Page 94 of The Lady on Esplanade
She smiled.“I don’t, and knowing the answer isn’t always what you need.Sometimes you just need to try hard enough to figure something out, and then the answer will come to you.Just know that it’s usually not what you expected.”
“I’m just so angry.”
“Well, then.”Jolene straightened.“As my grandmama would say, that’s as good a start as any.What should we do first?”
“ ‘We’?”I said hopefully.
“Of course.I never said you’d have to do anything alone.I’ve got your back.As soon as you pull up your big-girl pants, I’m here to help.”
“Yay!”Sarah said, coming out of the kitchen.“We need you to drive us to Honey’s house.I just called her, and she and her sister will be home if we can be there in the next hour.”
Jolene looked at me.“Well, what are you going to do?”
I looked from Jolene to Sarah.“Do I have a choice?”
“You always have a choice,” Jolene said.“Just first make sure it’s one you can live with.”
I sighed.“I guess I’d better go put on some color.”
CHAPTER 29
Jolene helped me down the stairs—muttering something about how angry Dr.Longo would be if she knew I wasn’t on the couch with my foot elevated—while Sarah carried my crutches.We were leaving later than planned because I’d needed to change out of my pajamas and it had taken longer than anticipated to get a brush through my hair.I’d feigned surprise when the brush got stuck for the third time, and Jolene had commented that it didn’t look like my hair had been brushed in days.
Jolene opened the rear passenger-side door for me.I looked into the open door and spotted a large cardboard box with untaped flaps resting on the seat next to the opposite window.“What’s that?”I asked.
She followed my gaze.“Oh, right.I forgot that was there.I can bring it upstairs if you like, but I think the backseat’s big enough for both of you.”
“Don’t worry about it.There’s plenty of room, and it gives me something to lean against.”I crawled headfirst into the backseat and made myself comfortable, with my leg propped up along the seat.
The seat belts in the back had long since disappeared into the crevice at the rear of the seat, and I didn’t have a door handle to hold on to.I just kept reminding myself that I was in a steel tank, and that because of the holiday there were fewer people on the road for Jolene to hit.
During the drive, Jolene shared stories from her visit to Mississippi, and she even sprinkled Jaxson’s name in several times.She seemed her usual bright and cheerful self instead of the heartbroken mess I’d half expected to see.She didn’t mention Carly and Jaxson’s engagement party, either, and I certainly wasn’t going to bring it up and spoil her mood.
When she took a sharp turn, I heard the sound of multiple objects shifting in the box behind my back.“Hey, Jolene—what’s in the box?And if it’s from your grandmother’s funeral home, I don’t want to know.”
“It’s actually from Trevor.He gave it to me before we left for Thanksgiving.He asked me to keep it in my car for safekeeping and said that he’d get it back from me when I returned.”
“Like, specifically in your car?Did he tell you what was in it?”
“Yes—he didn’t want me to go to the trouble of bringing it up to the apartment, and he said it would be fine in the backseat.And he didn’t say what was in it, just that it’s odds and ends from the storeroom at the Past Is Never Past.He’s tired of straightening the shelves and then seeing the next day that Henry has gone in and made a mess and poor Trevor can’t find anything and Christopher blames it on Trevor—at least that’s what Trevor thinks.So he decided to mess with Henry by taking some of the personal items that Henry has left in the storeroom and in the desk and putting them in a place where Henry will never find them.”
I grinned.“Trevor is a genius.Bubba is the perfect hiding place, since Trevor knew you’d be driving to Mississippi for Thanksgiving.So, what’s next?The stuff magically reappears and sends Henry over the edge?”
“That’s the plan.”Jolene glanced over her shoulder at me.“We shouldn’t be laughing, but it is funny.Henry does seem to enjoy antagonizing poor Trevor.I don’t blame the boy for wanting a little mild-mannered revenge on his tormentor.”
“Just as long as Henry doesn’t find out who’s behind it.I think he has a mean streak, and I wouldn’t want to see Trevor hurt in any way.”
Jolene bumped over the curb in front of Honey and Joan’s house.“We’re here.”After exiting the car, she retrieved my crutches from the cavernous trunk before opening my door.
“Hey, look.”Sarah pointed out a gray Honda sedan pulling away from the opposite curb two houses down.“They’ve got South Carolina plates.Do you think Mom and Dad are keeping tabs on us?”
The car passed us, traveling slowly enough that I recognized the two occupants I’d spotted when Cooper and I had been looking at the house.“Not unless you let slip that you weren’t in Mississippi,” I said as Jolene handed me my crutches.
As I watched the car continue down the street, I felt sure that it was the same gray Honda I’d seen before.
“You look like someone just walked over your grave,” Jolene said.
“I have no idea what that means.”I indicated the moving car.“Have you seen that car before?”
