The Schemer (Harbor City 3)

“Hey, Nunni.”

“If it isn’t my little Evie,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “Come give me a hug.”

Breathing a sigh of relief she didn’t realize she’d been holding, she crossed the room and gave her grandma a careful hug as the older woman sat in the chair next to the window decorated with hanging plastic suncatchers that made the windows look like they’d been made from stained glass. Then, she sat in one of the overstuffed chairs next to Nunni that was motorized to lift the person sitting into a standing position to help those residents in the community who needed some assistance getting up. Photos filled nearly every available flat surface—pictures of Everly as a gap-toothed grade-schooler, her mom laughing in the kitchen, all three of them together, looking ready to take over the world, and so many more.

Nunni patted Everly’s hand. “I swear, you’re looking more and more like your mother every day.”

“Thank you.” Maybe it was because she wanted it so badly, but she always saw her mother when she looked in the mirror, and it was something that had felt like a hug from the beyond in those early days after her mother died. “So I saw your friend Bernie the other night when I came over and played bingo after seeing you.”

“Did you win?”

Win? With Tyler there, she’d been lucky to find half her numbers. “Not even close.”

“That’s the way life works.” Nunni gave her a wink. “Y

ou’ll get ’em next time, Evie, you always do.”

“Are they treating you okay here?” she asked, looking around for any signs that they weren’t. The room was spotless, though, and Nunni’s hair had been recently done, which lessened her anxiety and guilt for coming to visit only a few times a week.

“I can’t complain,” Nunni said. “There’re movie nights on Tuesday and bingo. Did you know they have a weekly bingo game here?”

The slip was a gut punch, but Everly couldn’t let it show. “I had heard that.”

“I wish I could go but the numbers get confusing for me…” Nunni said, her voice trailing off as her gaze dulled and her attention went once more to the window. They sat in silence for a few minutes before her grandma turned back, her attention focused. “I hope you’re not still seeing that man, Melanie.”

Everly dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand to keep from reacting. Melanie had been her mom’s name. Nunni was again behind that door stuck in a time before Everly was born, revisiting again and again the conversation she’d had with her daughter about Everly’s father. This was her loop, the one she always seemed to return to at an ever-greater frequency. It used to happen only occasionally. Now, more times than not, Nunni looked at Everly and saw only Melanie. Everly losing her mother in one quick instant had been horrible. Letting go of Nunni one millimeter at a time was devastating. However, calling attention to Nunni’s confusion or trying to correct her never had a positive impact, so Everly kept her mouth shut—especially since the parallels between what had happened decades ago and what was happening in her life now were too spot-on to ignore.

“Men like that may play in Riverside, but they fall in love and marry on the other side of town,” Nunni went on, her fingers picking away at the frayed edge of the blanket draped over one arm of the chair. “A man who only cares about making his mark on the world never cares who he hurts in the process.”

The air in the room changed around them as Nunni became more obviously frustrated, her hands moving quickly and her gaze darting around the room as if she knew something wasn’t right but couldn’t figure out what.

Everly covered Nunni’s hands with her own and looked her grandma in the eye. “Don’t worry, I’m not seeing him.”

“You’re not?” Nunni asked, desperation thick in her tone. “Promise me.”

“I’m not seeing him.” Everly’s entire body ached with the effort not to give in to the urge to cry or scream out the truth that it was too late because Melanie did keep seeing that man and Everly was the result. And Nunni had been right all along, and he’d abandoned them. “I promise.”

“Good.” Nunni relaxed against the chair. “I’d hate to see you hurt, Melanie. I love you too much for that.”

She squeezed her grandma’s hand. “I love you, too.”

No matter what—no matter if in the end Nunni never saw her again but only her mother—because love was loyalty and always being there for the other person. A light tap on the door drew their attention. One of the nurses stood there with a paper cup of pills.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s time for your stories, Patrice. Would you like me to turn on the television?”

“Oh yes,” Nunni said. “I can’t miss what’s going to happen next.”

What was going to happen was the same storyline that had happened years ago before her nunni’s favorite soap opera had been canceled, but her grandma never realized. She just watched the DVDs Everly had found. The show was one of the few things that calmed her down when she became agitated, and even though she seemed calmer now, Everly knew the longer she stayed, the more likely Nunni was to warn her away from that man. So as the nurse turned on the TV, Everly got up and gave her nunni a hug.

“I’ll see you in a few days.”

“Always joking, Melanie.” Nunni patted her cheek. “You know I’ll see you tonight for dinner.”

Then, her grandma turned her attention to the TV, accepting the pills from the nurse without complaint, and got lost in her stories.

Gulping past the emotion, Everly turned and walked out of the room, blinking away tears.

Chapter Fourteen