Face the Fire (33 page)

And she was there, keeping watch, when Lulu woke in the morning.

“You didn’t have to come early.”

“Zack needs to bring the patrol car.” Nell helped Mia set the table and admired the lovely old china. “This time of year, there’s no telling if he’ll get called in for something. And I wanted to see Lulu.”

“It took guilt, temper, and threats to get her to agree to spend a couple of days in one of the guest rooms. You’d think I was putting her in prison.”

“She likes her own space,” Nell said.

“She can have it back when she’s steadier.”

Nell brushed a hand over Mia’s hair. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.” The long night’s vigil had given her plenty of time to think. To plan.

“I’d hoped I’d get here early enough to give you a hand. Not that you need it.”

She studied the dining room, with its flowers and candles already in place. The window were open wide to summer.

“You can check my fricassee,” Mia said as she draped an arm over Nell’s shoulders. The gesture, the easy warmth of it, erased any remnants of tension between them.

“From the smell, it’s perfect.” When they were in the kitchen, Nell removed the lid while Mia poured two tall glasses of iced tea. “Everything’s perfect.”

“Well, the weather’s not cooperating.” Restless, Mia moved to the door, pushed open the screen and breathed in the wind. “We’ll have rain after sunset. A pity. We won’t be able to have coffee in the garden. Still, my morning glories have grown a foot in the last three days. Maybe the rain will tease out the blooms.”

She turned back to find Nell staring at her. “What?”

“Oh, Mia, I wish you’d tell me what else is troubling you. I hate seeing you look sad.”

“Do I? I’m not.” She stepped outside, looked up at the sky. “I’d rather a storm than rain. We haven’t had enough storms this summer. It’s as if they’re building up and waiting for one big blow. I want to stand on my cliffs and meet the lightning.”

She reached back, covered Nell’s hand. “I’m not sad, just unsettled. What happened to Lulu shook me, on the most primal of levels. And now something inside me is waiting, building, like those storms. I know what I have to do. What I will do, but I can’t see what’s coming. It’s frustrating for me to know, and not to see.”

“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place. Mia, I know what’s between you and Sam. I can feel it when I’m within ten feet of you. When I fell in love with Zack and was
pulled in all those directions, you were there for me. Why won’t you let me do the same for you?”

“I depend on you.”

“To a point. Then you step back over this line, and it’s only you who can cross it. And you step over it more often since Sam came back to the Sisters.”

“Then I’d have to say he has upset the balance.”

“Upset your balance,” Nell corrected, and waited for Mia to turn. “Are you in love with him?”

“A part of me was born loving him. I closed that part off. I had no choice.”

“And that’s the problem, isn’t it? The not knowing if you should open it up again or keep it closed.”

“I made a mistake once, and he left. I can’t afford to make a mistake again, whether he stays or goes.”

“You don’t believe he’ll stay.”

“It’s not a matter of believing. It’s a matter of considering every possibility. If I open myself to him again, completely, what happens if he does go? I can’t risk that. Not just for myself, but for all of us. Love isn’t a simple thing, you know that. It’s not a flower to be picked on a whim.”

“No, it’s not a simple thing. But believing you can control it, mold its shape, plot its direction? That you
have
to do that? That’s a mistake.”

“I don’t want to love him again.” Her voice, always so smooth, so sure, trembled. “I don’t want it. I put those dreams aside. I don’t need them now. I’m afraid to take them out again.”

Saying nothing, Nell slipped her arms around Mia, drew her close.

“I’m not who I was when I loved him.”

“Neither of you is. What you feel now matters most.”

“My feelings aren’t any clearer than my vision. Before it ends, I’ll do whatever needs to be done.” She sighed. “I’m not used to having a shoulder to cry on.”

“The shoulders are there. You’re just not used to leaning.”

“Maybe you’re right.” She closed her eyes, let herself focus on Nell and the life glowing inside her. “I can see you, little sister,” she murmured. “I can see you sitting in an old wooden rocker, in a room soft with candleglow. There’s a baby at your breast, and its hair is soft as down and bright as sunlight. When I see you like that, I have such hope. Such courage.”

She drew back, pressed a kiss to Nell’s forehead. “Your child will be safe. That I know.” She heard the sound of her front door slamming.

“That would be Ripley,” Mia said dryly. “Not only doesn’t she bother to knock, but she can’t resist slamming a door. I’m going to take a tray up to Lulu. Then I think we’ll have drinks and appetizers in the garden, while the weather holds.”

As Mia moved inside to greet her guests, Nell thought how typical it had been. She’d begun by offering comfort, and Mia had ended by giving comfort to her.

“So then this joker says, ‘But, Officer, I wasn’t
stealing the cooler full of beer. I was just moving it.’ ” Ripley forked up more fricassee. “When I pointed out that that didn’t explain how come he had Budweiser on his breath and three empty beer cans lying beside him in the sand, he said maybe somebody drank the beer while he was sleeping. I guess somebody poured beer into him, too, because he was half trashed and it was only three in the afternoon.”

“How’d you handle it?” Zack asked her.

