“I know what Mae was like. A drunk and a whore. You got a little of that in you?” She didn’t sound accusatory, just curious.
Dani flushed. She rarely drank, but got drunk the previous night. And she rarely had sex, but had it that morning.
“No.” Her grandmother answered her own question. “A drunk and whore wouldn’t blush like that. You ain’t no drunk and whore. Tell me.” She leaned forward. “Mae still like that?”
What kind of family did she come from? Kathryn would’ve fainted at the nerve. Dani had a hard time understanding her Aunt Kathryn had lived with this woman, as a mother.
“No.”
“What is she then?” She barked out. “What she doing nowadays?”
“She owns a bar. She’s really successful. You should be proud of her.”
“What’s the name of it?” Her grandmomma had hawk eyes. They followed every twitch, every swallow like a mouse two miles away.
“Mae’s Grill.”
“Are you serious?” Dani was startled by the sudden smile that spread over her face. All the wrinkles were pushed back, and her face distorted into a happy human being.
“Yes.”
She tipped her head back and laughed. “All the workers talk about that place. They love it. Once a week they put in orders, and James drives down and gets them. Her food is good. Damn good. Just like my own momma’s cooking. How is Mae?”
“She’s good. She owns the house next door to the grill, and she’s letting me stay at her lake cabin. She’s happy and sober.”
“Still got the men, I bet.” Sandra harrumphed, but there was no condescension behind it. “Tell me about Erica. I want to know about the one who died.”
“I don’t really know who Erica was when she died.”
“Why not? You’re her sister.”
“You don’t know about your own daughters!”
“No.” A breath. “No, I sure don’t, and I’ll tell you next visit why I don’t know them. I want to know why you don’t know your sister now. This visit.”
“Because I left town. Erica was spoiled, a brat, and obnoxious when I left. When I came back—”
“Let me guess.” Sandra didn’t miss a thing. “She changed?”
“She was dead.”
“Death changes you.”
“What?”
Sandra waved at her. “You said you left. She lost you.” The food was brought in. Sandra started with her pudding and then grabbed the ham sandwich. “This is good food. You don’t want to eat?”
Dani shook her head.
“I’m the crazy one?” Sandra laughed to herself. “You’re crazy for not eating, but to each her own.”
Dani had to ask, one more time, “Why are you in here?”
Sandra’s white hair flew around her as she finished her milk. She shook the carton to make sure every last drop fell into her aged mouth. “Because I get real sad. Sometimes I get real angry, and other times I get real violent. I used to hurt myself on a regular basis. I had someone always watching me. They’d sit on a chair and stare at me for all hours of the day.” She put the milk down and frowned. “They changed my meds a few months ago, and I’m a little better. I’m real good today, got a visitor to boot.” She patted Dani’s knee with a shaking hand. “This is a good day. That’s all it is.” She kept going, “I’ll tell you a little something, just enough to whet the appetite. I want you to come back so you can hear the rest. I wasn’t a fit mother. I wasn’t. I’m not going to say there are two sides to the story because I should’ve been my little girl’s momma. I wasn’t. I know, now, that some of it’s from my own momma and her momma before that. You got a different momma, and judging from the looks of you, whatever my little Danny did—it was right by you.”
“Who is my father?”
Sandra shook her head and stood. She shuffled to the door and yelled out, “We’re done in here. Lawrence, you can have my granddaughter’s food. She didn’t eat a bit.”
Lawrence was inside in a flash. Dani thought it wasn’t for the food, but for the room. He grabbed her sandwich and pudding and escaped to the farthest corner.
“That’s your next visit,” Sandra informed her granddaughter. She held out her arm, and Dani sighed. She grasped the arm and walked alongside her grandmother. As they walked past the humming lady, Sandra stuck her tongue out. Dani was shocked to see the lady harrumphed as she stuck her own tongue out.
“She’s a feisty one. She always tries to take my cigarettes. Got the damn staff fooled, thinking all she does is hum. She don’t sit and not think. She’s a feisty one. Smart, too.”
At Sandra’s room, Dani held back in the doorway.
“Next visit, I’ll tell you why you never knew about me.”
Dani waited.
“And the visit after that—I’ll tell you who your daddy is.” She sat down and rearranged a blanket over her legs. Then gave Dani a pointed look. “You can always ask Kathy. She knows who your daddy is, too.”
“Kathryn doesn’t like me much.”
