by Renee George
“Thanks. That looks good.”
“It’s heaven,” she sighed. She took a bite. “Mmm-mmm.” Cheese strings bridged the gap between her mouth and the bread. “So good,” she mumbled.
“I can see that.” I laughed. The shrimp was cooked to perfection. Plump, juicy, and tender. I hated how good it tasted. I mean, I loved a great meal, but a calculated part of me wanted to see Gio fail miserably.
“So.” Gilly leaned in conspiratorially. “Did you find out anything?”
“A few things,” I said quietly. “I think Fiona tried to kill herself at one time. There was a scar on her left wrist that looked too deliberate to be an accident.”
“Did your smell-o-vision show you a memory of her cutting herself?”
“No. She was attending Narcotics Anonymous. Chad says she’s been clean for two months.”
“I wonder if she was on drugs when she drowned?”
I knew Fiona had drugs in her when she’d drowned, but I wanted to keep my promise to Shawn to not divulge what he’d told me in confidence. “Maybe. She could have relapsed.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, but I’ll tell you on the ride home,” I said. I would tell her about the pregnancy, but I would keep Jordy’s stuff to myself. His sobriety was his business and his alone. I wouldn’t violate that.
I couldn’t shake the scar on Fiona’s wrist. At this point, I was wondering if the girl hadn’t taken her own life. Pregnant drug addict who can’t stay clean. She’d sounded upset on the phone message. Desperate. It wasn’t a stretch to go from accidental drowning to suicide. If that was the case, then her call to Reese could have been a final cry for help. If true, the news would devastate Reese even more.
“Are you okay?” Gilly asked.
“I’m worried that whatever I find out for Reese is going to make Fiona’s death even harder for her.”
Gilly had polished off three glasses of wine, and we were both full from an amazing dinner. We took our tiramisu in to-go boxes, along with the lasagna meals Gio boxed up for the twins…on the house. I figured a free meal at his fancy restaurant was the least Gio owed his ex-wife. Had I known he was going to foot the bill, I might have ordered an extra dessert.
It hurt my heart to see how Gio was so adept at publicly playing the doting dad when it suited him, which hadn’t been often in the past ten years. I also didn’t like the idea that he could sweep into town and try to wipe away the decade of struggle and rebuilding Gilly had done to find a new normal for her and the kids.
On the way out of the restaurant, I brushed against a man waiting by the hostess table.
I had to clench my teeth to keep my mouth from dropping open. Phil Williams was looking at me the same way I’d looked at my tiramisu. Yuck.
“Oh, hey. I didn’t get your name—” He stopped talking when he saw Gilly behind me, his eyes narrowing at my friend.
Then he fixed his gaze back on me, his expression turning from pleasant to pissed-off. “You’re Nora Black.”
I didn’t get a chance to say anything else because Gilly pushed me from behind and kept us moving until we were out the door.
I handed my ticket to the guy manning the valet stand.
“That mother…fluffer.” Gilly was shaking so hard, the bag of to-go boxes rattled in her hands. She cast a quick look over her shoulder. “He’s not following us.”
“He better not,” I said, though I didn’t feel nearly as tough as I sounded. I breathed a sigh of relief as the valet arrived with my car. “C’mon, Gilly,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 11
“That’s terrible, Nora,” Gilly said after I told her about what I’d learned from Chad. “That poor girl was pregnant? I’m just…I don’t even know how to react.”
“I get it. I’m in shock, too.” We were a few blocks from Gilly’s house and my car was filling up with the robust garlic and cilantro scents of lasagna. “Even though Chad wasn’t the father, I got the impression he would’ve moved the moon to be with Fiona. If she’d managed to leave—they might’ve had a chance.”
“Why leave, though?” asked Gilly. “If Fiona was getting her crap together, why wouldn’t she tell her parents? Jenny McKay doesn’t seem like the type of woman who would turn her daughter out. And with a baby on the way and a new commitment to sobriety, she might’ve been fine here, too.”
