“But that’s exactly what it seems like to her,” Belinda said. “You have lunch every single week. Did you know that you could go to her store and eat there?”
Danny opened his mouth and then closed it again.
“I don’t eat burgers,” he tried.
Belinda gave him a look that clearly said she was disappointed in his answer.
“I have a salad there every other time I go in,” Belinda said. “And when I’m not feeling a salad or a burger, she specially makes me a grilled cheese sandwich. Or a panini. Or something that I would like instead. She doesn’t just cook burgers, which I know that you would eat all day every day if given the chance.”
Danny didn’t have anything to say to that.
“And since we’re on the subject of the corner store, why was it that Crockett had to quit her job to work there when both of you were at home doing nothing half the day? You work from the family business, at home, for your father. You could do that from anywhere. That includes from the corner store where you could help watch over your grandfather.”
“Murphy doesn’t like us,” Danny said. “He only likes Crockett being there.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Murphy joined in on the conversation.
He’d shuffled up during the dressing down that Belinda had given Danny and had quietly listened to everything that was being said.
Danny turned to look at Murphy.
“Dad told us that you didn’t want us there,” he said simply.
Murphy gave him a disappointed look. “And you believed him.”
Not a question. A statement.
“I…” Danny looked even more confused. “What exactly is it that’s going on here?”
“Why do y’all treat her like crap?” Belinda asked. “Why is it that your dad and Melody hate her so much that she doesn’t get picked up off the side of the road? Why is it that you have lunch without her when she’s just as much a sister? Why is it that she has to work her ass off to help run a store when you could just as easily help? Why is it that she was the only one that thought your stepmother would do something horrible to me at this wedding? And she was right?”
Danny didn’t have anything to say to that.
Before he even got a chance to respond, Melody rushed over with her husband in tow, looking smug.
Nora was with them, but there was no Crockett in sight.
Which had me getting suspicious.
“We should get the bouquet toss started,” Melody urged, looking innocent and urgent all at once.
“Where’s Crockett?” Danny asked, finally getting his head together.
“In the bathroom,” Nora said. “She, uh, had some bad food?”
She didn’t have any bad food because she’d told me when she’d gotten here that she was so nervous she hadn’t eaten all day.
There hadn’t been a chance for her to eat bad food since she’d gotten there.
Had there?
I walked past them all and headed to the bathroom that I’d seen them exit.
When I arrived it was to the sound of vomiting.
Maybe she had eaten something that had irritated her stomach?
“Crockett?” I called, closing the door behind me solidly before throwing the lock.
An answering expulsion of her stomach answered me.
“Crockett,” I said as I reached for one of the fancy towels next to the sink, wet it down, then used my pocketknife to open the far bathroom stall.
Once I had it open, I crouched down behind her and placed the cool towel against her neck.
“Something isn’t right,” she managed between gasps. “I feel awful.”
“What did you eat?” I asked.
A sick sort of ‘knowing’ was rocketing through me, and I wasn’t sure that I liked where my mind was headed.
“A molasses cookie that Belinda gave me that Melody brought for her. From some bakery in town, she said. They were good, but now my stomach hates me,” she whispered brokenly.
An anger like no other started to roll through me.
“Stay here,” I urged as I stood up. “I’ll be right back.”
She nodded, her face against her arm that was resting against the dirty toilet seat.
I’d shower her off later.
For now, I needed to find out what was in those cookies.
Because there was something in them.
I knew it.
I just had to find out what.
When I came to the main room, Belinda was standing at the front of the room with her bouquet, watching the bathroom door worriedly.
I gave her a chin tilt and headed straight for her. Melody was leaning against a table looking pissed, and Danny was standing beside his father asking him questions that I couldn’t quite hear, but were obviously upsetting seeing as their father looked pissed, too.
When I arrived at the group, Nora looked at my face.
“She’s sick,” she said. “I told you.”
I looked away from her and looked at Melody.
“What kind of cookies did you give Belinda?” I asked.