Big Girls Don’t Cry (Dundee, Idaho #6)(43)
Author: Brenda Novak

As Reenie glanced back at the elegant Esplanade, her chest constricted and she took an impulsive step toward the office. She had to find out.

But she couldn’t confront Liz at the school. Not with children, teachers and administrators looking on.

“This isn’t happening!” she cried, so loud that the last of the departing parents turned to stare.

Rosie Strickland, the crossing guard, was carrying in her sign. “Reenie, are you okay?” she asked.

But Reenie didn’t answer. Rushing to her van, she jumped behind the wheel and tore out of the lot.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SOMEONE WAS POUNDING on the door.

The noise intruded on Isaac’s sleep, dragging him from a pleasant dream he knew he probably wouldn’t remember once he opened his eyes. For a moment, he fought consciousness—only to hear the doorbell ring several times in rapid succession.

With a groan, he blinked and stared through his window at the gray, cold-looking day as reality came crashing back. He now lived in a town of only fifteen hundred people in the mountains north of Boise. Three weeks ago, he was waiting to return to the most exotic place in the world. Now he’d be lucky to go to a movie.

“I should’ve killed Keith when I first figured it out,” he muttered. “Then I wouldn’t be here.”

More pounding. Insistent. Angry.

What the hell could be so urgent? No one even knew who they were yet. Where was his sister, anyway?

“Liz?” he called.

No response. He couldn’t hear movement or voices in the house. Even the children seemed to be gone.

Which left him to deal with the visitor.

Maybe it was Keith, presenting him with the perfect opportunity to break his ex-brother-in-law’s sorry neck.

That thought was encouraging enough to get him out of bed. Shoving a hand through his unruly hair, he dragged on his jeans, and stumbled down the hall to the living room. His eyes felt like sandpaper; he’d definitely been up too late. But his fatigue fell away the instant he opened the door.

Reenie gasped when she saw him, and rocked back, as if he’d slapped her. “It is you,” she murmured.

“Reenie—”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Listen to me—”

“You brought her here?” Her eyes darted to the boxes behind him. “You moved her here?”

Her voice had escalated considerably. He lowered his, hoping to calm her. “This has nothing to do with you.”

“Oh, right,” she managed to say, but this time her words were barely audible. She was pressing a hand to her chest and breathing so fast he was afraid she was hyperventilating.

Grabbing her arm, he tried to pull her inside, where she’d at least be warm and dry.

But she reacted as though he was trying to drag her into a grave with a rotting corpse. Yanking out of his grasp, she backed up too fast, slipped off the step and fell.

When she landed awkwardly on one hand, Isaac cursed and darted forward to help her. But she wouldn’t let him touch her.

“I already told you—she can have him,” she said, scrambling away and climbing to her feet. “My marriage is over. You made sure of that when you came here a few weeks ago. Is that what you wanted to confirm with your friendly little instant message? How hard you were going to have to work to finish things off? Well, pack up your stuff and go back to L.A.—and take my husband with you!”

“It’s not that simple, Reenie,” he tried to explain. But she wasn’t listening. Tears gathered in her eyes and streaked down her face. Only this time, instead of succumbing to them, she lifted her chin and glared through the welling drops.

“Oh yeah?” she said. “It’s simple to me. Keith and your sister can spend the rest of their days together. In California.”

Except Keith wanted Reenie.

“Will you come in so we can talk?” Isaac asked.

Anger flashed in her eyes, but as she squared off in front of him, he couldn’t help admiring her spirit.

“Go to hell,” she said. “You can’t hurt me, you hear? You can’t hurt me! So you might as well leave!” Wincing slightly when she moved her injured hand, she hurried back to the van she’d left running in the driveway.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” he shouted, afraid she’d kill someone, or herself, driving in her current state of mind. But she didn’t appear to hear him. Or she was too upset to care. She burned rubber as she backed out of the driveway, and he cringed as she almost hit a Lincoln Town Car that was turning into the driveway across the street.

Celeste Holbrook parked haphazardly as Reenie gunned the engine and rocketed away from them. “Was that Reenie?” she called as she stepped out of her car.

He sighed heavily, watching the van screech around the corner. “I’m afraid so,” he called back.

“But—why was she at your house?”

She wasn’t bringing him a casserole.

“What’s wrong with her?” Celeste added before he could respond to her first question.

“She’s had a bit of a shock,” he said. “Maybe you should go over and make sure she’s okay.”

Celeste seemed to take in the fact that he was standing outside without a shirt or shoes, freezing in the chill wind. “I will,” she said, “right away,” and immediately got back into her car.

Isaac turned to go into the house, but just then Liz pulled up, looking a little rattled herself. “What are you doing out here?” she asked as she climbed out of her SUV.

He crossed his arms to garner some warmth. “Reenie came by.”

There was a long hesitation. “What did she say?”

“She wants us to take Keith with us and go back to L.A.”

Liz pursed her lips as she took in this information. “Did you tell her Keith won’t even return my calls?”

“No. I didn’t get the chance to tell her much of anything.”

She threw back her shoulders. “We have a right to be here, too.”

“I guess,” Isaac said, and went inside.

KEITH’S CHEST CONSTRICTED with fear as he gazed down at the legal-size envelope he’d just retrieved from his parents’ mailbox. He’d rushed home over his lunch hour because he was expecting his last check from Softscape and he needed the money. He hadn’t sent anything to Liz since he’d left L.A. and their house payment was due on the first. He was sure Reenie was running low on funds, too.

But this was no check. It came from an attorney named Rosenbaum—an attorney in Boise.