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I help Jayne put away food. I give her the flowers and the card with the money and when she sees that, her mouth sets.
“To make up for the hours Ellie will miss.”
I know she’s got pride, and I appreciate it. She won’t like handouts.
She nods. “Thanks.”
“And you can blame Christian for all the food and the grocery delivery vouchers. Just go online, use the card and place the orders,” I say as I accept the cup of coffee from her. I turn the ceramic mug in my hands.
“Christian . . . he’s a good man, handsome too.”
I can feel my cheeks start to burn. Good is the last word I’d use for him. But I’m blushing over the meaning in her words, that he’s mine. And I can’t go and explain my way out of that one. “Family friend.”
“Uh huh.” She sighs. “This will help, thank you. I’ve arranged to take a little time off where I can, and we have good neighbors who can help with Petey.” Her gaze lifts to mine. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
“We’ll find out,” I say. “I promise.”
“She gets lost, but she’s been a little . . . distracted lately.”
Behind me, Christian asks, “Has Ellie been seeing someone?”
I didn’t hear him approach, and I turn, shooting him a filthy look, one he calmly ignores. Good man, my ass.
Jayne shakes her head. “No. And I would know.” She offers a tired smile. “I’m not in her business, but we live here together, and it’s hard to miss if an adult is out longer than they should be. She’s been trying to get her life back together. And until the last few weeks was doing well.”
“What happened?” I ask.
“Her ex. He called. Something about how he’s taking Pete. He does this from time to time, and no one’s going to give that drunk woman beater Petey. But Ellie gets down. She puts on a good show. She started spending more time by herself. Here. Not with men. She wants out of this place, this life, and Mia took her from a path that wasn’t leading anywhere good to one that gives Ellie a chance. And now . . . this . . .”
Christian comes close to me, brushing against me, his hand fleeting on my arm, and with that touch, the vice in my chest at her words about how Ellie has been treated, her fucking ex, it stops tightening.
But the burst of guilt that I was going to fire her? That’s still there.
He veers the chat to the hospital bill and says the De Luca family will take care of it as she’s an employee of mine and how it’s policy.
It isn’t. He just made that up.
When we leave, I’m silent, staring unseeingly out the window at the scenery flashing by.
Christian doesn’t say a word, and one glance at him shows his hard, set profile. Like he’s been carved from rock. And I don’t know what’s going on inside him.
But the car is so full of him, his presence, a latent heat in the air that somehow wraps about me, bringing both a strange comfort and a slightly unsettled feeling.
As we pull up in my drive, next to my car, he just says, “Not your fault, Mia, so cut the fucking bullshit roundabout of guilt going on inside your pretty head.”
And with that, he gets out and shuts his door.
I sit for a moment, breathing in, trying to get my emotions, and my thoughts in order. That little burst of guilt flares into anger, and I jump out of the car and stomp up to my porch, just as he comes out with a bottle and glasses. Bourbon.
“Sit.” He gestures at my wicker lounge chairs with the little table to the left as he sets down the glasses and fills them. “Now.”
I ignore him. It doesn’t help I love sitting out here when the weather is nice. It doesn’t help he seems to think he knows me. I throw myself down. “How dare you think you can read my mind.”
He sighs and sits, too, taking a sip of his drink. I snatch up the other one. “It’s not hard, Mia. You were quivering with guilt that doesn’t belong to you. What happened is notyour fault. None of it.”
I get the strangest feeling he’s not just talking about back at Ellie’s place.
“I was going to fire her.”
