Page 58 of The Last Dance You Saved
We were just heading for the registers when a large woman dressed in an outdated suit approached.
“As I live and breathe, is it really you, Rafe Marquess?” she asked, brushing a hand over salt-and-pepper hair pinned back from a face wrinkled from years of smiles.
“Mrs. Nattingly, aren’t you just a vision?”
She swatted at him with a flush to her cheeks. “You always were a charmer, and it’s Mayor Nattingly now, young man.” She took in Fallon and Maisey and then me before turning back to him. “Are you back to stay, then?”
His jaw worked overtime for a moment before he replied. “Just helping out at the moment.”
Fallon couldn’t hide her disappointment, and it was mirrored on the mayor’s face. “You’ve made a name for yourself, Rafe. We could use some of that spread around here. The ranch falling on hard times has bled into our community. It may have been wrong of us, but we’ve counted on the Harringtons for generations to help lift us up. Not just by employing our hardworking citizens, but for the support your family gave to our arts and local charities.”
As tension settled between everyone, it was Maisey who spoke. “Mr. Puzo has been helping out, Mayor Nattingly.”
A flash of disgust raced over Rafe’s face. The mayor patted Maisey on the arm. “You’re right, dear. Such a nice man.” But the look she gave Rafe said otherwise, as if she seriously doubted the veracity of those words. “I can see you’re busy, so I won’t hold you up, but maybe you can spare a few minutes of time to come see me before you leave town?” She gave Rafe another meaningful look and then headed out.
The conversation added another heavy burden to Rafe’s shoulders, and I wanted to defend him. To tell them to stop expecting one man to be everyone’s savior. A man no one seemed to have missed until everything went to hell. But instead, I bit my tongue and did the one thing I could—offer my hands to help with the physical tasks that needed doing.
After hauling the folding chairs, runners, and arches out to the wedding ceremony location, we stopped to wolf down sandwiches before we were going to head back out to finish more of the regular chores of the ranch. Fallon and Maisey had left to take lunch up to her mom, and Rafe and I were cleaning the kitchen when my phone rang.
A glance told me it was Gia. She’d been texting me for nearly twenty-four hours, and I’d been putting her off. Last night, she’d threatened to tell Ryder what we were doing if I didn’t bring her up to speed today.
I looked at Rafe and said, “I’m just going to—”
“Sadie, you don’t owe me an explanation or your time. Go. Take your call,” Rafe said.
I hit the call button and hurried out of the kitchen in search of a quiet place.
“Hey, Gia,” I greeted.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” she said.
“I’ve just been busy,” I said as I made my way into the office and over to the windows.
“Meeting with people you shouldn’t be seeing by yourself!” she hissed, and my stomach fell. “I warned you about Puzo!”
“How did you find out?”
“I told you I know people who are watching the Puzos. You were flagged in a photo with him in the café at The Fortress. You promised me you wouldn’t meet up with him on your own. How could I ever look Ryder in the eye again if something happened to you, and I knew what you were up to?”
“I didn’t promise. I just agreed with you that it wasn’t necessarily a good idea.”
“And was it?”
No. But she’d only worry more if I told her that. Plus, how could I possibly explain the strange way Lorenzo was connected to Rafe and the ranch now? How was it that our three families, all with possible connections to the jewels eighty years ago, were now entangled in these current events? It was strange and improbable. It whispered of laughing wee folk making mischief. But I doubted Gia would believe that either.
So instead, I told her the simplest thing I could. “He said there was a Carolyn in his family who went off to work in Hollywood and disappeared.”
Gia inhaled. “So, we’ve found her. She was tied to them.”
“It would seem so.”
“The way she ended up in Willow Creek makes me think she was running from them.” It was the same discussion we’d had when we’d first uncovered who and what the Las Vegas Puzos were all about.
“The Harringtons’ manager confirmed that the family loaned jewels to a movie studio and that they were stolen. Do you think Great-grandma Carolyn took them in order to try to get away from her mobster family?”
It wouldn’t make it right, but at least I’d understand why.
“Maybe, but then why stuff them in a trunk? If she’d taken them for the cash, why didn’t she ever sell them?” She was quiet for a second as we both considered what might have happened. “Maybe she kept them in case she ever had to run, or took them and then was afraid to sell them in case it led people to her?”
