“Don’t you turn your back on me, you ungrateful little shit!” Jane yelled at her. “I’m your mother!”
Mia swung around. For the first time in her life, she told the woman who’d birthed her exactly what she thought.
“No, you aren’t,” she hissed, fully aware she was crossing a bridge and burning it behind her. “You never have been. I had nannies and housekeepers who showed me more affection than you ever did. Granny Susan, rest her soul, was the one who raised me. She was the one who loved me.” She hated that her voice caught on a sob. “If anyone was ever my mother, it washer!”
“How was I supposed to love you after what you did?” Jane seethed.
Her mother’s words ripped at the tattered remains of Mia’s already shredded spirit. “I don’t expect you to forgive me for anything. But I’m not the only one to blame for what happened to Andy. What about your role, Mother?”
Jane’s eyes narrowed to bare slits. “What do you meanmyrole? I never did anything to Andy!” she screeched her protest.
Before Mia could sputter a response, their waiter scurried over, looking scandalized. Gene and Georgetti’s was a classy place, and they expected their clientele to act accordingly. “Ladies!” he hissed. “Might I suggest you take this outside?”
“No.” Mia lifted a shaky hand. “I’m done.” She turned away before Jane could see the tears standing in her eyes.
“I’ll take a glass of Chardonnay. And make it a big one,” Mia heard her mother tell the waiter as she made her way to Gene and Georgetti’s front door.
Her phone chimed, dragging her out of the horrible memory.
Carter: Still there?
Mia: Yeah. Sorry. Got distracted. Need to head to airport now. Take care.
Turning off her alerts because she didn’t have the mental or emotional energy to answer Carter’s question about making a trip to Chicago should he decide to reiterate it, she looked up from her phone to see Romeo and Doc still trading barbs.
“Isaid,” Romeo stressed, “you have a face that would make onions cry.”
“You don’t have to repeat yourself, I ignored you the first time,” Doc came back. “I was just being quiet because I was visualizing the duct tape I’d like to slap over your mouth.”
Mia saw Romeo’s shoulders quake and then both men were laughing and embracing, whacking each other on the back with hard blows that made her wince even as they made her smile.
After briefly falling into the rabbit hole that was the dysfunction of her family, it felt good to emerge back into a world where people were kind and honorable and loved each other freely.
When the men broke apart, Doc punched Romeo on the shoulder. “Now, hurry up. We’ve got cabs waiting to take us to the airport.”
Romeo turned to Mia. “Meet you in the lobby in five?”
She nodded and hopped out of bed, needing to repack her toiletries into her overnight bag, and maybe,hopefully,steal away thirty seconds to do a quick pass over her teeth with her toothbrush.
After Romeo disappeared into the hall, headed for his own room, Doc stayed rooted in the doorway. She stopped on her way to the bathroom to tilt her head at the mountain of a man. “Something on your mind, Doc?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, and she could feel him studying her from behind the opaque lenses of his sunglasses. “Romeo speaks three languages,” he said slowly. “And one of them is seduction. Problem is, sometimes he doesn’t know he’s speaking it. You take care of yourself. Okay, honey pie?”
If anyone else had used the endearment, Mia would have told him to take hishoney pieand shove it straight up his misogynistic ass. But when Doc used it, it didn’t feel condescending. Somehow—maybe it was Doc’s tone or the concerned look on his face—it felt kind.
“Don’t worry about me,” she told him. “Romeo and I are just friends.”
Even as she said the words, she wasn’t sure who she was trying to convince more. Doc? Or herself?
Chapter 3
10:52 AM...
“When are you going to invitemefor a story time, huh?”
Romeo was in the middle of circling his pride and joy, the de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter, doing his pre-flight exterior inspection when he heard Doc ask the question. A quick peek under the belly of the plane showed Doc had an arm around Mia’s shoulders. The sea breeze ruffled the big man’s head of thick, messy hair. And there was a wry smile stretched wide over his scraggly face.
“You haven’t read the first six books in the series. You can’t jump in on book seven. You’d be completely lost.” Mia beamed up at Doc.
