Wild Hearts (The DiCarlo Brides)

by Heather Tullis

  He was quiet for a moment. “That’s fair. So we’ll play some Yahtzee and I’ll send you home.”

  She was relieved he wasn’t going to make an issue of it. “Do you even have a Yahtzee game?” She jumped on that, teasing him, hoping to ease the mood with a little light-heartedness.

  “Yes. Vince gave it to me. Apparently he thinks I have nothing better to do with my time than toss dice on my table.”

  “Apparently he’s right, since you offered to play it with me.” She set her cheek back on his shoulder. “I would love to toss a few dice with you. Especially if we got some really fabulous ice cream to eat while we play. I’ll pick some up when I finish up tomorrow and bring it along.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Headlights appeared behind them on the windy mountain road and Delphi tensed, flashing back on their encounter a couple of nights before. Each time they went around a bend and the lights came into view again she grew more tense and eventually she noticed that Jeremy was more alert as well as they drove with only the CD as background noise.

  For five miles the large vehicle followed them before passing them on a straight-away.

  Delphi shrugged her shoulders to loosen them. “I guess I’m still a little worked up from our last date.”

  “That makes two of us. I want you to be careful when you go out. I doubt Wednesday night was about you—if it’s the same person as broke into my shop, I’m sure it was all about me, but you can’t be too careful.”

  “I’ll stay alert. You too, okay?” The thought of someone coming after him wasn’t any more palatable than if they were after her.

  “I will.” Jeremy slid an arm around her shoulder and pulled her against him. She went happily.

  It was late when Jeremy brought her home half an hour later, but several lights were on in the house.

  “Looks like they had a party while you were gone,” Jeremy teased when he opened her door.

  “I guess so.” Delphi went around to the back of the truck to remove her bike. Jeremy gave her a hand up, pulled out the motorcycle ramp and helped her guide it down to the cement.

  The front door opened and Jonquil poked her head out. “Oh, good. It’s you. You need to come in here. You might as well come in too, Jeremy.”

  “Be right there,” Delphi said. “Can you open my garage door for me?”

  When she entered the garage, Delphi was surprised to find Joel’s Jeep and Cami’s car also parked there. “Looks like it really is a party,” she said.

  “What’s going on?” she asked when they entered the living room.

  “Someone broke in earlier,” Joel said, standing beside the kitchen island. “Jonquil noticed when she got home a while ago. I checked the video camera footage; they didn’t get very far before the alarms scared them off. They wore masks so we didn’t get any faces, but they broke one of the windows.” He pointed to the back door. “Vince and Gage are tracking down something to board it up—not an easy thing to do in a town where they roll in the carpets at six. The detective has been here and gone already, but Sage and I are going to stay over tonight to make sure everything’s fine.”

  Delphi dropped into a nearby chair, all of the peace and happiness from the evening washed away in a moment.

  Jeremy wrapped an arm around Delphi’s waist. “Are you okay?”

  She felt a little shaky and worried; they’d been broken into before but that issue had been settled for months now.

  “I’m wondering if this might not be related to Jeremy’s problems,” Joel said.

  “Why would they come after Delphi?” Jeremy asked.

  “She has the gold.”

  “Yeah, but how would they know that?”

  Delphi’s throat began to tighten as she listened and denial rose up inside her. This couldn’t be related. The break in wasn’t about her. But Joel wouldn’t have suggested it if he didn’t have a reason to do so.

  “Didn’t you say your pictures were backed up on the computer that was stolen?” Joel asked.

  “Yeah.” Jeremy said.

  “And weren’t there pictures of Delphi taken the same day. For example, the ones with the tattoo?”

  Delphi felt suddenly lightheaded. “They didn’t find what they were looking for at your place, so they came after me?”

  “Where’s the gold?” Sage asked.

  “In the hotel safe. I put it there this morning.” Delphi was glad to have it out of the house, but whoever broke into the house didn’t know that.

