Instinctively, Hawk held it for her, but he didn’t offer it for her arms to slip through until she scowled at him.
“Faye, come on,” he said, “you don’t have to go.”
“Yeah, Grammy, stay here. Eat with us.”
Grammy. He couldn’t believe his godmother was grandmother to the woman he’d been daydreaming about for days. There was something fairy tale-like about this whole situation.
“Nonsense,” Faye said. “You two enjoy yourselves. I’m perfectly capable of getting a sandwich on my own.” Faye was already halfway to the door. “See you two later,” she added, waving as she branched out into the afternoon.
Hawk continued staring dumbfounded, as though Faye really was a fairy who would reappear any moment. Of all the things he would have imagined when he’d gotten Faye’s text twenty minutes ago, this was not it.
“Sorry,” Ella began, rising to her feet with her fingertips splayed on the edge of the table. “She didn’t mention what she was up to. She invited me out to lunch and said she wanted to wait before ordering. I had no idea you already had plans to meet her.”
Hawk grinned in spite of himself. Good old Faye. He glanced at the door one last time before removing his suitcoat and settling it onto the back of the seat Faye vacated.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ella couldn’t believe Hawk was there. Grammy knew—she’d known the whole time, from the minute she’d invited Ella to meet her. What a sneaky thing to do. Then again, Grammy was all about surprises. And miracles. Maybe she thought she was working another miracle by arranging a time for Ella and Hawk to catch up.
“I’m glad you’re here, actually,” Hawk began. “I feel awful about the way I treated you.”
Did that mean he thought she was innocent? Ella couldn’t chance it. She had to say the words, to do everything she could to clear her name and ease his mind all at once.
“I don’t blame you,” Ella said. “But you have to know, I didn’t steal from you. I wouldn’t do that.”
“I know.”
Her brows leaped. She’d been ready for a full recourse, for total groveling if she had to. “You—you do?”
Ella could practically taste the anticipation seeping from him. His eyes were soft and reassuring, and they made hope shout from her heart. If it were anyone else, in any other circumstance, he might drag things out and tease her a bit, but not with something this serious.
“I received a visit from your stepsister,” he said.
The word stepsister was like a whip crack to an already wary lion. Ella went stiff.
“Pris?” Why would Pris go see him? Unless it was to further incriminate Ella with more lies.
“Charlotte, actually,” Hawk said.
Charlotte?
“It turns out she’d overheard a conversation between your stepmother and her daughter. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but they—”
“Set me up?” Ella suggested.
He nodded. “Yeah, they did. I’m so sorry.”
Ella had suspected it from the start, but it was quite another thing to hear it confirmed. And to hear it’d been Charlotte who’d come clean. During their interlude as supposed family, Charlotte had always remained on the sidelines in every scuffle that had happened between Ella and Pris.
“I’m not surprised it was them,” Ella said with honesty. “I am surprised Charlotte told you, though.”
“She was in tears about it,” he said. “She said she wanted to do the right thing, and so she confessed everything. Your stepsister’s jealousy, her desire to ensure you didn’t get in the way of her recent engagement. Even Stina’s desire to save face with your dad so she didn’t have to outright fire you.”
Pris’s stinging words from the ball reverberated in her mind. When she’d said she hated her, she’d really hated her. And Stina as well. Ella wasn’t sure why. Aside from the mix-up with Derek, she’d always done her best to get to know them, to get along with them. She was the type of person to find the good in every situation, including prickly people. What had she ever done to make them feel so harshly about her?
She couldn’t deny how much it hurt to hear the words. From Hawk Danielson, no less. Had her father known any of this?
“Unbelievable,” Ella said. “And yet, totally believable at the same time.”
Charlotte had been warming toward Ella for some time. Ella remembered the way she’d invited her to go dress shopping after work with her. It had been genuine after all. She took heart in that.
“I knew before she called, though. Ethan managed to find the faulty video feed and connect us with the original. Seems your stepmom and sister didn’t cover their tracks as well as they thought. We even found some deleted feed showing them in the process. Glancing over their shoulders, acting quite suspicious.”
“Did you call the police?” Ella asked.
He inclined his head. “I hope you don’t hold it against me. I had to do it.”
Something fluttered in her chest. “I’m glad you did,” she said. “I’ve always been afraid of Stina. Of Pris and even Charlotte. When my dad married Stina, they waltzed into our lives and I’m sorry to say, I just let them walk all over me. I don’t do well with confrontations.”
“It’s okay,” Hawk said, staring openly at her. After a brief pause, he went on. “I’ve been bewildered by something during all of this. And there’s something I think I’ve figured out.”
She wasn’t sure she could handle any more at this point. Stina and Pris had been arrested. Her name had been cleared. And he’d discovered something else?
Still, she brought herself to ask. “What’s that?”
“How anyone could know you at all and feel that way. Just shows poor character on their part, not yours. Ella, I’m so sorry I let the situation get to
