Page 89 of Sweet Little Thing

“I’ll always be intoxicated by the sight of you.”

She pulled back and stared up at me. She said nothing for a moment. I waited for her to think about my words, and I wondered myself when such poetic shit had started coming to me so easily.

“You’re my fate, Stone.” She repeated my words back to me. And I understood what she was saying. This was more. More than we had the words to express.

Chapter

Fifty-Three

Beulah

Stone had left before me this morning. Geraldine had a doctor’s appointment, and Stone said he needed to take her. Geraldine didn’t go to her appointments willingly, and if her sanity snapped while there, she was even more difficult. He didn’t want me to deal with it. I had argued that I could handle it, but he wouldn’t listen.

He had wanted me to sleep in, but I had woken up before he left and hurried to the kitchen to find him placing a familiar box on the counter. When I had mentioned him ordering Presley’s favorite pastries, he had locked his dark eyes on me and smirked. A laugh had bubbled out of me, and he’d just shook his head then pulled me against his chest to kiss me.

On his way to the door, he’d called out over his shoulder. “So many subtle hints you missed, my sweet, naïve beauty.”

The letter he had left beside the box in his masculine script read “Eat them all. They’re for you. The were the last time too.”My smile turned into a laugh. He had planned on admitting he had bought these for me the first time even before I called him out on it.

With a full stomach, I decided to head over to Geraldine’s and start on my daily cleaning while they were gone. There was no reason to lay around and waste time this morning.

The sun was bright as I stepped outside. I looked forward to the feel of fall air. We still had a while before that happened, though.

Squinting against the rays it took me a moment to realize that the woman stepping out of the silver Mercedes was Portia. After that registered with me, panic quickly set in. Stone was gone. What did she want? How did she know where I was? What if this was about Heidi?

Her lifestyle hadn’t changed. The white tennis outfit she was wearing said as much. She was headed to the club for tennis. Jasper had left her as she had been, even after knowing what she’d done. There had been no consequences. He’d taken nothing from her.

“Don’t look so surprised to see me. The world Stone and I circulate in talks. I’ve known where you were since day one. Without Jasper telling me.” Her tone was haute. As if talking to me was a waste of her time.

“Why are you here?” I asked as anger began to take the place of anxiety.

“To discuss my son,” she replied with annoyance. “He left Savanah, and although that is a relief, he’s also so angry with me for the truths I protected him from that he won’t speak to me. He won’t accept my phone calls. He blames me for this.” She waved her hand at the building behind me. “You living with Stone, he thinks that is my fault. Losing you, it is just all my fault. So, I am being punished.”

“If he’s not speaking to you, it’s because you gave his sister away and lied about it.” The disgust I felt was evident in mywords.

She slid her sunglasses to the top of her head so that I had to look at her eyes. The slight roll of them made me want to slap her. “We both know Pam was a better mother. Don’t act as if I did that child an injustice. I gave her a much better life than she would have had with me. As for Jasper, he’s not that deep. If you fell for that, you’re even more naïve than I thought. He is angry because he lost you. Like a kid who had his toy taken away.”

There was no remorse. Nothing. Seeing her so unattached to a child she gave away was horrible. She had no idea the beauty she’d missed by not knowing Heidi. I was thankful she didn’t want to take her from me. I didn’t want Heidi to know her. This woman was evil.

“You’re right. Our mother was the best. Heidi was given the love she deserved, and we were blessed with the joy she brings to life. And everyone around her. You’ll never know that, though. How precious and wonderful she is.”

Portia shifted her stance impatiently. “I’ve heard you sing her praises enough. I get it. You’re exactly like my sister. I’m not here to discuss that. I’m here to talk about Jasper. He isn’t going to forgive me until you talk to him. You need to give him a reason not to hate me. You’re cousins. Yes, maybe I was harsh. There’s no need for anyone to know that. Two hundred years ago, cousins were expected to marry. It wasn’t incest.”

I stood there in horror as she tried to make Jasper and I being together sound okay. Did she think I had been waiting on her approval? Shaking my head, I walked past her toward my car. I had no reason to stand here and talk to this woman. She was insane. She had no right to talk to me.

“You think you know it all. You don’t. There are things you don’t know. Secrets Stone knows and hasn’t told you,” She called out after me.

I paused. More lies. I was so tired of the lies.

“I know enough to stay away from you. That’s what I know.”

The nasty smirk on her face was almost intimidating. “You’ll regret this.”

I jerked open the car door. “All I regret is spending any time this morning listening to you spit out more lies. You’re selfish, Portia. If life isn’t what you want, you manipulate it until it is.”

That seemed to hit a mark. Her eyes flared with anger. She didn’t want to hear the truth. Someone who couldn’t speak the truth wouldn’t want to hear it.

“One day, you’ll wish you’d listened.”

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