright, Sunny. Except for your cat."

  "My cat?"

  "Griselda. She's a hateful and vindictive harridan."

  That made her smile.

  "To everyone or just to you?"

  "Mostly me. I think she just prefers your undivided attention." He sighed. "Poor thing's traumatized, being there alone."

  "Poor Griz."

  He hadn't said "Griz," he'd said "Griselda." Another strike against amnesia.

  “It’s right up here," he said. "The only building on Main Street with a pink and white awning. See?”

  She nodded as he drove. Everyone who was outside waved as they passed. Most of them already knew what had happened and where she’d been. Small towns were like that.

  “I called over to Ida Mae’s to tell Mickey—he works for you—not to open the bakery today. He said he’d let Tabitha, who also works for you, know.” He spoke as the big truck rumbled into the driveway, and all the way to the back. “Think you can make the stairs?” he asked.

  “Yeah. Aside from my head, I feel fine. Thank you for the ride.” She opened the door and got out.

  He did likewise, even though she hadn't asked. She started up the stairs, and he followed right behind. If she wanted him to go, he'd go, but he was waiting for her to tell him so.

  At the top, she reached for her doorknob, and then froze in place, and he finally quit looking at her, and looked at the door instead.

  “The door’s open,” she whispered.

  “I made sure it was locked last night."

  "What do you mean, last night?" she was looking at him wide-eyed.

  "I came over to feed the cat. I have a key." As he said it, he noticed the pry marks on the door casing. He wedged himself between her and the door, forcing her back a few steps behind him. “Someone broke in. Go lock yourself in the truck and call Jimmy—Chief Corona. Just dial 911.” He glanced behind him when she didn't move.

  "Go on, be safe." He turned forward again, but she gripped his forearm like a bear trap snapping, and when he spun in surprise, the way she looked brought him to a standstill. Sheer terror, that was what was in her round eyes. Just sheer terror.

  He grabbed her shoulders. "Hey, it's okay. The police station's right across the street."

  "Then wait." She took out her phone, tugging him with her down a few more steps with her free hand. She had a death grip. "Hey, it's Sunny," she said, sounding very non-amnesiac. "Someone broke into my apartment. I'm here with Jason, and he wants to go inside and I'm not gonna let him 'til someone gets here with a gun." She hung up immediately, and was texting one-handed while still pulling on his arm. He saw Eve's name over her shoulder.

  They were tight, those two, and that didn't make sense. In all these years she'd never even mentioned Eve.

  He let her pull him along until they were at the bottom. Jimmy Corona was already jogging across the street with one hand on his sidearm. He went past them up the stairs, pulled his gun, and went inside.

  A few seconds later, he came back out. "No one's here. I'm going down to check the bakery." Then he went back in.

  Sunny took that as permission to run up the stairs and into the apartment again, and before he caught up to her, she was inside, running around calling "kitty, kitty."

  He closed the door behind him. Sunny was crawling on hands and knees, looking under the fat, colorful sofa and matching chair for the cat she allegedly didn't remember.

  “Griselda’s not here,” she said, sounding heartbroken. “She got out while the door was open.”

  “She goes outside all the time," he said. “She always comes back in short order. You’ve always told me she'd be miserable if she couldn’t hunt.”

  Jimmy came back upstairs just as the unmistakable purr of the A8 told him Eve had arrived, as well. "Bakery's all clear," Jimmy said. "Nothing down there seems disturbed, it's still locked up. What about up here? Is there anything missing?"

  He watched Sunny examine the room, saw where her gaze stopped and followed it. That photo of her mom was on the floor, its glass shattered. "Only my cat," she said. But there was more fear in her eyes.

  "She wouldn't know if anything was missing, because she has amnesia. Right Sunny?" he asked. He willed her to look at him, to talk to him.

  "Right," she said. "I wouldn't know."

  "And she doesn't remember falling. So she can't tell you that I didn't push her, like Bernie Jennings thinks I did."

  She shot him a horrified look. "I'm sure you didn't push me."

  "But you don't remember. Right?"

