Before Sienna could answer, the front door opened, and the Ericksen sisters walked inside. They peeled off matching red jackets and draped their scarves over the coat tree. “Hi, Josie.” Ella waved. She was heavily made up and wore a skin-tight pink sweater, black jeans, and stiletto boots. In contrast, Becca wore a blue sweatshirt, cargo pants, and heavy work boots.
“Hi, yourself,” Josie answered. “You two are late tonight.”
Becca rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it. Beauty Queen here couldn’t manage to pick me up until ten minutes ago.” She jabbed a thumb at her sister, who tossed her long ponytail and shrugged.
“Something came up,” Ella said.
“Something always comes up,” Becca mouthed at Josie.
Sienna smiled and turned back to her menu. Becca ran the local animal shelter, evidenced by the sweatshirt, work boots, and no-nonsense ponytail. She couldn’t remember what Ella did for a living. Something that involved glamour and fashion, from the looks of her. Sienna studied them from the corner of her eye. Becca bent over her menu while Ella twisted her ponytail around her fingers and scanned the room. Her gaze settled on Sienna.
“Hi,” she called out before Sienna could look away. Ella folded her hands on the table as if she was holding court and gave Sienna a dazzling white smile. “You’re our new upstairs neighbor, right? Come join us.”
“Oh, no, that’s okay. I’m fine.”
Ella lifted one perfectly groomed brow. “You’re sure? We’re better company than Mr. Moriarty.”
The man on Sienna’s right glanced over.
“No offense,” Ella added.
He grinned and pushed back his empty pie plate. “None taken, I suppose.” He put on his coat, left a five-dollar tip for his pie and coffee, and walked out. A moment later, the woman and child followed him.
“Thanks, Josie,” the woman said in a tired voice. She pulled on the little girl’s coat and tugged a hat over her head.
“You’re welcome, Chloe. Anytime. You know that.” As the door closed behind them, Josie pulled a ticket from her pad, scribbled something on it, then took a ten dollar bill from her own pocket and put it into the drawer of the cash register. She gave Sienna a dark look. “Husband likes to hit the bottle, then likes to hit her.” She scowled. “I tol’ her a dozen times to leave him, but she says she ain’t got no place to go.” She scrubbed the counter with a bleached-white towel. “She could stay with me, she and Ellen. I tol’ her that too. I got an extra bedroom.”
“So why won’t she?” Sienna wanted to ask Chloe’s last name, but she didn’t dare.
Josie looked up and scowled more fiercely. “’Cause her husband is a judge over in Silver Valley. She ever left him, he’d come after her. Probably take custody of Ellen. Chloe knows it too. So she just takes it.” She tossed the towel aside and pointed at Sienna. “Don’t you ever take shit like that from a man.”
“Don’t worry.” Sienna thought of her workouts with Mike. Maybe she could convince Chloe to take a few boxing lessons at the gym. Local judge beats and blackmails his wife. It hadn’t taken long for Pine Point to reveal its first ugly secret. But the thought saddened her, and she couldn’t get the picture of the woman’s bruised arm from her mind.
The front door opened and she looked over, glad for the distraction. The construction workers Sienna had met at the gym walked inside.
“Hey, Josie.” Mac waved a giant arm.
“Hey, boys.” She poured two cups of coffee without asking and hollered over her shoulder to the cook on the line, “Guys are here. Two medium-rare burgers with the works.”
“Not like we’re regulars or anything,” Damian said as they joined Sienna at the counter. “It’s Sienna, right?”
She nodded. “You know what, I’ll take a burger with the works too. Sounds delicious.”
“You got it.” Josie refilled Sienna’s coffee mug and folded her arms on the counter. “How’s things, boys?”
“Shitty.” Mac grinned. “I hate electrical work. I hate working inside, period. But it’s a paycheck.” He took a long, loud slurp of coffee.
She thought he might have played football at Pine Point High. A fuzzy memory from eighth grade slipped into Sienna’s mind, going to a game and holding hands under the bleachers with a boy whose name she couldn’t recall. Her-bert, Her-bert, the crowd had chanted above them.
