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“What about the DA?” I ask, hating that I have to evenmention Royce’s father. One Richardson was bad enough. “He was her father’s best friend. Can’t he look into—”
“He’s already on the case,” my dad cuts me off. “As the prosecution.”
“What?” My brows shoot up to my hairline. “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”
“He’s not a civil attorney. The voters elect him. And since Ellery’s father died in Elmhurst, they have jurisdiction. It’s his duty.”
“One might argue it is his duty to recuse himself,” I counter.
“I agree,” Saffron says from the patio door, and my father and I both look up. “I said the same thing to him myself when the news first broke.”
“And what did he say?” I ask tightly as she comes over and takes a seat next to my father.
Royce wanting to date Ellery was one thing. But his father dragging her and her mother through the mud again after years was inexcusable and that’s exactly what the circus of a new case would do.
“He cited some legal code,” she says with a wave of her hand, “which of course, I can’t remember. But he said his being on the case was a good thing.”
“And do you believe him?”
Saffron looks to my father and after a moment, they both turn back to me.
“I don’t know what to believe,” she says candidly. “But I do know all of this coming back up again is not good for Ellery. That’s why I wanted her to go to Europe this summer. So she could be away from all of this nonsense. Then when summer is over she will be off to Yale in the fall and away from the media circus, should the case not get dismissed.”
“Yale,” I repeat.
“She’s all paid up and enrolled,” Saffron says with a proudsmile.
So Ellery hasn’t told her mother she’s not sure if she’s going to Yale, huh? Well, I’m going to file that away and ask her about it when the moment is right.
“But enough about all that nonsense.” Her mother sits back and places a hand on my father’s knee. “Tell me, how are your friends enjoying Cherry Cove?”
“They’re having a great time,” I confirm. “Thank you again for getting the Deveraux place for us.”
“It’s my pleasure. Danbury owed me a favor and I will do anything for my family. You know that.”
She gives my father’s knee a squeeze and when he kisses the side of her head, I can’t help but think the same thing.
Ellery was destined to be a part of my life. Even though it wouldn’t be in the way I wanted, she was a part of my family and that is what this truce was all about.
Anyone who thought about messing with her or Saffron better watch out because I wouldn’t be running from them or this family again. Not even if my life depended on it.
Chapter 13
Ellery
Jenica and I sit on the railing of the pier, watching the band set up on the beach below. Tonight’s act is a group that has dubbed themselves Georgia’s answer to grunge. But judging by their warmup set, their sound is nothing like that coming out of Seattle.
“Man, these bands just don’t get it.” Jenica reaches into the bag of popcorn we’re sharing, doubling as her dinner and my dessert. “It’s not about the look, but the sound.”
“Totally,” I nod in agreement. “Flannel and a guitar does not an Eddie Vetter make.”
“Amen.” She tosses a piece of popcorn in her mouth and winks.
When Jenica first introduced me to grunge, I wasn’t sure what to think. She’d heard it on a local indie radio station out of Charleston, and knowing how much I liked music, was anxious for me to hear it. She loved it instantly. The raw ferocity and scorching reproach of the lyrics. I didn’t, however, but the more I listened to it, the more I appreciated it for what it was.
Grunge married what I loved most about alternative and new wave—lyrics and emotion—and paired them with the best of rock—a mean guitar and powerful drums. Every song seemed to ooze with significance and spoke to me in a way no music had before.
So much of the eighties were about gloss and glam. A world of confection and bright, bold colors. But the nineties were a whole new decade colored by shades of gray. Grunge’s role in driving this new era seemed to mirror the evolution I, too, wasundergoing.
