She thumbed around her phone and went back to see what the most recent text alert was all about it. It was from her mom.
Can you help Audra with her college applications?
Usually Xeni would have been annoyed. It was barely the middle of September, so her cousin had plenty of time to get her college applications in order. And while Xeni didn’t know how she specifically was the person for this job, she knew her mom’s thought process. Xeni worked in education, therefore she knew every other person in academia on Earth, including everyone in college admissions. But the text was also proof that her mom wasn’t BIG pissed at her anymore. Now she was just moderately annoyed and waiting to chew her out in person, not angry enough to give her the cold shoulder. The question was her olive branch. Things were going to be okay between them.
She wondered when they were really going to talk about Sable, then instantly stopped the thoughts in their tracks.
“Later. Just worry about that later.” What had happened couldn’t be undone, not that she wanted it to, and there was only forward. Sable was gone and Xeni didn’t have a time machine. She wanted answers, but they could wait. She sent a text back.
Happy to.
Tell her to text me and
we’ll set up a time to start.
Thank you baby.
Call Dante and say hello. XM
I’ll call you both tonight. XP
Xeni slipped her phone in her pocket and was headed toward the laundry room to throw her clothes in the dryer when the doorbell rang. The only person she was expecting was Mason and he was just now finishing up for the day at the cafe. They were going to have dinner and see just how long they could pretend sex wasn’t also on the menu for the evening. She walked to the front of the house and stood up on her tiptoes to peek through the transom window. A tall, slim older White man with graying hair and a mustache stood on the front porch. Behind him, Xeni saw a green taxi idling at the end of the driveway. She didn’t even know you could catch a taxi this far out, but at least the driver could act as a witness if this visitor turned out to be a murderer.
She cracked the door and peeked her head through, taking in his dark blue suit and his freshly polished wingtips. He smelled faintly of self-importance. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Sable Everly.” The thick Scottish accent that flowed from his mouth immediately set her on edge.
“Sable isn’t here at the moment. Is there something I can help you with?”
“Who are you?”
Heat flashed over her face. “Who are you? And how can I help you?”
“My name is Jameson McInroy and I’m trying to figure out why my son had Sable Everly wire me nearly forty-thousand pounds.”
20
Mason was looking at the ferry schedule from Woods Hole to Oak Bluffs when his phone started ringing in his hand. XENI CALLING... scrolled across the screen. He ignored the sudden release of endorphins and hit ACCEPT. He’d planned to leave for her house as soon as he pulled on his sneakers, but he was happy to talk to her anytime.
“Hello, my love,” he said as soon as he hit accept. “What can I do for you?”
“Your dad is here.”
“What?” Mason knew he’d heard her wrong.
“Your dad is sitting in my living room. He’s here about the money and he said he won’t leave until you come here. I’m trying to keep my cool, but tell me what you want me to do.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. He’s pretty fucking rude, but I think we’ve come to an understanding.”
“Love, I’m sorry. I’ll be right there.”
“Drive safe, but yeah, please hurry. I’m not gonna call the cops or anything. I just don’t want him in my house.”
“I’m on my way.” Mason ended the call and scrambled to finish getting dressed. He rushed down to his car and spotted Silas walking back to the barns from the cannery.
“Eh!” he called out to him, as he jogged across the parking lot.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“My father is here.”
“Where?” Silas’s shock registered as a slight frown, but Mason knew his cousin was just as confused as he was.
“He’s at Xeni’s house right now.” Mason started walking backward toward his car. Silas followed. “I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing there, but I need to go and get him away from her.”
“You want me to come?”
Mason paused a moment, considering it. Would bringing backup make matters better or worse? His father was his problem, not Xeni’s. He needed to get the old man out of her house. But he also knew his father and how stubborn he was.
“Yeah, come along then.”
They both jogged back to his SUV and climbed in.
“How did he get that address? Why didn’t he just come to the farm?” Silas asked as Mason did his best not to speed through town.
“The bank transfer, I’m guessing. It came from Ms. Sable’s account. You know my dad. If he wants information, he’ll get it and use it to his advantage.” Many scenarios ran through Mason’s head, but at the moment all that mattered was Xeni. He was pretty sure his father wouldn’t hurt her, not physically, but he could hear the stress in her voice over the phone. His father didn’t know how to communicate without the brash, hurtful words that were only used by the most self righteous of elitist assholes. Mason knew he’d be apologizing for months for whatever his father had managed to say in a few minutes.
As soon as they pulled into Ms. Sable’s driveway, the front door sprang open and Xeni stepped out.
“Stay in the car,” Mason told his cousin.
“No problem.”
Mason rushed over to Xeni and pulled her into his arms. “Okay?”
“No. I—do you want to talk to him? I mean, I really, really don’t want to, and I can still call the police. I just don’t know how trigger happy there are around here.”
