“Breakups suck, bro,” Cooper says. “Maybe a new girlfriend is what you need to get over her.”
“Maybe I don’t want to get over her.” Jack’s voice is quiet. “At least not yet.”
Chapter Five
Back at the Big House, we haul in Dad’s supplies. Something smashes down the hall.
Tensing, Cooper shoots me a look. Without a word, he gently sets down his can of joint compound. Following his lead, Jack and I place our bags on the ground.
Another crash sounds, followed by a yelp.
Jack rakes his fingers through his thick, black hair. “Aw, man. Now what?”
Together we creep through the foyer, past the library. Another bang, followed by a
We stop short.
“What the—” Jack’s jaw drops.
Missy is trashing the place. Standing on a stepladder in her spiky heels, she yanks books from the wall- length case in a frenzy, tossing them blindly behind her into the middle of the room. Each leather-bound volume lands with a
But that’s not the only damage. The sofas have been stripped of their cushions, which are scattered around the room, their zippers ripped open and batting yanked out. Window fixtures hang cockeyed as if wrenched from the wall and the drapes lie in heaps on the floor. Every desk and side table drawer has been pulled free, their contents upended.
Cooper rushes to her. “Missy! What are you doing?”
She turns to him, her shiny blue eyes crazed and glossy. “Get out of here!” Her normally silky platinum hair is wild and frayed and looks remarkably like a bird nest. Pink lipstick is smeared across her mouth, the bright color extending beyond her lip line.
“No. This is my house, too.”
“I’m the Mistress of the Plantation, and what I say goes!” Her voice is shrill. With a grunt, she reaches for another volume and flings it. It soars across the room, bounces off a disemboweled throw pillow, and plunks against the sideboard along the wall.
“Please get down before you get hurt.” Cooper’s voice is soft but stern as he reaches up to clasp her arm.
“Don’t touch me!” She glares and jerks away, shifting her weight and wobbling the stepladder. Off balance, she overcorrects and tips forward, then topples to the ground. Jack and I sprint forward. She wails. “See what you made me do?”
Cooper’s eyes stretch wide. “I tried to
Despite the anger in his gaze, he reaches his hand to lift her up.
And that’s why I love Cooper Beaumont. As wretched as Missy has been to him, and as much as I know he detests her, he still manages to be compassionate.
Swatting him away, she scrambles off the floor, then rubs her butt and elbow. “I don’t need your help. It’s not like y’all can find what I need anyway.” Her lips twist into a sneer as she turns her back and rummages through a cabinet beneath the built-in bookcase.
“Could we try?” Though as I survey the wreckage, I’m not sure where to start.
“No thanks, Edith,” she says, calling me the wrong name as usual. “I’ll handle it myself. Can’t trust anybody to do anything right around here.” She yanks a stack of folders from the cabinet and tosses them aside.
Jack grinds his teeth as he flashes me a look. We both know who really runs this place and it’s definitely not Missy. He’s somewhere in this house no doubt fixing another of her messes. But pointing that out would cause Dad more trouble than it’s worth.
“Why are you tearing everything apart?” Cooper asks.
Crawling away from the now-empty cabinet, she moves on to the next. “That’s none of your business.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. These are my family’s things. Some of them antiques that stretch back centuries.” He stoops to pick up a jagged piece of an old brown spirits bottle that used to sit on the shelf. “You broke this. And I want to know why.” His words are hard and laced with bitterness.
She wheels around and stands, her hands planted on her hips. “Isn’t it obvious?”
Cooper’s eyes meet mine. I shrug. Jack does the same.
Cooper shakes his head. “No.”
“Duh, I’m looking for something. But seeing as it’s not here, it must be somewhere else in this house.”
I can’t help but feel bad. She must be looking for the ruby necklace, a hunk of which is nestled in my pocket. Though not bad enough to tell her what happened. Jack raises one eyebrow and smirks, clueing me into the fact he’s thinking the exact same thing.
She wipes her hands and tiptoes over the carnage, making her way to the double French doors.
“Aren’t you going to clean this up?” Cooper’s brows pinch.
She flicks her gaze at Jack and me. “Isn’t that what your little friends are for?”
Jack shakes his head. “Actually, no.”
Missy’s stilettos freeze in their tracks. Spinning, she paces toward my brother, stopping only when she’s right under his nose. Though he’s at least eight inches taller, thanks to her supersized platform heels, she’s almost able to look him in the eye.
“What did you say?” Her voice is laced with menace.
I bite my tongue, knowing that nothing good can come from getting involved. If anything, it’ll only make matters worse.
Jack tilts his gaze to meet hers. “I don’t work for you so you can’t order me around.”
Her lips part, curling up at the side. “But your daddy does. And your daddy’s daddy worked for the Beaumonts, just like your great-granddaddy. So really, it’s just a matter of time, isn’t it, Johnny-boy? So clean up this mess. Now.” She pokes an acrylic fingernail into my brother’s chest.
Jack’s nostrils flare and his clenched jaw ticks.
Cooper lurches forward, wedging himself between Jack and Missy, forcing Jack back a few steps. Looming over his stepmother, both in height and heft, he says, “Let’s get something straight. Jack’s my best friend, not my employee.” He glances over his shoulder and gestures to Jack, whose face is still flushed crimson, to stand down.
Jack draws a deep breath and obeys, stepping back several strides before tripping and collapsing on a cushion-less sofa fame. I scurry over the piles of debris to join him, eager to offer at least some silent support. There, I grab his hand and squeeze tight. It takes several seconds, but he reluctantly grips me back.
Cooper’s face softens as he turns back to Missy. “Listen, we didn’t come here to give you a hard time.”
“Really? You could have fooled me. Now make yourselves useful while I go find that good-for-nothing caretaker.” She pushes past Cooper and climbs over the rest of the junk she’s strewn over the floor.
Chapter Six
I pull back a cluster of leathery bearberry and snip an extra-fat handful of the bright green stems, dropping them in my sweetgrass gathering basket. After the supreme weirdness with Missy and Beau, Miss Delia’s garden is the perfect refuge, a quiet place to breathe in the fresh, raw scent of nature. It would make an ideal subject for an impressionistic painting, with tiny globs of vibrant color standing in for the myriad flowers and plants that fill this little slice of Eden. If only I had the time. For the last several days, rather than breaking out my travel easel and
