29. Chicken Tetrazzini
TWENTY-NINE
Chicken Tetrazzini
Harry
T he minute Harry walked through Lillian’s front door, he saw the town of Misted Pines had gotten on it that day.
This came in the form of flower arrangements dotting pretty much every surface in Lillian’s living room and kitchen.
Proof, Sonny and Avery were good people who were missed.
Proof, the first half of that, Lillian was too.
All his dogs came out to greet him, and Harry immediately felt a tightness enter his chest, because they came out of her parents’ bedroom.
“Lilly?” he called.
“Back here,” she called in return.
Yep, she was in their bedroom.
Shit.
He gave three rubdowns, then, with fur brushing his legs, he headed to the hall and through the open door that had yet to be open any time Harry was there.
He discovered two things.
One, Lillian decorated like her mother. It was a little dated, but the same cozy femininity was all over this room, and Harry wondered if Sonny enjoyed being surrounded by Avery as much as Harry enjoyed the same from Lillian.
He reckoned Sonny did.
He also found Lillian curled up on their bed.
She got up on a forearm and said, “Don’t worry. I actually come in here a lot. Well, not a lot, but I do come in here when I get to missing them too much. It still smells like them.”
She wasn’t wrong.
It was vague, but even so, Harry scented lilies, which wasn’t a surprise, and something spicy and musky.
Her mom’s perfume and her father’s cologne or aftershave.
This didn’t make his chest any less tight.
She patted the bed.
He went and sat on it, then he tucked her hair behind her ear and said quietly, “Got some deliveries, I saw.”
“Front porch was covered with them when I got home from Jenna’s,” she reported. “And we have so many casseroles, Ronetta and George had to put some in their fridge.” She frowned exaggeratedly. “Alas, I gave them a thorough inspection, and none of them are Harry Moran Hot Body Approved.”
He smiled at her. “I’m in the mood for comfort food.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Bad day?”
He took in a deep breath, moved so he was twisted, resting both his forearms on the bed so his face was close to hers, and he told her about the journals and Dern.
He ended it with, “There’s a letter for you too, baby, from your mom. She explained things. She just didn’t get around to posting it. I’ll have it all tomorrow and we’ll find a time you can look at it.”
It was shaky, and her eyes were bright, but she said, “Okay, Harry.”
“They died May eighteenth, honey,” he said gently.
She closed her eyes and dropped her head.
Harry inched closer and put his lips to her hair.
“Why does it feel good, knowing that?” she asked the comforter.
“Don’t know,” he said to her hair. “But if it does, just feel it.”
Harry pulled back when she lifted her head. “That’s the day they left.”
She remembered.
Of course she would.
He nodded.
“They didn’t mess around, whoever killed them,” she remarked.
Linus, with bad timing, jumped up on the bed, and Harry ordered, “Off.”
“No,” Lillian protested. “They’ve been hanging with me. Mom and Dad loved animals. We had dogs all while I was growing up. The last one died about a year before they left. He was Dad’s buddy. There were times the only good thing about all of that was that Bentley was gone before Dad was. Bentley wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”
“However you want it, Lilly,” Harry replied.
“I got stuff to make a stir fry, but there’s a chicken tetrazzini casserole that’s been calling my name since I peeled back the foil.”
“I’ll go turn on the oven.”
He made to stand, but she caught his wrist, so he stilled.
“I’m okay,” she stated.
“You don’t have to be,” he returned.
“I know, but I want you to understand, I’m okay. Don’t think anything about me being in here. I’ve been missing them forever, I’ll keep missing them. I’m kind of…coming to terms, I guess. Maybe I’m searching for things to help me. Like the fact they died together, and I know that would bring them peace. Not a lot, but it’d be there. Like people are going to know now, not that they didn’t before, but they’ll for sure know Mom and Dad didn’t have anything to do with that robbery. I hate that they’re dead. I hate how they died. But I’m coping.”
“Do we have to have the conversation again about how I don’t think you’re an emotional leech?” he teased.
Her lips tipped up. “No.” Then her fingers tightened around his wrist. “I just like you, and I know you’re going balls to the wall for me, so while you’re doing that, I don’t want you to worry about me at the same time.”
“That’s gonna happen anyway.”
She let out a sad sigh.
“Put yourself in my shoes, where would you be at?” he asked.
It took a beat, but her eyes lit, and she replied, “I get you.”
“So can I do my job, which I’d do anyway, and worry about my girl, something else I’d do anyway, and eat so many carbs I might throw up?”
“You can do the first two and half of the last one. Throwing up sucks.”
He smiled, moved in to give her a quick kiss, then he left her where she was to turn on the oven.
Since he was in the kitchen, all three dogs came with him.
When he got out stuff to make a salad, Lucy and Linus remained.
But Smokey headed back to his girl.
The next morning, they were walking to Aromacobana when Lillian asked, “Did your dad ever remarry?”
Fuck.
He’d been so busy, he hadn’t gotten in touch with his father or brother yet.
He knew both worried about him, he knew both would be thrilled he was finally getting back to life after losing Winnie.
And he knew they’d be pissed as shit that Lillian was who Lillian was going to be to him, and her parents’ memorial happened, and he hadn’t let them know.
And the memorial was tomorrow.
Shit.
“Is that too personal of a question?” she asked, pulling his attention back to her.
“Not at all,” he assured. “I just realized I haven’t called to tell them I met this great woman, and I need to get on that.”
She smiled up at him.
He returned it and said, “And yes, Dad remarried. A couple of years after Mom died. It didn’t work, mostly because she was a bitch. I wasn’t a big fan. Josh wasn’t either. They were married three years, then divorced. I think it spooked Dad. He did so well the first time, and the second was such a fail, he wasn’t going to go there again. He’s got a lady friend in Arizona. She’d been burned, he’d been burned, so they each have their own places. But they spend a lot of time together, go on cruises, shit like that. I’ve met her. Her name is Caroline. She’s a good one.”
They stopped to wait to cross the street, and once they were over, she mumbled. “I wonder.”
“You wonder what?”
She looked up at him. “If this wicked stepmother might have been another reason you didn’t try to find someone sooner after Winnie.”
Harry had never thought of that, but it made sense.
“It’s not the only reason, sweetheart,” he said. “But yeah. Mom was a hard act to follow. Winnie definitely was too.” He pulled her tighter to his side. “Though, I found her eventually.”
She shot him another smile.
And it was then, Harry realized, the night before, she told no lies.
She wasn’t skipping to the coffee joint and singing Taylor Swift songs, but she seemed lighter, quicker to smile, and the smiles were genuine.
He’d only known her with the cloud hanging over her.
He was looking forward to what he’d get when he got her out from under it.
What he knew was, he was going to like it.
And that was all in their messed-up world that Harry, down to his bones, knew .
However Lillian Rainier came to him, he was going to like it.