  She sank onto a nearby chair since her knees felt too weak to hold her up. “They aren’t going to give up, Jeremy. Who is doing this?”

  The bride was settled in a changing room and the rest of the wedding party was on site, dressed, and sober. The rooms were all set properly and Jonquil had done amazing things with the flowers. Delphi was starting to feel as though everything was going to turn out perfectly for the wedding. Which should have been her first sign that something that day had to go wrong. No event, especially a wedding with a bride who had been very specific in her instructions for every tiny detail, could go that smoothly.

  It wasn’t the event that went awry, though. It was Zelda. Delphi’s mother had always displayed impeccable timing.

  Delphi was getting ready to cue the bridesmaids to start the procession when the radio hissed in her ear. “Miss Gifford, your mother is at the front desk. Would you like to come speak with her?”

  Delphi radioed back to verify what she’d just heard. “Wait a minute. My mother is here?” She thought back to the last conversation she’d had with Zelda. Wasn’t the visit supposed to be the following week? Had she lost track of time?

  When Kristi confirmed it, Delphi bit back some uncomplimentary words that rose to her tongue. “Tell her that I’m in the middle of something, but I’ll come to her room as soon as I can get away.”

  “Okay.” Kristi didn’t sound very excited to be the one to pass along the message. Since she had dealt with Zelda the previous fall, Delphi couldn’t blame her.

  Jeremy wore a radio as well and he caught her eye, sending her a concerned expression. She shot back a confident smile, which she hoped reassured him. She cued the first attendant. He lifted his camera and got back to work.

  They had to get through the ceremony and move everyone into the other room for dinner before Delphi could slip away. She put Tate, Rosemary’s assistant manager, in charge of things and took off. Jeremy was still busily shooting pictures, which meant she had fifteen minutes to greet her mom before she had to be back down to deal with the next part of the wedding festivities.

  She made her way upstairs to the third floor and knocked on her mother’s door.

  “Hello, Dear,” Zelda said as she air kissed her daughter. “Why weren’t you ready for me when I arrived?”

  “Hello, Mother. I’m sorry, with everything going on I lost track of the date. I thought it was at least a week away.”

  “It was but I changed it. I called you last week and told you... oh dear.” She placed her finger over her lips for a moment. “I got your voice mail. I hate those dratted machines, so impersonal. I meant to call you back.” She waved her hand through the air. “Never mind, I’m here now. What would you like to do this evening?”

  “Mother, I have a wedding I’m running for the rest of the day. I won’t finish up with it until you’re usually in bed. I’m sorry, if I’d realized you were coming—” Delphi bit off the rest of the sentence, because she couldn’t have done anything differently. The wedding had been scheduled since the fall and she couldn’t pass this one off to her assistant. “I’m available tomorrow if you’d like to have breakfast and spend some time together. I could see if they can work you into the spa schedule this evening, though. I know how that always relaxes you, especially after a long airplane ride. How long are you staying with us?”

  “Until Monday morning. And I can’t believe you can’t juggle a few things so you can spend some time with me this evening.” She blinked several times,
as if having trouble keeping the tears at bay. “I’m your mother.”

  Delphi felt the crowding guilt that she was always less than her mother wished, always wanting, no matter how hard she tried. It was part of the reason she had gotten the tattoo—she wasn’t going to be able to make her mother happy, no matter what she did, so she did what she wanted—and in that moment what she had wanted was a reason to make her own clothing choice. Of course, since then she had regretted the many outfits she had to skip on. And it hurt so much she had vowed never to do it again. “I’m sorry. I can’t reschedule someone’s wedding, Mother. I do actually need to get back there to handle details as we go into dinner. Please try to understand.”

  “This is your father’s fault. He always coddled you, let you do anything you wanted, encouraged you to follow your flights of fancy—especially if it was something I wouldn’t appreciate.” She frowned and snatched a nearby facial tissue to dab at her dry eyes. “He never understood me.”

