Aisling’s frown deepened. “That’s her mother. She was a horrible woman. Honestly, it’s her fault Angelina turned out as obnoxious as she is. She never really had a chance.”
It was weird to hear Aisling take up for Angelina, even in a mild sense, but it was also nice.
“That’s terrible, but we’re looking for Adam Grimaldi,” Zoe prodded. “What do you see about him?”
“He’s over here.” I wandered through Angelina’s memory space and moved into the small spot where she kept her interactions with Adam. He stood in the center of a tiny closet and stared blankly into nothing. Everything surrounding him had to do with the party. Compared to the hodgepodge of Angelina’s other memories, the space was almost brutally clean.
“What do you have?” Zoe prodded.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“There’s nothing out of the ordinary here ... except for the fact that everything surrounding Adam in Angelina’s head is too shiny.”
“What does that mean?” Aisling queried. “Is she even dumber than we thought?”
“No, it means somebody messed with her memories.”
“But why?”
“Probably because Grimaldi figured we would do this,” Zoe volunteered. “We should’ve dived in when she first brought the invitation. Now we can’t know if he modified her memory before or after that meeting.”
“He probably went in to see what she thought about us, too,” I noted.
Aisling’s eyes widened. “Wait ... can you go into her head and see what her memories of me look like? I bet that would be fun.”
“I can, but it’s generally frowned upon.”
“That doesn’t bother me.”
I glanced at Zoe, hopeful. I was in no mood to involve myself in a twenty-year-old sniping contest. “You want to leave, right?”
She shrugged. “Five minutes of poking around can’t hurt.”
Ugh. That was not what I wanted to hear. Apparently Zoe and Aisling were a bad influence on each other. I should’ve seen that coming. Still, I gave in. “Okay, but only five minutes.”
Aisling hopped from one foot to the other, excited. “It’s going to be like a compilation of my greatest hits. I can’t wait.”
Twenty-Three
“My room was the biggest one in her head,” Aisling proudly announced as we settled around the table for dinner that night. She’d been riding high for hours, which meant she refused to shut up. “Izzy said there were hundreds of memories in there.”
“And I bet you looked good in all of them, baby,” Griffin reassured her, dropping a kiss on her head as he pushed her chair in to get her settled.
“Oh, no.” Aisling shook her head. “I look like a righteous jerk in all of them. I couldn’t see or anything, but Izzy described them to me. In her head, I’m the bad guy.”
Griffin’s expression was hard to read as he got comfortable next to his wife. “Do you think that’s odd?” he asked finally.
“Of course I think it’s odd. She was obviously the bad guy in our relationship.”
“Yeah, but ... .” Griffin shifted his eyes to Cormack.
“You’re on your own,” Cormack offered as he placed Lily on his lap and glanced around the table, his forehead creasing after a beat. “There’s nothing here Lily can eat.”
“She’s not supposed to be eating real food anyway,” Aisling pointed out. “Although, the doctor did say she’s old enough to start mixing in some baby food.”
“Really?” Cormack brightened at the suggestion. “That sounds fun. What sort of baby food should we get? I’ve read there are local places that make organic baby food. Maybe we should look into one of those.”
Aisling blinked several times in rapid succession and then flicked her eyes to Griffin. “Um ... I was thinking Griffin and I would have that discussion as soon as this most recent catastrophe is behind us.”
“I don’t see why we can’t discuss it now,” Cormack countered, giving Sami a smile as the girl plopped down next to him. “What sort of baby food Lily gets to eat isn’t going to change the course of our revenant fight.”
“No,” Aisling agreed, although she looked distinctly uncomfortable.
Braden was the one who pointed out the obvious problem. “I think Aisling is saying that she and Griffin want to research the best food for Lily and decide what to get her.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Yes, but they want to decide together,” Braden pressed. “Just the two of them. You know, because they’re her parents.”
Cormack was silent for a beat and when he finally spoke it cracked my heart. “Oh.”
“You can have an opinion,” Aisling offered hurriedly. “I mean ... you take care of her more than we do sometimes.”
Griffin shot his wife a quelling look. “I thought we talked about this.” He was firm. “You can’t always cede every decision to your father.”
“I’m not ceding every decision,” Aisling groused. “I’m just asking for help on this one. I can barely feed myself. I mean, I looked in the baby food aisle when I was there getting formula the other day. Do you know how many different types they have? Flavors? I bet they’re all gross, too.”
Her reaction was enough to make Cormack smile. “I think Griffin is right. You guys need to make this decision on your own. Whatever you choose, I’ll abide by it.”
“Says the guy who gave Lily so much sugar she was bouncing off the walls at her doctor’s visit the other day,” Griffin muttered.
Cormack straightened. “That was an accident.”
“We told you to stop doing it.”
“I ... .” Cormack glanced between faces, clearly conflicted. Ultimately, he held up his hands. “That was probably wrong,” he conceded. “She’s just so cute.”
“She is,” Griffin agreed. “I’m guilty of spoiling her, too. The thing is, Aisling and I have been talking, and we don’t want her to grow into a tyrant.”
“Actually, that was your concern,” Aisling countered. “I was a tiny tyrant and it worked out well for me.”
“No, you lucked out and somehow stumbled across the most patient man in the world when you married me,” Griffin countered. “Lily might not be that lucky. Besides, your father is way more indulgent with her than he is with you. He
