Second Chance Summer(47)

Aidan felt his temper rise, but he reminded himself that’s what Hudson wanted. A diversion away from himself. He wasn’t going to get it. “This isn’t about saving you. It’s about Jacob.” Or it had been before he and Hud had provided the evening’s entertainment for the bar patrons. “We’ll find him and bring him home,” Aidan promised.

Hudson’s eyes darkened with his own temper that barely hid his grief. “And if we can’t?”

“We will.”

“What if we’re too late?”

“We won’t be,” Aidan said grimly, and prayed to God that would be true as he pulled out cash to cover their bill.

“I still want to knock your ass into next week,” Hudson said as he stood.

“Ditto,” Aidan assured him.

It was noon a few days later when Lily took a break from waxes and facials and hairdos for a quick escape to the back room that was office, staff room, and kitchen all in one. Gray must have approved the renovations she’d requested. They’d picked out paint colors and she was getting new shelving in as well. She’d been working on a new layout and, over a sandwich, she played with it some more on the computer. Then she checked her phone and found exactly zero emails—sigh—and a missed call from her mom that brought panic. She and her mom talked about once a month—unless there was an emergency. And as there’d been a few of those—Ashley, her dad—Lily still felt her heart drop whenever her mom showed up on her phone screen.

“Lily!” her mom said in delight when Lily rang her back. “Is that you?”

“Hi, Mom, yes it’s me. Are you all right?”

“Of course I am. Why do you ask me that every single time I call you?”

Lily let out a shaky breath and tried to calm her racing heart.

“Lily?”

“I don’t know,” she finally said, trying to channel Aidan and sound calm. “Force of habit?”

“Darling, it’s been ten years,” her mom said softly. “You’ve got to let it go. It’s okay to let it go.”

“I have,” Lily said. Lied. “Totally and completely. One hundred percent.”

“Do you mean one hundred percent minus one hundred percent?”

Lily let out a low laugh. “Let’s talk about you, okay? What are you up to?”

“Nice subject change. But because I’m in South Africa I’m going to allow it. Did you know they serve fried caterpillars and sheep heads here as a delicacy?”

“Yummy.” Lily still wasn’t used to the changes in her mom. Once upon a time, Donna Danville had been born and raised right here in Cedar Ridge, Colorado. She’d married and had two kids and worked just about 24/7 at Mt. Rose, never leaving the only town she knew and loved.

Until she’d lost half her family in the span of a single week from hell.

Lily and her mom had had many talks over the years about how Donna wanted Lily to let go of the past enough to move on. Lily always assured her she had, telling her she had a full and happy life in San Diego.

And most of the time Lily even believed her own lies.

Until she’d come back to Cedar Ridge.

Now she knew the truth. She hadn’t let go of the past at all. She’d buried it deep, let it take root, and had even secretly harbored it. “It’s good to talk to you, Mom.”

“Oh, darling, so good.” Over the air came the telltale sniff and Lily’s heart dropped.

“Mom, don’t cry.”

“It’s just so lovely to hear you.” She paused. “I’ve sent you something that I had pulled out of storage, I hope it won’t upset you. But it should arrive today and I wanted to give you a little heads-up about it so you aren’t surprised.”

“What is it?” Lily asked.

“A framed pic of you and Ashley on the mountain. And her favorite scarf. I thought you might want them there in Cedar Ridge. One to keep you warm on the outside, the other to keep you warm inside. In your heart.”

It took Lily a moment to answer because her throat clogged with emotion. She knew the scarf well, she’d been the one to give the baby-blue length of cashmere to Ashley on her seventeenth birthday—her last. “That’s sweet, Mom,” she finally managed, meaning it. “I’ll love them both, thank you.”

“Just do me one favor,” her mom said. “Promise me now that you’re back home, you won’t leave there until you forgive yourself.”

Lily closed her eyes. “Mom—”

“Promise me, Lily Ann, or I swear to you, I’m on the next plane. I’ll get all up in your grill and everything.”

Lily managed a laugh. “All up in my grill?”

“Yes. That’s what all the kids are saying now, right?”

Lily shook her head. “Fine, you win. But, Mom?”

“Yeah.”

“Stop streaming MTV.”

Lily was smiling when she disconnected and still smiling when a candy bar got waved beneath her nose.

Jonathan dropped it into her lap. “Nice to see you looking happy.”

Lily picked up the candy bar and felt her mouth water. “A bribe?”

“You know me so well.” Jonathan jerked his chin to the reception area. “Passing off another client to you.”