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Tessa wasn’t interested in trying to be friendly. What could she say? Of course she was sorry Jack died. His death had to have been horrible. She shivered, imagining that terrifying tumble off the ridge. But there was nothing she could do, no words she could speak, that would change things. On top of all that, she didn’t know what to say to Crystal. She slumped lower in the seat, hoping Jack’s sister wouldn’t see her. The interior of the car was muggy. Breathless. Tessa began to sweat as she stole a glance at Crystal. Jack’s sister was staring at her—through her—with an intensity that was downright scary. Christ, Crystal could give a person the willies. Nervously, Tessa reached for the cigarettes she had hidden in her purse. No, that wouldn’t do. Her mother didn’t know she smoked.
Couldn’t they just leave? Ever since Tessa had first started seeing Weston, she’d felt the daggers in Crystal’s dark gaze slice into her heart as she’d glared at Tessa, knew the Native American girl despised her, but that was just too bad. Crystal didn’t have any claim on Weston.
The trouble was, no one did.
The doors of the Mercedes opened again. Dominique slid behind the steering wheel next to Tessa. Miranda and Claire took their spots in the backseat. “I know this is a terrible loss for Ruby,” Dominique said as she dabbed her eyes with a twisted handkerchief, then found her keys in her purse. “Losing a child . . . well, there’s nothing worse.” Engines started and cars rolled past as Dominique turned the key in the ignition. “But, even though you’ve suffered a great loss, this is no time to make changes you might regret.” She nosed the Mercedes onto the narrow gravel road.
“What kind of changes?” Claire asked, and Tessa rolled her eyes. Who cared?
“Ruby quit,” Miranda said, and Dominique’s lips tightened.
“Quit?” Claire echoed.
“Well, I’m sure she’ll change her mind.” Dominique glanced in her rearview mirror. “She’s just upset right now. In a few weeks, when she’s dealt with her grief, she’ll realize that she needs the stability of working for us.” Sighing, Dominique adjusted the air-conditioning. “I was going to offer her a raise anyway; maybe that’ll change her mind.”
“I don’t think this is about money,” Claire ventured.
“Of course it isn’t. Not now, anyway, but once life settles down for the Songbirds, Ruby will have too much time on her hands. She’s still got a daughter to think about, and Crystal wants to go to college. That’s not cheap, you know.” She flipped on a blinker as they approached the highway. “Ruby will be back.”
Tessa didn’t really give a rip. Ruby was a pain in the neck, always bossing everyone around. Even though it was her job, it bugged Tessa that one of their employees, a servant, thought she could tell her what to do. In Tessa’s opinion, the family was better off without Ruby Songbird and her dark, condemning eyes. It was too bad about Jack, he seemed like an okay kind of guy, but Tessa’s life wasn’t going to alter just because he’d died.
“Oh, Lord. What now?” Dominique whispered, slamming on the brakes as a motorcycle whipped by. In a blur of black and silver, the bike and its rider sped onto the asphalt, ignoring the blast from a logging truck that was barreling south.
“Oh, God!” Claire cried, her hands flying to her face. “Kane—”
“Was that the Moran boy?” Dominique asked, a hand still over her heart. “I thought he had more sense than that, but then, why would he?”
“Meaning?” Claire asked, her eyes round.
Tessa watched their mother.
“No breeding in that hellion. His father’s a drunk, and his mother left him.” She checked the road again as she eased off the brake. “If he doesn’t watch out, he won’t live to see twenty.”
“Don’t even say that!” Claire stared after the disappearing motorcycle.
“Why do you care?” Tessa asked, her interest piqued.
“I don’t. I just know that he was a good friend of Jack Songbird.”
“Yeah? How do you know that?”
“I saw them hanging out together and . . .” Claire hesitated a second. “And he told me.”
“When?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You know him?” Tessa asked, incredulous. She twisted around in the front seat to stare into Claire’s pale face. What was going on here?
“Yeah.”
“How well?”
Claire locked gazes with her younger sister. “Well enough,” she said, and turned to look out the window again. “Well enough.”
Three days after Jack’s funeral, Miranda stared at the calendar. Something had to be wrong. She couldn’t be late. Couldn’t. She’d been careful. So had Hunter. Rarely had they made love without the use of a condom. But as she counted the days on the flat pages of the calendar and realized she wasn’t three days late with her period, but ten, she felt the truth hit her square in the gut: She was pregnant.
On trembling legs she sat in her desk chair. This couldn’t be happen
