Page 95 of Scapegoat

I told her about it all, keeping my voice down. We were seated far away from anyone else, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. But despite the low tone, I couldn’t keep the jubilation, the excitement out of my voice. Jamie’s eyes went wider and wider as I spoke and then she settled back against the booth seat.

“Damn… I knew I liked those boys, but…” She shook her head. “So what’s the plan? Like you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. I’ve checked in about our ‘dear old friend’ and… Thanks, Melva.” I looked up to see the woman was setting our coffees down before us.

“Lunch should be ready soon,” the woman said, winking before moving off to serve other people.

“…And I think you were damn lucky. Putting ‘an end’ to him while fluffy, and the storm that hit that night? Pretty sure it destroyed most of the DNA evidence and footprints. I’ve read the local papers and they said the police weren’t treating the death as suspicious.”

I let out a long breath. I hadn’t realised how much I’d needed to hear that until I did. But just as I was about to reply, my phone buzzed again. Jamie’s eyebrows shot up and she smiled at me.

“Lover boys getting anxious that their girl’s flown the coop?” she said.

“They are totally overprotective—” I started to say.

“And good on them for that. Knowing there’s someone out there looking out for you helps me sleep at night. Well, someones. So, how’s the fam taking all of this? How about your mother?”

Both our smiles faded then. I told her the rest of it, about Anna and Dad, and that Mum still had her fingers in the pie of Stanthorpe, despite being exiled.

“It’s why we’re going to move on after this shit blows over,” I said. “I can’t stay there. I can’t.”

“No arguments from me,” she said with a sigh, resting her elbows on the table and leaning forward to prop her chin on her folded hands. “I barely go home as it is. Not for anywhere near as colourful a reason. Just garden variety familial dysfunction. Contrary to what the greeting card industry wants us to think, you don’t have to get along with your family. If the relationship is poison to you, there’s no shame in protecting yourself from it. So, tell me.” Her eyes began to twinkle. “Where’re you thinking of heading to next?”

I sucked in a breath then and it all came out.

We’d looked endlessly at different towns, cities, states, even other countries, using the time we had, while we waited for Ned’s coroner report to go through, to dream about possibilities. We’d get super excited about one place, but then someone would find somewhere else and we’d all get on board with that idea.

It’d been hard to break the news to Jenny, Jackson and Dad. Jenny invited my father over not long after the big announcement, and I think she thought she could rely on both of our dads to step in and stop us. But Dad just smiled and squeezed my hand and made me promise to call him.

“I think our only solution is to just get in the truck and go.” I shook my head, smiling as Melva returned with plates piled with food. “I didn’t do that before. I had one eye on the road, sure the guys would catch up with me or, worse, Mum, but now…” We thanked Melva as she deposited our meals before us, then we grabbed our cutlery to start tucking in. “Now I guess we’ve got the whole world out there to explore.”

“Good.” Jamie was being unexpectedly taciturn, and when I looked up, I worked out why. Her eyes shone with unshed tears and when I dropped my fork and grabbed her hand, she squeezed it tight. “It’s all I ever wanted…” She pulled away to scrub at her eyes with a serviette and then left it crumpled on the tabletop. “This is what I wanted for you. To get out from under whatever it was that was chasing you and…” She shrugged. “Live. Live your fucking life, kid, because you’ve only got one. You’re young and gorgeous and have excellent taste in friends…” We both laughed at that. “But if you’re not gonna have a wedding like a civilised person, then I want an invite to the birth.”

“The birth of what?” I asked, being deliberately obtuse. People asked me all the time now when I was going to give the guys sons, but it was different with Jamie. She actually cared.

“Those fat babies the boys are dying to give you.” She poked the air with her knife. “I know they want them and I think you do too.”

I did and I could admit it. Maybe not yet, but… It was tempting, to see if I could do it differently, being a mother. Not how my mother treated me, obviously, but also not how she’d treated Anna.

My sister had gone missing, once word got around. When she found out about the official declaration the guys had made, she hadn’t taken it well, and had stormed out on my dad. Apparently she’d barely tolerated him before, but when he wasn’t her actual father… Obviously ignoring the fact that he was the only father she’d known up until this point. People had assumed she’d gone to Greg’s, but when they checked on him, he’d gone as well. I just shook my head at the whole thing.

Maybe they’d decided to go out into the world to find a place where they fit, as well. In another town, in another state, maybe Mum, Greg and Anna could be a happy family. I didn’t hate them, which had been a shock to realise. I just didn’t want them anywhere near me or anyone else that they could hurt. If they were off living their best life, well good for them.

“So: a new life, a new family, a new future…” Jamie shook her head slowly. “Well, kid, you did good.”

And I felt like I had. We’d cleared the board of almost every obstacle to our happiness. I could breathe easy.

“Now, I know you had a big dessert ordered,” Melva said, when we finished our meals, “but I’ve got something special in the back.”

“It’s one of her special concoctions,” Jamie said with a smile. “The last one was enough to put me in a diabetic coma.” She winked at me. “I asked her to make something nice for you. The first time I met you, you were eating ice cream, so I thought you deserved something a bit better now.”

My phone began to ring incessantly, the steady pulse of the silent alarm vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw it was Xavier, but then just shoved it back in my pocket. The three of them were bloody insufferable really. Total OTT alphas around their mate. Mate, I loved the sound of that word, rolling it around and around in my head. Then, as we pushed the swinging doors of the kitchen open, I began to see why they might be trying to reach me.

“Don’t mind Fluffy,” Melva said, nodding to a massive wolf sitting in her kitchen, two golden yellow eyes watching me enter the room. It was a powerful one too: I could feel the steady pulse of its will as its eyes bored into mine.

“But Melva, that’s not—”

“I made a special cake,” she said, cutting me off before handing me a slice she’d already plated up.

“Holy shit…” Jamie eyed her serve, seemingly transfixed by the pile of chocolate cake, cream, ganache and cherries on the plate. “You’ve outdone yourself. Have a taste,” she told me. “This shit is the fucking bomb. Melva only makes it on my birthday.”

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