Chapter 65
GEMMA
Scarlett’s birthday party is a smashing success. There are kids everywhere, screaming and chasing each other across the gently sloping yard between an enormous waterslide and an inflatable bounce house that’s big enough to live in.
Despite the fact that, according to Cade, Penny Montgomery is a multi-millionaire due to her brief, ill-fated marriage to Lyle Judd, she chose to come back across the river and re-root herself in Barrett after her divorce.
She bought a house, much like Dent’s, that backs up to the river and seems quite content to have her daughter and granddaughter under her roof.
Knowing that there is at least one house on the banks of the Barrett that creekers won’t be able to get their hands on, makes me feel better.
Two, if I count the fact that Emily bought the Wilson place next door. Maybe she’ll let Janet and me live with her when we finally lose ours.
It doesn’t have to be like that. Even if you aren’t pregnant, Riggs has already offered to save your house and you should let him. It’s the least he can do after the grief he’s caused you.
I’ve been fighting with myself all day. Waffling between my usual hard-headed determination to fight tooth and nail to save what’s mine and the brow-beaten acceptance that no matter how hard I fight, I’m going to lose because the system wasn’t designed for any other outcome.
A thirty percent property tax hike doesn’t mean much when you’re sitting on a mountain of money—but it means everything when you’re having to decide between which bills to pay and which ones you can let slide until your next paycheck.
That’s the sinking boat most Barrett residents are sitting in.
Without the money the VA was paying me to take care of Riggs, I have little to no hope of bailing myself out.
Deciding that completely losing hope and waving my white flag at a child’s birthday party is just about the saddest thing I can do, I put it away for later. Even though I’ve lost Riggs, in more ways than one, I’ve still got time. I can’t give up. Not yet.
Spotting Sera by the cake table, I hurry over, worried that something is wrong. “Is everything okay?” I ask her with a nervous smile. “I was sure that I put enough gelatin in the mousse to stabilize?—”
“What?” Looking up at me, stack of napkins in her hands, Sera frowns.
“No.” Shaking her head, she meticulously straightens the stack before fanning them out across the table.
“The cake looks amazing—thank you.” Flashing me a wane smile, she reaches for a paper cup full of spoons.
” I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you agreeing to bake it for her.
If not for you, Scar would’ve ended up with a box-mix brick covered in pink sugar goop. ”
“Your mom paid me entirely too much money to make that cake,” I tell her. “We had an epic fight on my front porch about it—it was only my annoyingly ingrained sense of respect your elders that carried her to victory.”
Laughing because she’s supposed to, not because she thinks I’m funny, Sera abandons the cup full of spoons to start messing with the forks. “That’s Mom—she’s relentless.”
I let her fidget with the cup for as long as I can stand it before I reach out and grab her hand. “What’s wrong?” I ask, gently squeezing her fingers when she doesn’t answer me. “Sera?—”
“None of them are playing with her,” she says quietly, flicking me a quick, glassy-eyed look.
“They’re here because she went to school and bragged that you were making her birthday cake—” Letting out a shaky breath, Sera pulls her hand away from mine and starts straightening the cake plates.
“I’m guessing most of them showed up because they thought she was lying so they’d have something new to bully her over and their asshole mothers wanted something else they could whisper about behind my back. ”
Turning away from her I scan the backyard full of kids.
I spot Scarlett almost right away. She’s standing on the edge of the yard in a bright pink bathing suit, dry as a bone, watching her classmates run around her party, having a good time without her.
The only one paying her any sort of attention is Gunner.
He’s standing next to her in a pair of swim trunks, shoulder pressed protectively against hers.
The look on his face says he’d like nothing more than to line them all up and fight every single one of them.
Looking back at her, I shake my head. “Sera?—”
“It’s not her fault,” she whispers, blinking back tears while she picks up the napkins again.
“She’s such a good kid. She’s so gentle and sweet to everyone.
She’d forgive them all in a heartbeat if they’d just give her a chance to…
” Looking up at me, she swallows hard, offering me a quick, half-hearted smile. “She reminds me of Emily.”
Feeling like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me, I turn back around to find Scarlett.
She’s staring longingly at the line of kids taking turns on the waterslide and I’m suddenly relieved that I didn’t take June up on her offer to take me back as a waitress because I’d be spitting in everyone’s milkshake.
“At least half of the moms here have asked me for quotes on cakes,” I tell her, shooting a withering glare at the tight cluster of women on the other side of the yard, clucking at each other like a bunch of busybodies.
Every once in a while, one or them looks over here before they go back to whispering and laughing.
Bitches. “I even gave them my phone number—which is good, I suppose, so when they call me, I can tell them to fuck off.”
“The hell you are,” Sera hisses at me, quitting her fidgeting long enough to look at me like I’m crazy. “You’re going to bake their cakes and take their money—but I wouldn’t object to you charging them double.”
