Flamingo Diner

by Sherryl Woods

  Jennifer regarded her with sympathy. “Emma, I can’t begin to tell you how responsible I felt, as if I’d pushed him down that road. I’m so sorry, Emma. If I’d had any idea how things were going to turn out, I would never have taken him on as a client. I thought I was helping a friend.”

  As badly as Emma wanted to hurl accusations and blame at Jennifer, she knew that her father had been responsible for his own decisions. No one had forced him to make those investments. He’d always been clever with money. Obviously he’d seen the stock market as one more financial mountain to conquer for the sake of his family’s future. When it had gotten the better of him, he’d probably been too embarrassed to tell any of them what he’d done. As if any of them would have cared more about money than they would have about him. My God, what a waste! What a complete and utter waste!

  “How could you have known what would happen?” Emma said, surprised to find that she was able to feel some sympathy for Jennifer, after all. “This was his fault, not yours.”

  “I am sorry,” Jennifer said again. “You were absolutely right about one thing. I was glad I’d gone away before I heard the news. Once I did I stayed away even longer because I couldn’t bear to look any of you in the eye. You, Jeff and Andy lost your father. Your mom lost her husband. And I lost someone I respected and cared about.”

  Emma didn’t want to feel sorry for the woman who’d had a hand, however innocently, in her father’s destruction, but she did. “Thank you for telling me,” she said. “I know it wasn’t easy.”

  “It was harder watching him ruin his life bit by bit,” Jennifer told her. “Your dad was a wonderful man. Remember that, and try not to focus on how his life ended.”

  “One more thing,” Matt said. “I asked you once before, but I want to ask it again. Were you the one who sent those flowers to the lake, the one with the card asking ‘Why?”’

  Jennifer shook her head. “No. I can’t say for sure, but I think it might have been Cori. We never talked about it, but I think she had some of the same questions about my relationship with Don that you did and was trying in her own way to make sure someone looked into his death. She’s too good a friend to accuse me of anything directly, but I think she was tormented by what happened. Don’t forget she saw him that last day, too.”

  Unable to face Jennifer for another second, Emma stood up without a word and walked blindly outside. Matt was at her side in an instant.

  “You okay?” he asked, tucking a finger under her chin.

  She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

  He started to reach for her, then held back. “Will you tell your mother what you found out?”

  “I honestly don’t know.” She met his gaze. “It almost makes it worse that this whole thing was about money. How could he think that we’d care more about money than we did about him?”

  “He wasn’t thinking straight,” Matt said. “That’s obvious.”

  “But we must have failed him in some way for him to think that.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” he retorted. “None of you failed him. If anything, it was the other way around. When the chips were down, he opted out, rather than sticking around to face all of you and figure a way out of the mess he’d created. It’s the only sign of weakness I ever saw in him.”

  For the first time since his death, Emma no longer felt so angry with her father. All she felt was pity for him and sorrow that so many lives would never be the same.

  Matt watched Emma warily. She was pale as a ghost and she wasn’t saying a word. She wasn’t even complaining that he’d climbed behind the wheel of her mother’s car after tucking her into the passenger seat.

  Finally, he looked over. “Where to?”

  She shook her head as if coming out of a trance. “I have no idea.”

  “You want to go somewhere for a drink?”

  “No.”

  “Something to eat?”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “My place?”

  That got the wry look he’d expected, if not the response he’d hoped for.

  “Okay, not my place,” he said. “Do you want to go home?”

  “I suppose,” she said without enthusiasm.

  He drove back to the Killian house, rounded the car and opened Emma’s door. She seemed startled to realize that they’d arrived. He was not about to leave her alone in that state. Once he’d made sure that Rosa was inside and capable of coping with Emma’s distress, then he’d take off. Not a minute before.

  But inside, there was no sign of Rosa or of Andy.

  “I’ll make some tea,” Matt said.

  “Fine, whatever.” She trailed along behind him into the kitchen, like a scared kid who was afraid to be too far from the protection of an adult.

  “Apple cinnamon or wild berry?” he asked, holding up boxes of tea bags from the cupboard.

  “Wild berry, I guess.”

  He poured hot water over the tea bags, then set her cup in front of her and sat opposite her. “I think you need to sit down with your mom and talk this out,” he told her. “Andy and Jeff probably need to know, too. Keeping this buried inside you will just put a barrier between you and the others.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t want to destroy their image of Dad. They thought he was invincible. So did I.”

  “I think his suicide pretty much shattered that myth,” Matt said. “He was only human, Emma. He made mistakes. We all do.”

  She finally met his gaze. “Matt, this wasn’t some little clerical error. He gambled away almost everything. You have no idea. None of us care about inheritances just for the sake of the money, but he put Mom’s future at risk. How could he do that?”

  “He got in over his head. It happens. And sometimes it happens before a person even realizes just how bad things have gotten.” He met her gaze evenly. “I got in over my head with you years ago.”

  She almost smiled at that. “Hardly the same,” she said.

  “I don’t know. I’d gamble just about anything to keep you.”

  “I’m not a prize you can win in some high-stakes game,” she said tartly.