“No need for the cops just yet. I brought Silas just in case. Let me go speak to the bastard.”
“Okay.” Xeni gripped his hand. “I’m coming with you.”
Mason nodded, then led her back into the house. The last bit of denial he’d been clutching on to vanished when they stepped into the living room. It had been years since he’d laid eyes on his father. The man had aged, and not well, but he still carried the same imposing presence about him. The danger of Jameson McInroy was his determination, his resolve. When he’d made up his mind, nothing would stop him from getting what he wanted and if you tried, you’d pay.
“Dad,” Mason said.
His father stood, his eyes narrowing at the sight of Xeni’s fingers grasping on to Mason’s clenched fist.
“Suppose I should have known.”
“Known what? What are you doing here?”
A red streak flashed over his father’s face. “I’m here to ask the questions!” he shouted. “It would have taken you another two decades to pay me what you owe me. And now forty thousand pounds magically appears in my account, so I knew I had to come see for myself. I knew you were averse to hard work, but I never thought you would stoop to conning money out of a dying woman and her relatives.
“What did he tell you?” he asked Xeni. “That he’s a true musician? He just needs someone to understand his art?”
“I didn’t give him the money. The money was his,” Xeni practically growled as she held his hand tighter. Mason glanced at her, his chest swelling with pride. He knew if he let go of her hand, she might catapult forward and rip his father’s head from his shoulders, if Mason didn’t do it first.
“I followed your terms to the letter,” Mason said. “You’ve been repaid in full. There was no reason for you to come here and there is no reason for you to speak to Xeni this way.”
“You are going to return that money and then you are going to return home with me tonight and get a real fucking job. And you will pay me back, you lazy shit.”
“I’m not paying you back. I’m paying Moira’s fath
er back for the money you borrowed for a wedding you arranged. This is your problem, Dad. Your fault. Your debt. Your scheme failed and you want to make me pay for it. Well, I won’t. You have your money. It’s done. Leave it.”
“Scheme. Wanting my son to grow the fuck up and stand on his own two feet. That’s a fucking scheme?”
“Grow up to be like you? How much money do you still owe Uncle Seamus—”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Right. Well, this debt is and it’s paid. Tough if you don’t like the way I got it done. I am standing on my own two feet. I have been for years. You just don’t like the way it looks from your high horse.”
“You call this standing on your own two feet? You’ve never stood on your own two feet. You rely on your cousin and now this woman. She told me her aunt just passed away. How long did you wait before you started fucking your way into her pockets? Did you sleep with her aunt too, huh boy?”
“Wow,” Xeni said with a shocked gasp. Mason felt himself slowly tuck her body behind his as he took a step forward. He didn’t want to break anything in the house, but his father was asking to be shown the exit, through the nearest window.
“I’m not using her for anything. She’s my wife and her aunt was my dear, dear friend. A mentor and a better role model than you’ll ever be. This town is my home and I am not going anywhere,” Mason said very carefully. “You, however, are welcome to leave.”
His father tilted his head so he could get a better look at Xeni. “You married him? Maybe you’re not as smart as you look.”
“Get out,” Mason seethed. “Get out right now. Find your way back to the airport and take yourself back to Scotland. You are not welcome here.”
“You—you think—Christ.” Mason watched as the color suddenly drained from his father’s face. He sat, like a boulder was dragging him down, square in the middle of the couch. Mason rushed over to him.
“Dad?”
“Shit,” he heard Xeni say. “I think he’s having a heart attack.”
There was a newly constructed Marriot right across the street from the Kinderack County hospital. Xeni didn’t go inside, but the place was practically dead on a Tuesday night and she felt better pacing in the soft ambient light of the outdoor waiting area than trying to hold herself still in the painfully bright lights of the hospital waiting room.
She’d never say it out loud, but she was actually conflicted about whether or not she wanted Mr. McInroy to pull through. For Mason’s sake, she desperately wanted him to be free of the way his father had decided to treat him. And it absolutely was a decision. Every Everly came with a slick mouth, but she couldn’t imagine anyone in her family talking to her the way Mason’s father had spoken to him and to her.
It had taken half a second for Xeni to realize he wasn’t snapping out of whatever made him collapse. She’d run outside and grabbed Silas. Thanks to his quick thinking, he and Mason had carried Mr. McInroy out to the back seat of Mason’s SUV. It would have taken a while for the ambulance to get out to them and back to the emergency room.
Xeni had followed in her car, but by the time she’d arrived, the waiting game had already begun. Tense minutes turned to hours. A doctor had come and gone and come again to get Mason. It was, in fact, a heart attack and the doctors needed to keep him overnight. Since Xeni was now technically family, she was allowed to go back with Mason to see his father, but she didn’t think the three of them being in the same room was a good idea. She’d sat in the waiting room with Silas for a while. His calm stillness should have helped her relax, but instead that need to climb out of her skin seemed to be clawing at the base of her neck.