Pulling the napkins out of Sera’s hands I toss them on the table before I put my arms around and pull her against me in an impulsive hug that leaves both of us feeling awkward and stunned.
“You’re a good mom, Sera and Scarlett is lucky to have you.
” Giving her a hard, quick squeeze before letting her go, I smile.
“You’re not a half bad friend, either—when you want to be.
” Before she can argue with me, I kick my sandals off and leave her where she’s standing to make my way to the edge of the yard where Scarlett and Gunner are hovering.
“Hey,” I say to Scarlett, holding out my hand. “You want to go on the waterslide with me?”
Blinking up at me, Scarlett looks at Gunner before she answers me. “You’re not wearing a swim suit.”
Looking down at the pair of cotton shorts and tank top I’m wearing, I shrug. “So—I’m an adult. I can do anything I want.” Wiggling my fingers at her, I give her a grin. “Come on, if anyone bothers you, I’ll push ‘em off the slide,” I promise her, earning myself a snort from Gunner.
Scarlett hesitates. But only for a moment before she takes my hand and starts dragging me to the waterslide.
An hour later, I’m soaked through and sitting in a lawn chair on the edge of the yard, away from the chaos.
Happily plowing my way through a double slice of cake, I’m watching everyone around me enjoy the fruits of my labor.
The cake—a round, three-layer, 14 inch monster that needed cake rods to keep it straight, is completely gone and there are only a few cupcakes left.
When Scarlett was ready, we gathered everyone around the cake table and sang her happy birthday. Afterward, Sera sliced the cake and Scarlett handed it out, thanking everyone who took a slice for coming to her party. Sera is right—she’s gentle. Not a mean bone in her body. A lot like Emily.
“Hey.”
In the middle of licking frosting off my fork, I look up to find Cade standing over me. He looks pretty much the same as he did last night. Like someone set fire to his life and the only thing he can do about it is watch it burn.
Swallowing frosting, I frown up at him. “Hey?”
Looking at me like he didn’t actually expect me to answer, Cade squints before he looks away. “Look—” Shaking his head on a sigh he reaims a cautious look in my direction. “About last night. I just want to?—”
“Which part are you about to apologize for?” Digging into my slice of cake, I fork up a bite.
“The part where you bit my head off for asking you an honest question?” Putting cake in my mouth, I give it a few chews before I swallow.
“The part where you snatched me off my porch and tossed me into your car like a bag of dirty laundry, or the part where you scared the shit out of and nearly murdered my best friend?”
“Actually?” Cade gives me an irritated, narrow-eyed look.“None of it.”
“Huh.” Not at all surprised, I take another bite of cake. “Then what the hell do you want, Montgomery?”
“I want to know if she’s okay,” he says quietly. Before I can tell him Emily is none of his business, he says it for me. “I know I don’t have a right to ask. I know you’d rather throw your cake at me that give me a straight answer, but?—”
“This cake?” I tilt my plate at him before taking another bite. “There’s no way in hell I’d waste cake this good on you. Might kick you in the balls, though.”
Giving me a low chuckle that tells me I’m pushing my luck, Cade shakes his head. “Jesus Christ, you’re annoying.”
“Thank you.” I give him a sweet smile.
Sobering quickly Cade hesitates, seemingly fighting with himself before he finally caves. “There’s something wrong with her.”
For a moment, all I can do is stare up at him because he’s right.
There is something wrong with Emily. There’s a lot wrong—and it bothers me he could see it after spending less than a few minutes with her in the dark.
“You know…” Taking my last bite of cake, I toss my empty plate on the small side table next to my chair.
“It really bothers me that you still, after everything you did to her, don’t have the guts to say her name. ”
Flinching back at my words, Cade clears his throat and looks away. “Okay—Emily.” He says her name quietly. Like it’s a secret he doesn’t want anyone to know. Looking back at me, he forms a complete sentence. “There’s something wrong with Emily.”
“What did she say to you?” I ask him carefully because she had to have said something to him to get this sort of reaction from him.
“Nothing.” He shakes his head, swallowing hard—either because he’s lying to me or because the fact that Emily looked him in the eye without falling apart bothers him more than he’d like to admit.
“She didn’t say anything to me. She just stood there and looked at me.
” Blowing out a long, slow sigh, Cade shakes his head.
“I know you don’t want to hear this but I know her, Gemma.
I know when something is wrong with her. I can?—”
“She’s fine,” I lie straight to his face before I stand.
“And she’ll stay that way as long as you stay away from her.
” Even as I say it, I know he won’t be able to do it.
He never could. “Please, Cade—if there’s even a microscopic shred of decency in you—leave her alone.
” Pushing past him, I leave him standing there to go find his brother because I suddenly, very much, want to go home.