“Small world,” I reply as I climb in the back. “George Reynolds Nature Reserve.”
“Which parking lot? There’s three.”
“I don’t know. Start at the biggest, I guess.”
“You got it. So you work for yourself yet?”
“I’m on the way.”
“That’s good to hear. It’s the way to go. Say, I don’t recall you having that wedding ring on your finger last time. You went and got yourself hitched, did you?”
“I guess so.”
“Me, I’m divorced. Ain’t no good marriage, that’s what I always say. No offense. I’m sure you’ll do fine but for me, no more weddings. One was enough, and I’ll be paying for the divorce for years. If I could go back in time, I’d never have gone down the aisle. Should have known. She never liked the Cubs. That was the red flag. Should have booted her ass out soon as she told me that.”
“I know that feeling.”
“Having some regrets, are you?”
“You could say that. Would you mind going a bit faster? I’m running kind of late.”
“Sure thing.” He puts his foot down, weaving between the traffic and glancing back at me unnervingly. “You’ll get used to it. I had a couple of good years before it all turned to shit. Maybe you’ll get longer.”
“I doubt it. Listen, I’m going to close my eyes for five minutes. Let me know when we’re there, would you?”
“Sure will.”
I shut my eyes not to sleep, but so I don’t have to talk anymore. It’s been a hell of a couple of hours. I’ve had Detective Brody wanting me to record Hunter confessing to murder. I’ve discovered that the same Brody has been blackmailing Catherine for some time. Then there was the encounter with Melanie and Buffy, as bitchy as ever.
I should have stayed there and tried to get them to change their minds, but it already felt like a losing battle even before Hunter called.
That reminds me. He just barked an order at me and then hung up. Didn’t even give me a chance to speak. Has the shine come off like it did with Oswald? Is the real him now out to play?
I may have made a mistake getting married to him. There’s no sign of the man I first got to know. Last night, I put Brewster’s Millions on for us to watch. He barely lasted a half hour before he took a call on his phone, disappearing into his study with the door closed in my face like it was the end of The Godfather.
Our wedding night began with him coming on my face and ended with me alone in bed. I didn’t see him again last night. Didn’t see him this morning. He and Alicia were gone before I woke up.
Shit, Ursula might be right. Maybe I was too blinkered to see the truth that he’s like Oswald, that all men are like Oswald.
No, that can’t be right, can it? They can’t all be the same. Oswald was never friendly to kids like Hunter. He dotes on his daughter. That much is obvious, even if his temper scares the shit out of her sometimes. At least it’s never directed at her.
Alicia isn’t at the first or second parking lot. We try the third, and I find a wedding party in full swing on the grass nearby. I don’t recognize most of the people, but I do see Brody talking to Ernesto by a table full of beer bottles. They both look my way. Brody says something, and they both start laughing.
I spot Hunter’s father talking to a girl the same age as me. She’s wearing an ivory wedding dress, and looks like her smile is plastered on. I know that feeling well. It’s how I looked for most of the relationship with Oswald.
I head over to them. “Hunter sent me to pick up Alicia.”
Augustine turns to look at me. “Toby has taken my granddaughter home already. You are late.”
“I know. My car broke down, and I had to get a cab.”
“Well, you can take that cab home again, can’t you? Good day.”
He walks away. The girl looks at me, fixing a smile in place. “Nice to meet you,” she says in a meek voice as Ernesto yells for her to join him.
I climb back into the cab, and the driver twists his neck to face me. “We not stopping?”
I give him Hunter’s address. “Nice place,” he says. “That where hubby’s at?”