  “Believe me, I know that better than anyone.”

  Her expression softened. “I do love you, you know. I love the way you’ve been there for me every step of the way since I got back here. I love that you’re here right now, despite all the mean, hateful things I said to you earlier.”

  “I deserved some of them.”

  “You deserved all of them,” she corrected. “But I forgive you.”

  “And I forgive you for being pigheaded and stubborn about going back to D.C. when you know you could be happy here. We could be happy together.”

  She frowned. “Maybe we’d better not discuss this right now.”

  He grinned. “Whatever you say.”

  Just then the phone rang. Matt looked at Emma, who was staring at it as if there were no one in the universe she wanted to speak to.

  “Want me to get it?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  He stood up and grabbed the phone. “Killian residence.”

  “Matt, is that you?”

  “Hi, Mrs. K. Where are you?”

  “Is Emma with you?”

  She sounded upset. Matt immediately braced himself for bad news. “She is. What’s up?”

  “It’s Jeff. He’s in intensive care at the hospital.”

  “We’ll be there in a few minutes,” he said at once, his gaze on Emma who was regarding him with an increasingly worried expression. “How’s he doing?”

  “Just hurry, Matt, please. And if you see any sign of Andy, bring him along. I think he and Lauren Patterson went to the movies.”

  Matt didn’t like the sound of urgency in Rosa’s voice, nor was he crazy about the way the color was draining out of Emma’s face as if she were already anticipating the worst.

  “Hang in there, Mrs. K. We’re on our way.”

  Emma was already on her feet by the time he’d hung up. “What happ
ened to Jeff?”

  “He’s in ICU. Your mom didn’t say why, but it’s not good. We need to get over there. She said Andy went to the movies. She wants us to look for him on the way.”

  “Drop me off first, then you go and look for him,” Emma said, racing ahead of him to the car.

  “The theater’s on the way,” Matt reminded her, as he backed out of the driveway, tires squealing. He sincerely regretted not having his car, so he could head for the hospital with siren blaring and lights flashing.

  As it was, he broke more than one law en route to the multiplex, where the early show was just letting out. Emma spotted Andy in the crowd and shouted for him. Looking puzzled, he loped over to the car, his date following more slowly.

  When Emma didn’t speak up at once, Matt said, “Hey, kid, we’ve got to get over to the hospital. Something’s up with your brother and your mom wants you there.”

  For an instant Andy looked defiant, as if he might refuse, but then the reality of the situation hit him. He nodded at once and turned to the girl. “Lauren, I can drop you off first.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I can ride along, if it’s okay.”

  “Good idea,” Matt said. “Then I’ll give you a lift home, after I drop Andy and Emma off.”

  They climbed in the back seat and Matt eased into the traffic now streaming out of the theater parking lot. Emma still hadn’t said anything.

  Andy reached over the seat and squeezed her shoulder. “You okay, sis?”

  She forced a smile. “Of course,” she insisted, reaching up to pat his hand. She even managed a smile for his date. “Sorry to spoil your evening.”

  The teenager waved off the comment. “I just hope Jeff’s okay. That’s all that matters.”

  Matt skidded to a stop at the emergency entrance and Emma and Andy piled out. “Emma,” he said, drawing her distracted gaze back to him. “I’ll be back in ten minutes, tops. Hang in there, okay? And give your mom a hug for me.”

  “I will.”

  He sat there, watching the two of them walk inside the hospital, shoulder to shoulder, holding hands. It was hard to tell who was comforting whom, but he was relieved that they had each other. If this was a drug overdose, as he very much feared it might be, they were going to need all the support they could get.

  Rosa had seen Jeff for a total of twenty minutes on two separate visits to his cubicle in the ICU. Each time she’d been horrified by how pale and lifeless he seemed to be. Her boy had always had so much energy, so much spirit. If she were being totally honest, she knew it was more than the drugs that had drained that spirit out of him. Things had been bad, but not this bad until she’d forced him to face facts about his father’s death being a suicide. He hadn’t been ready to hear that, even if the suspicion had been eating away at him. In the end, maybe she’d done as much damage to him as the drugs.

  She sat beside his bed and held his hand. “Jeffrey Killian, you are not running out on me, not like this. Do you hear me?”

  She kept up the chatter for the entire length of her visit, alternately badgering him and telling him how much she loved him. When the nurse signaled that her time was up, she gave his hand one last squeeze.

  “Emma and Andy will be here soon. I expect you to be wide-awake by then, okay? I love you.”

  She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I know things have been bad, my darling boy, but we’re going to fix it. I promise.”

  She was at the door to his cubicle when she heard the raspy whisper.

  “Love you, Mom.”

  Tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them away as she ran back to the bed to look into those precious dark brown eyes so like her own. “Oh, sweetie, you scared the daylights out of me,” she scolded.

  “Sorry.”

  “But you’re going to be okay now,” she said smoothing her hand across his brow. “We’re all going to be okay.”

  He sighed and his eyes drifted shut just as the doctor came in to check on him.

  “He was awake. That’s a good sign, isn’t it?”