Behind the counter, the burgers sizzled on the grill, filling the space with fragrant smoke and making Sienna’s mouth water.
“How’s Mike?” Mac asked. “He coming out tonight?”
Sienna shook. “Um, no. I don’t think so.”
“Oh. Thought he and you might—ah, never mind.” Mac shook his head and took another slurp of coffee. “Open mouth, insert foot, that’s me. Don’t listen to a word I say.”
The burgers arrived, preventing Sienna from having to respond. Instead, she listened to the conversations around her.
“So you gonna see her again?” Damian asked Mac after a few bites of hamburger.
Mac shrugged. “Dunno. She said she wants to keep things casual.”
“Or she wants to keep her options open ’til something better comes along.”
Josie grinned as Mac elbowed his friend. “What’s better than all this?” he asked, looking down and patting a belly that had obviously enjoyed many burgers at Zeb’s.
“All I’m sayin’ is, when a woman doesn’t want to be seen in public with you, it’s a bad sign.” Damian looked up. “Josie, you’re a woman.”
“Last time I checked.” She replaced the gum in her mouth with a fresh stick.
“What do you think? Mac here’s been seeing this chick for…” He turned to Mac. “What is it now? Couple months?”
Mac shrugged and continued to eat.
“She goes over to his place. He goes over to hers. But the minute he wants to take her out, dinner or a movie or anything like that, she puts on the brakes. Says she doesn’t want to rush into anything.”
“Huh.” Josie leaned on the counter. “Hate to say it, but you might be right on this one. Sounds like a bad sign. Unless she’s some kind of introvert with one of those phobias of public places.” She turned to Sienna. “You know what I’m talking about? What’s that called? When people are afraid to go outside their homes?”
“Agoraphobia?”
Josie snapped her fingers. “Yup. That’s it. Saw a 20/20 show on it once.” She shook her head as she took two sandwich platters from the line and carried them over to the Ericksen sisters. “Damn shame,” she said without missing a beat when she returned. “Can’t imagine being afraid of people.”
“I don’t think she has agoraphobia,” Damian said. “Far as I know, she’s got a job. So she leaves the house for that.”
Mac belched loudly. “You all done discussing my personal business yet?”
Sienna bit her lip to keep from smiling too much. Josie disappeared into the kitchen, and the guys’ conversation turned to the thought of more shitty work tomorrow, plumbing this time, from the sounds of it.
Sienna finished her burger and left a generous tip. Looked as though she wouldn’t have to travel too far to discover some of Pine Point’s secrets. She hurried upstairs and took a quick shower. Then she sank into the recliner, grabbed her yellow notepad, and spent the next two hours writing notes on all she’d seen and heard.
Chapter Ten
“Ma, what are you doing?” Mike came home from work the following night to find his mother balancing on a step stool in the middle of the kitchen. Two open cans of paint sat on the counter, along with a collection of brushes and newspapers. Loretta wore jeans and a paint-streaked sweatshirt, and her gray hair looked as though it had a few extra dabs of white in it.
“I’m doing the edging,” she explained and waved a brush at the seam between the kitchen wall and ceiling.
“I can see that. And y
ou’re doing a very good job, by the way. But I thought you wanted to paint the living room.”
“I do. That room’s too big for me to handle it, so the twins are coming over this weekend.” She looked up at her handiwork and rubbed her nose with the hand holding the paintbrush. A white streak appeared on her forehead. “But there isn’t much surface area in here. I want to paint over this eighties’ mint green and make it all black and white.” She gestured at a magazine flipped open on the table. “Like that.”
Mike glanced at the checkerboard pattern in the glossy pages. “It’s nice. But don’t you think you’re a little—”
“Don’t you even say what I think you’re about to,” she warned. She waved the brush near his face. “Or I might give you a little edging while I’m at it.” She touched up the final corner and then climbed down. “I am certainly not too old to do a little painting.” She cleaned the brush and set it aside. “Or too arthritic, or too whatever else you were going to say.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything at all.” Mike dropped a kiss onto her head.
