Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
PRESENT
My arms are crossed. I rub the side of my rib cage on the same spot I always do. It’s a habit I started years ago, a motion that seems to ground me when I’m worried or thinking.
Theo and I stand in line at Café Luna. I breathe in the awakening scent of ground coffee and cinnamon buns while I stare at the menu board. I thank God the small-town prices inland aren’t like the ones near the coast.
The place is just as cute, though, and cozy as can be with much of the café being covered in vines and hanging florals. At the far wall is a long bench underneath and four, four-person tables. Behind is a giant wall of what I suspect is amateur art.
Both Theo and I inspect the art wall as we wait.
Theo’s head is tilted to the side. “What is that?”
We both squint at one particular canvas. I’m certain it’s a peach that’s supposed to be a vagina… maybe it’s an ass? It’s kind of hard to tell. It’s similar to a Georgia O’Keefe painting in innuendo but not in style. Hats off to the artist, because rough as it is, it’s an engaging piece. Theo and I can’t stop staring.
It’s nice that the owner has art on the walls that isn’t mass-produced prints. The line moves up, and I shuffle forward. “Do you want math class today or Spanish?”
Theo is still facing backward and scrunches his nose at the painting. “Wait. Is it a peach that’s also a butt?”
I laugh lightly. “I think so.”
“Ew.”
“Hey. Everyone has a butt. Nothing to be grossed out over.”
I like this café. It’s pretty busy for Monday evening, and there’s a happy buzz in the air.
Our internet is terrible at the farmhouse and also costs an arm and a leg. I’m thinking of canceling it. I thought Theo and I could try studying in the café. Anyway, I’m not a fan of that farmhouse. There’s something a little too isolated about it. A bit eerie. Maybe it’s just the haunted Scottish castle room. Or the floral wallpaper in the bathroom that reminds me of china dolls which terrify me since there are way too many horror movies about them. The whole place kind of reminds me of a road trip gone wrong. A broken-down car in the middle of a very unlucky location .
I’m glad the house doesn’t have a basement.
Café Luna is the total opposite and reminds me of a café I went to back in college in Rio Del Mar. I could get used to this being our schoolhouse until next semester.
I’m exhausted after that work session. Julia assured me deliveries are not more than once a week, not with bedding and hay anyway. It was tough, but I like using my body. It feels honest, and the thought of being knocked out dead tonight is appealing. No double entendre intended.
Thankfully, Mila, Santi’s dog, was a lot more friendly than the man himself and wore out Keeper for us who, thanks to it being a cooler day, will happily sleep in the car for an hour so Theo and I can start using the math platform I subscribed to for him.
When did Santi become such a grumpy asshole anyway? He used to be so vibrant. Engaging.
“I guess we can do math.” Theo groans, breaking me out of thinking about Santi again.
It’s only the hundredth time.
“Math it is.”
This is going to be interesting. I’ve never been good at math.
I always wanted to be an artist, I never tried any harder than to add, subtract, and make sure my server got no less than twenty percent tip. That was a mistake. Now that Nic’s wealth is in probate, the numbers and contracts are overwhelming. But I will not be defeated. Theo and I can learn together. Hell, maybe I can work ahead on the platform and get a refresher on algebra.
We’re called up next by a young man, about seventeen, who wipes his hands on a towel tucked into his belt.
“What can I get you two?” He smiles kindly at Theo.
Everyone in Echo Valley has a warm, welcoming vibe .
I put my arm around Theo. “This guy will have a hot chocolate. And I’ll have…”
I’d normally have a latte with syrup, lots of sugar, and bells and whistles, but I have no idea how long our money will last.
“I’ll have a plain black coffee.”
“Cream and marshmallows for you, buddy?” the server asks Theo.
I glance up at the menu. They’re one dollar extra each. Damn, this order is practically an hour of work for this once the taxman hits me.
Theo glances up at me and answers, “No thanks.”
Does he know we’re on a budget? I didn’t tell him. My heart sinks thinking my son feels the sting of what’s going on. But equally, I’ve always thought the excess of our lives was gaudy, garish, an excess nobody needs, especially in a world where the price of a Chanel bag could make a real difference to people.
Still, I don’t want my son to feel like he can’t have whipped cream.
Maybe he just doesn’t want it today.
We take our drinks to a table next to four people. Two couples, I assume, though only the redhead and the handsome one with glasses touch each other. There’s a cute Asian gal with a Roswell t-shirt, and the tall drink of water next to her wears an EVPD uniform. Police.
They laugh, and the rise and fall of the relaxed, joyful conversation tugs at a nostalgic place inside me. I haven’t had a group of friends since college.
