The two of them walked out of the observatory, and as soon as Fate closed the door, she whirled on Gaia. “I guess that truth spell Pan placed on you is gone now.”
“Thank goodness. Truth sucks. I had no idea the truth hurts so much.”
Fate rolled her eyes. “Now do you see what you do to othersall the friggin’ time?”
Gaia hung her head and looked contrite. “Yes. Fine. That’s all true. But I’ll have to contemplate that later. We need to get out of here.”
“Agreed. Let’s go back to that villa in Tuscany and finish our wine.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Gaia said.
But before the two of them disappeared off the California hilltop, Karma returned.
“What did you do with Pan?” Gaia asked.
Karma snickered. “I turned him full goat, and now he’s the mascot of a college football team called the Rams.”
Chapter 10
“She’s getting out,” Dawn yelled.
Luca rushed into the kitchen from the backyard. Glancing around the kitchen, he asked, “What? Where?”
“My mother’s getting out of prison!” She waved a letter.
“Oh.” He smiled. “I thought you’d trapped a mouse in a jar or something.”
She laughed as Luca threw his arms around her, giving her a warm hug.
“Really? Your mom is getting out of prison? When?”
“It will be in time for our wedding!” Dawn said. “She’s getting out in a couple of days.”
“If it’s an early release, she’ll probably be on probation in Boston. Sorry, babe. I don’t think she’ll be able to attend.”
Dawn stepped back and rested her hands on her hips. “She was released for good behavior, and she’s going to a halfway house—not back to the old neighborhood. How can you just dismiss the possibility? She’s my mother, and I want her at our wedding. If there’s any way…”
Looking at the ground, Luca shook his head. “I’m sorry, babe. I don’t think there is. Probation is all up to the judge. They can pretty much set the conditions any way they want. I doubt many of them would let her leave the state, never mind the mainland.”
“Then I’ll have to talk to the judge.”
“You’re going to call the judge in Boston from Puerto Rico and ask him to let your mother take a plane to a tropical island and promise to come back?”
Dawn gritted her teeth and tried not to spit out the angry words she was thinking. How could he not understand? She would do anything short of moving heaven and earth, and only because she didn’t have that power—but she knew people who did. “I’ve heard of convicts allowed to attend funerals. She’s out on good behavior. There must be some precedent? I know it sounds far-fetched, but I have to try.”
Luca looked at her gloomily. “Of course you can try. I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
“I can do my best. And if that doesn’t work, what if maybe you and I have our wedding in Boston? I would have waited to move here if I’d thought she could attend. My mom has been in prison for three years. I thought she was going to be there for five. Now she’ll be out in time.”
“I don’t know, babe. This is sort of a last-minute wrinkle. I’m not sure who to talk to about it. My brother wouldn’t be able to attend if it were in Boston, since everyone there thinks he’s dead. Maybe I can call up one of my old buddies in the Boston Police Department—not that I have a lot of them. Captain Moore was pretty cool. Maybe I can ask her what to do to get your mom down here.”
Dawn calmed down. She plodded over to their kitchen table and slumped down into a chair. “I know you’re right. I didn’t think it would be easy, but it would be so cool if we could have her here. Trying to relocate the whole wedding up to Boston at the last minute would be ridiculous. Unless…” Her face brightened.
“Uh-oh. I know that gleam in your eye. You’re getting some kind of idea.”
Dawn smiled sweetly at her fiancé. “What if we had two weddings? One up there and one down here?”
Luca scratched his head. “I don’t know… One of the weddings would be legal and one would just be for show. We only have one marriage license. And we’ll only be issued one marriage certificate.”
