“What are you doing here?” She blurted out the question before she could compose herself.
“I’m looking for you,” Nick replied simply. “We need to discuss a few things.”
“If this is about what I said to Maddie earlier, I meant it. If she flaps her gums … .”
Nick held up a finger to silence her. “I’m aware that you ran into Maddie this morning. I’m not happy that you had the audacity to come to our house and threaten her, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“It’s not?” Marla wrinkled her forehead. “Then why are you here? Let me guess, you’ve come to your senses and dumped Maddie. You want to trade up, don’t you?”
“There is no trading up where Maddie is concerned.” Nick took the chair across from Marla and sat, his eyes contemplative. He wasn’t sure where to start. “There’s a rumor going around about you.”
“Oh, really?” Marla’s smile was sly. “Do you want to know if this is my natural hair color? If so, I can lock the door and we can go upstairs and take a fast tumble so you can see for yourself.”
It took Nick a moment to realize what she was offering. “I would die before I ever touched you.” He was firm and didn’t cushion the statement. “You make me sick. You always have.”
Marla’s smile slipped. “Then why are you here? I don’t have to put up with your crap. I don’t owe you anything.”
“You don’t,” Nick agreed. “I still have questions for you.”
“Is this about Trevor? Frankly, our relationship is none of your business. I know Maddie told you what she thinks she knows, but she’s not nearly as smart as she assumes. If you want information on my relationship with Trevor, ask him. He’s still in the hospital, right? That essentially means you have a captive audience.”
Even though he’d pretty much despised Marla since the first day they met, Nick felt pity washing over him as he prepared to drop a bomb on her. “Trevor is dead.” He opted to simply say it rather than ease her into it. “He passed away a few hours ago.”
Marla’s face was immovable, frozen. She was silent so long Nick thought she might’ve passed out and simply failed to fall over. Finally, she opened her mouth. “That can’t be right.”
“I’m sorry, but it is.”
“But … he was supposed to be okay.” Marla didn’t cry, but her voice turned soft. “They were just waiting for him to wake up. I heard that he was going to be okay.”
“Yes, well … it turns out they were wrong.” Nick chose his words carefully. “He passed away.”
“But … how?”
“We don’t know yet. We have to wait for the autopsy results.”
“That can’t be right.” Marla pressed her hands to the table and acted as if she was going to stand, but she barely made it two inches off the chair before she landed on it again. “That absolutely cannot be right. That wasn’t the plan.”
Nick leaned forward. “What was the plan?”
“I … .” Marla trailed off.
“Was the plan to purposely get pregnant and pressure Trevor to leave his family?” Nick asked, going for broke.
Marla’s head snapped up. “Who told you that?”
“A little bird.”
Marla narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “Cassidy. She’s the one who told you, isn’t she? Don’t bother answering. She’s one of the few who knew and the only one who would use the information to start a conversation with you. She probably thought that was her best way to steal a moment now that you’re so close to getting married. She’s so pathetic.”
“It doesn’t matter who told me,” Nick countered. “I want to know if it’s true. Are you pregnant?”
Slowly, Marla nodded.
“And Trevor was the father?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure of that, right?”
If looks could kill, Nick would be dead. “What is that supposed to mean?” Marla exploded. “Are you insinuating that I don’t know who the father of my own baby is?”
“I have no idea,” Nick replied honestly. “You do get around.”
“I don’t need to listen to this,” she hissed. “The man I loved is dead. You’re supposed to be consoling me, not calling me names.”
“I’m pretty sure I haven’t called you a single name. However, I am interested in knowing if you purposely set out to trap him.”
“What does it matter to you?”
“My understanding is that Trevor was going to tell Alicia you were pregnant. If he chickened out, I’m betting that you were going to do it for him. Am I right?”
Marla glowered at him. “Why do you even care?”
“Because Trevor is dead and he was murdered. He didn’t accidentally shoot himself.”
“That witch he was married to did it,” Marla snapped. “She didn’t want him being happy with anyone else so she took him away from me.”
“I am not getting into an argument about who did what to whom,” Nick said. “I want to know if you purposely trapped Trevor.”
“If you’re asking if I got pregnant on purpose, the answer is yes. I didn’t want to trap him, though. That’s not what I was trying to do.”
Nick didn’t believe her for a second. “Well, at least it’s a love child, right? You’ll have a part of Trevor to carry with you.”
Marla didn’t look thrilled at the prospect. “I want to know how much of it I get.”
Confused by the question, Nick tilted his head. “How much you get of what?”
“His money. Some of it has to be mine now that he’s dead, right?”
Every time Nick thought Marla’s cold-blooded nature couldn’t surprise him, he was proven wrong. “I don’t know. That will go through an estate lawyer. My guess is you won’t be able to claim any of that money, though.”
“What? I’m pregnant with his child.”
“And most estates pass to the spouse, not a mistress.”
“Oh, stop saying that word!” Marla jabbed a finger in Nick’s chest, furious. “I’m not a mistress. We were in love.”
