29. Chapter 29
Chapter 29
It’s okay if you fall apart sometimes. Tacos fall apart and we still love them.
“Thank you again for letting me stay here. I know you guys have a lot going on right now.” Emma was soft-spoken and she had a sweet demeanor.
“You don’t have to thank me again,” Magnolia said, smiling at her before she turned back to the stove. “I hate that you’ve been on your own.”
“It’s not a big deal.” There was a hint of maybe defensiveness in her tone. “I can take care of myself.”
Oooh, so she wasn’t going to touch on that subject, at least for now. “I hear you’re quite the actress. Lucas says that you’re amazing on stage.” She glanced over her shoulder again and found Emma smiling, her cheeks pink.
“I don’t know about amazing, but I love it up there. I’m not good enough to do it forever, for like a job, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
“I hear you’re also working while going to school. That’s impressive.” She slid the last chocolate chip pancake on the plate, then set one in front of Emma. “Take as many as you want.”
“Thank you. And yeah, I’m just hostessing some evenings. When I turn eighteen, I want to wait tables. That’s where the real money is at. I figure I can do that and go to school, at least part-time.”
“Where are you looking at? ”
“Hopefully Tulane. It’s really expensive but I’ve started looking at scholarship opportunities and there are a lot I can apply for. We’ll see.” She snapped her mouth closed, then shrugged again, her cheeks turning even pinker as if she worried she’d said too much.
“Two of my hotels work with Tulane. We offer paid internships and on-the-job experience for hospitality. But we also offer the same thing for people who aren’t interested in getting their undergrad and just want to start working right away. There are pros to each option. So whatever direction you decide to go, if you’re interested let me know and I can put you in contact with the right people.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “Seriously?”
“Absolutely.”
“Thank you. I will.”
They also offered scholarships but Magnolia figured she’d already dropped a lot of information on the girl.
Emma continued. “And I can get out of here this morning—”
Magnolia shook her head. “Nope. Unless you have to work today, you can stay here with Lucas.”
Emma looked relieved as she cut into her pancakes. “I don’t work today. Normally I do work Wednesday and Thursday evenings but I took this week off since…” She cleared her throat. “Since Lucas just got out of school for break. We wanted to spend some time together.”
Ah, young love. Magnolia smiled at her, then glanced down as her phone buzzed across the countertop. Her heart kicked up at Camila’s name.
“Hey, any news?” Magnolia asked as she stepped outside onto the back patio. She didn’t think Camila would be calling this early without a purpose.
“We got him. Freaking nailed the bastard.” She could hear the glee in her friend’s voice. “He’s asked for a lawyer but it’s not going to matter. Not after the stunt he pulled with the truck. He caused so much damage, not to mention all his other crimes. I’m going to try to get him to confess to shooting at you and the bombing, but either way he won’t be getting out on bail. If he does, I’ll let you know, but I don’t think it’ll happen. Not with how brazen that attack was, combined with his current warrant.”
For the first time in days—heck, weeks, since she’d been dealing with the threatening messages for longer—true relief punched through her, making her light-headed. She sat on one of the chairs, her knees basically giving out from euphoria. “That’s great news, thank you.”
“I’m just glad to be able to give you some news at all. You can enjoy your Christmas break now with that sweet boy of yours.”
“That sweet boy has a girlfriend and is going to be a man soon.” Seriously, when had he gotten so grown? She looked through the windows from the patio, saw that Lucas and Ezra were now in the kitchen, piling food onto their plates.
“What? When did that happen?”
“Oh, I’ll tell you later. I’m not actually sure how long they’ve been together, but she’s cute as a button and seems really sweet. And he’s definitely in love,” she whispered the last part, and wasn’t sure why.
Lies. She knew why—her mama’s heart wasn’t ready for all this.
“Okay, you, me and Mari are setting up a girls’ date and catching up.”
“Deal. And I better see you at the Christmas Eve party.” She was throwing a party this year on the twenty-third since most of their friends had family stuff on the twenty-fourth but she was still calling it a Christmas Eve party.
“Absolutely. So…is Lucas’s father going to be at the party?”
“I haven’t actually asked him.” She had asked him over for Christmas, but he’d been weird about it.
“You should. I know some of the people he works with—you’ve probably met them over the last few days.”
“Uh yeah, I have.”
“Ask them too!”
She narrowed her gaze even though Camila couldn’t see her. “Why so pushy?”
“Because I want to know more about them. I’m a detective , I can’t help it.”
“I’ll invite them but you’re not grilling anyone.”
“Fine. Okay, the asshole’s lawyer is here so I’ve gotta go. But I’ll touch base later. Oh, I called his ex-wife, let her know that Perry has been found and arrested. She’s ecstatic. Talk soon.”