  Respect your mother. Respect your mother. Delphi chanted this in her mind as she touched Zelda’s shoulder. “Where is Ralph? He didn’t come with you?”

  Zelda tapped at the edges of her eyes again. “We’re over. He decided he didn’t want to be known as the man who kept his wife around after she cheated on him. He’s already seeing other women and the divorce was only filed a couple of weeks ago.”

  Delphi was surprised that her mother and step-father had stayed together for so long, considering how little they seemed to have in common. Delphi glanced at the clock behind Zelda and decided she could take a few more minutes. She sat beside her mother and patted her hand. “I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do for you?”

  “You can spend the evening with me. A daughter who loved me would drop everything to be there for her mother when she’s in a moment of crisis.”

  Zelda had been in a moment of crisis for several weeks, apparently, and hadn’t thought it was important enough to share with her daughter. If Delphi didn’t get back downstairs, she would be the one in crisis as the bride and her family wondered what happened to her. “Look, I’m very sorry about the difficult time you’re having. I would get out of this event if I could, but I really can’t. I’ll check up on you in another hour or so when I get a break. I promise.” She pressed her cheek against her mother’s. “And if I can break away early, I will. Then we can have a long chat and you can tell me all about it.”

  “Really?” Zelda’s eyes had actual tears now.

  “Yes, really. I’ll check in later. I do have to go now.” Delphi gave her mother’s hand a squeeze and left before she was any later returning to the wedding.

  When she walked into the ballroom Jeremy seemed to zoom in on her immediately. She smiled, then turned her focus on what else needed to be done and getting things moving. They worked side by side through the event. She stepped away to call up to her mother’s room partway through as she promised, and figured out how to tie things up to see her mother that night. She smiled and handled details and wished Rosemary had been in the kitchen instead of on her honeymoon—had they really been gone less than a week? It seemed longer.

  Exhaustion pulled at her. After Jeremy had left the previous evening, Delphi had been too worked up to sleep until after two o’clock. Knowing someone tried to break in to the house was unnerving enough. Adding in everything else that had happened made it much worse.

  Finally Jeremy got a break and pulled her aside. “You seem... off your game. What’s going on? Your mom is here?”

  “Yes. She and her husband have decided to divorce after nearly forty years together. She’s upset and needs someone to talk to. I’m sorry. I can’t come over tonight.”

  He touched the hair at her temple, brushed his fingers against her cheek. “I understand. I’m disappointed, but I understand. Let me know how it goes?”

  “Yeah, I will.” She wanted to lean in and kiss him, but they were still at work and she couldn’t kiss him in front of employees. Instead she gave his fingers a quick squeeze, then released them and returned to work.

  Jeremy was at loose ends when the wedding wrapped up and he was able to go home. He was sorry to miss out on time with Delphi that night, and felt keyed up though he wasn’t sure why.

  He took a detour on the way home to stop by his dad’s place, and finding the living room light still on, decided to go inside. Al had left him a brief message a few days earlier, which had led to a game of phone tag.

  The TV blasted the local news and Al was asleep in his La-Z-Boy, but he must have heard Jeremy come in because he sucked in a breath and shifted, then opened his eyes. “There you are. I wondered how you’re doing. I’ve been hearing rumors.”

  Jeremy sat in the chair beside him. “You know the Juniper Ridge rumor mill—it’s always on fast forward.” He pushed back the handle on the side to put his feet up. “Anything interesting happening in sports?”

  Al’s eyebrows furrowed. “Someone broke into your shop and you didn’t say anything.”

  Jeremy nodded. “I got a little busy and forgot to call.” It hadn’t occurred to him, actually. He’d gotten out of the habit of sharing his problems with father, who seemed unable to deal with his own issues without Jeremy heaping more on top.

  “You didn’t think to call me that night? You didn’t think I’d care? And what about some idiot nearly running you off the road—didn’t you think I should know about it?”

