Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(131)
“Fuck you, Show.” She pushed off the wall and turned for her door, but his enormous hand wrapped around her arm, and he pulled her around.
“I made a promise.” He gritted the words out. “I promised him I would take care of his family. I keep my f*cking promises. And you are going to wither and die, you and the kids, Isaac’s kids, if you don’t come back to the people who understand. You can’t spend the next six years on your own, Lilli. I see what you’re doing. Pulling up the drawbridge. Fuck that.”
Furious and again on the verge of tears—she spent every goddamn, motherf*cking minute of her empty f*cking life on the verge of tears now—she yanked hard on her arm, but he only clamped down more tightly. So she twisted, trying to dislodge him and get his arm behind his back. He anticipated her with a grim laugh, and she ended up caught in a bear hug instead.
“I know you by now, girl. And you’ve lost your edge. But I’ll spar if you want.”
“Dammit, Show.” But there was no fire in the words. Instead, tucked firmly to his chest, Lilli just gave up. He held her while she cried. She cried a lot these days, but this was the first time she’d done it where someone could see.
X
The 79th Day
Shannon knew how to throw a party, that was a certainty. She was really in her element when she had an event to plan, and Lilli thought she’d outdone herself for the reopening of the B&B. The whole town came out, and a crowd of people from well beyond. Press had shown up, too—reporters from Springfield and St. Louis, one with a camera crew. And a national travel magazine sent somebody. There was a story to be found in the B&B that had risen up twice from the ashes.
Lilli was suspicious of reporters and cameras, so she made herself as scarce as was possible and left Shannon to do what she did best. There was a ribbon-cutting, and the guests who had booked the first room got the honors. There was food and music on the front grounds. Badger was running trail rides.
Adrienne—looking sweet and glowy with her little belly, dressed in the kind of bright, boho chic ensemble that was her signature style—gave guided tours of the reborn facility and grounds.
Lilli’s English garden, and the arts-and-crafts gazebo Isaac had built with his own hands, had been destroyed in the fire. She hadn’t found the will this spring to replant the garden, so they’d had a professional landscaper do it. And now there was a generic, violently typical white gazebo in its center.
She avoided going back there.
The day was a great success. It was only early April, but the B&B was booked weekends through the summer, and weekdays were starting to fill up a little, too. They were light on weddings; few brides wanted to commit their special day to a facility that hadn’t been up and running yet. Now that they were, the fall wedding bookings were starting. And Shannon was confident that they’d get enough late-planners and last-minute-panickers to fill out the summer enough, too.
Standing on the porch, Lilli figured there was probably no sign of the destruction this earth had seen.
But she saw it everywhere. In the simple difference of the building. In the rigid perfection of the landscaping. Everywhere.
The kids were down at the corral with Badger, looking at the horses. She decided that she’d done enough socializing, had fulfilled her obligations as owner of the property, and could take her kids and go home to some peace and quiet. But then Shannon was at her side. “Sneak back to the kitchen for a cup of coffee with me?”
“Oh. Sorry, Shan. I was just thinking about getting the kids home. It’s been a tiring day for them.”
“Lilli. Just a cup. Come on.” Her friend took her hand. “I miss you.”
She looked across the grounds and saw Badger had Toby tied at a post and was lifting Gia onto a stepstool so she could brush him. Bo was throwing a stick for Weasel.
“Okay.”
X
The 180th Day
“I can’t go this weekend.” Tasha poured milk into her coffee and then pushed the little pitcher across the table to Lilli.
“What? Why?” Lilli added milk to her cup and then pulled three packets of sugar out of the tin next to the napkin dispenser. A couple of months earlier, as Lilli had started to peek out of the hole she’d made herself, she and Tasha had started meeting twice a week at Marie’s for coffee, and sometimes pie. Even on a hot July day like this, coffee and pie was a nice combination.
“I just saw Tiffany Knox this morning. She’s got an infection and is running a high fever. I need to make sure she’s responding to the antibiotics I prescribed. She’s only eight months old, and she’s not a strong little girl. I need to stay close.”
Tiffany Knox was Jerri Rae Knox’s baby girl. Lilli shook her head. Jerri Rae had been a club girl for a few years, before she’d strayed from the club and gotten herself knocked up. Now, she was living where she’d grown up, with her grandfather, her mother, and her little girl, all of them living on one kind of assistance or another. Lilli hadn’t bothered herself much with the club girls, at least not in their capacity as available * or in their drama-filled troubles—Len had had far more patience for all that nonsense than she had. But she’d gotten to know them all when she was running the clubhouse. Jerri Rae was sweet, but she was dim as a sooty lantern. She’d tried to get Badger in some trouble, which hadn’t endeared her to anybody who could help her.