Page 79 of Devil and the Deep Blue Fish

She might have said more after that, but Ellery lost the thread of it, because they were sobbing, all three of them, the raging tide of the past tumbling them about in an icy torrent until they were left, dry and frail husks, on the sands of the now.

ELLERY WOKEup at 7:00 a.m., his internal clock ignoring the shocks and stresses of the past few days.

Uneasily, he looked to where Jackson slept, eyes closed, chest moving in and out evenly, like the storms that had rocked them all had never blown.

For a moment he expected Jackson to say something—he almost always did, somehow knowing that Ellery was awake and watching him before Ellery had even detected a change in breathing, but Jackson’s exhaustion the night before, mental and physical, had been complete. One moment he’d been sobbing in Ellery’s mother’s arms, and the next, he’d slumped sideways, asleep so abruptly Ellery had almost taken his pulse to make sure his heart hadn’t simply stopped beating with the stress of being bared to the world.

With a soft kiss on his temple, Ellery slid out of bed and put on some (thankGod)pajamas, before following the smell of coffee out to the kitchen.

His mother was there, and it was a testament to how rough the night before had been that she was still wearing her own pajamas and not dressed in a Chanel pantsuit with her hair in its usual chignon.

“Is he still asleep?” she asked, peering over the coffee mug that Jackson had chosen for her especially for her stays at their house. It was enormous and featured a tail-twitching black cat, contemplating mischief with slanted green eyes.

Except for the color of eyes, it wasverylike Taylor Cramer.

“Yes,” Ellery said, heading directly for the coffee pot.

“Good,” she said, breathing out in relief.

“You….” He paused as he pulled creamer out from the fridge. “In case Rebekah or I have never told you, you are a very good mother.”

He heard her surprised gasp as he moved to the counter and his own enormous trough of coffee. How he yearned for the taste of tea again—but not this week.

“That’s a beautiful compliment,” she said, “from a son who has made me proud every day of his life.”

Ellery swallowed hard and moved to the table to sit across from her. “What do we do next?”

“With the Stepford Dragons or Jackson?” she asked, her lips twitching as she attempted to lighten things up.

Ellery grunted. “Since Jackson plans to be up and running in a couple of hours, let’s start with the case so he has a thing to do.”

She gave him a rueful smile. “You do know him well, don’t you?”

Ellery shrugged. “Same way I passed the bar exam in three states.”

“Study, study, study,” she supplied and nodded to the laptop she’d been scrolling on as he’d walked in. “Which is what I’ve been doing this morning.”

He gazed at her for a moment, at the weariness in her brown eyes. “Did you sleep at all?” he asked.

She flashed him a quick grimace. “Unlike you and Jackson, I’ve had adequate rest over the last few months.” She swallowed and looked away. “I’m not so impervious that last night left me unmoved.”

“I….” Ellery let out a short laugh. “It’s funny. He spends all his time worrying that he won’t be enough for me, but I’m the one who needs help with his care and feeding.”

“Ellery, when your father and I met, we were both in law school. We’d both come from prosperous families with a solid work ethic and a trust in the government and in education. I thought he was the dearest man I’d ever met, kindness to my sharpness, and….” She smiled fondly, because Ellery’s father, with his wildly curly hair and abstracted air of absolute brilliance inspired that sort of emotion, even in Taylor Cramer. “And falling in love with him was as easy as breathing.” Her eyes, dark and sharp and bruised with lack of sleep, met his. “I can’t tell you that I couldn’t have loved him just as much if he’d had the same damage as your beloved. But I can tell you that I would have called my mother andbeggedher to be kind to him when I brought him home, and if she hadn’t been kind—she wasn’t always—I would never have spoken to her again. As it was I simply brought him home, and we both got hugs and congratulations, but you….” Her smile turned sad. “You chose a much more difficult path. It’s one I’m very proud of, but I couldn’t call myself a mother if I didn’t help.”

Ellery must have been raw from the night before because his eyes burned. “I’m so very glad you do,” he said, and then, after clearing his throat a couple of times, he added, “If you get a house on the beach, get it in Mendocino County. It’s closer, and there are mountains as well as the ocean. I haven’t taken Jackson there yet—I think he’d love to see it.”

“I’ll make a note of it,” she said, and there was a tone of normalcy in her voice as they both tried to shake off the terribly personal confessions over coffee. “I also have some ideas that may help Jackson when he’s ready to listen to them. But in the meantime, would you like to hear what I’ve learned about Stepford Dragon Incorporated?”

Had it only been yesterday? It felt like eons ago that Ellery had asked his mother for information on their favorite pearl-and-twinset-wearing monsters.

“Absolutely,” Ellery said, taking a fortifying sip of his coffee. “Although….” He shuddered. “After what Jackson and I saw last night, if you tell me anything short of them drinking the blood of newborn babies on the rooftops of brothels under a horned moon, it’s going to feel awfully anticlimactic.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Have some faith in me, Ellery. I didn’t swoop in here just to screech like a dockworker at you and your fiancé in the dark hours of the night. I came withfacts,and they’re important, so listen up.”

Ellery took another sip of coffee, pretty sure he’d won the parental lottery—twice.

“I’m all ears.”

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