Author: Robyn Carr

“And football. With Pop Warner,” he added in a quiet voice.

There was a knock at the door and Mac let Sidney in. “Early,” Mac explained.

Sidney gave a nod and merely stood inside the door as a witness. But what he was seeing was Cee Jay’s passion for her children.

“I take dance class,” Dee Dee said, so softly she could barely be heard.

“Oh, I knew it! I used to dance! And what else do you do, my darling?”

“Piano,” she added. “Why can’t Aunt Lou be here? She’s the one who takes care of us. With Daddy.”

“I’m afraid I was a disappointment to your Aunt Lou,” Cee Jay said smoothly, looking down, looking ashamed. “We were close once, but not anymore.”

Close? Mac thought. When was that?

“Eve, tell me about yourself,” Cee Jay said.

“No,” Eve said. “Tell me about yourself. You look pretty good. Jewelry and everything. What kind of job do you have?”

“Oh. Um. Well, I’ve been living in Los Angeles so I’ve been doing some modeling, some work as an extra on movie sets, that sort of thing. Nothing very impressive.”

“It must pay very well,” Eve said. Mac thought, That’s my daughter—already investigating. “The only other thing I want to know is why.”

“Why?”

“Why you got up one morning and decided to leave us. Without telling us you were going. Without saying goodbye. Without ever calling or sending a card or visiting.”

Cee Jay looked shocked. “Eve, I’m sure your dad told you about—”

“I want you to tell me. Why didn’t you at least visit us?”

“Your father asked me not to,” she said.

Mac scowled. “That’s not true,” he said.

She turned and looked at him. “You served me with divorce papers that severed my custody and visitation.”

“They know that, Cee Jay. Five years after you left, I filed for divorce and custody, and you signed off. They know. They’ve always known that we hadn’t had a conversation for ten years.”

“So then?” Eve said. “Why?”

“I’m sure you’re very angry with me, Eve, but I came home to tell you about—”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Eve said. “I want to know why!”

“Eve,” Mac said in a warning tone.

Her voice was more compliant when she looked at him with pain in her eyes and said, “That’s all I want from this, Dad.”

“I understand. Please, be polite.”

She looked back at Cee Jay. “I politely request that you tell me why. I don’t want to talk about it, I just want to know.”

Cee Jay sat a bit straighter and her mouth was not set in a happy line. Her lovely arched brows furrowed unhappily. “I don’t expect you to understand, but I was very young. I had too many small children to care for without any help, without the love of a husband, without enough money to keep the house decent or enough food on the table. I broke, that’s all. I broke and ran, afraid I was losing my mind. I’m sorry. I know it was wrong, but I wasn’t strong. And now I’d like to reconnect and make up for all I missed.”

Eve stood up. “Thank you.” She walked toward her bedroom.

“Eve!” Cee Jay stood. “Won’t you give me another chance?”

With tears gathering in her eyes, Eve shook her head. Then she proceeded to her room.

“Can I be excused?” Ryan asked.

“Me, too,” Dee Dee added.

Mac nodded, knowing they were going to go hide or at least lay low. He was going to have so much to explain to them, damage to try to repair.

Cee Jay turned blazing blue eyes on him. “What have you done to them?” she snapped. “They hate me!”

“I have to admit, I’m surprised,” Mac said, running a big hand down over his jaw. “I knew Eve was angry, but I didn’t realize... Look, Cee Jay, Ryan and Dee Dee were very young when you disappeared, and they don’t remember the day you left. But Eve remembers every detail. I had to get her in counseling—she was a wreck. But you have to be realistic—it’s not as though they didn’t notice their mother wasn’t here or that you didn’t call or write or visit. I didn’t have to point that out to them.”

“You poisoned them against me!”

“What?” he said on a laugh. “You didn’t ever think of calling, or ever sending a birthday or Christmas card? Did it never occur to you that not visiting once in ten years would do the job of making them angry with you? You think they needed input from me? Oh, Cee Jay, how delusional can you possibly be?”

“You bastard! You’re happy they reject me!”

He took a threatening step toward her. “I’m probably going to spend the better part of the night, maybe the next several days, trying to convince my daughter your abandonment was not her fault, that it was no one’s fault. I might be headed for more counseling, which is tough on a deputy’s salary.” Then he stopped, looked her over and said, “Modeling? Movie work?”

“I’m done talking to you,” she said, turning to leave.

Mac looked at her attorney, lifting his eyebrows in question. She gave a little shrug. “Right now Mrs. McCain’s sole job is trying to reunite with her family.”

Mac’s expression was deadpan. “It’s not Mrs.,” he said for the second time.

Cee Jay was out the door, down the walk and in her car quickly, her attorney following. Mac stepped outside, Sidney on his heels. Nothing was said while Cee Jay started her classy car and pulled away from the curb. He squinted toward the car, memorizing the license plate. There had been no exchange of business cards; Ann had never offered one.

Then he turned to Sidney. “That went well,” he said.