Emotions battled inside her as she tucked her phone away. Relief, elation, exhaustion. Wait, was exhaustion an emotion? Hmm . As she stepped back inside, she said, “Perry’s been caught. Camila just called. He’s got a lawyer, but Camila doesn’t think he’ll get bail, not with how brazen his last attack was.”
Lucas looked up from shoveling in his pancake. “That’s awesome. Does that mean we can go home?”
“Yep.”
She saw the panicked look on her son’s face so she kept going. “And Emma, I’d like to ask you to stay with us for the next few days at least until we can figure some things out. We have a couple guest rooms and we’ll pick up your car so you’ve got transportation.”
“Yes,” Lucas said before Emma could answer. But he trailed off as he looked at her. “I mean, right?”
Cheeks pink, she nodded and smiled.
Magnolia was definitely going to have to figure something out—and had a plan for what she was going to do—but the next few days at their place would be fine. “Good, it’s settled, then. When you guys are done eating, why don’t you go pack up your stuff? I’ll grab the dishes.”
They hurried out of the kitchen, Lucas taking a pancake in hand because of course he did.
“I’ll help you clean up this place before we head out,” she said to Ezra who was pouring a mug of coffee.
He hadn’t said anything yet, which surprised her. “I don’t know if you should go back home just yet,” he finally murmured, his whiskey voice doing what it always did.
Making her weak in the knees.
“Why not?” Frowning, she started putting the plates in the dishwasher.
“I don’t think it would hurt to play things safe for a little longer.”
“If he gets out on bail, then we’ll come back here, but we know it was him. He left his cell phone at that guy’s place and then he tried to ram us in broad daylight and got caught on camera. And Berlin found those texts that basically admitted to the bombing.”
“Someone added mushroom powder to those brownies.” They knew that from the testing. There had been definite traces of mushroom powder.
“Yes, but Berlin looked up that gift basket set online and brownies are part of it. If Perry had wanted to poison me, that’s a smart way to do it. It’s not like it would have hurt anyone else who ate them, unless of course they had an allergy too.” And they had no idea who’d sent the gift basket either. They’d assumed it was a client. This time of year they got a gift basket every other day from clients or vendors and they were piling up in the break room, most missing any sort of notes. She’d finally told people to start taking some of the stuff home because there was no way they’d be able to eat it all.
“I still don’t like it.”
“I don’t like any of this, but we can’t stay here forever. We have to get back to our lives.” One she really hoped he wanted to be part of.
She could tell he wanted to argue, but Ezra finally nodded, then said, “You don’t have to clean up anything. We call someone each time we use this place.”
“Okay…” She suddenly felt awkward standing in the kitchen with him with nothing to do or hold on to. So she grabbed another mug of coffee even though she was way past her caffeine intake for the day (a full pot was a bit much, but whatever). “So, we’re having a Christmas Eve party on the twenty-third. I know you were kind of iffy for Christmas, but if you want to come, we’d love to have you. It’s very casual and fun.”
Once again he got that almost panicked look. And it was like he shoved that metaphorical blade between her ribs once again.
She sighed and set her mug in the sink because she didn’t need more coffee. “Ezra, you don’t have to come. And I was inviting you to a party, not a beheading.”
“I know, I just want to keep things…”
“Friendly?” she supplied when he couldn’t seem to find the right word. Because she was pretty certain there wasn’t a good word for his bullshit. She bit back a sigh this time. “Well the invite is out there if you’d like. And it’s clear that you’re trying to put up some walls or boundaries, I’m not sure, but I’ll respect them. I hope you call Lucas and set up some times to visit him. You both deserve to get to know one another and I hope you end up having a relationship with him.” But at the end of the day, she couldn’t force it. That was up to him.
Ezra scrubbed a hand over his face. “I’m just trying to keep boundaries for myself. Because I never got over you!” He practically hurled the last few words almost in accusation.
She stared at him in confusion. “You never got over me so you want to keep your distance from me now that I’m not in danger? How does that make sense?”
“We would never work out, and then what happens? I’m out in the cold with Lucas and I lose him too.”
“Okay so we can’t even work out as friends?” she demanded.
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“That’s exactly what you’re saying. And you know what, it’s bullshit. Everything right now is bullshit!” And she was done. Just emotionally done with everything right now.
“Magnolia—”
“No. I’m done with this conversation. But for the record, I never got over you either. So we’re clearly in the same boat, but you’re too afraid to see if there’s anything still there.” She let out a laugh that sounded bitter to her own ears. “Hell, there is something still there as the other night proved. But you keep your distance, you coward. I’m going to pack.” She stomped out of the room, probably childishly, but she didn’t care.
And as soon as she hit the top of the stairs, she called Mari.
“Hey, I heard the good news from Camila already,” Mari said by way of greeting.
“Hey…I need a ride. And my best friend.”
“Tell me where you are and I’ll be there.”