I connect to the café Wi-Fi while Theo blows the top of his hot chocolate. I work on getting us up and running on Number Ninjas.
Finally, after going through three different passwords, I’m logged on to our very first math lesson. Fractions and decimals. “All right. This looks fun,” I lie.
Theo digs around in the backpack I brought and pulls out a spiral notebook and a pencil.
“Okay, T. Pencil at the ready?” I attempt enthusiasm, which isn’t easy over anything to do with numbers.
Theo wiggles his pencil at me, and the sarcastic excitement on his features is hard to miss. Like mother, like son.
The blind leading the blind.
Maybe Dad was right. What the hell do I think I’m doing?
I have to shake myself free of the stranglehold of my dad’s conditioning. He doesn’t determine my future. Nobody does. It’s me who decides now.
I rub my hands together. “All right, kid, we have numerators and denominators…”
Shit. Which is which again?
“Just a minute…” I need to expand the sidebar with information to recall.
As I do, I catch the feeling of being stared at, and the beautiful redhead at the table next door doesn’t even bother to look away when I catch her. Okay, someone was never taught staring is rude.
My annoyance evaporates when she offers a bright, innocent smile.
I try to smile back, but it’s half-hearted. Great. Four total strangers get to bear witness to how crappy I am at math.
I read the explanation, but Theo jumps in before I finish. “The top is the numerator and the bottom is the denominator.”
“Exactly. Good job… now…”
I read through the topic again .
I am in over my head. I don’t even remember the basics. Am I really going to be Theo’s teacher? What if he falls behind? Should I just let him have at this website and leave him to it? Maybe he’s better off without my bumbling explanations…
Feeding into this crushing crisis of confidence is the silence between the four people next to me. I swear the redhead is eavesdropping.
“Are you two new in town?” her cheerful voice interrupts my negative self-talk. “Are you the one Julia hired?” she continues.
News travels fast. I’m taken aback, wondering how on earth only hours after being at Heritage she would know.
She smooths her long hair behind her ear. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt…”
Roswell chimes in. “Yes, she did. Our friend, Ava, doesn’t know how to mind her own business. It’s almost like a disease or something.”
Badge Boy’s body bounces up and down with silent laughter.
This Ava rolls her eyes at her but smiles like she doesn’t mind the teasing. The handsome one in glasses next to Ava wraps his arm around her shoulders, the only one not to talk, but he comes across mighty observant. Interested in my answer. Maybe he doesn’t like people crashing his small town.
His scowl isn’t dissimilar from the one Santi wore earlier in the parking lot. In fact, the guy looks a lot like my new nemesis.
Apparently, Ava is omniscient. “Are you friends with Santi?”
My heart races at the sound of his name. I hope she can’t see the heat that burns my cheeks .
“I’m Ava.” She lays a hand on her chest and then points to the guy next to her. “My fiancé, Santi’s brother, Enzo, and Callum and Penelope.”
I wag my chin at the foursome. Great. Related to Santi, friends with Santi, and live in the same tight-knit town as Santi. I want to make friends but I suspect my ex will make it difficult with these four. Once they hear whatever reason it is he hates me now, they will, too.
But why on earth would he anyway? I’ve racked my brain and come up short. As far as I know, we planned on running away together and he never came. Then afterward, he never answered my texts and calls. What does he think happened? It had to have been bad for him not to have ever spoken to me again. But I never did anything to deserve how he treated me in the Heritage parking lot.
And his words… some of us keep our promises ?
Yeah. That someone was me.
“Nice to meet you.” Penelope waves casually.
Theo slurps his hot chocolate beside me, probably over the moon this Ava interrupted our lesson.
Even though I thought she was rude before, she has a friendly aura. All of them do apart from Enzo, who I now think might know the same untrue bit of information that’s making Santi be such a jerk. Or maybe Enzo is just one of those reserved types.
No matter. For now, Ava is trying to make us feel welcome. “Santi told me he was helping out an acquaintance. A single mom…” She gestures to Theo and shrugs. “Just figured this makes sense.”
“You guessed it. That person is me. I’m Kat. And this is Theo. We just had our first day at Heritage. I’m working there part- time.”
Ava flicks her gaze to my laptop. “And you’re a part-time teacher, too?”
There’s something about this woman that puts me at ease. Though she must have deduced I’m out of my depth, there’s not a fleck of judgment in her bright, brown eyes.
I joke, “I wouldn’t dare give myself that title just yet.”
Ava’s chair screeches on the floor as she pulls it over beside me, uninvited but somehow… welcome. I like how forward she is.