  Jeremy was surprised. He knew his dad cared about him but when they got together they talked basketball stats and local politics, not personal stuff. Maybe he should have made a point to call. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t think.”

  Al’s lips pressed together and there was silence for a long moment. “I know I haven’t been the most involved father, but I want to know when things come up like this. I still worry about you, even if you are all grown up now.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Sort of. “I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”

  Al nodded, a man of few words. “Now, about this woman you’ve been dating. Are you getting serious? You’ve been seen together several times already.”

  Jeremy chuckled, more out of surprise than anything. He shouldn’t be surprised—they had eaten at a public restaurant, and Jeremy had recognized a few faces there. “We just started seeing each other, don’t get ahead of yourself. We’re taking it easy, no strings.”

  “You’re foolish not to find someone special and settle down. Your mother... She made me happy. You need that too. Strings aren’t always a bad thing, son. Look, whatever’s going on with you right now, it scares me. I don’t want to be out of the loop on your life. All of this with your break-in made me realize that I don’t want to be the kind of father that has to hear from other people about what’s going on. We used to be so close.”

  “When I was a kid,” Jeremy said, feeling defensive.

  “And after that.”

  “No, not after that, Dad.” He sat up in the chair and faced his father. If he wanted honesty, maybe it was time that worked both ways. “After Loren died you retreated into your shell. You started missing a lot of my games and just got distracted by other things. Then Mom died and you practically disappeared. You used to go out and do things with the guys, bowled with a team from work, volunteered in things. Now you sit at home and mope after work.” Al started to protest but Jeremy held up a hand and was relieved when his father stopped talking long enough to listen.

  “I get it that losing Mom devastated you. It wasn’t exactly easy for me, either, but it’s almost like you stopped living. You’re just going through the motions. You don’t socialize anymore, as far as I know, you’ve never been on a single date since Mom died, and you haven’t been all that invested in my life, either. We get together for dinner sometimes and we watch the games, but you haven’t really seemed to care that much about anything going on around you. So I’m sorry I didn’t call to tell you every little detail about my life.”

  Jeremy pushed away from his chair, moving toward
the door.

  “Don’t go. Please.”

  “Why not?” Jeremy looked over his shoulder as his hand came to rest on the doorknob. His father looked so old and confused in that moment that he released the doorknob and turned fully around, leaning back against the door. “Why do you want me to stay? So you can argue with me about how wrong I am and how I don’t understand? Because you’d be right. I really don’t understand.”

  Al shook his head. “No. I had no idea that’s how you felt. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You’re part of this relationship too, Dad. I figured you could see it for yourself. Besides, I have talked to you about getting out instead of shutting yourself in. And about dating again. All you’ve done is brush me off. And you haven’t seemed more than vaguely interested in my love life for a while now.”

  There was a long moment of silence while anger, worry, and finally acceptance and defeat crossed his face. “Will you sit down? Apparently I’ve got some time to make up for.”

  Jeremy wasn’t sure if he believed that his father would really change, but slid into the seat nearby anyway. He had wished for his relationship with his dad to be closer. Now he needed to meet Al halfway.

  Dealing with Zelda was always a struggle, but Delphi found Saturday night was worse than usual. Maybe because her mother was actually hurt and not just embarrassed this time. Maybe because Delphi really wished she had spent an hour or two playing games and flirting with Jeremy. Maybe... she didn’t want to think about other reasons. But when she got up Sunday morning, she had to meet Zelda again for breakfast. She had no chance to lay in bed and enjoy the few moments of quiet that she allowed herself on her days off.

  The weather was beautiful and her new bike called to her, but she had to settle for maybe finding time for a ride later. She tried not to resent that as she dressed up in her blush-colored blouse and tan dress slacks to meet her mother when she should be taking it easy in a pair of shorts on her deck at home—if she would dare lay around alone outside with all of the crazy things going on right now. But Delphi never went to the hotel without dressing as she did when she worked—even when she was off the clock.