Chapter Twenty Two #2
“Tell you what. I’ll let you drive on the way back. It’s the only way you’ll consider me cool,” Rebecca teased as she drove them to the farmhouse. They parked out front and reached the first step when the door swung open.
“Rebecca, Kara, it’s nice to see you,” Mac greeted, appearing a bit startled by their sudden appearance.
“Delaney invited us,” she explained as they continued up to the porch.
“Oh, sure,” he mumbled as he stepped aside, allowing them to enter.
Delaney approached, wiping her hands with a kitchen towel. “I’m glad you made it. Kara, can you set the table? Rebecca, why don’t you grab the drinks?”
“May I speak with Rachel?” Rebecca asked. “I owe both of you an apology.”
Delaney waved her away. “Consider it forgotten. We all have shit to deal with. No one can throw stones here.”
Kara giggled.
“Come on, Kara. We’ll set the table together. Maybe if we help Delaney out, she’ll give us a bigger serving of her apple crumb cake I saw earlier,” Mac said, winking at her.
“Oh, yum,” Kara said, following him.
“Rachel’s in the kitchen. I taught her how to make fried chicken about a month ago.
I’ll warn you, she’s not a great cook and it’ll be mostly raw or burnt.
She’s trying and that’s what’s important.
Don’t worry, I made enough sides to make up for it.
Go say your peace while I pee for the hundredth time,” Delaney said, rubbing her stomach.
Rebecca headed toward the kitchen, rehearsing what she planned to say. As she entered, she heard Rachel curse, “Son of a bitch. Who the hell thought frying chicken sounded like a great idea? This grease hurts like hell.”
“Lower the temperature,” Rebecca instructed. “I came to apologize.”
“For my cooking?” Rachel snarked. “Too late, I think Delaney’s giving up on me. I’ve only mastered pie crusts, beans, and cornbread.”
“It’s a skill,” Rebecca said, moving closer to the stove. “Speaking of which, I brought Kara with me. She’s applying the makeup you gave her extremely heavy for someone her age.”
“Oh, you came to blame me for that, too,” Rachel muttered as she turned the heat down.
“No. I’m sorry for how I acted when we last saw each other. You’ve done a great job with the cabins and Kara loves her blanket. Anyone can see how much you’ve changed, and I didn’t give you a chance,” Rebecca admitted apologetically.
Rachel smiled. “I totally earned my reputation, but I appreciate the gesture.”
“Can you show us how to apply it correctly? I don’t use a ton of it and Kara needs to tone it down,” Rebecca asked her while she picked up the fork and indicated Rachel needed to flip the chicken.
“Shit, that hurts,” Rachel said as grease splattered on her hand. “No one says cooking is dangerous. They only tell you how much fun it is.”
Rebecca grinned, finding her entertaining. “I’m supposed to take drinks out. Will Julio and Matthew be joining us?”
Rachel turned to gaze at her. “No. They’re gone. They spun up at the crack of dawn this morning.”
“Where did they go?” Rebecca’s heart thudded heavily in her chest.
“I don’t know. Matthew doesn’t tell me much about the business side of things. I did, however, overhear them say something about Georgia.”
The pitcher Rebecca held fell out of her hands, crashing to the floor. “Where?” she asked again, to make sure she heard it correctly.
“They flew to Georgia,” Rachel reiterated, dropping towels onto the floor to soak up the liquid. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s where they found us. Why did they go back there?” she uttered, feeling confused. Worry filled her as she thought about Julio returning to the trafficking ring’s site. What if they ran into scouts?
“Sit down before you fall over,” Rachel ordered, steering her toward a wooden chair. “I’ll clean this up.”
Delaney entered, noticed Rebecca’s pale face, and rushed to wet a cloth, then pressed it against her forehead. “Land sakes, Rachel. She came to apologize. You didn’t have to be a bitch this fast.”
Rachel chuckled. “See? Even Delaney thinks I’m bitchy and she never experienced Rachel Foster, Serenity style. I swear I didn’t do anything this time. She asked me about Julio and Matthew, then dropped a pitcher.”
“Check the chicken, it’s burning,” Delaney reminded her, appearing bored.
“Awww, crap,” Rachel said, rushing toward the smoking skillet.
“Did they say when they planned to return?” Rebecca asked shakily. “Dang it, I left my phone at the cabin. May I borrow one of yours to call Kassie Winters? Maybe she’ll know something.”
“You can use mine, but you’ll be wasting your time. Matthew put a stop to her micromanaging this place. She bankrolls the payroll and owns the land, but we do everything independently,” Rachel explained.
“Can you call Matthew?” Rebecca asked, almost pleading.
Delaney giggled. “Nope. She’s not allowed to call him when he’s on a job after the last time.”
“Shut up,” Rachel grumbled. “It’s your fault.”
“Girlfriend, I didn’t tell you to do it when he left on a job.
I said when he worked on the ranch. You can’t send him sexy photos when he’s two hundred miles away.
You’re supposed to do it when he can drop everything and come tearing into your house and ravage you in ten minutes,” Delaney explained.
Rachel grimaced and glanced at Rebecca, then her friend.
“I’m sorry, Rebecca. I didn’t mean to sound insensitive,” Delaney apologized.
“We have to stop all this apologizing. I went through a bunch of shit, it doesn’t mean I don’t know the difference between making love and sex,” Rebecca said, even though the thought of it sent her rushing to the bathroom.
Both women appeared relieved. Rachel shut off the stove and moved the pan to the back. “The chicken’s extra crispy. I hope you made extra as usual.”
Delaney winked at Rebecca. “I’m sure we can conjure up something.”
They entered the dining room to find Kara setting the last place setting.
“Where’s Mac?” Delaney asked. “He never misses dinner when he knows I have apple crumb cake waiting.”
“He ran into the room over there after getting a call,” Kara said, pointing toward Matthew’s office. Rachel and Rebecca rushed toward the area, worried about what sent Mac running.
When he saw them, he shut down the computer.
“Where’s Julio?” Rebecca demanded. “Get him on the phone, I want to talk to him.”
“I can’t. They’re in the middle of an op,” Mac said firmly. “Everything’s fine. We need to set up cabins after dinner. I don’t have a number yet.”
Rebecca’s knees nearly buckled. Rachel put her arm around her and led her to the dining room. “Kara told me you remained strong the entire time and made sure if Julio showed up while you were gone, they knew he came to rescue them. You didn’t think you’d make it, did you?”
Rebecca avoided answering. “I did my job.”
Rachel didn’t respond, reading between the lines. “Let’s eat dinner. Mac will keep us informed. If you don’t eat, Kara will think something’s wrong.”
Delaney brought the rest of the food to the table with Kara’s help. Rachel doled out servings on Rebecca’s plate and tapped her nails against the fork, and glanced at the teen, reminding Rebecca.
She shoveled it in her mouth, no longer tasting the food. It might as well have been the garbage they fed to her in the cages. Her thoughts remained on Julio, praying despite the last few weeks, he knew she’d always loved him more.