Mist on the Meadow (13 page)

“Maybe you’re mistaken,” Wolf said.

Marissa shook her head. “You saw the
ambulance.”

He steered into the driveway. “Do you want me
to go in with you?”

She didn’t want anything more to do with the
Harpers. At least not today. “No.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t have
invited you over. I should have known, at the very least, that
you’d want to spend the time with your great-uncle.”

Marissa rounded on him. “You wanted to see
how your uncle reacted when he met me. I hope you’re satisfied
now.”

Wolf pulled back. “I don’t understand why you
know the things you do.”

“Neither do I.” The tears threatened again.
She did not want Wolf to see her with swollen, red eyes. Bad enough
she’d cried in front of him in the first place.

“If there’s something I can do—”

Marissa opened the car door and jumped out.
She slammed the door behind her and marched to the house, where her
mother waited.

With one last glance at Wolf before he backed
out of the driveway, Marissa walked inside and slid out of her
coat.

“I should have been here.” Marissa laid her
head on her mother’s shoulder and gave way to the tears.

Marissa’s mother wrapped her in a hug. “He
said to remind you not to be sad,” she said through her tears. She
guided Marissa to the family room. “You know as well as I do how
much he loved you, and he made it pretty clear he thought you
should be with Wolf today. Don’t feel bad about doing what he asked
you to do.”

Marissa’s father stared out the window in the
family room, curtain pulled back. Marissa crossed the room and
threw her arms around his neck.

“We knew this was coming,” he said.

“That doesn’t make it any easier.” She looked
into her father’s glassy eyes.

“Reminds me of when I lost my parents, except
Uncle Balt was there to fill the void. Now I’m the oldest
generation.”

“Can I stay here for a few days?” Marissa
asked.

“I think we could all use the extra family
time,” her mother said.

* * *

Wolf had ruined Marissa’s Christmas. Not only
had he subjected her to his family, he’d taken her away from her
family when they’d needed her.

Wolf wound his way back to his uncle’s house.
Christmas was meant to be spent with family.

On the off-chance Marissa was right about his
uncle, Wolf reconsidered talking to him about the fraud audit, but
she’d also said he knew who was responsible. Would Uncle Pete alert
the guilty party?

Tomorrow. In the office. Today, he needed to
celebrate Christmas. He needed to remember his grandmother with his
family. They might disown him after tomorrow, but he still had
today.

Wolf walked in the back door and found Aunt
Corrine at the kitchen table, head in her hands.

She rose to greet him when he walked in and
threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you came back.”

“Couldn’t miss dessert,” he said.

“Oh. I completely forgot about Marissa’s
dish. I can put the pudding into another container. Will you take
the pan back to her?”

Wolf’s shoulders drooped. How could he face
Marissa again? “I’ll make arrangements.”

“She seems like a lovely girl. I’m so sorry
if we offended her. I don’t know what got into Pete to be so rude
to her.”

“About a fifth of whisky,” Chuck said from
the doorframe.

“You were no prince, either,” Aunt Corrine
said. “You’d think we could have one respectable meal
together.”

Chuck nodded at Wolf. “Why’d you come
back?”

“It’s Christmas.”

Chuck shrugged. “I guess.”

“I miss Grandma,” Wolf went on.

“We all do, honey,” Aunt Corrine said. “Why
don’t you sit down and I’ll slice you a piece of pumpkin pie. Or do
you want to try the bread pudding Marissa made? It looks
fantastic.”

“
Ofenschlupfer.
” Uncle Pete hovered
between the dining room and the kitchen.

“
Gesundheit
,” Chuck said.

“That’s what it’s called, numb-nuts.
Ofenschlupfer
. And I think I’d like to try it, to see if
it’s as good as my mother made.” He lumbered into the kitchen and
fell into a chair at the table.

Aunt Corrine sliced the pie and the bread
pudding and brought both to the table. She followed with dessert
plates and forks. “I think you boys can help yourselves to what you
want.”

“Would it be a great inconvenience for you to
put a piece on a plate for me?” Uncle Pete asked.

Wolf reached over, scooped a piece onto a
plate and handed it to his uncle, which brought a scowl from his
uncle.