“That’s not surprising. You look like your momma. She didn’t like your momma either.”
Dani left feeling more confused than when she arrived. Not normal. That was what Dani had thought she was, but maybe she wasn’t.
Maybe she was normal after all?
Jake was waiting at the cabin when she got back. She motioned for him to head inside, but showered first to prepare herself. She didn’t know what this visit was about, and when she went back out, he was at the kitchen table.
She sat across from him. “You and I don’t do visits. Why are you here?” There was no sense in beating around the bush.
“What’s going on between you and Bannon?”
“Since I’ve become friends with both Bannons, you need to be more specific.”
“You piss me off, Dani.” Jake shook his head and growled, “Jonah Bannon. And you. What’s going on?”
“Why is it your business?”
He stared at her, studying her. Dani was used to it and especially with him. She knew Jake better than anyone. Something was brewing underneath his surface, and she wanted to know.
“Bannon’s gotten mixed up in some business that could go dirty. I don’t want you hurt in the crossfire.”
“What kind of business?”
“You know Bannon.”
“No. Not really.” The significance wasn’t lost on her. She heard some, she saw a little, and she’d felt a bit more than she wanted to admit. In the end, though, she actually didn’t know much of his business. If it was a fight, she doubted Jonah wouldn’t back down.
“Another fight is brewing over that river of his. A conglomerate wants in. They want a piece of our land, and Jonah’s got his heels dug in. He doesn’t want them here.” Jake leaned forward. “I know these guys. I’ve heard of their family, and their dad is a shark. One scent of weakness and this could get bloody.”
“Are you talking about illegal stuff?”
“It’s been known to happen. Bannon means good. He really does, but he works for us. We gotta watch him so he doesn’t end up dead one of these days.”
“He works the river. How dangerous could that be?”
“Very,” Jake said. “Falls River is a huge money market. And, especially because we’re so close to Tenderfoot Rush, everyone wants in. This is prime tourist land. People all over the nation come to visit here. You know this, Dani. Think about the multimillionaires who want to get richer, and they’re being told by Jonah that they can’t. They roll over people. It’s happened before.”
He was right, but… “Come on, Jake. You’re talking about physical safety. Like Jonah’s going to get assaulted or something. That’s not going to happen. This isn’t the Wild West. There are laws.”
“Laws that those millionaires pay a lot of money to get around.” He stood and crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s gone and worked himself into another one of those battles. There was one too long ago that had the whole town riled up. This company
is worse than them.”
“What company? What are their names?”
“Quandry, Inc. Drew Quandry’s the head of it.”
Dani recognized the logo. They’d manufactured about a third of her belongings in that cabin, sponsored charities for the tsunami victims, and even awarded her some money that no one knew about.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” Jake shook his head. “Look.” He started to walk, but turned back. “Jonah’s going to get himself killed one of these days. I understand why he does it. I even understand why he loves that river so much. But he’s going to end up gone one of these days. I really, really, don’t want to be the guy to tell you his body has been found. I see it between the two of you. Everyone sees it. Don’t try and tell me it’s not like that with you two. When you talk to Jonah, let him know I talked to you.”
“So you can mark your territory?”
“What? No.”
“Look, Jake.” This business thing could be that dangerous, but it didn’t feel right that it was Jake telling her this information. She was going off a hunch. “According to a few around town, you used to worship Jonah before I came back. You’re not going to use some business deal that could turn bad as an excuse to have a go at him because you’re really pissed about whatever we might have going on.”
“It’s not like that, Dani. I’m worried about you. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Bullshit!” she said. “You didn’t care ten years ago, and you don’t care today.”
Jake froze. “That was different.”
“It’s not. You tore me in half. You didn’t have the decency to break up with me and not date someone. You were with me when you were with her. You broke up with me to go to her that night.”
“Dani.”
She saws his hands in clenched fists. She saw the tension in his shoulders, and she saw a wariness in his eyes.
She didn’t care.
“Don’t. This isn’t about you and me. Believe it or not, but I am here because I care about you. I don’t want you to get hurt. Stop hanging around with Bannon.”
“Fine,” she clipped out and crossed her arms. “You stop banging Julia.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m serious.” It was reasonable. “You tell me what to do, so I get to tell you what to do. I call an even trade. I’ll stop talking to Jonah, and you stop screwing your fiancé.”
Jake gaped at her. “Who—who are you? You never would’ve said something like that before.”