I shook my head. “My guess? Something to do with the pregnancy. Maybe the sperm donor wasn’t thrilled.”
“But you didn’t get any smell-confirmation of the baby daddy?”
“Not even a whiff. Your guess is as good as mine.” I sighed.
“I’ll keep my ear to the ground. I know a lot of people at Portman’s. Someone there might know who Fiona had been seeing before she took up with Chad. Remember? I told you my friend Natalie runs the spa there, and she used to work with me at the Rose Palace. I’ll start with her. People are always confiding in their massage therapists.”
“Thanks, Gils. That’s a big help.”
When we got to Gilly’s, I parked and went inside with her. I still had to chat with a certain teenage girl. “I’ll go up and tell the twins the food’s here.”
Gilly, who was singing Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” nodded and danced her way into the kitchen. My back was stiff from the drive, and the ibuprofen I popped before dinner was barely taking the edge off the muscle ache. I regretted volunteering to go up the stairs, knowing that what goes up must also come down, and my knees and my back wouldn’t thank me for the effort.
I heard music coming from Ari’s room. Her closed door had a sign that said, “Enter without knocking at your own risk.”
I heeded the warning and knocked. The music’s volume lowered.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“To talk,” I said. “And we’ve brought you back some food.”
The door opened before I finished saying food. “Sorry, Aunt Nora. I thought you were Mom or Marco.”
Marco peeked his head out of his room. He looked disheveled, like he’d just woken up from a nap.
“There’s lasagna in the kitchen,” I told him.
He rubbed his face. “Cool,” he said. “Be right there.”
After he ducked back into his room, I said to Ari, “Can I talk to you alone for a moment?”
“Uhm, sure,” she said. She opened her door wider. “The room is a mess.”
I looked around as I stepped inside. There were a few clothes on her lounge chair near her window, her bed was unmade, and there was half a cup of some drink on her computer desk. Other than that, the bedroom was pretty clean. “What a pigsty,” I teased.
She grinned. “It’s messy for me.”
“I’ll give you that,” I said.
I sat down on the edge of her bed. She took the cue and dragged her computer chair over and sat across from me.
She waited for me to speak first. I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just jumped in. “You know about my…sense of smell. How it can sometimes show me memories?”
Ari blinked but didn’t say anything.
“You know, other people’s memories,” I explained.
“Okaaay,” she said slowly. “And?”
“When we hugged earlier, I smelled wintergreen gum.”
“I always have wintergreen gum.” Ari shrugged, her eyes darting toward the door as if she were planning her escape.
“Yes, but when I smelled it, I saw you in a blue bedroom with a guy.” I took a deep breath, bolstering my courage. “He was asking you to set up a camera. You sounded worried.”
“Gawd, Aunt Nora.” She stood up and took a few steps back, visibly upset.
“I wasn’t trying to get into your business. I can’t control when my ability kicks in and when it doesn’t. It’s tied to strong emotions, so I know whatever I saw was important. That boy…he wasn’t making you…you know, do something you didn’t want to do?”
“Like what?” she asked. Her eyes narrowed at
me when I didn’t answer right away. “Wow, Aunt Nora. We weren’t making sex tapes if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I won’t lie and say it didn’t cross my mind,” I told her. “Briefly.”
“Did you tell my mom?”
“I haven’t said anything yet. And you can be mad at me, but I love you, Ari. You are the closest thing I will ever have to a daughter of my own, and I want you happy and safe. What I saw in the vision didn’t feel safe.”
She sighed and plunked back down in the chair. “It wasn’t anything bad, Aunt Nora. I promise.”
“Will you tell me what was going on?”
“The camera wasn’t for me. Johnny wanted to make a coming-out video for his parents, and he’d wanted to do it before I left for Las Vegas. He didn’t have the nerve to tell them in person, and he wanted help with the recording. So, I helped. That’s all.”
