Fool's Gold (A sexy funny mystery/romance, Cottonmouth Book 2) (39 page)

But she hadn’t
felt
safe. The times
she’d sensed something in the shadows, Jason had probably been
outside her home, watching her. She’d locked the darn screen, too,
but he’d found a way to invade her territory.

Jason wasn’t the worst. He’d never been a
friend. He’d never been anything. Della was the one who’d ripped
away her security.

Safety was an illusion. Maybe her sense of
home was an illusion, too. Maybe Goldstone had never been home at
all, but nothing more than a place she’d run away to. Just like her
mother said.

“You should have called,” Ariana snapped,
rising off the couch.

“I did call. I told you it would take a
while.”

“You look tired, honey.” Kingston came close,
as if he’d put a comforting arm around her. Simone jerked away,
then was unable to look him in the face. “Why don’t you take a
nap?” he finished.

Simone just wanted to go to bed and sleep
forever.

“She cannot go to sleep, Kingston. We are
leaving. Jackie, start packing our bags. We’re getting out of this
horrible place. And Simone, you’re coming with us.”

Going with her mother? Ariana had saved the
declaration along with the packing to create her dramatic moment.
Her mother did so love her drama. Leaving with her almost seemed
like a relief.

“I never should have let you follow your own
mind and come here. I knew it would end in disaster.” Ariana
fluttered about, her fingers tapping her dress, her arms, her
chin.

All that movement made Simone dizzy.

“Ariana, calm down.”

“I won’t calm down. She should have listened
to me, Kingston. She ignores everything I say. And look what
happened. She almost got herself killed in this godforsaken
gnatsville.”

“It was a cave, Mother.” She couldn’t even
manage the capital letters.

Her mother snapped her fingers. “Jackie, did
you hear me? Start packing. And don’t forget my toiletries in the
bathroom.”

“Don’t snap your fingers at Jackie,” Kingston
barked.

Ariana flew at him, stopping before she
actually smacked him in the face. “It’s the only way they hear.
They don’t listen. They don’t take my advice. I won’t have it, do
you hear? I know what’s best for them.”

Her mother then whirled on her, stabbing the
air with a long, manicured nail. “You’re coming home. And you’re
taking that job with Ambrose. I won’t hear another word about
it.”

“She never wanted the job with Ambrose.”
Kingston slashed a hand through the air. “Can’t you get that
through your head?”

“Then why didn’t she come right out and say
she didn’t want it? I would have found her something else. But she
never even said what she wanted. She never says what she
wants.”

No, Simone never had. She’d hidden all her
wants and needs from her mother for fear they’d be trampled beneath
more important needs—Ariana’s needs. Simone had been hiding her own
needs for so long, she wasn’t even sure what they were anymore.

“Then let her tell you what she wants,”
Kingston said. “And listen to her this time.”

Think. What do you really want? Safety.
Security. Home.
Della had taken those things away.

“I always listen,” Ariana went on. “I know
what’s best, that’s all. Why, she’s a child. Look what happened in
Silicon Valley. She failed.”

Stop talking about me as if I weren’t
here. I can speak for myself
. Yet she didn’t say a word. Her
mother was right. She hadn’t done well on her own. Not well at
all.

“She didn’t fail. Her customer base went
away. It wasn’t failure.” Kingston pushed Ariana back with the
force of his rising voice. What had suddenly gotten into him?

“She ran out of money. Even her fiancé
couldn’t take it.”

Andrew couldn’t take her excessive and
exuberant screaming during lovemaking; that’s why he’d dumped her.
Her business failure had been an excuse.

“That boy was a wimp. That’s why he didn’t
stick around.”

Ariana ignored Kingston, continuing with her
rant. “If she’d taken my advice, she’d be married by now.”

“Maybe she didn’t want to marry him because
you picked him out for her.”

Maybe she hadn’t wanted to marry Andrew.
Maybe. Simone didn’t know. She’d never known. That was the
problem.

“I know what’s best for her. I’m her
mother.”

Kingston didn’t kowtow. He went at Ariana.
“You decide what she wants because you can’t stand not having
control. You decide what they both want. They’re adults. Let them
make their own decisions.”