“A lot’s happened from then to today. Catch up.”
“Like what? How? You won’t tell anyone where you’ve been. You won’t say a damn word.” He spread his arms wide. “And the one time that you are upset, you tell me to get lost.”
“You’re not the person I confide in anymore.” She narrowed her eyes. “Not anymore and if that person is Jonah, it’s going to stay that way. You have no right to come here and order me around. So get out!”
Jake stood still, his eyes frozen on her.
“I’m not changing my mind, so stop waiting for it to happen.”
“I want you to stop seeing him.”
“Tough shit.”
Jake stuffed his hands into his jean pockets. He turned his back to her, but he didn’t move to the door.
Dani watched him from behind. “You know, as well as me, that Jonah can take care of whoever he wants to. That’s just who Jonah is. He’s always been like that, and I’m guessing he’ll always be like that. You might worry about me, and it might be justified, but this right here—between you and me right now—is not because Jonah’s into something that could turn bad. You’re here because you don’t like seeing me with him.”
Jake remained silent, then left, slamming the door behind him. Dani closed her eyes. She stood in place and when her phone rang, finally let out her breath slowly. Smoothing her hands down her pants, they were sweaty, but she didn’t move to answer her phone. She saw it. She had placed it on the kitchen table, but she just stared.
Her mind was still on that door, seeing it slam again and again in her mind. It was that night when he told her about Erica, except she slammed the door. Not him.
When the phone kept ringing, she answered. Mae didn’t wait a second. “I need your help at the grill. We’re packed.”
“I’ll be right there.” Dani hung up, changed again, and headed back out, ignoring the knot of dread that had taken root in her stomach. She took two steps outside of the cabin before she realized another car had pulled up.
She saw him first.
He was right there.
His mouth was moving, but she didn’t hear. Not right away. Her heart stopped, and then she heard Boone say, “Hello, Dani.”
He looked even taller than she remembered, but he couldn’t have grown any more than his six-five. He’d lost weight, maybe twenty pounds. His brown hair still curled just over his forehead and framed his angular cheekbones. His blue eyes still pierced through her.
It was funny. She hadn’t taken in the details when she saw him at the fair. Shock glossed over everything then, but she was soaking it all in now. “Boone.”
It felt like an invisible hand reached inside her, and gutted her.
Boone took in a deep breath, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “It was you who I saw before.” He looked around the cabin. “This is a nice place.”
The moment was surreal. She’d left him when he’d been out celebrating their engagement. And he commented on her cabin? “How’d you…”
“What?” His eyes whipped to hers. “Find you? Find this place? How’d I track you down like a hunter?”
She felt a headache starting. “Stop it.”
“I didn’t come to Craigstown for you, if you’re wondering that. This visit right now is about you, but not me being here, in general. Just so we’re clear.” His tone was clipped, bitter. “I asked around. Turns out that Dani O’Hara is quite famous around these parts. And she lives in the ‘most wonderful cabin’ on this godforsaken secluded lake.”
“Are you…did you…?” She just gave up.
“This was supposed to be my trip to get over you. My brother’s here on business, and I was just supposed to tag along. Heal my heart, something like that.” He sounded exhausted. “Can I come in?”
“Oh. Yeah.” She stepped back, letting him in. As he sat at the table, she asked, “Your brother?”
“Quandry, Inc.”
Dani connected the dots. “You’re the guys. You want to build here, but Jonah doesn’t want you to. I was warned about you.”
Boone shot her a confused look, but didn’t say anything. He rubbed a hand over his face. Exhaustion came off of him, from his slumped shoulders to the bags underneath his eyes, and even how he breathed. They were shallow breaths. Almost as if he weren’t capable of deep breaths any longer. They took too much energy.
“I don’t sleep, you know.”
Dani closed her eyes and shook her head. She thought she was getting better, but with this—with Boone in her kitchen. She stopped thinking. She had no idea now. Dani turned and poured two cups of coffee. “Cream or sugar?” She needed something to do.
Her hands picked up a creamer for her cup.
“No, but you’ll take one cream.”
Her hands paused.
“You used to.”
Dani finished and put both cups of coffee onto the table. Both were black, without cream or sugar. “What are you doing here, Boone?”
He stood and began to pace around the room. Hands stuffed in his jean pockets, he walked around, looking at nothing. “I never told you this, but my grandpa used to call me that. It was his nickname for me and when you just started calling me that—I liked