Nine Lives (Lily Dale Mystery #1)(95)

Poised to go, Bella asks one last question. “How’s your mom, Luther?”

“She’s hanging on.”

As is he, Bella knows. Even at his age, even after so many years together, he’s not ready to say good-bye.

That’s how it is when you’re losing someone you love. You hang on tightly for as long as you can. Even when it’s time to let go.

“Oh, and Bella? Don’t say anything to Eleanor Pierson. They’re on their way to the house to talk to her.”

“I won’t.”

“Good. Go ahead. Go home.”

She takes off down the trail, his last words dogging her.

She wants to go home so badly that she’s almost running, despite her aching ankle.

Running . . .

It nurtures the heart and the soul.

So said Eleanor Pierson, quoting her husband, who possesses neither of those things. What if Bella hadn’t grasped the truth about heartless, soulless Steve Pierson?

What if she hadn’t interpreted that keychain as a sign?

Then I would have been blindsided. I wouldn’t have survived.

Just this morning, she’d been wondering how, if everything happens for a reason, that rare kitten had managed to wind up in her care. Now she knows.

Really? So you think it all comes down to something mystical?

What about instinct?

She’s a mother. She’s been relying on instinct from the moment Max was born.

Luther relies on it as a detective, along with good old-fashioned investigation.

Where is the line between instinct and magic?

One is based in science, and the other is . . .

I don’t know. Right now, I don’t know, and I don’t care.

She bursts out of the woods onto the field and sees Luther’s blue Jeep parked nearby. She should have asked him for the keys.

She’ll just have to keep going on foot.

Going home.





Chapter Twenty-One


Bella can hear the sirens falling away behind her as she races down narrow, muddy lanes, past rainbow houses washed clean beneath a chalky sky. She weaves around cars and pedestrians, splashes heedlessly into pothole puddles. The rain has stopped. The cool lake breeze is in her face and wind chimes tinkle pleasantly, dangling from gingerbread porches and leafy boughs in overcrowded gardens.

She reaches the auditorium. Its doors are propped open, people spilling forth to wander the streets once again. The ghost town has given way once again to the land of the living . . .

The living in search of the dead.

Bella, too, was searching when she arrived in Lily Dale.

But it wasn’t for someone she’s lost. She knows Sam is gone. He isn’t coming back. She’d like to believe he’s still out there somewhere. That he sent her that bluebell to let her know she isn’t alone. That he might even pop in sometime to say hello. But . . .

I won’t hold my breath for that.

It’s time to start breathing again. Time to let go.

She did come here searching for something she really can believe in. Something she’s lost, yes . . . but not someone.

She rounds the corner and sees the big lavender house.

Home.

Where, if not here? If not this house, this town . . . with these people?

They’re all there on the front steps: Max, Jiffy, Odelia, Pandora, even Grant, and . . . Doctor Bailey?

Max spots her. “Mom! Where did you go?”

She swallows hard and shakes her head mutely, aware that everyone’s eyes are on her. She grabs Max and hugs him.

“You’re squishing me, by the way!”

At last, she’s able to make a sound. Laughter.

She lets Max go and looks around at the others. “What are you guys doing here?”

“I was just stopping by for a spot of tea,” Pandora says.

Yeah. Sure she was.

Odelia is nodding. “And I saw her through the window and thought I’d come over and join you.”

No, she was keeping an eye on things, wary of Pandora.

As for Doctor Bailey—“I just wanted to check on the kittens and drop off more formula. I thought maybe you could use it. And I brought over that book about hand-rearing kittens. I forgot to give it to you. Oh, and a scale so that I can weigh them and make sure they’re eating enough. Especially our boy Spidey.”

“I didn’t realize you made house calls.”

“I don’t, usually. But I figured you might have your hands pretty full around here.”

“I do,” she admits, knowing he has his hands full as well. But today, dressed casually in jeans and a chambray button-down shirt, he seems much more relaxed than he did in his office.

She points him up the stairs to the Rose Room, telling him she’ll join him up there shortly. It’s almost time to feed the kitten again.

“Isn’t he a splendid chap?” Pandora asks when he’s gone.

They all agree that he is—even Odelia, who isn’t particularly prone to agree with anything Pandora says.

Grant merely fiddles with his car keys and says, “He’s all right.”

“Are you on your way out?” Bella asks him.

“I was just about to take my car through the car wash now that the rain has stopped.”

“Which seems like a waste of time and money to me,” Odelia puts in, “since the rain washes the car.”