“Oh, dear.” Loretta frowned as she looked around the room.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t have anything to make for dinner. And this mess…”
He had already begun clearing away the papers and recapping the paint cans. He flipped the magazine shut and set it next to the couch in the living room. “How about we go out for dinner? Just you and me? We haven’t done that in a while.”
Loretta smiled. “No, we haven’t. And I’d love to.”
They walked into Zeb’s Diner less than an hour later. Mike looked around, half-expecting to see Sienna sitting in one of the booths. Pine Point wasn’t that big, and he’d heard through the grapevine she lived in one of the apartments up above. He would rather have gone across town, to the Ponderosa or even the more upscale restaurant with three buffets, the Corner Lounge, but his mother loved Zeb’s.
He kept his gaze down. What would he say if he did see Sienna here? What would he do? Before California, before Edie, before prison, before all those mistakes, he’d been a regular guy. Maybe, on his good days, a little bit of a charmer. A few of the guys out west had even called him Casanova, since he’d never had a problem talking to women or taking them home with him.
All that had changed.
“Hello, Josie,” Loretta crowed as soon as they arrived. “Look who’s taking me out on the town tonight.” She squeezed Mike’s arm.
“Most handsome boy in the place,” Josie said as she led them to a table in the back.
“I heard that,” a gray-haired man at the counter said.
“I’m sure you did.” Josie swatted the man as she returned to the cash register.
“So now tell me,” Loretta began. She unwound her scarf and took off her coat and gloves. “Have you met anyone? Any nice girl at the gym?”
The question caught him so off guard, his knee jerked and hit the underside of the table. “Ma…”
“What?”
Josie came over with two plastic cups of water. “Ready to order?” she asked, even though they’d just sat down.
“Uh, sure.” Mike scanned the handwritten page of specials taped inside the front of the menu. “Open-face-turkey sandwich for me.”
“I’ll take a cup of the soup and a salad,” Loretta said.
“That’s it?”
She swatted the back of his hand. “Yes, that’s it. I don’t pump iron all day long like my handsome boy. I don’t need all those calories.”
Though his face burned at the words, they soothed him too, down deep where most of him felt like it had calloused over years ago.
Josie smacked her gum, collected their menus, and strolled away.
“No one?” Loretta continued, as if their conversation hadn’t been interrupted. “I wish you would. I want you to be happy.”
“I am happy.” And I have no interest in getting involved with anyone, nice girl or not.
She waved away his words. “Well, I’d like some grandbabies before I’m too old to pick them up or play with them.”
“Ma, geez.” He glanced around, thankful for a light Tuesday dinner crowd.
“I’m just saying.” She took a sip of water. “What about Sienna Cruz?”
Oh, my God. Maybe taking his mother to dinner had been a colossal mistake.
“What about her?”
“Have you seen her again? How’s school going for her? Must be a challenge, coming into a class midway through the year.”
“I guess. I haven’t really seen her. Or talked to her.” Little white lie. Just a little one.
“That’s too bad,” Loretta said as Josie returned with their meals. “She was a beautiful young girl, from what I remember. Elenita used to show me pictures of her. I’m sure she’s grown into a gorgeous woman.”
Mike bent over his sandwich. Yes, she had. If she’d turned into an ugly, overweight, toothless hag, he’d have no problem getting her out of his mind. As it was, she filled almost every waking hour.
“You be nice to her,” Loretta said.
“I already told you I will. I’m nice to everyone.”
She shook her head and blew on a spoonful of soup. “I mean be extra nice. You don’t know what she’s been through.” She thought for a minute. “In fact, why don’t you invite her over for dinner one night? I’d love to see her again and welcome her home.”
Chapter Eleven
Friday morning, Sienna overslept. Exhausted from a week of heading off student meltdowns, keeping track of paperwork, and staying up past midnight to take notes on Pine Point secrets, she buried her face in her pillow when her alarm went off the first time. When she finally opened her eyes again, the clock read quarter past eight, fifteen minutes before she was supposed to sign in.