  She looked him in the eyes and tried to cover the fear in hers with some ice-cold emptiness. "I need you to go now, Jason.”

  He frowned hard, looking at her like she’d lost her mind. “Someone broke in here. I can’t leave you alone—”

  “I’m a grown woman. And Eve's here, and Jimmy's here, and I’m really sorry, but I want you to go.” Tears tried to burn her eyes, but she willed them not to show.

  There was hurt in his eyes, and a thousand questions, too. But he just said, “Okay. I guess I’ll leave, then."

  Sunny stood by the kitchen window and watched Jason all the way down to his truck. He looked up at her as he got in, and she ducked behind the curtain. Eve and Jimmy were talking in low voices in the living room.

  "I think you might just be biased here, Chief Corona," Eve was saying. "You have a witness who says he pushed her."

  "He didn't push me." She said it loud and firm.

  "Well, you can tell us that with more conviction once you get your memory back," Eve said. "In the meantime, he's acting all stalkerish. How do you know it wasn't him in here last night?"

  "He has a key. Why would he pry the door open?" Jimmy asked.

  "Because if he used his key, we'd know it was him, Einstein. Look, I know he's your cousin or something, but you're the chief of police–"

  "Step-brother-in-law. And I arrested his brother last year, so don't even think about accusing me of being biased."

  "I'm not accusing you. If I accuse you, you'll know it!"

  "Enough!" Sunny shouted. "Enough. Let's just...it's enough. I can't take any more. What am I–what are we doing? Just tell me what I'm supposed to be doing, all right?"

  Eve nodded. "Pack an overnight bag. You can spend the night with me at the Long Branch. If that's okay with Chief Corona."

  Jimmy gave Sunny a sympathetic nod. "Try not to touch any more than you have to. We need to go over the place for fingerprints and things." He slid a look at the broken photo frame on the floor.

  Her family photo was behind the photo of her mother in the frame. She'd kept it only because it was the only other photo she had of her mother. She couldn't bear to throw it away, or cut it up, but she couldn't stand to look at the original either. So she kept it hidden, tucked behind the headshot of her mother.

  Jimmy was going to find that photo, and then her secret would be out. And while she knew her life as Sunny Cantrell was over anyway, if Jason knew the truth he'd want to fix it. To save her. That was the kind of man he was.

  And she couldn't let him take that risk.

  God, when she'd seen the pry marks, and he'd started inside, she'd flashed back in time to Dave's broken body in her arms, his warm blood soaking her shirt. Only instead of Dave's lifeless eyes, it was Jason's she saw in their place.

  She couldn't let that happen. "Check the bakery again, would you Jimmy? I think I left a bank bag with a few hundred in it under the register."

  "Sure, Sunny."

  As soon as he left, she went to the framed photo on the floor, and slid both images out of it. She shook the glass off her mother's face and turned to Eve. "Let's go."

  "You in a hurry all the sudden?"

  She nodded. "He's here, Eve. My brother is here. And no one's safe as long as that's true. He won't leave Big Falls until I do."

  She and Eve left together in Eve's car while Jimmy was still downstairs checking for cas
h. But they didn't go far, just parked in the big lot behind the diner, where they could keep an eye on things. And when Chief Corona left her place, they walked back over there.

  "Where's his crime scene crew?" Sunny asked Eve in a whisper as they started up the back steps once again. There was yellow tape across the top.

  "Probably gonna be a while," Eve said. "Might even be morning. He thinks the place is secure and you're safe and sound. No reason for him to stick around."

  They climbed over the tape and went inside. Eve closed all the curtains, and they used only minimal lighting. Sunny pulled suitcases out of her biggest closet. She started in the bedroom, quickly emptied her dresser into the case, and stuffed her jewelry box on top.

  “We're gonna need a bigger boat.” Eve stood in front of her open closet, eyeing rows of pastel dresses, blouses and skirts. The hooks in the wall held matching bags and the floor was lined with matching shoes.

  “Leave all that,” Sunny said softly.