“Well, now you’re on your own. I need to know if you can tell me anything about Trevor that might point to someone who might want to kill him.”
“Other than his wife?”
“We’re looking at his wife.”
“She’s the only suspect I know. She’s ruined my life. I hope she’s happy.”
All the pity he’d been feeling earlier fled as Nick sighed. “I pretty sure you did this to yourself, Marla. Hopefully you’ll realize that and grow up one day. That baby is definitely going to need more from you than you’re capable of giving right now.”
He got to his feet. “I’ll show myself out.”
“You do that.”
MADDIE WORKED SO HARD over the course of the afternoon she lost track of time. She burned through twenty-five readings in a few hours and she was exhausted by the time she decided to break for dinner. She planned to pick up readings again after she finished, but she needed time to allow her mind to rest.
She exited her tent, put up a sign that said she would be back later, and set out across the festival. First on the agenda was caffeine. After that, she planned to sit in the shade and message Nick to see when he would have an opening for dinner.
To her utter surprise, she found Aaron sitting on a bench close to the trees after collecting her iced tea. She considered leaving the boy to his grief – he looked as if he’d been through the wringer – but changed her mind at the last second. She couldn’t figure out why he would attend a festival after hearing about the loss of his father. It simply didn’t make sense.
“Do you mind if I sit down?” Maddie gestured toward the open spot to the boy’s right.
Aaron shielded his eyes so he could make out Maddie’s features and then shrugged when he realized who was infringing on his space. “I guess.”
Maddie was careful as she sat, internally debating how she should broach Trevor’s death. “I’m sorry to hear about what happened,” she said final
ly. “It must’ve come as quite a shock for you. I know it did for me.”
Aaron shrugged, noncommittal. “No one here knows.”
“I don’t think word has spread yet.”
“I thought people would already know.”
Sympathy clogged Maddie’s heart as she studied the teenager’s morose face. “Is that why you came here? Did you want someone to talk to?”
“I don’t know why I came here,” he answered honestly. “I just needed to get out of my house. My mom is … losing it.”
Concerned, Maddie shifted so she was staring directly into his eyes. They were red-rimmed and a bit puffy, but otherwise he looked normal. “Your mother isn’t going to hurt anyone, is she?”
“Like who?”
“Like your sister … or herself.”
Aaron screwed up his face in an expression she couldn’t identify. “Is that what you think of her? You think she’s going to fall apart, kill my sister, and then kill herself?”
In truth, Maddie wasn’t sure what she believed. “I don’t know. I’m a little worried. Your mother is dealing with a lot right now. I don’t think she would purposely hurt either of you. It’s just … .”
“You think she shot my father,” he finished.
“I don’t know what happened,” Maddie admitted. “There’s a lot that’s not adding up in your father’s shooting. Nick and Dale will figure it out, though. They’re very good at their jobs.”
“If you say so.” Aaron kicked back, stretched his legs out in front of him as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “You don’t have to worry about my mother. She’s an idiot sometimes, but she wouldn’t hurt Catelynn … or herself, for that matter. She would never do that.”
He sounded so certain, Maddie found she could relax, although only marginally. “That’s good. How are you feeling?”
Aaron shrugged. “I don’t know. How am I supposed to feel?”
“I don’t think there’s a proper answer for that question. You can only feel what you feel.”
“Well … I feel angry.”
“You’re going to miss your father,” Maddie surmised.
“I don’t think I’ll miss him all that much,” Aaron countered, taking Maddie by surprise. “He didn’t spend all that much time with me. He was never around because he was always screwing someone else.”
Maddie barely managed to keep her mouth from dropping open. “How do you know that?”
“Because everyone in town knew,” he replied simply. “Do you know that last year he slept with my math teacher?”
Maddie was aghast. “Lena Beasley?”
“Yup. She used to send me home with notes for my father, places they could meet up and … you know.”
Maddie felt sick to her stomach. “Did your mother know about that?”
“She did. She pretended she didn’t, but she knew. There’s no way she couldn’t know.”
“Well … I don’t know what to tell you,” Maddie said after a beat. “If parents were perfect we would all have ideal childhoods. That’s very rarely the case. What your father did was wrong. There’s no getting around that. He was still your father. It’s okay to mourn him.”
Aaron’s eyes were glassy, but he didn’t let the tears fall. “I wish they would’ve just gotten a divorce when he wanted it. My mother fought so hard to stop him from going through with it, but three-quarters of a family would’ve been better than what we have now. She just wouldn’t let him go.”
Maddie wanted to ask if he thought his mother shot his father, but it felt like overstepping. It wasn’t fair to put Aaron on the spot like that. Instead, she decided to sit with him and listen to whatever he wanted to say. She had a feeling that was what he truly needed – an adult who would listen.
“Tell me about the time you spent with your father,” she suggested. “Tell me about some good memories you’ll be able to carry on.”
“What if I don’t have any?”
“You have to remember something good about him.”
“Maybe,” he hedged. “He took me camping once when I was ten. It was just him and me for a full week. We fished … and hiked … and he let me belch by the campfire as much as I wanted.”