“Shit!” She leaped out of bed and pulled on the first thing she saw, an old green sweater with fraying sleeves and the same pair of jeans she’d worn the day before. She splashed water on her face, tied her hair into a ponytail, and grabbed her makeup bag on the way out the door. Outside, an inch of newly fallen snow covered her car. Of course. Sienna stood in the middle of the sidewalk, not sure whether to cry or rage or just turn around and go back to bed.
“Hey, Sienna.”
She looked over her shoulder to see Ella Ericksen coming down the stairs behind her. Ella had a designer bag slung over one shoulder and a lumpy paper bag in the crook of the other arm. Despite the early hour, she looked impeccable and fully awake. Even back in high school, she’d bounce into classes with limitless energy and smiles for all the guys surrounding her. She was the last person Sienna wanted to see in her own sorry state right then.
“Hey.” Sienna stared mournfully at her car and then began wiping the windshield with one mittened hand.
“Don’t you have a snow brush?” Ella opened the back of her sturdy-looking SUV, parked as usual behind Sienna’s car.
“Ah, no.”
“Here.” With two quick sweeps of a long brush, Ella had cleared Sienna’s windshield. She walked around the car, clearing the rest of it without getting any snow on her long red jacket or in her perfectly coiffed hair. Then she handed the brush to Sienna. “Take it. I have another one upstairs.”
“Really? You’re sure?”
“Of course.” Ella tossed her hair and beamed. “That’s what neighbors are for.”
Sienna stood there as the beauty queen climbed into her SUV, beeped the horn twice, and drove away. Neighbors. She supposed they were.
Sienna dashed into the school twenty minutes later. Loni, the double-chinned monitor, sat at Sienna’s desk. She’d called the office, and Jenny had reassured her that the children would be taken care of, but by the time she reached her classroom, sweat drenched Sienna’s back. Please let everything be calm and peaceful. Surely the twins wouldn’t be awake enough to have
started their tantrums. Caleb would be bent over his work, and Silas was probably rocking happily in his chair.
“Thank goodness you’re here.” Loni got up. “They’ve been about ready to throw tantrums, all of them.”
“Really? I’m sorry.” Sienna surveyed the room. Billy and Bailey sat red-faced in the corner by the new bookshelf. Silas was rocking, but in a manner so jerky and agitated, she was afraid he’d pitch forward out of the chair and knock himself silly. Caleb wasn’t sitting in his usual chair, but instead stood in the corner under the window, blinking too fast. And Dawn was nowhere to be seen.
“Where’s Dawn?”
“In the closet, last time I saw her.” She gave a little nod to the corner as she walked out. “Good luck.”
Sienna sank to the ground. Her legs gave out, and she simply folded into a pretzel on the rug. I’m in over my head. For a long few minutes, she sat there, unmoving and unspeaking. How did people do this year after year? She remembered why she’d left teaching. It was too damn hard. That, and too damn heartbreaking. She pressed her fingertips to her temples and told herself to breathe. This isn’t forever. This is temporary. You can do this. And if she couldn’t, what was the worst that would happen? They’d find someone else to teach the class, and she’d return to UNC and find another small town to study.
She took another few breaths. Finally, she pushed herself to a stand and walked over to Caleb. She didn’t touch him. She didn’t try to look at him. Instead, she pointed at the bookshelf and spoke over his left shoulder.
“Caleb, please pick out two books. Then you can sit at the table and read them to yourself, and we’ll talk about them in thirty minutes.”
His gaze shifted, and for a second—maybe a half second—his eyes met hers. Then he nodded and walked to the bookshelf.
Silas stopped rocking. He looked at her with tears in his eyes, and suddenly she realized the magnitude of her lateness. They thought I wasn’t coming back. On impulse, she reached down and picked him up, a heavy mass of floppy arms and legs. Then she sat in the rocking chair and snuggled him to her chest. His body tensed, and she waited for him to leap up and stumble across the room. But he didn’t. After a breath or two, he relaxed into her, and together they rocked in silence.
Spring Secrets: Pine Point, Book 3 Page 6
