“What I’ve been through? What I’ve been through is my life. You’re trying to take away my whole life!”
He and Aunt Sondra had no reply. Raven could see by the grim looks on their faces that they would not allow her to return to Washington. But she couldn’t live with these odd people in this ugly house in the suburbs.
She turned to River. “Where is Ellis?”
He glanced at his father but said nothing.
“I know you know where she is. Tell me.”
Jonah said, “When she left, she made me sign a legal document that said I wouldn’t try to find her or contact her.”
“Why?” Raven asked.
“Because she was a very disturbed person,” Gram Bauhammer said. “She left you in a parking lot—that was why you were stolen. Has anyone told you that yet? Then she left her sons and never spoke to them again. Believe me when I say you want nothing to do with that woman.”
Jasper and River looked upset by her harsh words.
“Ellis Rosa Abbey lives in Florida,” River said abruptly. “She owns a business called Wild Wood Natives.”
“How do you know that?” Jonah asked.
“Well, Dad, it’s this thing called the internet.” He laughed at his father’s fury. “What, are you pissed that I found out for free? How much did you spend on private detectives to find her?”
“You knew where Mom was and never told me?” Jasper said.
“Dude, internet,” River said.
“I didn’t know her name to look her up,” Jasper said.
“And why is that?” River said. “Why didn’t we even know her name? Why did I have to dig through Dad’s papers in secret to find it? What bullshit is that?”
“She specified that she didn’t want contact,” Jonah said. “I was honoring her wishes.”
“But you knew?” Jasper asked his father. “Even those times I asked?”
Jonah looked haggard. “I didn’t at first. She completely disappeared for a long time. As River says, I had a private detective try to find her. Because I was afraid for her. You may not remember how she was when she left . . .”
“I do, and good riddance,” Gram Bauhammer muttered.
“Enough, Mom!” Jonah said. He said to Jasper, “When she bought property and started a business, she showed up in public records again.”
Raven didn’t like the constant tension and anger she felt in these people. She couldn’t live with them. And she had no interest in being with Aunt Sondra, who had caused so much pain in Mama’s life. Her only hope for an acceptable living situation was Ellis. A slim hope but better than none.
“I want to talk to Ellis,” Raven said.
“I can’t contact her to arrange that,” Jonah said. “Though I’m bound by my agreement to leave her alone, I’ve tried in recent years. I have a financial matter to discuss with her. But she has no email and doesn’t answer calls to the phone listed for her business. I tried sending something through the mail and never heard back.”
“How can she run a business without answering calls?” River asked.
“She must filter the calls, only answer the numbers she knows.”
“She’d lose customers if she did that,” River said.
“Your mother has never followed the usual rules of society.”
Raven was intrigued by this woman who’d divorced her family and society as Mama had. “Do you know her address?” she asked.
“There’s a business address for the plant nursery,” Jonah said.
“Then we can go there,” Raven said to her aunt.
“This doesn’t sound promising,” her aunt said. “She clearly wants no contact with her family.”
“I don’t care. I’m going.”
“And you expect me to take you?”
“If you don’t, I’ll get there on my own. I’m not staying here.”
“I’ll drive you down there,” River said.
“You will not!” his father said.
Raven sensed River had only been trying to stir trouble, but Aunt Sondra glanced at him uneasily. “I’ll take you,” she said. “But only if you promise to stay with your family after you’ve met her.”
Another promise that felt like being trapped in a cage. Just like Mama. Maybe she had learned to force promises on people from her elder sister.
“Do you promise?” Aunt Sondra said.
“I promise.”
2
ELLIS
Ellis helped Tom load the last of the potted Fakahatchee grasses into his truck. She stood back and surveyed the thicket of native plants in the dark cavern of the truck interior. She would send many more trees, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers with Tom and his landscaping crew in coming months. The plants were going to a new upscale subdivision, the largest order Wild Wood Natives had ever filled.
“Thanks for the help,” Tom said.
“Of course,” Ellis said.
“Damn, it’s hot,” he said. “More like August than April.” He lifted the bottom of his T-shirt to wipe his face, exposing his muscular stomach and chest.
Ellis turned away, filled a cup from his big thermos of cold water. She gulped the water so fast, it ran down her chin onto her sweaty T-shirt.
“I like a woman who knows how to drink.”
“Seems I don’t,” she said, wiping her chin.
He gestured at something behind her. “The ranger has perfect timing.”
Keith was walking over from the house, still in his uniform. Quercus III plodded behind him, tongue hanging.
“I came over to help,” Keith said.
“Too late,” Tom said. “Ellis does the work of two of my crew in half the time.”
Keith wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her.
Tom closed the truck and pulled out.
“Truthfully, I came over to kick his butt out of here,” Keith said, watching the truck turn out of the nursery.
Ellis snorted.
“Don’t say I’m imagining it. His flirting is too obvious.”
He wasn’t imagining it. But Ellis knew how to handle Tom.
“He’s a friendly guy,” she said.
“Too friendly.” Keith pulled her tight against his body. “And I can see why. You look damn sexy when you’re covered in dirt and sweat.”
She pressed harder against him. “I think you should come
