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For a few rings, I debate answering, but my mother has been through enough already, and I haven’t talked to her since the morning after my wedding. What Lenox told me Monday about the will being changed has sat heavily on my mind, but I’m not sure I want to tell my mother yet. At least not until I know more about what it all means. At the very least, I need to ask her for Dad’s laptop.
Pulling out my AirPods, I slip one in my ear and then swipe my finger along the screen. “Hi, Mom.”
“Georgia! Where on the planet Earth are you?”
I laugh. “I’m in Maine at my new husband’s house.” I swallow and shift on the log.
“And you’re doing okay? Living in his house, being around him all the time?”
“Yes. I’m doing okay. Better than okay, actually. Lenox gives me plenty of space in his house.” Speaking of… “Mom, do you remember the house I designed in college?”
She’s quiet for a beat. “The dream house thing?”
“Yeah. That. He built it.” I huddle into my coat, tucking my body in to protect myself against how saying that aloud feels.
“What do you mean he built it?”
I sigh. “He built the house, Mom. The house he lives in in the middle of flipping nowhere Maine is the dream house I designed in college. Every inch, every room, even some of the furniture and finishings.”
“Oh.”
“Oh?!”
“I need a minute with that, Georgia. I mean, you’re telling me the guy who treated you like disposable trash and broke your heart built your dream house. Did you know?”
“No, and neither do Zax or Grey before you ask. Only you, Dad, and Lenox knew about that project.”
“Why did he do it? Did he say?”
I slide a rock through the sandy mud with the toe of my boot. “Because he wanted to build me my dream house, even if I never saw it.”
“Jesus Henrietta Christ, Georgia. What on earth does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” I squawk. “He apologized to me for everything. For the way he treated me, for how he left me. For all of it. I’m giving myself some distance right now because things are intense with us, though that’s all me and not him. He’s been… different.” Great, actually.
She makes a displeased noise in her throat. “Can you please just move out of there already? He’s trouble with a capital T. You’re going to fall for him again, if you haven’t already, because he does things that are sweet and thoughtful and endear you to him, but he’s not the commitment, settling down, and starting a family type. He’s going to break your heart again.”
I sag and my heart goes along with it. “I know,” I admit because I’m pretty sure she’s right. About all of it. Including the breaking my heart again part. “It’s only for a year, and I likely don’t have to stay here with him nearly that long. Just until Alfie and Ezra are convinced it’s the real deal and they can’t argue it in a court of law.”
“Well, at this point, as much as I hate to say it, after all that’s happening, I don’t think you have a choice but to stay married to him. At least for appearances.”
“What?” I bolt upright, shocked by that since my mom has been firmly parked in Camp Ezra. “Did something else happen?”
“You don’t know?”
“No. Tell me.”
She makes a noise that’s almost like a laugh but isn’t. It’s her uncomfortable I’m not sure how to react or feel about this laugh. “Ezra got pulled over in LA yesterday for speeding. When the cop ran his plate, she discovered he had several unpaid tickets for other traffic incidents, but get this, he also had an outstanding warrant for drugs. The officer searched his car and found drugs stashed there and arrested him.”
I sputter so hard I nearly topple off the log, startling poor Alice. But holy shit. Holy freaking shit! “Are you serious? Drugs?”
“Yes. Drugs. Cocaine and ecstasy, to be exact.”
I laugh incredulously, my hand over my mouth as I stare wide-eyed out at the water. “Is he still in jail?” Because the thought of Ezra Earnheart in a LA jail… he’ll be someone’s bitch within five minutes.
“No. Alfie had his attorney bail him out after he was arraigned, so he only spent a few hours in jail. Ezra evidently swears it’s all bogus, that the drugs were planted, and that they have the wrong person. But he has to show up in court in a few weeks for it.”
Lenox. I mean, that’s what comes to mind. Did Lenox get Ezra arrested? Did he create bogus charges and have drugs planted in his car?