Maddie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. “So, tell me about that. I love good belch stories.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Thirteen
Nick found Maddie pacing outside her tent when he arrived to meet her for dinner. Her hair was mostly pulled back in a scarf — something that showed off her fabulous bone structure — but a few stray tendrils escaped. The effect was ... stirring.
“Hey.” Nick’s voice was husky as he slid in front of her and slipped his arms around her waist. “How is the love of my life?”
Maddie tilted her chin so she could meet his gaze and then scowled. “Where have you been? You’re late.”
“Hello to you, too, Mad.” Nick’s chuckle was dry and he didn’t release her. “Give me a kiss.”
Maddie rolled her eyes, but it was only for form’s sake. She edged up to the balls of her feet, kissed him, and then threw her arms around his neck as she held tight. “I missed you.”
“What’s this?” Nick could feel a series of tremors going through her body. “Are you sick? Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure what I am.” Maddie told Nick about her time with Aaron, leaving nothing out. When she was done, Nick wasn’t sure how to react.
“He’s a teenager, Maddie. He doesn’t know how to express his emotions. I know you don’t want to hear it, but that sounds pretty normal to me.”
“Well, it most certainly wasn’t normal. What was he doing at a festival the day his father died? That can’t be healthy.”
Despite the serious nature of the situation, Nick barked out a laugh. “Oh, you’re going to be a great mother.” He impulsively smacked a loud kiss against her cheek. “Fabulous. Your instincts are spot on.”
Maddie balked. “Are you making fun of me?”
“No, love.” Nick meant it. “You understand what Aaron needs even if you don’t realize it. You sat there and listened for an hour even though you were excited to make money in your tent. You did the right thing for him, which makes you a hero.”
“That’s laying it on a little bit thick.”
“I don’t care.” He pressed her close. “We’re going to be married in a few days, Maddie. You’re going to be my wife. Have you thought about that?”
Maddie nodded without hesitation. “I have. I’m going to hyphenate my name.”
The conversational shift threw Nick. “You are?”
“Yup. Maddie Graves-Winters. I think it has a nice ring to it.”
“It does,” Nick agreed. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to do that. You’re the last Graves out there now that your mother is gone. If you want to keep that name ... .” He trailed off. In truth, Nick was thrilled that Maddie wanted to take his name. Hyphenating meant she could utilize both names. He wanted to make sure it’s what she really wanted, though, and not what she thought he needed. “I want you to be happy,” he finally offered.
Instead of an earnest reaction, Maddie snickered. “That was ... kind of cute.”
“I’m always cute.”
“You are,” Maddie agreed. “I want to take your name, though. However, it’s not just because it’s your name. I like that portion of it, don’t get me wrong, but there’s more behind the decision. The biggest is, when we have kids, they’re going to have your last name.
“You wouldn’t believe how many women have issues taking their own children to the hospital if they have different last names,” she continued. “The paperwork that needs to be filled out is horrendous. And, if it’s an emergency situation, that can take precious time away from treatment.”
Nick’s mouth dropped open. “Are you serious?”
“I am. Why shouldn’t I be?”
“You’re taking my name for practical reasons?” Nick rubbed his chi
n as he absorbed the words. “I think I should be insulted, Mad.”
“You should not.” Maddie was firm. “I just said I wanted to take your name for multiple reasons.”
“The biggest of which is because you don’t want people hassling you about if the kids are really yours.”
Maddie sighed, exasperated. “You’re being a pain in the butt on purpose.”
“No, it’s not on purpose.”
“I’ve given it a lot of thought,” Maddie pressed. “I think it’s the best of both worlds. I’ll continue to honor my mother — who hasn’t been around much, mind you — and I can honor you, too.”
Nick’s expression softened. “Are you worried because Olivia’s ghost hasn’t been visiting?”
“I just thought she would want to spend time with me when it came time to plan my wedding,” Maddie admitted, sheepish. “She’s barely checked in over the past three weeks.”
“Well ... .” Nick wasn’t sure what to say to make Maddie feel better so he merely played with a loose strand of her hair.
“You think I’m being a baby,” Maddie surmised.
“Not even close,” Nick replied hurriedly. “I don’t think you’re being a baby at all. I love you, Maddie. I think you’re the strongest and most amazing woman I know.”
“You’re laying it on thick again.”
Nick’s grin was rueful. “It comes naturally.” He brushed his lips against her forehead. “I don’t want to fight. I’m happy you’re taking my name. I simply want you to be content with the decision.”
“I’m content. In fact, I’m so blissfully content I’m surprised I don’t spontaneously burst into song three times a day like a Disney princess.”
“I think that sounds fun. We should spend a whole day singing before the wedding.” He nuzzled her neck before releasing her. He could hear her stomach growling, which meant she needed sustenance. “What do you want for dinner tonight?”
“I was thinking Italian.” Maddie pointed toward the Giuseppe’s food truck across the way. “They have a bunch of different stuff — including warm breadsticks — and it looks amazing.”
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