leaf skittered past. Samantha glanced behind her, as if she expected to see Sophie walking toward them. For some strange reason, the gesture made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“No, she didn’t come home. We’re not making this public, but Mother and I haven’t heard from her in weeks. And we need to find her. Mother is… She’s…” She reached up and began playing nervously with the buttons on her shirt. “Oh, you don’t care about all this.”
“Yes, I do. What about your mother?”
She looked at him with huge eyes, her fingers still picking at the top button. “She just found out she’s dying. It’s a brain tumor. Inoperable. Funny, I always thought that word was just too cliché. But it really means something. It means there’s no hope.”
“Oh, my God. Sam, I’m sorry.”
“No, you aren’t. She was terrible to you. She’s terrible to everyone. I’m the only one left now, though, and so I get it all.”
For a minute he thought Samantha might cry, too. She deserved to cry, with everything she’d been through—and all the heartbreak that undoubtedly lay ahead, as she nursed a dying mother.
But why bring her tears to him? Did she have no friends, no lover, no intimate of any kind? Surely she hadn’t kept her emotions bottled up for ten full years, waiting for him to materialize and listen?
Or maybe she’d done exactly that. God, these irrationally emotional Mellons! He was sorry for her. No wonder she was on such an emotional seesaw. But frankly, he just didn’t know if he could take it right now. Being with Jacob had sapped him of any strength he had possessed when he’d arrived.
“Sam, I’m sorry, but it’s been a long day, and I think I’d better—”
“I know. You’re tired. I shouldn’t have come. But there’s something else I have to tell you. I hope—hope you’re not staying long in Cathedral Cove.”
“Why?”
“That sounded rude, didn’t it? I didn’t mean it to be. It’s just that Mother is— She’s not herself. There’s no telling what she might say if she ran into you. And Sebastian is here, too, did you know that?”
“No, I didn’t. But so what?”
She tried to smile, but she was opening and shutting that top button repetitively, as if she couldn’t convince herself she had properly fixed it. The overall effect was extremely odd.
“Well,” she said finally, “it’s just that…if you think Mother hates you, you should hear the names Sebastian calls you.”
Tom stifled a yawn. Sebastian Mellon didn’t frighten him in the least. In fact, it might feel wonderful just to take the gloves off and have it out with that effete snob once and for all.
“I’d love to,” he said. “Send him over.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“BRIAN, STOP. I’d like to drive by Jacob’s house one more time, just to be sure he didn’t end up all alone.”
Kelly’s ex-husband, who was giving her a lift home from the dealership, where she’d just deposited her car for service—no one who knew Lillith was likely to postpone routine maintenance anymore—made an annoyed sound.
Even so, he obediently slowed the car and signaled for a right-hand turn.
“What’s the problem?” He glanced over at her. “I thought you said Beckham was keeping an eye on Jacob.”
“I think he is, but I just want to be sure. Tom is—” She was silent a moment, watching the commercial buildings give way to masonry cottages, and then to elegant brick houses with wide, well-manicured lawns. Jacob and Lillith had been able to buy in one of the best Cathedral Cove neighborhoods. Not the truly elite old-money enclave by the river, where the Mellons still reigned, but close enough.
“Tom is what?” Brian sounded grumpy. He had moved to Cathedral Cove and opened up his sporting-goods store only about six years ago, and, like many newcomers, he seemed to think the story of Sophie’s wedding was about seventy-five percent trashy fiction.
And even if it was true, his sympathies naturally lay with Tom Beckham—one, because Tom was just a regular guy, comparatively speaking, and two, because everyone knew those Mellons were a bunch of inbred freaks.
Kelly sighed. “Well, after what he did to Soph—”
“It was ten years ago, for God’s sake,” Brian broke in. “You don’t know what the guy is anymore.”
“Exactly,” she agreed, not in the mood to fight. Besides, Brian’s down-to-earth practicality had always been his most appealing quality. She had felt very comfortable, very safe, in the two years of their marriage. “He’s an unknown quantity. That’s why I want to check.”
“Fine. We’ll check.”
But when they got to Jacob’s street, she could immediately see Tom’s expensive silver sedan in the driveway. She knew it was his because it had been the only car remaining on the street when she had left Jacob’s house after doing the dishes. Also, it had Atlanta license plates, and it just screamed overpaid big-city lawyer.
Tom must have pulled it into the driveway sometime after she’d gone. That had a settled-in feeling, and she relaxed a little. Jacob was probably fine for tonight.
“I guess Tom did stay,” she said softly. “Good for him.”
“Of course he did,” Brian said. “Guys don’t walk out on their buddies.”
She glanced at him with a wry smile. “Just on their women? Well, you should know.”
“That’s right,” he responded archly, and she could see the white of his teeth as he grinned in the darkness. “Especially if their women are cold-hearted bitches.”
She chuckled. This was an old joke with them, as comfortable now as a well-worn sweater. After two years of a pleasant but fire-free marriage, Brian had confessed that he’d fallen in love with Marie Eller, his lovely, loyal accountant. Kelly had been sad but not quite heartbroken. She knew Brian deserved a passion she simply didn’t feel—and apparently Marie could give him that.
What she’d told Tom today was true. She and Brian had divorced without acrimony, and they’d never stopped being friends.
In fact, right now Marie was the one who was giving Brian a hard time. Last month, she had asked him to move out, telling him she needed “space” and time to think. He was pretty upset, but handling it in his usual sensible way, working hard and hoping for the best.
“Okay, boss-lady, now where? Shall we do the official Sophie’s Wedding World Tour? We’ve checked on the runaway groom. Shall we go by the House of Usher and see how the rest of the weirdos are doing?”
Kelly had heard people call Coeur Volé “the House of Usher” before. She supposed it was inevitable. The Mellons were reclusive, the structure was Gothic and Sophie’s story offered such great fodder for the imagination. But it always seemed a bit cruel to