Ten kinds of relief washed over me. Well, I guess that answered the question about whether Johnny was a romantic interest for Ari. “And that’s all?”
“Yes, that’s it. I swear,” she said.
“What about the pot?” I asked.
She cringed. “You saw that, too, huh?”
“Yep.”
“Johnny smokes it for anxiety.”
“Prescription?”
“No,” Ari admitted. “But I don’t smoke it, Aunt Nora. I tried once. That was enough. It burned the crap out of my throat, and I didn’t like the way it clouded my head.”
“I think you should tell your mom about the experimenting with marijuana,” I said, knowing it was something I couldn’t and wouldn’t keep from Gilly.
“It was last year, and I already did. I told her the next day.” Ari grimaced. “I’m surprised she didn’t tell you.”
I was surprised, too, but the fact that Gilly already knew lifted a weight from my shoulders. “Okay,” I said. “How did his coming out go? Your mood when you got home tonight tells me it might not have gone too well.”
“He hasn’t given it to them.” She shook her head. “That’s not why I’m in a mood.”
“It’s Vegas, right? Something happened there.”
Her eyes widened. “Did you get another vision?”
“No. You looked miserable the other night when your dad brought you all home.”
She hugged her arms. “He’s a jerk, is all. I wish he’d have stayed gone.”
“Did he do something to you?” Maybe he’d yelled at her or called her Ariana one too many times. Sometimes it didn’t take much to send a teenager over the edge.
“Not to me,” she said. “Not exactly.”
“To Marco?”
“Not to either of us.” Her gaze darkened. “Can you keep a secret from my mom?”
“Probably, but I’m not super confident,” I teased. “However, if it’s something bad, then absolutely not. But you should tell me anyway.”
Ari snorted. “I love that you don’t bullshit me, Aunt Nora.”
“Is that your new favorite word?”
She smirked then shook her head. “Dad was in Garden Cove three weeks ago. He stayed at Portman’s on the Lake without telling any of us. Marco and I haven’t seen him in three years, and he just shows up without saying a word.”
“How did you find this out?”
“I overheard him talking to someone about it in Las Vegas. When I confronted him, he said he’d done it to spare Marco and me in case he didn’t get the job here in town, and he hadn’t wanted to get our hopes up. But he made me promise to keep it a secret from Marco and Mom.” The corner of her lip curled up as she looked at me. “But he didn’t tell me I had to keep it a secret from you.”
A combination of anger and shock coursed through me. Gio had been in town three weeks earlier, and he hadn’t even tried to see his kids. What in the world had he been thinking? Why would he try to hide it? Why make his daughter complicit in his secret? Obviously, she’d been struggling with the idea of telling her mom.
I nodded to Ari. “And since I haven’t promised you to keep it to myself, you can’t stop me from telling anyone I want,” I said.
“Actually, I don’t know why I’m struggling with this. I can’t count the number of times Dad has made promises he’s broken. I’ll tell Mom.”
I nodded. “Are you sure?”
“I am. I’ll do it tonight. I’ll tell her and Marco.”
I scooted forward and patted her knee. “I’m proud of you.” I paused, thinking about Fiona’s secrets and how she hadn’t been able to confide in her family. “You know that you can always tell me anything, and I mean anything at all. I will never judge you. I will support you and love you. You know that, right?”
“I do.” She smiled at me. “I love you, Aunt Nora.”
“The feeling is completely mutual, kiddo.”
After I left Gilly’s, I couldn’t get the events of the last two days to stop going round and round in my head like a nightmare Ferris wheel. Running into Phil at the restaurant had rattled me, and for the first time in a long while, I was afraid to be alone. Did I think the man would stalk me to my home? Probably not. He had guys for that. Like Carl Grigsby. I couldn’t shake the fear.
I found myself driving out of town toward Lake Access Road V and turning down a rural road that led to the small two-bedroom cabin where Ezra lived.
It was late, but not so late that he’d be sleeping. I didn’t want to wait another minute to tell him about Fiona, Reese, and Phil, and frankly, everything.
