Page 97 of In the Pursuit of Haven
Jessie pulled out the Bible from his jacket. His eyes flew to me, and he must’ve read the annoyance in mine because his lips quirked up. “We’ll give it back when we’re done. You can put it in your exhibits and do whatever you want with it.”
Is that all he could think about after lying to me?
I elbowed him. “I asked you straight up about Leon! All you said was that your father thought Walt had airs! Youknewhe was my boss’s brother. Just one time you could be upfront—just once! That was all I was asking for.”
“I know! I know!” Jessie grasped my arms, looking apologetic, desperate even. “And I’m sorry. I just know how much you like Luther, and I didn’t want to dig up past grudges. Walt wasnota Shepherd, okay? And that’s what you wanted to know, not that Luther happens to blame my family for every bad thing that happened to his brother.”
“Luther?” There wasn’t a bone in that man that wasn’t forgiving. “Is that what your dadsaid?”
“There’s bad blood there… I’m surprised he acknowledged my existence even. He doesn’t when you’re not around, and he never passed on any of my messages to you when you worked for him.”
He sure had when I’d blocked Jessie from my phone! “He did too!”
“Maybe once or twice,” Jessie said, “if it made me look bad. “That’s why I never liked going to your little museum mingles, with Luther cutting me off and glaring at me with those other snobs. They all gawked at me like I was their next exhibit—the no-good son of a drunken fisherman who will drag that ‘nice girl’ down with him.”
This is what he’d thought? Talk about projecting. Luther was not like that! And Jessie had kept all this from me?
“And you know what?” Jessie asked. “The worst thing is, I get it. Luther thinks my old man could’ve done more to stop Walt from getting killed that night.”
And was it true? Luther, as a rule, wasn’t an unreasonable man… and Pete was.
“I didn’t want to force you to take sides,” Jessie said. “I never have.”
“I’m your family now. I… I take sides.” And it was usually with Jessie, although… he had Luther wrong and I’d prove it. My lips pressed together.
“We were just starting to find some peace,” Jessie said, “and I knew this was only about finding out who could be a Shepherd of the Relic. Walt’s not; Luther’s not, and none of our friends are either. Believe me if any of them had anything to hide, we’d know it. They aren’t exactly discree—” He stopped short when he almost ran straight into Bette Ann.
Replaying everything we’d talked about, I realized it sounded super odd, and judging by Bette Ann’s raised brow, she had questions. She took a deep breath. “Where are you headed in such a hurry?”
“Food,” Jessie answered immediately. He smiled disarmingly.Dah! How could I trust a thing he said when growing up under his father’s thumb made him so practiced at not making waves?
“Did you get to see the parade?” she asked.
“We didn’t,” I admitted. “I had to check on an exhibit piece.”
Her eyes went to the oversized Bible in Jessie’s hand. “That one?”
“No, no!” We both denied it simultaneously. I jerked my thumb back at the museum. “It’s a ship’s figurehead… The Lady. Anyway,” I squeaked, “… um… did you see the parade?”
Yeah, speaking of discreet, I’m really bad at it.
Bette Ann nodded. Suspicion oozed through her. I’d faced her one too many times with my hand in a cookie jar to know she didn’t believe my story.
Jessie cut in. “We’ve got to hurry, Roxy.” He lifted his chin at Bette Ann in farewell. “We’re meeting some friends.”
So that’s how he did it? I ground my teeth. I was just as guilty for wanting to throw Bette Ann off the scent, but I’d been on the other side of Jessie’s attempts at disentangling himself for far too long not to be disturbed by how good he was at misdirection.
Bette Ann wasn’t about to be thrown off as easily as I was. She locked eyes with him. “We seem to keep bumping into each other when you’re in a hurry. Who was that woman you were with the other night, boy?”
My face flushed when I remembered she was the one who’d given me the heads-up about Divine.
“A coworker,” he said quickly, but it was as if the energy had been sucked right out of him.
“I’ll be sure to ask her how work is going next time I see her,” Bette Ann said with a firm nod. “She always seems to be hanging around the wharf.” Giving me a sympathetic look, she turned away from us. “You’d better not hurt my baby or I’ll have your head.” She didn’t bother to keep her voice down.
With difficulty, I pretended not to hear. Hoping that I could explain everything to Bette Ann later, I waved goodbye and headed down the red cobbled streets of the pedestrian mall the other direction. Jessie had turned silent beside me, and I could tell he was fuming.
Haven never liked Jessie, and so I got to hear his assumptions all the time about how all her friends hated him too. “Bette Ann actually likes you,” I said, breaking the silence. “Just the other day she told me that she thinks Haven should’ve given you more of a chance.”
