“Honey, once you invited me to visit you here, I realized the Goddess had a larger plan at work for me. She’d sent you to my shop for a reason. We had a past—” she gestured between herself and Edward “—and I never lived up to my end of things. You were offering me another chance to right an old wrong,” Clara explained.
“Why didn’t you just tell me you knew Edward after I’d invited you?”
“I was afraid you’d take back the invitation and I’d lose this second chance at our relationship.” Her eyes grew damp and misty at the prospect.
Amber’s heart clenched as she finally accepted the other woman’s reasons.
“We ain’t got no relationship!” Edward insisted before Amber could forgive her.
“We shared a past,” Clara said firmly.
Amber wasn’t sure she wanted to know what kind of past.
“I promised to help you once, Eddie, and I mean to do it now!”
“Eddie?” Amber repeated numbly.
“Eddie?” Mike echoed. “Somebody’s going to have to tell me what exactly went on between you two and when.”
Edward shook his head. “I ain’t telling you nothing about my personal life,” he said before storming off and heading back toward the lake.
“I didn’t know he’d ever had a personal life,” Mike said, confusion and a whole lot more in his expression.
“Why don’t we go inside and I’ll make us some tea,” Amber suggested.
Amber needed to hear Clara’s explanation. And she definitely had to discuss Edward’s mental health with Mike. It was going to be a long night.
MIKE SAT in his father’s kitchen, watching as Amber made herself at home. He’d grown up here, but his childhood memories weren’t the best. He’d lived in an armed camp before his mother had moved out, and the kitchen had never been a place of refuge.
Until now, because Amber was here. Mike didn’t know what had gone on between his father and Clara Deveaux, but clearly something important had transpired. He was glad Amber would be beside him when he found out what.
Amber made tea for Clara and herself, and without asking, she poured Mike a cola, his preferred choice in soft drinks. She knew better than to offer him herbal tea. And though he could use something stronger than soda, he always made sure there was no alcohol in his father’s house. He had a healthy fear of the possibility of alcohol abuse in addition to his father’s other issues. Thank goodness, to his knowledge that had never been a problem. Mike intended to keep it that way.
Once they were all seated, Amber met Clara’s gaze. “I didn’t know about your relationship with Edward when I asked you here. That makes his distress my fault.”
Oddly, Mike didn’t blame Amber for trying to help Edward. But he did need to know everything. “Why don’t we start at the beginning,” Mike said to Clara. “How do you know my father, and what happened between the two of you?” he asked.
Clara sighed. “It was seven years ago. I’d just opened my shop and Edward walked in. He was scruffy and a little grumpy, everything I shouldn’t be attracted to—and yet I was drawn to him.” Clara met Amber’s gaze, probably searching for female understanding.
And maybe forgiveness, Mike realized. After all, as Amber said, she’d met and invited Clara here without knowing about the other woman’s agenda.
“Did Edward…um…look different seven years ago?” Amber asked.
Mike tried not to laugh. He could understand why she’d wonder about Clara’s attraction to the wild-looking man Mike called his father.
Clara smiled. “He looked the same. He’s an attractive man and all that bluster covers a wounded nature.”
Clearly she saw something in Edward that the rest of the world, even his own son, couldn’t. A part of Mike always feared digging too deep because really understanding Edward meant that maybe, Mike wasn’t too far from the madness himself.
Clara took a sip of tea, then said, “Edward came to my shop the first time because he wanted to find ways to ward off the curse, but after a while, he came back just to see me.”
“Edward pursued you?” Amber asked, surprised.
Mike was glad she was asking the questions. For a cop who specialized in interrogation, he couldn’t bring himself to verbalize anything that might lead to more intimate knowledge of his father.
“He didn’t pursue me directly. But a woman knows when a man is interested. When he cares.”
Amber nodded. “I agree. A woman knows.” Her soft gaze slid to Mike’s and an uncomfortable lump formed in his throat.