I’m not shy but I’ve always been guarded, and when I went to college, it took my neighbor in the apartment next door, Gisele, to befriend me and bring me into a small group. I struggle to make the first move. I guess with an upbringing like mine, when the people who are supposed to love you most don’t, it makes you wary.
Ava leans over into my personal space and reads my laptop screen. “I used to be homeschooled.”
Penelope mumbles, “Is that what you call it?”
I ignore what is clearly an inside story, and Ava is in full-on Miss Helper mode.
She speaks to Theo. “Do you like math?”
He shrugs.
“What do you like?” she asks.
His voice is flat. “Bugs. Being outside.”
“Well, there is a huge amount of math to learn outside. There’s the golden ratio. The Fibonacci sequence…”
This woman is way over my head right now. I’m just trying to count pie pieces and put the right numbers on the top and bottom of a floating line.
She’s still leaning into my space. I’m both taken aback by her and relieved.
“Maybe you could come over to the ranch sometime, Theo? I can show you some of the more interesting stuff in math.”
Why is she trying to help me? I don’t want to be suspicious. I guess she knows Santi hired me. Maybe she thinks we’re friends. Maybe he never told them anything, after all, Julia couldn’t have been kinder. Then again, if I think about it, why would he want to tell them we were together? Then he’d have to say why it all ended. I’m sure then he’d have to admit he ran away with Ashley , the buckle bunny chasing tail. There must have been another woman. Right?
Maybe that’s what he doesn’t like. Maybe I remind him of a time when he behaved badly. Does he think I’ll tell everyone who seems to love him what he did? That he led me on then left me in the dust with no explanation? That wouldn’t be anyone’s finest moment. Like I’d ever. I have my pride. I’ve never told anyone what happened.
But I did love him. So, so much. But he’s not that man anymore, even if he looks the same. Better. Fuck me… he looks even better.
A hard stone falls in my gut.
We’re nothing now. Not even a beautiful memory.
It’s definitely not the right call to be hanging out with his family. “Thanks, Ava. I appreciate the offer but I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
Callum stands and puts his cap back on his head. “Hey, kid, if you want me to run background checks on this stranger lady, let me know.”
Theo rolls his lips.
Penelope laughs, also addressing Theo. “It’s small-town stuff. I apologize for my friend crashing your coffee date.”
Ava defends herself. “Hey! I just love math and I’d like to help out. Any friend of Santi’s is a friend of mine.”
My insides churn hearing she thinks Santi and I are friends. Not only because we aren’t anymore but also because… she’ll never know we were so much more. Something about that has melancholy racing through me.
Callum squeezes Penelope’s shoulder and salutes everyone goodbye.
Suddenly, Theo asks, “You have a ranch?”
And just like that, I’d been wounded in the Achilles heel because Theo’s eyes are bright with the question.
“Yeah,” she says. “Lots of horses, some dogs around, chickens, and I’m trying to get this one here,” she hooks her thumb in Enzo’s direction, “to get me a goat.”
Enzo lets out a sigh that tells me what Ava asks, Ava gets.
Theo’s mouth tips up at the corner with that cute, reluctant smile of his. He’s intrigued. I promised him the farmhouse would be what Ava just offered, but it isn’t. Sure, there’s land around, but the whole environment has a desolate feel about it.
Theo says more than I’ve ever heard him say to a stranger. “People think goats eat anything, but they’re actually picky eaters.”
Ava is taken aback. “Really? I didn’t know that.” She twists to speak to her man. “Maybe your dad’s garden will be fine. The excuses are being obliterated one by one, boss.”
She turns back to Theo and talks behind her hand. “Keep the facts coming. I’m closing in on him.”
Theo smiles this time. Smiles. My son is typically guarded like I am. He’s a bit of a lone wolf but I can tell he wants to take Ava up on her offer and he’s never warmed to someone like this before. This Nosy Nancy has the knack. I’ll give it to her.
Unfortunately, the ranch, assuming it’s Monarch Hills, is a no-go zone. What will Santi think if he sees us hanging out with his brother and future sister-in-law? The man couldn’t have given me more of a Keep Out message if he’d whacked me over the head with a wooden sign.
My gaze flicks back and forth between Ava and Theo, and it feels like they’re making friends.
Ava adds, “You can take a load off, too. I bet you have to cook for yourselves all the time. Enzo, we could cook them dinner or something? Friday?”
“ We could cook them dinner?” He cocks an eyebrow.
“You know what I mean…”
Clearly, Enzo does all the cooking.
She turns back to me, and in her eyes is empathy for the single-mom situation. She doesn’t know that only days ago my life was drastically different. I had a cook. A cleaner. Money.
