“What in the world?” I take in a breath as I examine it.
“Well, looky there.” Carlotta gasps. “The Easter bunny has been very good to someone this year. I believe there was a mix-up with the baskets, Sexy. Hand it over.”
Everett and Noah exchange a hard glance and Noah doesn’t say a word.
“Noah?” I look over at him. “You know about this, don’t you?”
Carlotta clucks her tongue. “Did you get the wrong basket, too, Foxy? That one was meant for Lot.” She purses her lips my way. “Play along if you know what’s good for you, kid, and I just might split the take.”
“Nobody is taking anything,” I say as Everett lands his hand over the money. “How much is this? And I expect you to tell the truth.”
Everett takes a moment to glare at Carlotta.
“Twenty thousand.” He takes a deep breath as he looks to the parking lot. “We’re expecting a guest, Lemon, and I owe the driver money.”
“Where are they driving in from?” I balk. “The North Pole?”
Everett’s cheek flickers. “My guess is they came from Arizona.”
Carlotta jolts. “Well, I gotta run home.” She starts to take off and I pull her back.
“What do mean you have to run home? We live too far to walk. And you didn’t drive.”
“I’ll drive home on a sandwich,” she says in a panic.
“What?” I shake my head at her, trying to get a bead on why she’s so mixed up all of a sudden.
“I’ve got clouds in my pocket.” Her mouth opens as she looks to Everett. “I mean, I forgot to use mouthwash.” She looks my way. “If you remember anything about me, remember that I cared about oral hygiene.”
“Remember? What’s going on? Carlotta, why is your brain suddenly so deep-fried?” I ask as I look to the three of them. “Why are you all acting so squirrely? Did the three of you have cookie dough for breakfast again?”
My sisters and my mother head this way, along with Lyla Nell, but just as I’m about to greet them—or tell them to run from the lunacy that seems to be taking place among us—I spot a black truck stopping abruptly in front of us a few yards away in the parking lot. A woman darts out of it and makes a run for the woods. That wavy hair of hers, that all too familiar profile…
“It’s her,” I call out as I point that way and both Everett and Noah take off like a couple of bats in flight. It’s only then I realize Everett took the money right out of my hand before he zipped off.
Meg steps in close. “What’s Manny Moretti doing here?”
“Manny Moretti?” I follow her gaze, and sure enough, I recognize the son of a mobster with his dark hair and dark bruised-looking eyes as he walks casually toward the woods.
“What’s going on?” Lainey insists.
“I’d like to know that myself.”
“Well, folks”—Carlotta pats her stomach as she looks out at the lake—“I think it’s time I head out for a swim.”
“I’ve never seen you swim, Carlotta,” I tell her. “Why do I get the feeling you can’t?”
“Why do I get the feeling you’re right.” She tries to take off and I grab onto the back of her dress. “Fine, Lot,” she snips. “But just remember, you could have had me out of your hair. You asked for this. I won’t be held responsible for what happens next.”
Lyla Nell gurgles and vocalizes and it sounds as if she’s scolding her.
Carlotta rolls her eyes. “Now I gotta hear it from you, too, Little Yippy?”
Noah and Everett head back this way and all of us give a collective gasp.
The woman they went after looks to be in handcuffs and Noah is navigating her in this direction. Everett wanders over to Manny and drops that wad of cash into his hand and they seem to exchange a few words before they split ways. Manny jumps back into his truck and takes off, but Everett jogs over to Noah and the three of them—that mystery woman being the third person in this equation—make their way over at the very same time.
“Oh my goodness.” I can’t seem to catch my breath as I take the woman in. She looks to be my twin in every way with the exception of her hair being a touch darker, her eyes a shade lighter. She’s dressed in jeans and a light sweater and has her running shoes on as if she were about to make yet another escape.
“Who are you?” I shout right at her, unable to control my emotions. I have a feeling I already know the answer.
She tips her head back and looks right at me and a mild electrocution runs through me as she does it.
“My name is Carlotta Sawyer.” She sheds a short-lived smile before looking to Carlotta. “Isn’t that right, Mother?”
“Mother?” I pant as I look to the mother in question “Carlotta? Who is she? And why in the heck are there so many of us?”
It’s suddenly becoming apparent to me I’ve dragged my poor daughter into some Carlotta-based cult unbeknownst to her or me. Come to think of it, it’s not too late to change her name or mine.
“I’m your sister.” The woman shakes Noah off of her. “I’m one year younger. I go by Charlie.” She looks up at Noah and snarls, “Take these cuffs off me, or you’ll live to regret it.”
Noah glances my way and I nod for him to do it, but he hesitates.
“She could be dangerous, Lemon,” Everett says. “I didn’t want to worry you, but she was about to step into your room the night you gave birth. I caught her just as I was coming back to the room.”
Charlie twitches her nose his way. “The night you paid Manny ten grand to watch after your little brood?” She looks over at me. “Did you know that, Lottie? Your husband was paying a mobster to stop another mobster from killing him. Or was that a secret, Essex?”
Everett lifts his hands as if he wanted nothing to do with it. “That Essex thing never happened, Lemon.”
“Oh, relax,” she bites the words out. “Mommy Dearest told me all about your dirty nickname.” She squints over at me. “She told me all about everything as if she were recapping her favorite TV show.” She nods to my mother, her face still knotted up in anger. “You must be Miranda. My would-be mother.” Her lips tug down as she inspects my sisters. “And you’re Lainey,” she says. “I can tell because you look like Lottie, just the way my mother described.” She grunts over at Meg, and Meg grunts right back. “And you’re the reason I’m not a Lemon.”
“That’s right,” Carlotta says. “Now that the Charlie cat is out of the bag, you may as well know the rest of it. I came back to Honey Hollow to check on my Lot Lot and got myself knocked up all over again. I went back to Arizona, but I knew I couldn’t keep Charlie, so when the time came and I gave birth, I drove back with the intention of leaving her on the floor of the Honey Hollow Fire Department just like I did the first time. But I heard Joe talking to his buddies about how Miranda just had a newborn of her own. I couldn’t do that to you, Miranda. So I packed up Charlie, went back to Arizona, and raised Cha Cha, myself, the best I knew how.”
Charlie’s chest bounces. “She didn’t know how,” she spits the words out with a certain cruelty as she looks to Carlotta. “And then when Carlotta decided the time was right, she left me in Arizona.” I have a feeling she’s far more comfortable calling the woman who bore us Carlotta than she is Mom. “She took off in the night, leaving nothing but a note on her pillow. Oh, of course, she called. She gave a detailed account of life in fabled Honey Hollow, but she made it explicitly clear I wasn’t to come here. That I wasn’t welcome.”