“Well, I guess the same’s true for him,” Evie went on, oblivious to Ava’s darkening mood. “He was in some kinda bad place several years ago, when he came back from Tennessee.”
Not my fault, she wanted to say.That was my Dad’s misguided notion of protecting me, and Mercy being too honorable to tell him to fuck off.
“Felix is a very good-natured boy,” Evie said. “But he doesn’t love too many people. He loves you.” Her brows lifted. “That’s an honor.”
At this point, the Maggie Lowe DNA in her was swirling up with the old Teague blood and she was in the mood to punch this woman right in the face. To be questioned and lectured about her love for Mercy, cautioned like that. It was insulting.
“Mrs. O’Donnell,” she said, tone polite, coming to a halt. She drew on every ounce of her mother’s grace, and her literary background. “I have had the incomparable pleasure of calling Felix Lécuyer my dear friend for almost fifteen years. I have loved him, and been loved by him, for all that time. Don’t ever think that I am less than astounded by the depth of his feeling, or that I don’t love him back with every square inch of my heart.”
Evie blinked. Then smiled. “Oh, honey. I’m so glad you do.” She resumed her walk, and Ava followed suit. “I’m not trying to make you mad, understand.”
Ava sighed. “Sorry. I just get defensive of him.”
“Good.”
They had reached the water’s edge. The ground was so soft, Ava stepped back, afraid she’d get sucked down into the channel.
Evie said, “I brought a box with me this time. A bunch of Felix’s old stuff.”
Ava glanced over out of rabid curiosity.
“I thought he might like to show it to you. Larry and I went back to his house after…you know. Felix wouldn’t go in. I think it hurt too bad to see it empty.”
Ava wanted so badly to ask whatyou knowmeant. For years she’d wondered. What was the awful thing that had wounded Mercy so deeply? The words were on her tongue before she checked them. No, she reminded herself. If Mercy wanted her to know, he’d tell her. She would ask, would put her arms around him and promise her support, but asking Evie felt like a betrayal. Gossiping behind his back. She’d never treated him like that before; she wasn’t going to start now.
“A box full of what sort of stuff?” she asked instead.
Evie shrugged. “Old pictures. His personal things off his bookshelf. We packed up the things from his room we thought he’d like to keep. Just junk, probably.” She smiled at Ava. “But it’s his junk.”
Maggie took a deep breath and realized she was shaking. Shehatedthat she was shaking. Fuck this shit.Fuck it.
The entire side of Ava’s pretty black truck, from headlight to taillight, was spattered with eggs. Rotten eggs, going by the smell. Bits of shell clung to the trailing, globular yolks that ran in slow motion down the paint.
When the first one hit on her way down Main, she’d thought it was a rock kicked up by the truck in front of her. But then the volley had begun. High school kids, under the watchful eye of one of their fathers, had egged her car, the utility trailer, and even poor Harry, who’d been riding behind her, and wearing the cut that had drawn the attention of the protesters.
She turned to him now that they were safely parked in her driveway. “Harry, honey…”
His helmet, cut, gloves, and boots were glossy with egg whites. The goo dripped from his sleeves. There was splatter on his face, over his sunglasses, smeared, where he’d wiped it away so he could see to ride.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It coulda been worse. It coulda been rocks.”
Her stomach tightened at the idea.
Ghost came out of the house, Collier in his wake, and Maggie fought to mask her surprise.
Ghost’s eyes skipped over the truck, and she could see the anger building in him, the leaping pulse in the vein at his temple. “Where did this happen?”
“On Main.”
He glanced at her and under the staggering fury, she read the apology in his eyes. He hated that this had happened to her; he blamed himself, for being the sort of husband who drew censure and attention.
“You were with her?” he demanded of Harry and Carter.
Carter said, “Yes, sir.”
“It was kids,” Harry rushed to say. “I don’t think they meant to hurt anybody.”
“No?” Ghost said. “Ava’s little boyfriend, he was just akid. Look how that went.”