  “But—”

  “That’s Sunny Cantrell’s stuff. I’m not her anymore. I don’t know who I am right now. I’m in some kind of dark limbo waiting to find out, I guess. But I know I’m not her. I wanted to be. I tried to be.” She went to the living room to get the framed photo of her and Jason off the end table, and brought it back to add to the suitcase on her bed. “But I was fooling myself.”

  Eve closed the closet and came to the bed. She said, “You can be whoever you want to be.”

  “Obviously not. This is who I wanted to be. Sunny Cantrell, all sweetness and light, beloved of the best unmarried man in Oklahoma. And I pulled it off for a while. But in the end, my darkness just bubbled up and took it all away.”

  “It’s your history that’s dark, not you.”

  “I don't think so." Her eyes felt hot. She let the tears go. You couldn’t hide a thing from Eve DuVall anyway.

  “I'm sorry, Sunny.” She really meant it, Sunny could tell, and then she tried to cheer her up by changing the subject. "Jimmy knew you remembered him. And so did Jason. You're terrible at this.”

  “I know I am. I totally forgot to pretend for a while there.”

  "Well, it was a shock, knowing he was in your place."

  "What did he want here?"

  "You. Either to find you and hurt you or to scare the hell out of you or to punish for your perceived sins. But he couldn't find you because you were in the hospital. Lucky break, banging your head like that.

  A wave of fear rose up, but she pushed it down and went to the kitchen to start taking dishes out of the cupboards. “I have boxes downstairs,” she said. “Newspapers, too, I think, to wrap the china.”

  “Hey, hey, wait a minute now. I didn’t bring a moving van.” Eve reached past her and closed the cupboard door. “And if we take everything, Chief Jimmy's gonna notice. We don’t want anyone to know you’re gone for as long as possible."

  "Except my brother."

  "What now?"

  "Except my brother. We want him to know I'm gone."

  "And just how are we gonna get a head start that way?"

  "The longer he's in town, the more danger everyone is in. My friends. Jason. His family. The kids. Mouse and Tabitha."

  "Who or what are Mouse and Tabitha?"

  "They work for me."

  Eve lowered her head. “I hate this for you, hon. I really do. I wish it could be different. But I’ll get you your stuff, at least I can promise that. I’ll have it all packed up and moved once your brother gives up and goes home. It can go in storage until you’re settled in and ready for it. And then I'll send it on to you in your new place. Okay?"

  "It's not like I have a choice." Sighing, she went to the bathroom and started packing up her personal things. Razors, toothbrush, makeup, hair products. She scooped them all into a plastic grocery bag and crammed that into the suitcase in the bedroom. “What am I gonna do about the bakery?”

  “Leave word you’re closing for the rest of the week to recover from your accident. Nobody’s gonna question that. Not even Braxton. No matter who he asks or where he checks, he’s gonna get the same story. You hit your head, spent a night in the hospital, there might be brain damage–”

  “I don’t have brain damage.”

  “I might’ve embellished a little around the saloon last night when I went down for a night cap at last call.”

  She widened her eyes at Eve, and Eve shrugged. “I said it might not be permanent.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. So, see? Closing the bakery for a few days won’t seem strange at all. We can take care of the logistics of selling it once you’re settled elsewhere.”

  Sunny closed her eyes. The thought of selling the bakery was too much. “Mouse and Tabitha depend on their paychecks.”

  “You depend on your heart to keep beating. Keep your priorities straight.”

  "I have to make sure no one thinks Jason pushed me, too. And soon."

  "We'll deal with all that once you're safe."

  Sunny looked around her kitchen, loving it more than ever. Daisies were the theme. There were daisies on the valance above the little window that looked down over the river. There were daisy borders on the walls, and daisy canisters and a set of daisy coffee mugs.

  At first that had been pretend, just part of the new persona she’d been building when she’d first come here all dark and wounded and bleak. She’d built a whole being based on what she thought her mother had been like. Her mother would’ve loved daisies because she was sunshine and light and love and everything good. She wore pastel sundresses and pearls. Sunny had tried to model herself after that imaginary perfection.

  She’d enjoyed being Sunny. She’d actually started to believe she really was her.

