“Oh my god,” Ellis said.
“Who is it?” Jasper asked.
“It’s Zane.”
“What the hell did you do?” Jasper whispered to River.
“I told him Ellis Abbey wanted to see him.”
“How did you find him?” Ellis asked.
“Facebook. He was the only Zane Waycott. He doesn’t live that far, in North Carolina. And he’s still a chef.”
“Why would you do this?” she asked.
“The way you talked about him, I assumed you needed closure.” His smile was spiteful. “It feels pretty weird to see someone who ghosted you a long time ago, doesn’t it?”
“You asshole!” Jasper hissed.
“If the sphincter fits . . . ,” River said. He stepped back on the porch, smiling, arms crossed over his chest as he watched Zane’s approach.
Zane walked as if in pain after the long drive. Age had made his face look harsher. Ellis remembered a softer look about him.
He stared at Raven as he came down the flagstone path. No doubt he saw Ellis’s youth in her face. “Ellis . . . ,” he said with apparent confusion. “I was told . . .” He looked at River. “Your son said you were dying and wanted to see me.”
“Zane . . . ,” Ellis said, walking to him. “It’s good to see you.”
“You too,” he said distractedly.
“I’m not dying,” she said.
“I see that.” He shot a look at River. “I was told you had only hours to live. He said you were desperate to see me.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ellis said. “My son is . . . having some problems.”
Zane strode toward River, his limp mostly gone. “What the hell is wrong with you? I’ve been driving all night!”
“You see?” River said to Ellis. “Now you know he really cares.”
Zane balled a fist. “If you weren’t her son . . .”
River looked about to go at it with him.
“Zane,” Ellis said, “please come inside.”
Zane and River continued to glower at each other.
“Come into the air-conditioning,” Ellis said. “Do you like iced tea?”
“Yeah, sounds good,” he said, averting his eyes from River.
Raven joined them, but Jasper dragged River away by his arm.
Ellis brought Zane iced tea in the living room.
“I’m truly sorry about what my son did,” Ellis said. “I had no idea he contacted you.”
“I can tell,” he said.
“Our family is going through some problems.”
“Is your husband here?”
“We’re divorced.”
He looked around. “This is nice. I imagined you living in a place like this. You used to go in that forest behind your mom’s place.”
“You called it the Wild Wood,” she said.
“I remember,” he said, smiling.
“I named my plant nursery Wild Wood after that place.”
He sat in the stuffed chair, studying Ellis. “You and I could always cut through the bullshit, right? What’s going on? Why did your son do this? There must be a reason.”
“The long answer would be way too much information. The short answer is, I mentioned you during a conversation a few days ago.”
“And . . . ?”
“He seemed to think I needed closure. At least that’s what he said.”
He gave Raven a look that indicated he’d rather not talk in front of her. But Raven stayed put. “I’m sorry I never came back,” he said to Ellis. “I always thought I would. Your mother was like an addiction. Bad for me, but I couldn’t stop.”
“I know.”
“When I finally broke free that last time, I knew I couldn’t go back or I’d get sucked in again. Somehow, I finally got the willpower to stay away.”
His words opened all the old wounds. He’d not once said anything about missing her.
“To make sure I never went back, I moved away,” he said.
“I know. Mom heard from someone.”
“I heard she died a few years later of an overdose.”
Ellis nodded.
“Where did you go?”
He didn’t know? He hadn’t cared enough to find out if she had a safe place to live?
“I went to live with her father in Youngstown.”
“Really? Him?”
“He wasn’t the evil person she’d made him out to be. She hated him because he cut her off when she got out of control. He was a really nice guy.”
“Figures. She always did exaggerate everything.”
“Are you married?” Ellis asked.
“For eighteen years.”
“Kids?”
“My wife had two kids from her first husband and didn’t want more. That was okay with me.” He picked up the iced tea and drank. “Is that other boy out there yours, too?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Raven. “And I don’t need to ask if this pretty lady is yours. You sure look like your mama. What’s your name, darlin’?”
“Raven,” she said.
“What are you, about seventeen?”
“Sixteen,” she said.
“Do you live here or with your dad?”
“That’s complicated,” Ellis cut in.
He nodded. He leaned in as if to say something confidential, though Raven was right there. “Your boy River. That one’s got more than a little of your mother in him, I think.”
How could he say that? How could he not know how much that would hurt her? Was his goodness something she had imagined all those years?
He leaned back in his chair. “Now that I’m here, there’s something I want to tell you. I felt bad about not letting you know before I left.”
Ellis couldn’t believe it. She would finally hear the words she’d craved all those years.
The front door opened. Jasper came in, River behind him.
“I’m sorry about what I did,” River said. He didn’t look sorry, and he glanced at Jasper with a slight smirk. His brother had somehow gotten him to apologize.
Jasper said, “When you leave, we’ll follow you out and buy you a tank of gas at the station down the road.”
More like Jonah would buy it when he paid Jasper’s credit card bill.
“Thank you, but not necessary,” Zane said.
“You’re also welcome to use the guesthouse to rest for a while,” Jasper said.
Zane grinned at Ellis. “Do I look that feeble nowadays?”
“You look good,” she said. “What were you going to say? You said you felt bad about not telling me something.”
“Right. About your father.”
She hadn’t expected anything about her father. When she was a girl, that topic had been so closed, her father may as well have
