The tears that had threatened on and off all night slipped quietly down Mia’s cheeks. “I want to believe that, I really do. I love you so much.”
“And that’s enough, Mia.” He kissed her shoulder and hugged her close. “It’s enough and one day you’re going to wake up and believe it.”
Mia drifted off to sleep, hoping that day would be coming soon, but when she crawled out of bed at seven Sunday morning, she didn’t feel any less conflicted than she had the night before.
She stood at the foot of the bed, staring at Sawyer while he slept, his arms thrown up over his head in a way that made him look almost childish, despite his size, and her heart lurched with such a fierce mixture of fear and love it took her breath away. She turned and tiptoed out of the room, not wanting Sawyer to wake up, see her face, and know that his hopeful prophecy had yet to come true.
She dressed quickly, left a note telling Sawyer she’d call after her meeting with Gram, and hurried out the backdoor, giving herself time to swing into the gas station and grab two bottles of water before she started out to the ghost town. Gram believed a person could survive on coffee alone, but Mia knew they’d need water this morning. The heat was already billowing up from the pavement, and the sun had yet to climb a quarter of the way into the sky.
She reached the ghost town to find Gram’s Civic already parked by the gate and Gram standing inside the fence, swinging her picnic basket from hand to hand as she looked wistfully up at the saloon.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Mia said as she made her way down the street, her boots already kicking up dust despite the rain the other night. It was going to be another bone-dry summer, which made her even more concerned about the benefit concert she and Bubba were planning. They were going to need water, and lots of it, and maybe some sort of water feature to help people cool off.
“Not worth a penny,” Gram said. “In fact, I think I should write you a check before we talk. I feel like this conversation should cost me.”
Mia’s heart did a jittery leap in her chest. “Shit. Are you sick, Gram? If so, just tell me quick. Like ripping off a Band-Aid. Like you did with the stuff the other day.”
“Why does everyone always assume I’m sick?” Gram set her picnic basket on the ground, and crossed her arms with a scowl. “I hate getting old. I’m becoming a damned cliché.”
“Sorry,” Mia said, smiling. “You’re not a cliché. Clichés don’t have nicknames like sugar britches.”
Gram’s frown stayed in place, the older woman apparently in no mood for teasing this morning. “You’re right. I should just do it quick. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.” She turned, looking up at Mia with glistening eyes, the expression on her face so sober it made Mia’s grin shrivel away.
“God, Gram, what is it?”
“I’ve done wrong by you, Mia,” Gram said, solemnly. “I didn’t mean to, but that doesn’t change the fact that I never should have let this lie go on for so long. At first, I needed it to salvage my pride at a time when I didn’t think I could sink any lower, but by the time you were born, I should have come clean.” Her lips trembled. “And now… Well, I’m just ashamed of myself. Especially when it’s all turned out to be a lie, right from the beginning.”
Mia shook her head. “Gram, what are you talking about? You’re freaking me out.”
“The body was positively identified Friday. It belonged to Rupert Everett, Amelia’s husband.”
Mia’s eyes widened. “What? But I thought he was buried—”
“I had the coffin exhumed yesterday,” Gram said, cutting her off. “It’s empty, and the detectives are certain the body Sawyer found is Rupert’s. There was damage to the right shin bone consistent with a break Rupert experienced when he was a boy, and the DNA profile is consistent with his ancestry. It uh…” Gram swallowed, before continuing in a softer voice. “It looks like he was stabbed before being pushed into the cavern, and died of a combination of damage to his lungs and head trauma from the fall.”
Mia blinked, too shocked by discovering her great-great-etcetera grandfather had been murdered to get to the obvious question too quickly. Before she could ask Gram who might have done it, Emily was already giving her an answer.
“They suspect Amelia might have been responsible.” Gram bent down, retrieving her picnic basket. “She was shorter, like me. The angle of the entry wound shows that he was stabbed by someone smaller than he was. And since Amelia told everyone he died in his sleep, buried an empty casket, and was the person responsible for having the jailhouse built over the cavern…”
“To keep anyone from finding the body.” Mia fell in beside Gram as she started down the street toward the live oak trees near the spring. “If that’s true, then…”
“Then there is no Sherman family curse,” Gram said with a sigh. “And Amelia was as big a liar as your old gram. Though from what I’ve read about Rupert, she had a much better reason to get rid of her husband. At least Frank never beat me, or forced me to become his mistress when I was only sixteen years old, or promised to cut off the tip of my nose the next time I embarrassed him in public.”
Mia stopped dead in the middle of the street, a chill shivering up her spine despite the early morning heat. “Please don’t tell me you killed granddaddy, Emily, or I am going to lose it.”
Gram’s jaw dropped as she reached over to slap Mia’s arm. “Of course not! Jesus, Mia!”
Mia shrugged as she let out a relieved breath. “Well, shit, Gram. I mean… Seriously, I’m glad, but the way that story was going, can you blame me?”
Gram pressed her lips together and lifted her nose in the air. “Your granddaddy is quite alive and well. Living in Argentina last time I heard, on some commune for embarrassingly old swingers.”
Mia’s brows shot up. “He’s alive? You… You faked his freaking death? Are you kidding me?”
Gram’s mouth turned down hard at the edges. “It wasn’t like that. We agreed on our wedding night that it wasn’t working. We’d been forced into marriage when my daddy found out I was pregnant and…neither of us really wanted it by then. We agreed that Frank should just disappear, and I should say he passed. That way his child and I would be spared the shame of everyone in town knowing we’d been abandoned by a man who cared more about sleeping his way through the single women on the planet than doing right by his family. Frank didn’t have any people here, and my daddy and I kept the funeral quiet, so…”
“I can’t believe this.” Mia paced a few steps away, only to turn and pace back again. “All this time, all those years when you were telling me the stories about the curse, and youknewthe whole time that you’d been married and nothing had happened!”
“Something happened,” Emily said, a defensive note creeping into her tone. “A man I’d fallen in love with when I was too young to know better betrayed me, and did his part to ruin the rest of my life. I didn’t want that for you, Mia. I mean, just look at poor Tulsi.”