“Maybe.” Carter shrugged. “Who knows.”
“Well, shouldn’t we find out?”
“Why?” Carter asked, incredulous. He grabbed a jam jar glass from the cupboard and filled it with sweet tea from the pitcher at my elbow. “It’s got nothing to do with us.”
“What if someone is breaking into this house thinking we have the gems? And—” I put my hands on my hips, feeling suddenly as though he was treating me like the kid I’d stopped being years ago “—how do you know about the gems?”
Carter put down the glass. “Okay. But don’t freak out.”
“Spill, Carter.”
“I was in touch with Mom ten years ago.”
It was awful, the shock like ice.
“Since then, I’ve had a private investigator checking up on her once a year. He did some digging in the past and came up with the Pacific Gems thing.”
“Why didn’t—” I swallowed. Why didn’t she come back? Where is she? Why did she leave? A thousand questions I couldn’t ask. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
He blinked and looked away, hiding something. Carter had a secret. Another one. Another mile in the distance between me and my brothers. “Stop trying to protect me,” I cried. “I’m not a kid.”
“Our mother is not a nice woman,” Carter said, his face tight and hard.
“Carter, I know—”
“No, you don’t. You don’t remember the way she was. You don’t remember how she’d turn us on each other. How she forgot about us.”
“Okay, Carter,” I whispered, stunned to see this sudden wrath. “I’m sorry.”
He sighed, his shoulders so wide, so strong sagged slightly. “No, I’m sorry. But whatever Mom is involved in, she won’t bring here. She knows better.”
“But someone has already thought we know about those gems, because of Mom’s role in all this.”
“Please, Savannah, don’t worry about it. She’s gone. She’s not coming back. Not now, not ever.”
The way he said it sent chills across my skin. “Why do you sound so sure? She was in New Orleans, for crying out loud. She was just a few hours away!”
The back door opened and Matt, sweaty and dark with dirt, stepped in. My belly twisted and my body burned at the sight of him. I went back to making sandwiches, praying Carter wouldn’t notice.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Matt said, lifting his thermos. “I just wanted—”
“Matt Woods?” Carter asked, pushing away from the counter. He glanced wide-eyed at me. “Your handyman is Matt Woods?”
I nodded and Carter turned back to Matt, his mouth open, a thousand questions poised.
“I’ll come back later,” Matt said and ducked out the door.
“What is the Architect of The Year doing in your back courtyard?”
I sighed. “Okay. But don’t freak out.”
MATT
The clouds were pink in the west, dark in the east as Carter was leaving. I watched Savannah’s brother hug Katie hard, swinging her so the girl shrieked with laughter.
Savannah watched, her heart—wounded and bleeding—in her eyes.
I stood under the willow in the front yard, wishing I could put my arm around Savannah. Stand at her side and shore her up.
Carter was a good guy, even if he had trouble taking no for an answer. He’d come barreling out to the courtyard with lots of talk about Baton Rouge and how it’s downtown needed someone like me. Someone with vision.
Carter had talked about the old buildings, historical details falling to ruin and waste. And my imagination shot sparks.
Sparks I ruthlessly smothered.
“I’m not in the business anymore,” I said, keeping my head down, my hands busy.
“I understand. What happened in St. Louis must have been hard on you,” Carter had said, digging in his wallet for a card. “But, if you change your mind.”
We’d shaken hands, and before he’d returned to the house Carter had apologized for his mother. “I’m sorry,” he’d said. “For whatever role my mother might have had in your father’s incarceration.”
“My father knew the risks when he took those gems,” I had said, slightly stunned that Carter felt the need to apologize for something so removed from him. “And really, outside of your mother, it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with you or your family.”
Carter had nodded then smiled, the brilliant public figure once more. “I’ll be hoping to hear from you. At least let me give you a tour of the city at some point.”
“We’ll see,” I had said, when what I’d really wanted to say was don’t hold your breath.
But now, Carter’s business card vibrated in my back pocket, making me wonder what I was going to do with myself once this courtyard was done. It would be soon—I’d finish planting the trees by tomorrow, the fountain would arrive on Wednesday, and I’d have to pick up some flowers and plants to fill in any leftover gaps.
Things were coming to an end here.
I couldn’t return to St. Louis, to Steel and Wood Architecture, I knew that. I’d tie up some loose ends, make sure my existing contracts were dealt with, but there were too many memories there, not enough of them good.