“How dare you, Kingston? May I remind you
that you work for me? You are not part of this family. And you can
be fired.”

“Stop it.” Simone shouted. She actually
shouted at her mother. It was the only time Ariana had ever shut up
when Simone spoke. “Do you want to know what I want? Do you
really?”

“Of course, dear,” her mother said finally.
“Tell us. We’ll help you get it.” But Simone knew there was a
hook.

What did she really want? To stop letting
what other people wanted be her guiding light.

“I want to buy my furniture at Salvation Army
and my clothes at Goodwill.”

It was so quiet, she could hear a fly buzzing
in the corner.

Della’s betrayal had ripped something away
from her: safety, security, and yes, her sense of home. But Della
couldn’t take that away unless Simone herself let it all go.
Goldstone wasn’t The Emerald City or Munchkinland. It wasn’t even
Kansas. It was people who cared about her and most of them were
still right here.

Della could never take that away from her.
Neither could Ariana.

Something powerful and wonderful rose up
within Simone.

“I want a lot of things,” she said, her voice
clear and strong. “I want to live in a trailer or a house or
whatever I choose wherever I choose to buy it. And I want you to
say you like it even if you hate it. I want you to visit, and I
don’t want you to bring your fumigator.”

Her mother’s eyes widened, and a glob of
mascara stuck to her upper eyelid.

“I want to make pots of money writing erotica
on the Internet. Because I’m good at it. Very, very good at it. And
I like writing it.”

“You write porn on the Internet?” Her mother
looked close to expiring, her eyes wide and wild. A deep wrinkle
marred her pristine forehead, and crow’s feet sprouted at the
corners of her eyes.

“And I don’t want you to ever call it porn,
because it’s classy and it’s well written.”

“But dear—”

“And I never ever want to own a pair of Barry
Manilow shoes.”

Ariana Chandler gasped. “Not Barry Manilows,
you silly girl. Manolo Blahniks.” Rolling her eyes heavenward, she
added, “I cannot believe you came from my loins.”

“And you know what else, MOTHER? I don’t want
you to ever send me size zero clothing again. I never want to fit
into size zero clothing. Not ever. I want to have breasts and hips,
and I want you to tell me I’m beautiful that way.”

“Of course, you’re beautiful.”

Just words. Her mother was so good with
meaningless words. Simone didn’t bother rebuking her. “And I want
to wear blue underwear with white pants no matter how bad you say
it looks.”

Someone applauded. A slow, steady clap.

Brax held the screen door open with his
shoulder and applauded.

She stopped breathing and her heart suddenly
stilled in her chest.

“Is there anything else you want, Simone?”
Brax looked at her as if she were the only person in the room. The
only woman in the world. The door slammed as he stepped through and
stood before her to whisper, “Tell me your heart’s desire.”

She’d stopped screaming with pleasure because
her exuberance embarrassed Andrew. She’d run away from her Silicon
Valley career because her mother called her a failure. She’d loved
everyone in Goldstone because they hadn’t cared about her failures.
Then she’d been about to throw away everything important to her
because Della Montrose had betrayed them all.

She’d never fought for anything in her life.
She’d always given up at someone else’s whim. Not this time. She
would not throw away this chance because she was afraid Brax would
reject her heart’s desire. If she did, then she deserved to crawl
home after her mother with her tail between her legs.

“I know exactly what I want,” she
started.

He put his fingers to her lips before she
could get the next word out, then traced them with the pad of his
thumb. “My turn.” He leaned in close, his heady male scent
surrounding her. “I’ve loved your smile since the first moment I
saw it.” He took his hand away to brush his lips to hers. “I love
the skulls on your license plate and the bumper sticker on your
truck. I love your pluck and your courage.” Then he whispered
against her ear, for her alone. “I love the way you scream when I
make you come.”

Oh.
Oh
. He loved her exuberance and
excess.

Still for her ears only, he added, “And I
especially love the way you told your mother to go to hell.”

He
knew
. He knew how hard that was.
How long she’d dreamed of it, but never had the courage to even
admit she’d wanted to.

He tucked a stray lock behind her ear, then
stroked her cheek. “I died a thousand deaths when I thought you’d
be hurt up there today. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, probably half
of them since I came to Goldstone. But this is one mistake I won’t
make. I won’t leave here without telling you that I love you.”