“Fined him for drinking in a restricted area, and littering. Cut him a break on lifting the cooler since the guys he’d lifted it from didn’t want any hassles. Seeing as
they’d had a cooler of beer in a restricted area to begin with.”

“Imagine that.” Sam shook his head. “Drinking beer on the beach.”

“Rules is rules,” Ripley stated adamantly.

“Absolutely. None of us ever snuck a six-pack onto the beach.”

“I recall somebody copping a bottle of his father’s best scotch.” Zack grinned. “And how he generously shared it with his pals. Who proceeded to get toasted.”

“Speak for yourself.” Ripley wagged her fork. “One pull of that stuff was enough for me. Talk about foul.”

“Such a girl,” her brother said.

“That may be, but I’m not the one who got creamed when we got home.”

“True enough. I was eighteen,” Zack recalled, “and Mom still skinned my butt.”

“Then she skinned mine.” The memory made Sam wince. “Jesus, that woman could terrorize me. No matter what you did, she knew about it before you’d finished doing it. And if she didn’t, she’d get it out of you. She’d just stare at your face and pick away until you’d beg to confess.”

“That’s how it’s going to be with my kids. They won’t have a prayer.” Ripley slanted Mac a smug look as he laid his hand over hers.

It flashed into Mia, fast and bright. “You’re pregnant.”

“Hey.” Ripley lifted her water glass. “Nell’s not the only one who can get knocked up.”

“A baby!” Nell leaped out of her chair, danced around the table to throw her arms around Ripley’s neck. “This is wonderful! What a way to announce it.”

“I’ve been working on that story and segue since this afternoon.”

“How about that?” With a grin a mile wide and a voice
that wasn’t quite steady, Zack moved over to tug Ripley’s long ponytail. “I’m going to be an uncle.”

“You’ve got a couple of months to practice being a daddy first.”

Amid the jokes and congratulations, Mia rose. She walked to Ripley, running her hands up and down Ripley’s arms as she, too, got to her feet. Then Mia simply drew her in. Drew her close. Held her tight.

Emotion flooded Ripley’s throat, and she turned her face into Mia’s hair.

“There are two,” Mia whispered.

“Two?” Ripley’s jaw dropped. “Two?” It was all she could say as she pulled back. “You mean . . .” Staggered, she stared down at her flat belly. “Man.”

“Two what?” In the process of drinking the wine Sam had poured into his glass for a toast, Mac smiled over at his wife. Gradually the shock on her face trickled through. “Two? Twins? We’ve got two in there? I need to sit down.”

“You need to sit down?”

“Right. We need to sit down.” Mac sat, pulled her onto his lap. “Two for one. That’s so cool.”

“They’ll be safe. I can see it.” Mia leaned over, kissed Mac’s cheeks. “Go on in the living room, be comfortable. I’ll bring coffee. Tea for the mothers. Ripley, you’ll want to cut back on the caffeine.”

“Something’s wrong,” Sam commented when Mia walked into the kitchen. “Something more than Lulu’s weighing on her.”

“She gets worked up about babies.” With her hand on her stomach, Ripley tried to imagine two.

“It’s more than that. I’ll give her a hand with the coffee.”

When he stepped into the kitchen she was standing in the open back door, watching the soft summer rain fall on her gardens.

“I want to help you.”

“It’s no trouble.”

He moved to her. “I’m not talking about the coffee. I want to help you.”

“You have.” She took his hand, gripped it hard for a moment. “You risked your life yesterday for someone I love. You trusted me to hold you, and her, safe so you could help her.”

“I did the only thing that could be done.”

“The only thing you could do, Sam. Being you.”

“Let’s leave that. I want to help with what’s bothering you now.”

“You can’t. Not now, in any case. This is my battle, and now there’s more at stake than ever. Everything that matters to me is inside this house tonight. And it’s there, out there, wanting. Can you feel it?” she whispered. “Just beyond my circle. Pressing, shifting. Waiting.”

“Yes. I don’t want you staying here alone.”

When she started to move away, he took her firmly by the shoulders, turned her. “Mia, whatever you think or feel or want from me, you’re too smart to push aside the power I can add to yours. Are you certain that either of us could have saved Lulu alone?”

“No.” She let out a breath. “No, I’m not.”

“If you don’t want me with you, I’ll sleep in one of the guest rooms, or the goddamn sofa. You’ve got your dragon to guard you—and a broken arm wouldn’t stop her. This isn’t about me trying to get into your bed.”

“I know. Let me think about it. We have other things to discuss tonight.”

She could think all she liked, he decided as she walked away to finish the coffee. He was staying with her, even if he had to sleep outside in his car.

She served coffee and slices of cream cake. Then
she did something Nell hadn’t seen her do in the time they’d known each other.

Mia drew the drapes and closed out the night.

“It watches.” Mia’s voice was calm as she walked the room, lighting more candles. “Or tries to. My gesture was meant to be rude and dismissive. A petty slap. Petty,” she continued as she sat and picked up her own coffee, “but satisfying. I owe it more than a petty slap for harming Lulu.”

And she would give it more. Much more.

“I have to say, the timing of this is poor. We should be celebrating Ripley and Mac’s news. And we will.”