“Don’t look at me that way. I wasn’t trying
to make her work harder than she has. Don’t you think I know how
hard she works to put out a spread like this?” He paused. “I’m just
having a little trouble with my coordination at the moment.”

“Maybe you should slow down on the booze,”
Chuck said.

Aunt Corrine heaved a sigh. “Can we be civil
while we eat dessert?”

Chuck helped himself to a piece of each of
the desserts.

Wolf leaned back, crossed his ankles and
folded his arms across his chest. He watched while they ate
Marissa’s dessert.

“Shame she left so early,” Uncle Pete said
between bites. “I was gonna make glogg.”

“That’s the last thing—” Chuck began, and
then stopped with a hiss from his mother. “Yeah. Shame. How’s her
great-uncle?”

“He died,” Wolf said.

“Oh, the poor girl.” Aunt Corrine finally
took a seat and served herself a piece of pie. “Wolf, aren’t you
going to have anything?”

“In a minute.” He watched while his uncle and
his cousin ate the bread pudding.

“He died today? On Christmas?” Aunt Corrine
tsked. “What a sadness. I’m surprised you didn’t stay with
her.”

Wolf grimaced. He was pretty sure his face
was the last one Marissa wanted to see right now.

“One thing I can say for her,” Uncle Pete
said, “she knows how to bake.”

“She owns the café in town,” Aunt Corrine
said. “
Mangela
.”

“No offense to Grandma, but your girlfriend’s
stuff rocks.” Chuck said. “Where’s that café? I might have to be a
regular customer if everything she makes is this good.”

Wolf reached for the dish hesitantly and took
a thin slice. He played with the dessert on his plate before he cut
off a bite.

“What? Did she poison it? You look like
you’re afraid it will kill you,” Chuck said. “Eat it already. Or
should I call an ambulance for all of us right now?”

Wolf scowled. “Your mom didn’t take any. If
we all die, she can call the ambulance.” He took a bite. Creamy.
Cinnamony. Appley, and a touch of rum. Yep. She knew how to bake.
Wolf closed his eyes to luxuriate in the flavors.

It might be worthwhile to consider what she
said she
knew
. He straightened and addressed his uncle. “Do
you have time on your calendar for a quick meeting tomorrow
morning? Before the board meeting?”

Uncle Pete raised his head and looked through
bleary eyes. “Prolly. Why?”

“There are a few things we need to cover
ahead of time.”

Marissa opened her eyes to her old bedroom,
the one she’d slept in for most of her life. For a moment, she was
sixteen again, right up until Hex started purring. His paws kneaded
her ribs.

She scooped him up and rolled to her side.
Hex nuzzled into her neck and she stroked his fur.

The dream came back to Marissa in vivid
detail. She’d dreamt about the sleigh ride, except instead of the
third degree, Wolf had given her something else entirely. Now she
was hungry for a man in her bed—one man in particular.

“Nice thing to think about with the parents
in the next room, eh, Hex?” She rubbed his ears.

He purred and meowed together, that chirp
she’d come to recognize.

“So what am I going to do about him, huh?
Uncle Balt seemed pretty determined to throw us together.” And as
much as she wanted to deny it, there was a part of her that knew
they would be together.
If she could trust the feeling.

“What the hell am I supposed to do with this
legacy?” she asked the cat.

Hex rolled onto his back and batted at
Marissa’s curls.

She glanced out the window to the dark world
beyond. Then she glanced at the alarm clock. “It’s a work day.”

Marissa kicked her feet out of bed. Hex
scampered up her pajamas and draped himself across her shoulders
where he chewed on her hair.

“I have to take a shower.” She pulled Hex
into her arms and scratched his chin. Hex narrowed his eyes and
rewarded her with loud purrs. Marissa started to put him down, but
when Hex widened his clear blue eyes. Uncle Balt’s reflection
stared back at her.

Marissa sat on the edge of the bed, eyes
locked with the cat’s. “What are you trying to tell me?” she
whispered.

The world spun around her until a conference
room with a large table came into focus. In Hex’s eyes, Wolf stared
at the pen he tapped against the table. Beside Wolf, his uncle had
wet circles under his arms while he tugged at his shirt collar. His
bloodshot eyes gave evidence to the pain behind them. Three other
men sat at the table, men she didn’t know, and a fourth man pointed
at charts projected on a screen. A clock on the wall showed
9:15.