He loved her. He really honest-to-God loved
her. “So what’s your heart’s desire?” she whispered.

Clasping his hands at the small of her back,
he held her close and met her gaze, his eyes a deep true blue.
“That you’ll come home to Cottonmouth with me. Home, Simone. I want
to be your home wherever you are.”

His face blurred through a sheen of tears.
She lost her voice.
Home
. With that one word, he proved he
knew everything that was important to her.

“I think I’m going to vomit. Kingston, get me
a paper bag. Quickly.”

Simone didn’t care if her mother threw up all
over the orange shag. “Does your house have a foundation, Brax?”
she asked.

“Hell, yes, even made it through the last
earthquake without a crack.” He leaned his forehead against hers.
“But can you leave Goldstone?”

She would always love Mr. Doodle and Whitey
and Sheriff Teesdale and Maggie and Chloe and the chickens, and she
would never leave that love behind like a forgotten memory. Home
wasn’t a place. It was a feeling. It was where you were warm and
cherished. It was where you were accepted for exactly who you were
instead of what someone else thought you should be. And a person
could have more than one home. In fact, the more, the better.

“Goldstone will always be in my heart, Brax,
but I want to come home with you.”

He sighed, then cupped her face in one big
hand. “Aren’t you forgetting one big thing?”

What? Maybe: “I love you?”

“Yeah. That’s it.”

She hugged him. “I love you, I love you, I
love you.” Then she jumped back. “Oh my God, I forgot to ask about
Maggie. Is she okay?”

“There’s another thing I love about you that
I forgot to mention.”

She cocked her head. “What’s that?”

“The way you care about your friends.” He
stroked her cheek. “Maggie’s gonna be fine. It’ll be hard, but
we’ll see her through.” Then he squeezed the breath out of her with
a tight hug. “God, I love you.”

“Kingston, where
is
that vomit
bag?”

Simone turned her head.

Her mother fanned herself dramatically. “And
Jackie, are you done packing?” she called. “We simply have to get
out of here. Simone has lost her mind.”

Thump. The trailer vibrated beneath their
feet. Jackie stood in the hallway, Ariana’s suitcases dumped on the
floor beside her. “Your bags are packed.”

“Where are yours?” Ariana huffed. “I
specifically told you to pack your bags.”

Jackie tipped her chin, and a small smile
creased her mouth. “I’m not going.”

Ariana’s mouth opened and closed, then
finally, she gasped. “What do you mean you’re not going?”

“I’m not going back home with you. If
Simone’s going to Cottonmouth, then I’m going to ask her if she’ll
let me stay in her trailer for a while.”

“Of course, you can stay in the trailer,”
Simone said, her heart bursting. For Jackie. For herself. For the
warmth of Brax’s arm around her shoulders and his body next to
hers.

“She cannot,” Ariana stated.

“I can. And I will. MOTHER, go home.”

Ariana stared. Her perfectly applied
cosmetics started to crack. Then she found her voice. “You two
ungrateful...after everything I’ve done...I can’t believe I could
raise daughters who would treat their mother...Kingston, we’re
leaving. Get my bags.”

Kingston didn’t move. “I thought I was
fired.”

“I said you
could
be fired. I didn’t
actually fire you. Now drive me home.”

Jackie took a step closer to Kingston. “He
isn’t going home with you, MOTHER.”

Ariana gaped, then recovered herself. She
could never be silent for long. “Whatever do you mean, Jackie? Of
course, Kingston’s driving me home.”

Jackie shook her head slowly. “He’s staying
here with me.”

Ariana stared down her nose. “Why on earth
would he stay with you?”

“Because he loves me.” Jackie smiled and
looked at Kingston with the brightest gaze, brighter than anything
Simone had ever seen up on the movie screen.

Oh my God. Kingston and Jackie?

“And we’re going to get married,” Jackie
added.

Ariana laughed. “Kingston, do you know
anything about this child’s delusions?”

Kingston put his arm around Jackie and tucked
her close to his side. “As a matter of fact, I do. I was actually
present last night when I asked her to marry me.”