* * *

Lou McCain went into Cliffhanger’s, meaning to have a quiet drink at the bar while she waited for Mac to be finished with The Visit. Given it was a Wednesday at six, the place was kind of busy and, as luck would have it, there was only one seat available at the bar...right next to Ray Anne, real estate agent extraordinaire and Lou’s long-time nemesis. And while Lou was in a pair of jeans that she’d dressed up with a jacket, Ray Anne was decked in a royal-blue silky suit, short skirt and very high heels.

Lou and Ray Anne weren’t exactly enemies, nor were they actual rivals. Anymore, at least. But they grew up together and had issues that went way back to the old days in Coquille. Ray Anne liked men very much and it didn’t matter to her if they were spoken for or not. In fact, Ray Anne, a cute, sexy little blonde in her younger years, had helped herself to at least a couple of Lou’s boyfriends. Lou had a memory like an elephant; it took a lot to cause her to hold a grudge, but once she achieved it, it was even harder for her to let go.

Ray Anne had relocated to Thunder Point about fifteen years ago, but given that it was so close to Coquille, Lou still saw more of her than she had liked. Then when Lou moved to Thunder Point with Mac and the kids, it seemed as if every time she turned a corner, she ran smack-dab into Ray Anne. Ray Anne might not be the same cute little blonde she once was, but she acted as if she thought she was. Now she had big boobs to add to her charms. Lou had suspected, quite rightly, that a surgical intervention had been necessary to achieve that impressive bustline.

Every time Lou saw Ray Anne, she automatically looked down at herself. Yup, sixty years old and still she looked as if she were wearing a training bra.

Yet, there was that lone bar stool. And Lou wouldn’t take a table in a busy restaurant for just a drink. She took the stool next to Ray Anne.

“If I sit here, can we have one hour of no conversation?” Lou asked Ray Anne.

Ray Anne lifted her glass of wine. “That’s a long time,” she said, lifting one tawny eyebrow. “What’s the matter? Man trouble?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Lou said.

Right then, Cliff came over to Lou and smiled at her.

“Give me a brandy, Cliff. Make it a good one, please,” she said.

“You got it, Lou.”

“Wow. You didn’t lose that hunk of a boyfriend, did you?” Ray Anne asked, referring to Joe.

“Not yet,” Lou said. “But I can give you his phone number and address if you want to make a run at him.”

Ray Anne leaned an elbow on the bar and rested her head on her fist. “You know, the way you pick at me—it gets old. Aren’t you worried you’ll really hurt my feelings?”

“I guess the fact that you call me a lesbian and an old maid wouldn’t be considered picking,” Lou said.

“Yes, but I’m kidding,” Ray Anne said. “And you damn well know it.”

Cliff brought Lou’s brandy and disappeared quickly. Lou and Ray Anne had been prickly toward each other for as long as anyone in Thunder Point could remember. It had never gotten down to hair pulling, but they had such scrappy attitudes no one was ever quite sure it wouldn’t result in that one day.

Lou took a sip of her brandy. “I declare a one-hour truce. This was the only bar stool empty.”

Ray Anne looked at her watch. “One hour it is. What’s got you drinking the hard stuff?”

“This is considered hard? This is a Christmas drink!”

“You’re wigged out about something. You haven’t even criticized my attire.”

Lou gave her a long look. “How high are those heels?” she asked. “Seriously, no criticism intended, but how the hell do you walk in those things?”

“It’s an acquired skill. Practice. Those wedgies of yours would probably give me leg cramps. Why are you out having Christmas drinks alone?”

“Well,” Lou said tiredly. “You’ll hear about it, anyway. Mac’s ex is in town, wanting t0 see the kids. She’s over there right now and it was agreed that I not be present since I might lose it and just kill her.”

“Cee Jay,” Ray Anne said in a breath. She had a rather stricken look on her face, her lacquered lips formed an O and she raised a hand to hover over her mouth.

“Yes, the one and only.” Lou took another sip of her brandy. “God help us all.”

“Oh, holy Jesus, that was her!”

“What are you talking about?” Lou asked.

Ray Anne turned her full attention on Lou, swiveling on her stool to face her. “She contacted me. She said she was looking at property in the area and asked about Thunder Point. She introduced herself as Cecelia Raines. She said the house had to be large and she wanted a view. I showed her the Morrison property that’s in foreclosure, but she had a lot of questions about the town, the people, the deputy! I didn’t put it together until ten seconds ago.”

Lou turned toward her. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. I never met her until a few days ago and I thought she looked familiar. Now that I think about it, Eve looks just like her. Oh, my God, she’s stalking. What does she want?”

Lou shook her head. “She says she wants to see her kids. But why now? She hasn’t been in touch since the day she left and now she comes to town to see Mac? This is very strange. Now, after hearing what you’ve just told me, I think it’s a little scary.”

“She didn’t give me any information about herself—she was a walk-in,” Ray Anne said. “Happens all the time—there aren’t very many agents in a dried-up old town like ours, so I wasn’t suspicious of her when she arrived at the office. Besides, a lot of people have wanted to see the Morrison place, not that anyone actually wants to buy it. But she was sure turned out—looked like a million bucks. She looked as if she had money, that’s why I took her out there. God, I hope I didn’t do any harm to Mac and the kids. Or you, for that matter.”