When he finally spoke, it was heart-breaking. “I don’t think there’s anything that anyone can do. Would it be alright if I came over?”
“Why?”
“To talk?”
“We’re talking now.” My words sounded too sharp. “When Cara wakes up, would you both like to come visit?”
“Of course. That would be . . . I just wanted to talk. About what she’s going through.” He sounded embarrassed and my face heated.
“You’re welcome to come! If you think she won’t mind . . . ?”
“She won’t mind. After we left, all she could talk about was how you believed her. She trusts you.” He cleared his throat. “Is now okay?”
“Um, sure. Are you familiar with River Road?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Are you coming down Sanders or off—”
“I’ll pull up directions online.”
“It’s—”
“Lila, I got it.”
It took me another second. The phone. I’d only kept the stupid landline so we’d have backup service in case all hell broke loose in a hurricane or something. It’d been so long since I’d seen a printed phone book that I’d forgotten listings included addresses.
“Property records are online, too. And there’s this thing called Google . . . ” He made a funny noise like he was trying to swallow a laugh.
“Good to know. I’m hanging up now.” Was it really that easy to find people? No wonder most of my junk mail was from security companies.
Exactly fifteen minutes later, I was sitting on the steps with two mugs of coffee beside me and a purring cat in my lap. Pebbles was an outdoor cat—too feisty for indoor living—although she did enjoy a good cheek rub. An elegant, slinky little black cat, no one would ever guess she was quite the lethal hunter. Copperheads, water moccasins—once she’d even cornered a three-foot alligator under a bush. I’d had to scootch her out of harm’s way before the confused ‘gator could figure out she wasn’t lethal to him—no matter what she thought.
Her purring ramped up a notch. Then, without warning, her ears pricked and she leapt from my lap to skitter off into the woods. A second later, I heard Adam’s truck, too. The big Ford bounced into my driveway and he got out grinning.
“Amazing!” he called up to me. “If it wasn’t for the internet and the miracle of satellites, I wouldn’t know anyone lived down here!”
“Did it take you the whole drive to come up with that?” My attempt at a glare lasted all of a second before I gestured for him to join me. “Eileen’s still asleep. Hope you don’t mind sitting out here.”
He climbed the stairs and accepted the mug I offered, settling himself at the other side of the steps, one lower than me, but angled so we could talk. We sipped our coffee amicably for a minute and then he spoke.
“Why do you believe her?”
Shit. I studied the way my coffee swirled in the mug before I answered, “I thought we were going to talk about what she’s going through.”
He grunted, and leaned forward to plunk his forearms on his knees, the mug choked in his big hands.
“Does it matter why? You believe her. Don’t you?”
“Of course I do!” His quick glare caught me by surprise.
“So why do you?”
He twisted, pulling one leg up and leaning back against the railing to face me. His eyes were considering, weighing. I mimicked his pose against the opposite railing and raised my eyebrow. I don’t know how long we might’ve sat like that, each too stubborn to talk, when I was distracted by an extraordinarily radiant angel appearing between us. As tiny as it was, it glinted like a mirror catching the sun, and I wondered if all the others were there too. The morning was bright in my eyes; maybe I just couldn’t see them in the direct light.
“We need to trust each other.”
My eyes flicked up to meet his. “I didn’t say I didn’t trust you.”
“You’re missing my point.”
“I . . . ” My head was shaking side-to-side, even as I tried to find the words to explain.
He gestured a surrender. “Fine. I’ll go first.”
“You don’t have to go first. This isn’t a game.”
“Of course it isn’t! Cara needs people she can count on and that means we need to trust each other.” He leaned toward me and the sun caught green flecks in his eyes, making them as electric and vivid as my angels. “Something’s going on here, and each of us needs to know all the pieces, so maybe one of us can put this puzzle together.”
I stiffened. “Is that what this is to you? A puzzle?”
“You don’t really think that?” He pulled back as if wounded and the angel flitted over to glimmer near his shoulder. It hurt to breathe around the ache in my chest, but I made myself, letting the cool morning air expand my lungs so I could push out what needed to be said.
“No, I don’t.” But that wasn’t enough, so I tried again, searching for the words to get us where we needed to be. “Look, you’ve been dealing with . . . this . . . for however long. You and Cara. You’ve talked about it, researched it—whatever. But for me, it’s new.
“And yes, I believe her. And I have my reasons, and I get that this is a puzzle you want to solve, but I’m not a piece of it. I’m just somebody who met a woman with a secret she has to keep from—well, from everyone—except for some reason she told me.
“I do believe her, and that should be enough.”
Instead of helping, my words were heavy in the air between us; and when the angel moved to his throat, mine tightened.
“Mom?”
Eileen was behind the screen door, her blonde curls tousled around her face, t-shirt and sweatpants rumpled from sleeping.
“Hey, sweetheart!” My forced cheerfulness was shrill, “All rested?”
“I could hear you talking.”
Shit. Shit. Shit. My teeth grabbed the inside of my cheek as I glanced at Adam. What exactly had we said?
“Hi, I’m Adam.” Clearly, he’d decided being nonchalant was the way to go.
“I’m Eileen.” She walked out and crossed
