Part 20 (1/2)

”I was surprised to hear that Jess was down here. There are a lot of ways to describe her, but 'devout' isn't really a word that would spring immediately to my mind.”

”She had a few things on her mind. I guess she thought I might understand better than some people.”

”I'm sure that's true,” Mike said. ”I know she was grateful to you for coming to the rescue.”

”I don't know why she would be. I just followed you out there, and I was totally ready to believe it when Adam said she was a criminal who would double-cross her own grandfather and parents,” Lindsay said. ”I was pretty useless.” This seemed to Lindsay to be yet another instance of her getting credit where none was deserved or wanted.

”Stop beating yourself up,” Mike said. ”You were right to suspect she was up to something. You just didn't know what.”

Lindsay had had about a thousand versions of this conversation with her friends and family since the events of that night. Simmy had been especially patient in listening to Lindsay's circular ruminations and keeping her from getting too caught up in her dark thoughts.

”So, you're back to work. How are things going with you?” Mike asked.

”Good. Dunette's been a star. She took me and Simmy to our physical therapy appointments when my knee was all messed up, walked Kipper, just everything. She lets Simmy experiment on her with beauty products, and she doesn't seem to mind being subjected to whatever crystals or chanting or bitter herbal teas or heaven knows what Simmy's dabbling in from week to week.”

”She's a pretty amazing person,” Mike agreed.

”I don't know what we would've done without her, and I don't know what Simmy's going to do when she starts nursing school in the fall. But Simmy's health is so much better now that we can't really justify having her there so often. She's got her own life to live, too.”

The truth was that the little household they had formed had kept Lindsay sane over the previous weeks. The cheerful banter of Simmy and Dunette, coupled with Kipper's solid, rea.s.suring presence, had been like a layer of insulation, muting the menacing noise of the outside world and quieting the even more destructive voices inside her own brain. Somehow, just having Kipper, Dunette, and Simmy around had managed to s.h.i.+eld her from the trauma she had experienced and keep her from shutting down again.

”Yeah, last time I saw Dunette, she mentioned something about Angel urgently needing her help?” Mike said, raising an eyebrow.

Lindsay laughed. ”Angel convinced her to join the choir at her church. She's got her eye on one of the tenors, but apparently one of the other altos is trying to beat her to him. She needs Dunette as her wing-woman.”

”Ah, yes. Sounds like a matter of national importance.” His face softened. ”I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately,” he said. ”Owen doesn't show it, but he was really shaken by what happened. He needed me.”

”You don't need to apologize. He's your son. Of course you had to make sure he was okay,” Lindsay said.

Although she could barely admit it to herself, she had been acutely aware of Mike's sudden near-absence from her life. It seemed like suddenly everyone else had someone who ranked above her in their priorities. Rob had always had John, but now Anna had Drew, and her father had Teresa. Even Simmy and Dunette had formed a bond separate from Lindsay. And Warren? Who knew where she ranked in his list of priorities? Probably somewhere just below flossing. Although it was only natural that she shouldn't be the center of everyone's world, she wished she would at least be at the center of someone's.

When she thought of Warren, she remembered how he had been the one to drive her back from Robeson County. There were only two seats in Mike's plane, and he'd flown back with Owen the morning after their ordeal. During that whole long drive, she and Warren had avoided talking about anything serious, instead keeping the conversation incongruously light. They joked about becoming stepsiblings if Jonah followed through on his plan to propose to Teresa, and speculated about whether Gibb would remain such a henpecked husband now that he was being celebrated as a bona fide action hero. It was as if they were both skating quickly across thin ice, afraid that any slowing of forward momentum would cause them to crash through into the frigid lake that lay beneath.

Over the weeks that followed, Warren visited Lindsay occasionally, bringing updates about the case. The visits had been brief and cordial, with no indication on his part that he'd pledged his undying love to Lindsay over meatb.a.l.l.s marinara at the Mex-Itali only a few months before. At times, she wanted to scream at him, to ask him how he could just sit at her kitchen table and pet Kipper and nibble Chex Mix as if they'd always just been good buddies. Didn't he want to come to her rescue and hold her tight against his chest, the way he had done so many times? Couldn't he still feel the buzz of energy in her presence that Lindsay felt in his? Or had he simply pulled the kill switch and shut off the current that used to flow between them? In the end, she said none of these things. She, too, sat across from him like an old friend, cordially eating Chex Mix.

Mike interrupted her thoughts of Warren, saying, ”I've also been working on a mediated settlement for the Boughtflower money. I think I've finally gotten everyone to agree that we'll create a trust for Jess's education and medical expenses, and that the rest will be invested in community projects in Robeson County.”

”That's great,” she said. ”How did you manage to convince Yancy?”

Mike blushed, his eyes dropping to the floor. ”Um, I gave him my plane.”

”You what?!”

”Don't tell anyone, okay? He didn't seem like he was going to budge, and I really didn't think it would be good for anybody for this to go to trial. At one of our pretrial meetings, I overheard him mention to his lawyer that he always wanted to fly. So, I said I'd give him my plane and pay for him to take flying lessons if he would agree to drop his claim on the money. He knew from the beginning that his chances of winning were really slim, so he decided to take the sure thing and agree to my proposal.”

”So you just bribed him with your plane?”

Mike shrugged. ”I'd kind of outgrown it, anyway. I think I need something bigger. Maybe a four-seater. Then we could all go for rides together. Or maybe a six-seater, so there'd be room for Kipper and Simmy.”

”You've got big plans, huh?”

He pushed the chapel door open and smiled at her. ”I always have big plans.” He paused as she pa.s.sed close to him. ”Did you do something different to your face?”

”Simmy tried out some new lip gloss on me and Dunette.”

”I like it. It's really sparkly. Your lips look like the lips on one of those weird dolls all the good moms won't let their daughters play with.”