But in this new life, I’ll be doing it all. Now that there’s an investigation, it could be ages before Theo and I have any security. Maybe we never will. I wouldn’t have put it past Nicholas to have been up to illegal activity. He was a shady character right from our ill-fated start. In the way he manipulated me into marrying him. In the way he drew my dad to his side. In the way he controlled my every move.
I want to take Ava and Enzo up on the offer, but what if we run into Santi? At his home?
Ava’s smile reels me in, and soon, the grit I found to start this new life takes over again. I’m not going to be bossed around by some… ex. Or whatever he is. Who is he to tell me who I can be friends with or where I can be and when? This is my new life, and the new Kat will not be pushed around or intimidated by anything or anyone anymore. I shouldn’t have to tiptoe around this town just because Santi is being a grade A asshole and doesn’t want to give me a second to talk things out .
“That’s a nice offer. Tell me what time and we’ll be there.”
I switch seats with Ava who talks about goats and fractions with Theo, somehow getting him to enthusiastically scribble plenty of notes. They high-five when he gets a hundred percent on the quiz at the end of the lesson.
In the meantime, I chat with Penelope and Enzo. Enzo doesn’t talk too much. He makes me a little nervous, but maybe it’s just the resemblance between him and his brother. But as a reserved type myself, I know his wheels are turning. In the end, he’s still happy to have me and Theo over at his house, so I guess I passed his test, and we all exchange phone numbers.
It feels like college again, giving out my number to new neighbors.
But after a while, it’s time to get back to Keeper and head home. We plan to meet on Thursday late afternoon for dinner and a lesson. My heart is full and warm on the drive home, the buzz of the unexpected making me feel brighter than I have in so very long. We’re being welcomed. And a small part of me thinks, maybe this shouldn’t be temporary.
But my high comes crashing down as I park up in front of the farmhouse. The front door is ajar, and terror runs through me. Intuition tells me not to go inside. Nobody would rescue us. Keeper starts barking. I shush him as I grip the steering wheel, knuckles white.
It’s just me and Theo here. We’re more or less in the middle of nowhere. I stay in the car and keep it running while I call the police. Little do I know, Mission is in the Echo Valley jurisdiction, and two officers show up, one being Callum. I would have rather he not seen me as bringing trouble near his small town. Or being a damsel in distress .
When everything is clear, Callum speaks to his fellow officer, Luke, inside their car. Callum makes a phone call. When they get out, Luke takes Theo aside to throw some stones at a random old tin garbage can that’s in the scrubby patch next to the house.
I guess it’s so Callum can have a private word with me.
“Listen, Kat, if whoever did this was happy to operate in broad daylight, it might be best if you stay somewhere else for a while. Just until we have a better idea of what happened here? It could be a targeted break-in.”
The last thing I want to do is stay in that house, but it’s not like we have hotel money or a family to run to. “We’ll be fine. I have Keeper.”
Callum lets out a friendly, amused laugh at the thought of our toy poodle being a guard dog.
“You work with Julia, right?” he asks but doesn’t wait for my answer. “I just buzzed her. She has a big house with plenty of room for you and Theo and is happy to have you for as long as you need.”
I rub the sides of my arms. Julia has already done me a favor. Multiple favors. “It’s okay.”
“Well, it’s not okay with me. Or Julia. Or anybody sensible.” He glances around like the place gives him the creeps as much as it does me. “You’re in the middle of nowhere. Until you know why the house was broken into, why not play it safe? For Theo if anything.”
I gaze over at the house thirty yards away. Everything was tipped upside down. Every drawer was pulled out. Our luggage was strewn all over the place. But nothing of value was stolen. Saying that, I have my laptop and cell which are two of the most expensive things we own. But the two items of jewelry and my wedding ring were right in my dresser drawer. Was the person wild and didn’t notice them stuffed in among my underwear? Or were they searching for something else? Were they here because of the owner of the house? Or me?
“Kat?” Callum’s assured voice grabs me out of my spiral. “How about it? It doesn’t seem like you have much to pack, so Luke and I will wait and then escort you back to Echo Valley.”
“Yeah. I suppose I don’t want Theo here. Thank you.”
I fight the stone forming in my throat when I catch sight of Theo coming back toward the front yard with Luke. What kind of mom am I? I take my son away from absolute luxury to a part-time job, a house with poltergeists and thieves, and now another move into a house with some total stranger?
Callum pats my arm reassuringly and offers a firm nod and a tight-lipped smile. “It’s the right move.”
But even doing the right thing can have unpleasant consequences.