“That left me with only one suspect. My mother. I knew she’d been upset with me for losing Cruz. She was livid and beside herself when I told her we broke up. And then when the rumor you and he were together hit her ears, she lost it completely. She had the motive, the passion, and the proximity to me to pull it off. So I went to confront her yesterday.”
My stomach rolled all of a sudden. Mrs. Holland was insane. She’d basically poisoned her daughter. Put her life at risk.
And for what?
The town’s hottest bachelor?
As much as I mourned the problematic relationship with my own mother, I was pretty sure she was above trying to kill me to make a point.
Ninety-six percent sure, anyway.
“What’d she say?” I managed.
“She said, and it’s a quote—‘Nothing happened to you, though, did it? Now why don’t you go back to Dr. Costello and try to seduce him the old-fashioned way?’”
“Wow.” And I’d thought Trinity was bad for smacking my head into the… well, no, that was also awful. Just not…this.
“Yeah.” Gabriella plopped on a seat by the dining table, peeling the water’s label.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea your mother was so…” Insane. Sick. Sociopathic. Marvel-villain-esque. “Ambitious.”
She snorted out a laugh. “She’s not ambitious, she’s a bitch.”
I made a face. “We don’t curse under this roof. It gives me the hives. Can we just call her a bleach or something?”
“Oh, Nessy, you’re so weird. It’s really hard to hate you, do you know that?”
Her eyes were glassy with tears. I didn’t dare move. I didn’t even dare breathe. It was still too surreal for me to handle.
Gabriella Holland.
In my house.
Talking to me about her crazy mother and out-of-control plans to steal Cruz.
“The worst part is, I wasn’t even that into Cruz.” She sniffed.
“Now, I don’t know if I believe—”
“It’s true. I saw him at a dinner party a few months ago and realized who he was. I knew my mother would be delighted if we started dating, so I hooked up with him and kind of bent his arm into going out with me. I think we both did it because we were supposed to make sense. I was the town’s it girl, and he was Fairhope’s best. But that affair never took off. And when he broke up with me, I mostly wanted to save face. Then when y’all came back and it became clear he was running all over town trying to make you his, that was when I really lost it. I guess my mother’s not the only bleach in our family.”
“This is not a new development, Gabriella. You’ve been horrible to me for years.” I pushed off of the counter, sitting next to her. “Why?”
Gabriella rubbed the bridge of her nose, fresh tears filling her eyes again. She finished off her water bottle, then grimaced.
“Are you actually asking me this?”
“Yes.” I pushed my unopened bottle of water across the table for her to drink. “I’ve never done anything to you. In fact, growing up, you used to come over to our house all the time to hang out with Trinity, so you knew firsthand that I wasn’t the horrible person everyone made me out to be.”
“I was never going to go against the grain for you,” her voice turned to steel. “You were Messy Nessy, and I was your sister’s best friend. I had to make sure people knew I was not affiliated with you. I couldn’t afford to be clumped in with you in the same category. I didn’t believe the rumors about you, but I did nothing to stop them. And it didn’t help that you always looked like you didn’t care what anyone thought—”
“I did care.”
I do care.
“I know that now. But I didn’t before. Your exterior is pretty tough. It took something radical like my mother trying to poison me for me to get my head out of my a—”
“Glass.”
“Glass.” A contemplative smile played on her lips now. “So are you and Cruz really over?”
“Seems so,” I said miserably.
“Sorry.”
“Thanks. What are you going to do about your mother?”
“Move out as soon as possible, probably back into the city if I can afford it.” She took a sip of my water. “I mean, Fairhope is nice and all, but it’s a real graveyard. Not a lot of male variety to choose from, either.”
“I thought you made a lot of money.”
She always made sure to remind everyone about her juicy contracts. Gabriella snorted.
“I get paid in freebies, not actual money. Think my next landlord would be interested in getting eye creams for rent?”
“Doubtful.”
She stood up and looked around my kitchen, as if finally realizing where she was.
“Anyway, I just wanted to apologize and let you know I intend to head over to the sheriff’s right now and tell him, without getting into the details of it, that I’m dropping the case and that it wasn’t you who did it. I already called Trinity and your mom and told them, so don’t worry about that.”
So my parents and sister knew the truth and still hadn’t reached out. I guess they were going to sweep it under the carpet like everything else in our relationship.
No event was big enough to require them to apologize to me.
“I appreciate it.” I stood up, walking over to open the door for her.
Gabriella stopped on the threshold.
“Nessy?”
“Hmm?”
“You and Cruz…” she trailed off. “It’s different. I’ve never seen him like this. He’s always been so reserved and put together. You make him color outside of the lines, and I’m not sure it’s such a bad thing.” She gave me a quick once-over. I was wearing one of my floaty, hippie dresses and colorful sandals. “Don’t let other people ruin things for you. It’s not worth it.”
On the day Wyatt and Trinity got married, I woke up feeling like every MMA fighter in the world punched my tit the previous night, amateurs included.
My chest hurt so bad it was a wonder I could breathe.
I all but scraped myself off of my bed, crawling my way into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee.
Unlike me, Bear looked bright and happy as he strode in with a big smile on his face. He was already wearing his tux, which I’d had to alter three times in three months, since he seemed to be going through a crazy growth spurt.
He looked handsome with his hair slicked back, and the plume above his upper lip was conspicuously missing.
“Did you just shave?” I brought the coffee mug to my lips, taking a greedy sip.
He poured himself some orange juice, throwing me an embarrassed smile. “D’you like it?”
“Not if you used my razor!”
I thought about the places that razor had seen in the past few weeks. Especially during my hookup period with Cruz and wanted to keel over and throw up.
“Nope. Dad got me a brand new one. The one you see in TV commercials, with a central trimmer and stainless steel blade.”
“Dad, huh?”
I lifted an eyebrow, taking another sip. I tried to look much less excited than I was. I liked that Bear had a dad now.