I thought about Chad saying how Reese was the only person Fiona could trust aside from himself. I understood the feeling. For a long time, I only had two people in the world I trusted completely. Gilly and Pippa were there for me no matter what, and I counted myself lucky that I had a small tribe around me. But, as my car idled on a gravel road a hundred yards from Ezra’s place, I realized that I counted him among my trusted people now as well.
Was I setting myself up for a broken heart? Maybe. But I was at an age where I realized that there was no such thing as happily ever after. And even if it had existed, it was no longer a goal for me. I wanted to be happy in the present. In order to do that, I had to put aside future worry. I didn’t need to know how Ezra and I would fit in ten or twenty years. We fit right now.
A sharp rap on the window startled me from my thoughts, and I yipped.
“What’s going on?” Ezra said.
My heart thumped so hard I could feel it pulsing in my neck. I rolled down the window. “You scared the bejeezus out of me.”
“I think that’s my line.” His expression was bemused. “I had someone pull down my drive, park a fair distance away, and turn off their lights as if they were watching the place. That’s pretty frightening.”
I opened my mouth to argue with him, but he had a solid point. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have called you first before driving out here.”
Ezra’s green eyes softened as he leaned over, bracing himself on the open window frame. “You can come by anytime you want, Nora.” He traced the curve of my jaw with his finger. “I hope you know you’re welcome at my home.”
I let out a soft pah. A breath I hadn’t known I was holding. “God, you’re easy,” I said, playing on his nickname.
He smiled, and I melted. A lot.
“That’s what they tell me.” He stood up, and I saw he was wearing a t-shirt, sweatpants, a pair of tennis shoes, and a conceal-carry belly band over his shirt and wrapped around his waist. His pistol was snug in the holster.
I guess I had scared him. “You brought your gun?”
“Just in case,” he said. He walked around to the passenger side of the car. I unlocked the door and he slid into the seat. He turned to me and leaned in, his warm lips moving against my mouth with a tenderness that seared me to my soul.
“Whoa,” I said when he ended the kiss, his face still close to mine. “What was that for?”
He cupped my face. “God, you’re beautiful.”
I’m not an insecure
woman, but mentally I added, for someone over fifty.
Ezra seemed to read my mind. “You have a light in you, Nora. A flame that can’t be doused. I love that about you.”
My stomach fluttered. “Thanks,” I said, suddenly shy and at a loss for words.
He chuckled. “So why did you drive out here tonight and park on my road? Is it because of Fiona McKay?” He sat back in the seat. “I can’t get her out of my head either. Poor kid. I interviewed her parents today. It was awful. I can’t stop thinking about how I’d feel if something like that happened to Mason. A senseless tragedy.”
“Horrible,” I agreed. “Reese stopped by Scents and Scentsability yesterday. She’s devastated. Reese doesn’t think Fiona died accidentally. She’s got a combo of grief and guilt in her.”
“She confronted me yesterday morning,” Ezra said. He raised his brow at me. “Did she play you the message?”
“Yes, she played me the phone message,” I told him.
Ezra nodded. “I was going to tell you,” he said. “She blames herself right now, but that will fade with time. Mourning is never simple or quick.”
“Nope.” I was still grieving my mother after almost a year without her. “Losing someone doesn’t magically stop hurting.”
Ezra took my hand. “I’m glad you came tonight. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you,” I said. “But it’s not the only reason I drove out here.”
He tipped his head to the side. “Tell me.”
“I don’t even know where to start.”
“The beginning is always as good a place as any.”
“Well, the first part, I could be overreacting. I ran into Phil Williams at the pharmacy the other day.”
Ezra’s back straightened as he rotated his knees toward me. “Did he threaten you?”
I shook my head. “At the time, I don’t think he knew who I was. He…”
“He what?” I could almost feel the hackles rising on the back of Ezra’s neck.
“He gave me his card.”
“He…gave you his card? Why?”