She’d moved from the sidewalk in front of the hospital down to the corner by the traffic light and back again, then finally over to the hotel. She thought maybe she should just go back to the house. There was nothing she could do and she couldn’t console Mason while he consoled his father, but she knew better than to just bail. Mason wasn’t just her husband, he was her friend. She wasn’t leaving until he told her to go.
Xeni checked her phone for the hundredth time, closing it every time her fingers automatically went back to the conversation Shae and Meegan were having in the group chat. Her brain couldn’t handle their light and casual talk right now, not when she felt like this.
A shadow in the hospital entrance caught her attention. She looked up and saw Mason step through the sliding doors and out into the night. She checked that it was safe to cross and ran across the street, stopping short right in front of him. Instantly she could feel the anguish rolling off him. She’d wait to touch him until she knew he wanted to be touched.
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No, not really.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault that he has a bad heart.” Xeni could only imagine how he felt. Mason was full of empathy and compassion, and she knew he couldn’t turn that off, even for a monster like his father.
“I’m gonna have to take him home.”
Xeni cringed at the idea of him trying to help his father up the steep stairs to his apartment. “Seems like Silas’s place might be a little more spacious.”
Mason’s jaw tensed as he looked at the ground between them. “Home to Edinburgh, love.”
“Right, duh. Of course.”
“It’ll be another two weeks, but—”
“Right, right.”
“It’s late. You should go home and get some sleep.”
“Yeah, okay. Are you sure you don’t need anything?”
“I’m going to head back with Silas in a bit to get a change of clothes and then come back here. I’m sorry I can’t go to the vineyard with you.”
“Are you kidding? Don’t even think about it. Be here, okay? You’ve showed up for me. It’s more than okay that you need to be present for yourself.”
“Yeah.”
“Is it okay if I hug you?” she asked. It wasn’t a purely selfish request. They were both off and she knew if she could just hold him for a second, it would help them both reset.
“Come here.”
Xeni closed the small distance between them and walked into his open arms. She rested her head against his chest, pressing herself against his soft stomach. Warmth from his strong arms seeped into her as she let out a deep breath. She felt him relax as he lightly rested his chin on the top of her head.
“I love you, you know,” he said quietly. Xeni knew exactly what he meant. He wasn’t in love with her, not in that way. But in a short time, they’d both come to mean something to each other. Something important. They knew this wasn’t meant to be anything more, but what happened between them mattered.
She stepped out of his grasp, then gave his arm a little squeeze.
“Keep me posted when you can. Okay?”
“Okay. I should go back inside.”
“Listen. The upshot is that he isn’t dead. Two dead parents inside two weeks and we’d have to answer to the local constable,” she joked. It worked. Mason cracked a tiny smile.
Thankfully, Xeni’s legs carried her to the car and somehow she made it back to the house safely. When she stepped inside and looked around at the boxes stacked against the wall, something in her finally cracked. She pulled out her phone and called the only person she knew would make things right.
Xeni had never been so grateful for the time zone difference in her life. Her mother let her blubber utter nonsense into the phone for a whole minute and a half before she offered to be on a red eye out of LAX to New York.
She thought her nerves and the need to get a text from Mason would have her up all night. But after she’d booked her mom’s last-minute flight and confirmed that she’d made it to the airport on time, she’d collapsed on the couch and cried herself to sleep. The sound of the doorbell chiming the next morning woke her up. Xeni stumbled to the door and found her mom standing on the front steps. She’d never been so happy to see her in her whole life.
“
Oh, my baby girl.”
Xeni fell apart all over again as she let her mom gather her into her arms.“I’m sorry,” she said through her tears.
“For what? We’re all having a hell of a time. Come on.” Her mom pulled her inside the house. “Well, this is a nice place.”
“It’s ours now,” Xeni sniffled.
Her mom turned to her and looked her up and down. “You go get washed up. Take a nice hot shower and wash your hair. There a kettle?”
“Yeah, she has a real fancy one.”
“I’ll make us some tea and then I’ll braid your hair.”
“Okay. Thank you for coming, Mommy.”
“Anything for you, my baby girl.”
Xeni checked her phone when she got out of the shower. It was almost dead, but there was enough juice to see that Mason hadn’t texted or called. She thought about texting him, just to see if he was okay, but reconsidered it. He had enough going on and didn’t need her hovering. She’d check back around lunch time.
She got dressed, then grabbed her comb and all the hair products she’d brought with her and headed back to the kitchen. Their hot tea was waiting, but her mom wasn’t in the room. Xeni found her in Sable’s office. She was looking at the gold records.
“I was going to ship those home,” Xeni said.
“Good idea. You should have them. Sable sure had a gift.”
“You all do. I wish I could sing like you.”
“You can. You just didn’t spend hours and hours of your life rehearsing, but you have the gift. You’re an Everly.”
Xeni Page 20
