Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CORMAC
Text conversation between Pansy and UNKNOWN NUMBER
I just spoke with Dean Whitaker.
Sounds like you kept the ring he gave you too. Are you forming a collection?
WTF do you want from me?
What do you want from José?
Look, you want me to break up with him?
Fine.
He’s been a disappointment anyway.
I have an exit strategy. I just need time to work it out. Give me a couple of weeks.
Micah says you never got engaged to him, but you DID convince him to pay off your student loans and then dumped him.
Fuck you
On the Monday of the double date, I have a check-in call with Kenji. I have to admit I haven’t been as focused on our project as I should be, particularly since I’m leaving for San Francisco tomorrow. My attention has been elsewhere.
Nora, namely. She actually stayed over last night.
We barely talked about the double date, but she did say she’s been sensing tension between Pansy and José ever since our first double date.
She thinks we’ll be “golden” if we find the “straw that broke the camel’s back.
” When she said that, I admitted I have always hated that particular metaphor, which only makes sense on a nonliteral level yet leads to some very disturbing mental images.
Her response was to kiss me.
I have also been embroiled in my supersecret secondary mission—digging a hole for Jonah Price to bury himself in.
Perhaps this is a bit of an overreach, but I conducted further research into his life and discovered he has several wealthy older clients—the kind of people who might have basements or attics full of “junk” that would not be missed if it were sold on eBay.
I in turn did a few searches for these individuals’ names in connection with the goods Jonah is selling.
The one item that popped up is a vintage, mint-condition Cabbage Patch Kid, still tucked away in its box.
It seems inevitable that he must have stolen it from the owner, an eighty-two-year-old woman living on her own.
Her daughter, who posted about the theft extensively online, seems very agitated over the loss.
Apparently the old doll, which has never been played with, has great sentimental worth.
Who knew.
It may go nowhere, but I compiled all of the research I conducted into a portfolio and submitted it anonymously to the authorities, which seems to be the extent of what I can do currently.
I could, of course, destroy his credit score.
It’s possible, though not likely, that could be linked back to me, however, and I refuse to let his misfortunes be laid at Nora’s door.
I have not told Liam anything about my special project—nor have I told Rob or Travis—but doubtless Liam, at least, will know I was behind it if justice takes the proper course and the fool is arrested.
“And have you thought any more about my offer?” Kenji asks.
Right. I’m talking to Kenji and probably shouldn’t be daydreaming about a woman who’s not technically my girlfriend.
“Your offer?” I repeat.
“To move you here.”
Into the house he purchased for his parents. They barely ever stay in it, given their primary residence is in New York City.
Cookie, who doesn’t appreciate lengthy phone calls, stands in front of me and barks until I scoop her up into my lap.
“You still there?” Kenji asks, his tone amused. He knows all about Cookie and her demands.
“Yeah, I’ve given it some thought.” I take a deep breath, then tell him what I’ve been holding back. “I think I’m in love. No, actually, I definitely know that I am, but I haven’t told her yet, so I probably shouldn’t be telling you.”
“Holy shit,” he says, and I can hear the grin behind his words. “Who is it?”
“Nora Leigh.”
He instantly starts laughing. “Tell me something I haven’t known for a decade.”
Before Nora and I leave for the dreadful double date from hell, we grab Nathaniel and bring him to the tea shop to conduct a very important side quest.
Ann has insisted she’s fully recovered from her little “hiccup” with George last week and is ready to meet a real man, “like that darling Mick, but forty years older.”
While I don’t believe Nathaniel and Mick bear any similarities, Nora is attached to her plan, and I am attached to making Nora happy.
The purpose of this meeting is, purportedly, for Nathaniel to tell Dottie about the legal part of his herb garden. It overproduces, and he dislikes wasting the excess herbs.
But we’re also going to introduce him to Ann.
“This is a nice place,” Nathaniel says as we walk into the hubbub of Tea of Fortune. It smells of herbs, and although it’s loud, it has a warm, earthy atmosphere.
I raise my eyebrows and nod. “Yes. Full of tea.”
Nora nudges me, indicating that this was not a normal response, as if I’m not fully aware of that myself.
“It’s a little warm in here, don’t you think?” she asks. “Why don’t you roll your shirtsleeves up, Nathaniel?”
He peers at her, blinks, and then does as requested as we walk further into the tea shop.
“Oh, there they are,” Nora says. She bustles toward the table where Dottie and Ann are sitting, located in the middle of the teahouse.