  “Where am I going?” she asked softly as she took her daisy coffee mugs to the bedroom, and tucked them into the small suitcase among her clothes, so they wouldn’t break.

  “New Mexico,” Eve said. I have a small place in this little village outside Taos that’s always been my personal backup plan. But now it’s yours.”

  “You have a personal backup plan?”

  “You don’t do what I do without a backup plan. I figured if I ever got in trouble deep enough that I needed to drop out of sight, I’d head for Plum Creek, New Mexico. You’ll love this town. It’s as pretty as Big Falls.”

  “No place is as pretty as Big Falls,” Sunny said. “I don't want to leave without my cat, Eve.”

  “Sunny.” Eve put her hands on both her shoulders. “Your cat got out because the door was open, and the door was open because your brother was here looking for you. We’re just lucky he didn’t find you, or someone to tell him where you were. We’ll find the cat. I’ll put someone on it, and we’ll bring him to you, okay?”

  “Her. You’ll bring her to me.”

  “Her, yeah. I knew that. Look, let’s get the essentials and get you to safety before it’s too late.” She frowned as a motor rumbled past. “That same pickup has passed three times.”

  “Pickup trucks outnumber humans in Big Falls.”

  “But this one has a hole in the exhaust that makes it sound like shit. We’re not taking chances. We can’t.”

  Eve was not being overly cautious. Sunny knew better than anyone what Braxton was capable of. “Are we leaving right now? I told Jimmy I–”

  “You told Jimmy you’re staying with me tonight over at the Long Branch. I know. So, put most of your stuff in my car, because we’re gonna have to leave yours anyway.”

  “I love that car.”

  “We'll drive both vehicles over to the Long Branch so everything looks just like we said. And then we slip out in the wee hours, after closing time. Gives us a nice long head start before anyone knows we’re even gone.”

  Sunny’s breaths felt like they were shuddering in and out of her. It couldn’t be her last night in Big Falls. It couldn’t.

  Big Falls is magic, Vidalia Brand had told her once. Local legend is, she chooses her resident
s. She beams out a siren’s call to those who are meant to be here, and once they set foot on her red soil, they stay forever.

  Tears welled up in her eyes.

  “Hey,” Eve said. “Come on, now, it’ll be–”

  “I need to grab the cat carrier, in case we find Griz.” Sunny hurried out of the room because she didn’t want Eve, the strongest woman she knew, to see her cry twice in one day.

  Chapter 8

  Jason had a bad feeling gnawing at his gut as he lay in bed trying to sleep. Things weren’t right. Sunny wasn’t right. She was faking amnesia, plain as day, and just not acting like herself. And how about this Eve person showing up out of nowhere? First time they’ve seen each other in six years and they’re as tight as sisters? It didn’t make sense. And someone had busted into her house.

  And then there was that tattoo. And that photo. And all the lies.

  He rolled to his other side, punching the pillow into submission.

  She wouldn't even break character long enough to tell Jimmy the truth, that she'd fallen, that he hadn't put a hand on her. The Sunny he knew would never act this way.

  It was all tied up together, he knew it was. And he wanted to know how, because Sunny was in trouble. And he couldn’t help her if he didn’t know how.

  His step-sister was a PI, married to a PI. Hell, so was Angie Wakeland’s ex-sister-in-law, Riley. Angie was Sunny’s best friend, so that made three professional snoops, practically in the family.

  But something told him it wouldn’t be right to take that route. If he wanted to know Sunny’s secrets, he had to ask Sunny. Not go behind her back digging up a past she apparently wanted to forget.

  And she must want to forget it. The Sunny he knew had never shown a sign of hating anyone. She was the least hateful person he’d ever known. She was…she was Sunny. Everything about her was the opposite of that hate symbol on her head.

  And maybe that was on purpose. Or maybe it was just a lie. But, either way, he wished she’d told him. Dammit, she should’ve told him.

  He wasn’t going to sleep.

  He got out of bed, scrubbed his hair and walked to the kitchen, trying to decide between warm cocoa or a shot of something alcoholic. Or both.