THE KNIFE SLICEDinto hismedium-rare T-bone steak like butter, and he dipped the chunky, moist meat into his steak sauce. Heathcliff popped it into his mouth; the tender beef barely needed any chewing. Maureen pushed the pasta around her plate, her stomach recoiling at the thought of putting anything into her uneasy stomach.
“What’s going on with you today?” Heathcliff asked, as he took in another mouthful of steak.
“Oh, nothing. I don’t have much of an appetite,” she lied.
There was more going on, and he knew it by the look on her face. He remembered the same expression from a little while back, after Kayden and the crew busted her for her bad behavior. After swallowing, he placed the fork down.
“Maureen, this is me you’re talking to,” he blurted, getting pissed that she still thought she could bullshit him.
Maureen smiled at him the way she always did when she wanted to change the subject but couldn’t follow through. The smile faded as fast as it appeared. There was no use. He was onto her, and she was too burned out to craft a convincing lie.
“It’s Kimberly,” she admitted.
“What about her?”
“I went to see her,” she replied, waiting for him to blow a gasket at the table.
He took a deep breath, reached for his beer, and took a long swig. His appetite for the succulent dinner in front of him had gone.
“What possessed you to do that?” he asked before taking another chug.
“She called and said it was urgent. I was intrigued.”
“Intrigued? What could she possibly have to say to you that wouldintrigueyou?”
Seeing the way his body language had gone from relaxed to hunched, the way his eyes bored a hole in her face, and his forehead broke into a sweat, she knew telling him the truth would be foolish to do in public.
“She wanted to check on Kayden and apologize for what she did.”
“Really? She wanted to apologize, my ass. That girl almost cost your son and his fiancée their lives. Not to mention she put my career in the crosshairs with the Sheriff, and all she had to say was “I’m sorry?!”
His voice rose in the diner, and people started staring. Maureen opened her eyes wide, beckoning him to calm down. She placed her hand over his, and he stopped, his nostrils still flaring. The last thing she wanted to do was give people in town more to gossip about.
“I’m sorry,” he continued, “I don’t trust that girl for one minute, and I hope you’re not falling for this shit.”
“I’m not.”
“So why do you look like someone about to give her a pass?”
“I’m not. Lana lost the baby, Heathcliff.”
His mouth dropped open, and he reached across the table for her other hand.
“How is she?”
“Not good,” she spoke, unable to stop a tear from escaping and rolling down her face.
“I suppose not.”
“If I had just left them both alone the first time,noneof this would be happening.”
“You can’t start blaming yourself, and from the looks of it, Kim was already on the train to crazy town long before you took her under your wing. Don’t do that to yourself.”
Maureen nodded, but she knew better. She did bring this on her son, and what she was experiencing now wasn’t only guilt; it was fear. What she had to do to keep her secrets buried where they were would make an already impossible situation even worse. And for the first time, she could admit that if she lost her family forever because of her actions, it would be deserved.
HATTIE MAE SMITHbangedpots and pans around in the kitchen of her newly renovated diner as she talked a mile a minute about the day’s menu. Today, they were preparing for a big dinner rush, and the staff wasn’t moving fast enough for her. Lana could hear it all as she sat in a corner booth and stared out the panoramic window. Her cold chicken pot pie stared at her uneaten as her appetite had severely diminished. Usually, the ramblings of Aunt Mae had her in stitches, but she could barely get the corner of her mouth to lift in recent days.
Paula sipped on a cup of tea and had tried in vain to make small talk several times since they’d been seated. She didn’t know what to do to make anything better. She watched her friend sit and gaze out over the town streets as if it were the first time she had seen them. The puffiness in Lana’s eyes was a constant, since she hadn’t stopped crying since losing the baby earlier in the week.