While we didn’t tell Nathaniel going in about our dual purpose for this meeting, we did inform Ann, and she’s wearing a blue summer dress that matches the blue strip in her rainbow glasses.
“We’re meeting those two lovely ladies?” Nathaniel asks, observing them as we come closer.
In a whisper, I say, “Yeah, but only the one on the right is single.”
I don’t want him to accidentally flirt with Dottie, thus collapsing the tenuous house-of-cards romance Nora has formed in her head.
“Well, hot diggety dog,” he responds, which makes me chuckle.
We reach the table, and Dottie stands to shake hands with Nathaniel. “Hello, I’m Dottie, and you must be Nathaniel. I’m so glad you could come over and meet with me. It’s wonderful to make your acquaintance. The young people have told me so much about your lovely garden.”
“Everything?” He darts a worried look at me and tugs on the end of his beard, Ann’s gaze following the gesture in a promising fashion. She rises to her feet too, studying him.
“Oh no, we haven’t told them about the—” I cough, catching myself at the last second. Mostly because Nora is giving me a death glare. “The mint bushes.”
“But I love mint,” Dottie cries out. “Mint makes a wonderful tea.”
“And a fine mint julep,” Ann adds.
“I love a good mint julep.” Nathaniel takes off his hat and holds it in both hands before turning a hopeful glance on Ann.
He seems unsure at first, and then he just drops his hat and reaches with both hands to shake Ann’s, apparently deciding that the hat is less important than a hearty two-handed shake.
Dottie’s phone rings, and she clucks her tongue as she answers. “Oh, dear. A flood, you say? Yes, I’ll be right there.”
She hangs up the phone and turns toward us. “Dears, would you mind terribly much giving me a ride home? There’s a problem with the plumbing.”
“Of course not,” Nora says.
I glance at Nathaniel, trying to make sure he’s happy with this turn of events.
He smiles encouragingly at me, then says, “But we drove over here together.”
“Oh, that’s okay, honey,” Ann says, settling a hand on his bare forearm. “I’ll give you a ride.”
Nora and I exchange a glance, and I can see the way her shoulders are shaking with silent laughter.
“Did you hear the way she said that?” Nora asks as I drive us reluctantly toward Apple Ridge and the bowling date. “I’ll give you a ride. There’s no way she isn’t into him.”
“Maybe she just wants sex.”
“Yes, Cormac. She took one look at Nathaniel’s lustrous beard and decided she wanted to tug it midcoitus.”
“You did say she likes beards.”
She places her hand on my thigh, her fingers idly caressing me.
“Wait until you see how nimbly I can move in bowling shoes,” I say.
“I’m sure I’ll be super impressed. I’ll probably throw my panties at you.”
“I wouldn’t put it past you. Rest assured that I would catch them. And keep them. I’d probably admire them daily while I’m gone.”
She shoves my arm slightly, then lets her hand drift back onto its place on my leg.
I think again about my coffee date with my father. I’d wanted so badly to tell him about Nora and me. To admit that I want to be with her. But surely I need to tell her first.
I’m ready to discuss the future with her, and yet…
It seems like it would be best to wait until after José is a free man.
I don’t like thinking this way, but I’m worried she might change her mind about him once he’s single. Maybe she’ll look at the two of us standing side by side and decide to pick the obvious choice—the smooth, good-looking guy with whom she already spends half of her life.
That uncomfortable thought is still nagging at me as we park in one of the community lots in Apple Ridge and walk to the bowling alley, following Google’s stilted directions.
When we reach our destination, I turn to give Nora a dark look.
It’s called Apple Bottom Lanes.
“Can they not give anything a normal name?”
“Why would they go and do a thing like that?” she asks with a perfectly straight face.
I reach for her hand, holding her gaze. “They’ll expect us to be touching.”
“Let’s give the people what they want,” she says as she squeezes my hand. Then she surprises me by standing on her toes and kissing me, right there in front of anyone who cares to watch.
God, it feels good.
I’m still riding the high as we walk in together and claim our shoes at the front. They smell aggressively of apple air freshener.
“We get it. They grow apples,” I grumble as we carry the shoes to the lane Pansy reserved for us—McIntosh Lane.
Leave it to her to choose an inferior apple.
But my spirits rise as we reach our destination, because they’re not here yet.
I glance at Nora as we sit down. “Maybe they won’t show. They might be breaking up this very minute.”
She smiles at me. “It’s cute how excited you sound about that.”
“Your goals are mine.”