“Yeah, I see what you mean now. I think I’ve talked to more people today than I have the last month.”
“You should talk more, baby,” Brendan says. “You have a lot to say.”
He doesn’t know the half of it. Plus, he’s got something to say to me…after that damned party for my parents tomorrow night.
So much to say…and so much to hear.
But not now. Not before the party. The sacred party.
Aunt Marjorie and Aunt Melanie both told me I need to talk to my parents, confront them.
But not yet.
Not until the anniversary party is over.
I’ve never been very good at compartmentalizing. But I’m determined to let this all go… At least until Sunday.
Mom and Dad can have their party. It’s important to them, and it’s important to Aunt Marj and Aunt Jade, who have spent so much time planning it.
I paste on my smile, and I take the next drink order.
Chapter Eight
Brendan
The last customer finally leaves at the wee hour of three o’clock in the morning. Ava is still going strong. I’m not sure where she got that second wind, after getting up so early to start baking. But she can sleep in tomorrow. Rather…today. But not for too long, because she has to finish baking for the party, then head over to help her aunts prepare the main house, where Talon and Jade live.
A giant yawn splits her pretty face.
I smile. Everything she does makes me smile.
“What is it, about twenty-two hours that you’ve been awake now?”
Ava rubs her eyes. “Twenty-one if we’re being accurate. And yeah, I’m definitely ready for bed.”
“I’d ask you to sleep over, but you won’t get any sleep if you stay with me.”
“No kidding. And I’d invite you home with me…except…”
“The same thing,” I say.
She nods and yawns again.
“Let me walk you home, then.”
She nods again, and after she puts on her light jacket, I walk her out the back way and then three doors down to her bakery. I stay with her as she unlocks the door to the bakery, and then I walk in with her just to make sure no one’s hiding inside. Once I determine that she’s safe, I give her a searing kiss and then listen as her deadbolt clicks shut.
Then I return to the bar, lock up for the night, head up to my apartment, and flop down on my bed without even taking off my clothes.
I jerk upward in bed.
What time is it anyway?
The sun has already risen, and its rays stream through my window.
Why am I awake?
Then I hear it. The buzzing of my cell phone. It’s on the kitchen table.
I rise, yawning and stretching, and get to the phone. It’s not a number I recognize.
“Hello?” I say into the phone.
“Brendan. It’s Ryan Steel.”
Crap. I forgot I’m supposed to meet him at the bar at ten this morning. I still don’t know what time it is.
“What can I do for you?” I ask.
“Tell me what Pat Lamone wanted.”
I yawn and wipe sleep out of my eyes. May as well be honest with the man. “Can’t this wait until we meet later?”
“It is later, Brendan. That’s why I’m calling. I’m outside the bar.”
Fuck. I stare at my phone. It’s a little after ten. “I’ll be right down, but just so you know, Ryan, before we go any further, I’m going to tell Ava everything.”
“You can’t.” His voice sounds desperate.
“I can, and I will. I haven’t told her this yet, but I’m in love with your daughter. I don’t want to keep secrets from her.”
A pause. Then, “These things could hurt her, Brendan.”
“I know that, and that’s why I agreed to this in the first place. But if I want a relationship with Ava, I can’t keep things from her. I know what that does to relationships.”
“God…”
“She knows I’m going to tell her. But…she agreed that we wouldn’t talk to each other about this until after your party tonight.”
“Brendan, I love my wife. The twenty-five years with her have been the best of my life, but right now, this party is making me insane.”
“Why is that?”
“Why don’t you tell me? What did you talk to Pat Lamone about?”
“Nothing. I referred him to my father because, quite frankly, neither of us were able to figure out why he got the same message that we all got.”
“Which message did he get?”
“The really strange one. When echoes navigate down yonder, many anchors destroy ideas generated about neglect.”
Silence on the other end of the line.
“Ryan?”
“Yeah?”
“What does that message mean?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s bull, and we both know it. Your wife figured it out when she first saw it.”
“You’re imagining things.”
“I’m not. I’ve been tending bar since I turned twenty-one. I know how to read people, and I saw a flicker of recognition in her eyes. And by the way, the first message—the one about Darth Morgen. It’s an anagram for grandmother. But you already know that, don’t you?”
Again…silence.
“Both of my grandmothers are dead,” I continue. “As are both of Ava’s. So I can only surmise that it has something to do with Pat Lamone’s grandmother, the one in the hospital in the mental ward.”
Silence once more.
“I know you’re not going to tell me anything. But I’m willing to bet Ruby had all of this figured out after she first talked to Ava and me in the bakery that day. Then she kept putting Ava off when Ava asked her if she had figured things out.”
Ryan sighs through the phone. “I can’t believe this is happening. Again.”
“What is happening again? I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ryan.”
“I saw her die. I saw her fucking die.”
My heart thumps. “Who? Who did you see die?”
“I can’t discuss this any more.” Ryan’s tone has become darker. “Could you please just tell me what your father talked to Pat Lamone about?”
“Sure I can, Ryan. After your party. Sunday. And only if Ava is involved in the discussion.”
“You would put my daughter through that? You would put her through the pain of…”
“The pain of what? That’s what none of us are getting. The pain of what?”
The line goes dead.
Apparently I won’t be talking to Ryan Steel any more today. If he was truly outside the bar, waiting for me, he’s gone now. Certainly not tonight, either, when he and Ruby are the center of attention at the party.
A feeling of dread settles in my gut.
My phone already in my hand, I do a quick search. The tower card—the card that sent Ava into a tailspin.
I don’t know much about the tarot, and I never put any stock in it before. But Ava believes in it, and I believe in Ava.
Hundreds of pages come up about the tower card. I’ve learned never to click on the first or second response. Instead, I go down ten or eleven links, and then I click.