  “It’s a start,” he conceded. “Let me check him out and I’ll let you know how things are going.”

  Rosa drew in a deep, relieved breath and went back to the waiting room. “He woke up,” she announced to her friends just as Andy and Emma arrived.

  “Mom, what happened?” Emma asked.

  There was little point in trying to cover up the truth. Everyone here knew how much trouble Jeff had been in lately. And secrets had a way of leading to tragedy.

  “An overdose,” she said. “He had a heart attack.”

  “But he’s just a kid,” Andy said, clearly shocked.

  Rosa reached for his hand. “And let that be a lesson to you about what drugs can do to you,” she said fiercely.

  He gave her one of those too-grown-up Andy looks. “As if I’d ever be dumb enough to try drugs.”

  “There was a time when Jeff would have said the same thing,” she reminded him.

  Andy caught sight of Marisol just then. “It’s her fault,” he accused bitterly. “What are you doing here? You have no right to be here. You’re not family. Get out.” He started toward her as if he intended to physically drag her from the waiting room.

  Rosa understood his anger all too well, but she grasped his hand and stopped him. “You can’t blame all of this on Marisol,” she told him quietly. “Your brother is an adult. He made his own choices. And if it weren’t for Marisol’s quick thinking, your brother might have died tonight. She brought him to the hospital in time.”

  Emma regarded the girl with surprise and went over to sit beside her. “Thank you.”

  “Andy’s right,” Marisol said, looking shattered. “This was my fault. I just wanted to have some fun. I didn’t know anything like this could happen from smoking a few joints.”

  “You were doing more than smoking pot, or at least he was,” the doctor said, apparently overhearing her as he emerged from the ICU. “But he’s showing some definite signs of improvement. I think there’s reason for some cautious optimism.”

  Rosa began to weep at the news, shedding the tears she hadn’t permitted herself until now. Emma guided her to a chair, then sat beside her.

  “I’ll get you some more coffee,” Helen said.

  “Tea,” Emma corrected. “Herbal, if they have it.”

  “I’ll go,” Andy said, shooting another bitter look at Marisol.

  She returned his gaze with a defiant look of her own. “I’ll come with you. You can’t carry enough drinks for everyone.”

  He looked as if he might balk at the offer, but typical of Andy, he could never be deliberately mean to someone and his anger rarely lasted more than a minute. Rosa watched him with pride as he walked away.

  “That child has had to deal with too much,” she said. “It’s a wonder he hasn’t fallen apart.”

  “He’s strong like you, Mama,” Emma said.

  Rosa squeezed her daughter’s hand. “And like you. I don’t know what I would have done without you these past months.”

  “You’d have survived,” Emma said confidently. “Maybe if I hadn’t hung around, it would have been better.”

  “How can you even say such a thing? I want you here. This is your home.”

  “Washington is my home now.”

  Rosa gazed into her daughter’s eyes and saw the turmoil. “Is it really?” she asked quietly. She glanced up in time to see Matt coming into the waiting room, his gaze immediately going to Emma. “Are you sure you haven’t found something here that’s more important?”

  Emma didn’t answer, but she smiled at Matt when he sat beside her and put his arm around her shoulder.

  My God, Rosa thought, those two were so in love, it made her heart ache. If only there were some way to make Emma admit it before it was too late.

  Tomorrow, she thought wearily. She would worry about that tomorrow. Tonight she had just enough strength left to pray for Jeff’s full recovery.

  22 />
  Emma could have slept for a week, but instead, she intended to open the diner right on time at 6:00 a.m. at her mother’s insistence. She knew it had to be done. In fact, she knew better than anyone how critical every dollar was these days, but she would have given anything for even an hour in bed after spending most of the night at the hospital.

  An icy shower helped to revive her, but it was the sight of Matt waiting for her in the driveway that made her pulse sing. He hadn’t left her side all night. When he’d brought her by the house earlier to change clothes, he’d said he would be back and he was, despite her argument that he needed sleep. She could count on him to do exactly what he said he’d do. His reliability was something she’d come to prize, to say nothing of the way his touches could inflame her. She’d been trying hard not to dwell on that. It got in the way of doing what she knew she had to do.

  “I told you to stay home and get some sleep,” she scolded, even as she got into the front seat of his car. She had to fight not to lean back against the cushions and close her eyes. If she fell asleep now, she’d sleep for a month.

  “I told you the same thing. Guess we’re both stubborn,” he said mildly. “I knew you’d insist on Andy staying home. Somebody has to help out at the grill. You can’t do it all.”

  “I could have managed,” she insisted.

  “But now you don’t have to.”

  She gave him a grateful look. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime, sweetheart. You know that.”

  She did. Even when she’d been furious with him for not telling her he’d been involved with Jennifer, she had known that he would never in a million years let her down. Not really.

  “I spoke to your mom a few minutes ago,” he told her. “She says Jeff is doing better. He’s more alert this morning and they’re bringing him breakfast in a few minutes.”

  “Thank God for Helen, Sylvia and Jolie. They haven’t left her side for a minute.”

  “That’s what friends do,” Matt said. “Especially in a town like Winter Cove.”