Bad Cruz

Here we go, I thought.

They were getting married. She was probably already pregnant. She won the battle, the fight, the war, and was now rubbing it in my face.

“Good for you,” I said, way too cheerfully.

“I’m not done. I went to him to see if he wanted to get back together.” She paused. “He didn’t.”

“Oh.”

It was crazy, the things my heart did in my chest in that moment. It was some next-level, Cirque-du-Soleil stuff. Apparently, the Elation was more than just a cruise ship.

“He brought something to my attention before I went home. The fact that I never take my EpiPen anywhere with me, even when I go to restaurants.”

I watched her carefully, unsure where this was going.

“Okay…”

Gabriella sighed, putting the cool water bottle to her forehead, apparently out of sorts.

“What I’m trying to say is, someone must’ve known I was going to need my EpiPen and made sure I had it in my purse.”

I kept watching her, waiting for more. Her gaze swung up and met mine.

“My mother, Nessy. My mother put it there. I used the power of deduction. It couldn’t have been Coulter, because Coulter knows about my allergy, and because he’s a real sweetheart who’d never hurt a soul, no matter how obscenely untalented he is in the kitchen, which is a culinary assault in itself.”

It was the first time I’d heard Gabriella crack a joke, and I had to admit, as far as wisecracks went, it wasn’t a terrible one.

“And you wouldn’t have done that, either. Why would you? You won Cruz. He was yours. And you’ve put up with so much of our… our… behavior,” she seemed to settle on a word, “over the years, it seemed out of character and out of place for you to pull something like that all of a sudden. Not to mention, I told you at least three times I didn’t want peanuts in my sundae, and you knew things could go south. You would never do that to your son.”

Something cracked in me when she said it. The acknowledgement from her that I was a decent mother made my heart go to her. I swallowed hard. She continued.

“That left me with only one suspect. My mother. I knew she’d been upset with me for losing Cruz. She was livid and beside herself when I told her we broke up. And then when the rumor you and he were together hit her ears, she lost it completely. She had the motive, the passion, and the proximity to me to pull it off. So I went to confront her yesterday.”

My stomach rolled all of a sudden. Mrs. Holland was insane. She’d basically poisoned her daughter. Put her life at risk.

And for what?

The town’s hottest bachelor?

As much as I mourned the problematic relationship with my own mother, I was pretty sure she was above trying to kill me to make a point.

Ninety-six percent sure, anyway.

“What’d she say?” I managed.

“She said, and it’s a quote—‘Nothing happened to you, though, did it? Now why don’t you go back to Dr. Costello and try to seduce him the old-fashioned way?’”

“Wow.” And I’d thought Trinity was bad for smacking my head into the… well, no, that was also awful. Just not…this.

“Yeah.” Gabriella plopped on a seat by the dining table, peeling the water’s label.

“I’m sorry. I had no idea your mother was so…” Insane. Sick. Sociopathic. Marvel-villain-esque. “Ambitious.”

She snorted out a laugh. “She’s not ambitious, she’s a bitch.”

I made a face. “We don’t curse under this roof. It gives me the hives. Can we just call her a bleach or something?”

“Oh, Nessy, you’re so weird. It’s really hard to hate you, do you know that?”