Wolf’s voice sounded far away. “We’ll have to
open an internal investigation. I’ll get Marshall on it.”

That wasn’t the original plan.
Wolf
raised his head and she swore he looked right at her. But he
couldn’t. She wasn’t in the boardroom.

Marissa blinked and Hex winked back at her.
She set him on the bed and the cat curled into a gray ball of fur
on her pillow.

Nine fifteen. Later this morning? When she’d
first
known
about the board meeting, Wolf was planning to
point the finger at his uncle for the problems they were having at
Harper Electronics. It seemed he’d changed his mind. She gave Hex
another glance. What else could he show her?

Nothing, it seemed. The cat was asleep.

An hour later, she unlocked the kitchen door
at
Mangela
and was surprised to find Angela already making
coffee cakes.

“I thought you were going to Phoenix,”
Marissa said.

“Flight was canceled because of the snow. I
tried calling you last night, but couldn’t find you. Your mom told
me about Uncle Balt. I’m sorry, kiddo. I can cover if you want to
take some extra time off.”

“Thanks. The funeral won’t be for a few more
days. I figured it would be better to keep busy. You’re still going
to Phoenix, aren’t you?”

Angela grinned. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Maybe?”

Angela shrugged. “Your Christmas sailor’s
been keeping me kinda busy.”

Marissa couldn’t stop the laughter. “This is
new, isn’t it? I mean you don’t usually take home the Christmas
sailor to play with, do you?”

“We kind of hit it off, you know?” Angela
said shyly. “What about you and the big, bad Wolf?”

“Yeah, that didn’t go so well.” Marissa
slipped her apron over her head and pulled open the walk-in cooler
to retrieve the ingredients for her cinnamon rolls.

They baked side by side until Becky arrived
at seven o’clock in the still-dark morning.

“Your dad’s in the parking lot with Max,” she
announced. “Wants to know if they can grab a cup of coffee for the
road.”

“Where are they going?” Marissa asked.

Becky shrugged. “Want me to let them in?”

“Well duh. It’s my dad and my brother.”

Becky smirked. “We’re ready to open anyway,
aren’t we?”

“Let ‘em in,” Angela called from the
kitchen.

Marissa followed her to the front door and
met her father with a hug. “Where are you off to?”

Max shuffled his feet. “Milwaukee. Dad
thought we should bring back Uncle Balt’s strongbox for you, among
other things.”

Marissa hugged her brother. “Thanks,
Max.”

“You got any muffins ready yet?” he
asked.

“Hang on, I’ll make you a care package.” She
slipped into the kitchen and boxed three muffins. One wouldn’t
satisfy Max’s appetite. She poured two cups of coffee with eggnog
instead of cream and handed Max the food. “I wish I could go,
too.”

“We could wait until later, if you want,” her
brother said.

Marissa shook her head. “No point. You guys
are already set to go. Might as well get it done.”

They took their leave and while Marissa waved
them off, a Cadillac turned into the parking lot. Marissa turned
toward the kitchen, but waited when she felt the hair rise on the
back of her neck. She cast another glance at the car, and Pete
Harper got out.

Up close, his bloodshot eyes
did
look
painful. How much more had he had to drink after they left?

Marissa opened the door for him. “Good
morning.”

“I need to talk to you,” he said.

“Coffee?”

His eyes darted to where Becky waited with
the pot.

“Sure.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out
a wad of bills.

“On me,” she said. Marissa nodded to a booth,
the same one Wolf had occupied the day he’d run into her. She
walked to the counter and held out a cup for Becky to fill. When
she returned to the booth, he rested his elbows on top of the
table. One of his legs protruded from beneath the table, knee
bouncing. “What’s on your mind?” she asked.

“Whatever Wolf is paying you, I’ll double
it.”

Marissa’s eyebrows shot up. Of all the
scenarios that Pete Harper might envision, she’d couldn’t imagine
why he’d think Wolf had hired her. “He’s not paying me.”

“Christ, woman. What do you want from
me?”

“I think I should be asking that question,
Mr. Harper.”

He chewed on a fingernail. “Look. My mother
never wanted him to know. You can’t tell him.”

“Tell him what?” Marissa was tempted to
extend her hand, to
see
the knowledge he held back, but she
restrained herself.