Destiny Undone: The Complete Series Box Set (13 page)

“In the sun? Really? I’m telling you, UV rays are hell on your skin.” Evangeline slid out the chair and dusted off the seat with the linen napkin. I ignored her and continued to stare at the menu.

The poor, unsuspecting teenaged server approached us with a broad smile, but that didn’t last long. Evangeline asked a dozen questions, no doubt to which she already knew the answers, then ordered the scallops and a side salad. As the server forced a smile and walked toward the kitchen, she stopped dead in her tracks when she heard my mother call after her to remind her that she didn’t want too much salt. My mother took off her hat, set it to the side and placed her clutch on the brim to keep it from blowing away.

“Let’s get it all out. I imagine you want to cuss me out for last night. Come on, give it to me.” She leaned back in the chair and pursed her perfect lips in a thoughtful pout. “Finding Jonathan and me together must have been upsetting. I understand that.”

I knew what she wanted. I’d fallen for it before. She wanted me to lose it, to make a scene so she would feel better. In her world, Evangeline did no wrong—everyone else did. Now here we were again, but I wasn’t going to play into her hands this time. Her conscience, what little she had, must have been killing her and spitefully, I wasn’t anxious to let her off the hook easily.

“Nothing you do surprises me and no, I’m not hurt—but your daughter, Mills, she’s the one that’s hurt.” Oh yes, she flinched. I could leave now and be happy, sort of.

“Don’t bring your sister into this. I will talk to her in the fullness of time. This is about you and me.”

I slid my glasses up to the top of my head. “No, this isn’t about you and me. This is about you. I’m not the slut who sleeps with your ex-boyfriends. I’m not trying to constantly compete with my own daughter. That’s you, remember?”

“Pepper! How dare you talk to me that way?” She banged her fist on the table, making the water in the glasses splash onto the white linen tablecloth, but I was unmoved by her anger.

“Give me a break. The hurt mother angle doesn’t work with me anymore. Finding you riding Church in a closet is hardly a mother-like thing to do. You knew he thought it was me in the darkness, but you didn’t bother to tell him any different. You just kept quiet and I just want to know how long you’d been planning this?”

She sat crooked in her chair, her head down at a sassy angle and she grinned. “I admit that I’ve seen him before and wondered what it would be like, but I sure didn’t plan that. What kind of person would I be?”

Before I could answer her, the server returned with our salads and luckily for her, she’d remembered to put the dressing on the side. After she’d left the table, I brought the conversation back to my sister. “What are you going to tell Mills? She’s the one you should be thinking about. I’ll be fine, but how could you do that to her?” I dug around my salad and picked out a grape tomato—somehow, I didn’t feel hungry now.

“You always were your father’s child, which is kind of ironic.” She sipped her mimosa and smiled at me through bright red lipstick.

“Why is that ironic? You and I were never close. That shouldn’t be a surprise to you.”

She gave me a smirk, but changed the subject. “Have you talked to Jonathan?”

“No, I haven’t. Would you like his number?” I tilted my head and smiled wryly at her.

“Can’t you stop it, Pepper? Your insane jealousy of me has gotten out of hand. You really need to see a therapist or something.”

My blood boiled with that comment, but I wasn’t about to lower myself to her level. I simply glared at her as I pushed my chair back, grabbed my purse and walked out without looking back. No way was I staying and listening to any more of her craziness.

She was the one who hooked up with Church.

She was the one who fucked him in the closet like a slutty teenager.

As I walked out the door, I vowed to never speak to her again.

I was finished. Done with Pepper Anderson and her wild pack of friends. Thank God the car hadn’t rolled or things could have ended up a lot worse than just a few scrapes. I still couldn’t believe that dickwad, Church, would try to scare me like that—or worse, kill me—over a girl! The whole situation was dangerous, stupid and I refused to get involved with her. She carried too much baggage for a homebody like me.

I rotated my shoulder and tried to get the kinks out of it. It was sore from the accident and felt like someone had been squeezing it in a vise all night. The hospital had given me some ibuprofen when they’d discharged me earlier, but it wasn’t doing its job. I wasn’t hurt enough to stay home, though—I had to get to the high school and teach a class to some very talented students. Bet this black eye would attract some comments from the kids there—and the teachers. I hoped they weren’t going to think I’d been involved in some seedy bar room fight. That wouldn’t go over well with Destiny Beach’s school board.

I let out a long sigh as I thought back to all the drama and crazy events of the night before. If I’d known when I got mixed up with Pepper Anderson, that I’d have to deal with all the crazy bullshit that came along with her, I wouldn’t have bothered. Glad that was over now.

I popped two more ibuprofens and grabbed a bottle of water before I left the house. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day on the Gulf Coast. I hopped up into the Escalade, turned on the engine and kicked on the A/C. I didn’t like driving the SUV, gas hog and all, but my poor Audi was still in the shop and would probably be there all week. That jerk dinged up her bumper pretty bad. I could still see the headlights of that semi coming straight at me in my mind and shuddered when I thought about it. Fuck! I really could have died last night. I drove over to Sea Lab extra carefully with those thoughts in my mind, then Bobbie Jo and I loaded the materials into the car.

“You all right?” she asked, her face all squinched up.

“Yep, I’m fine. You all right?” I teased.

“Yep!” I really didn’t want to go over what had happened the night before. I knew she’d blame Pepper and I didn’t want to deal with it—not now, and not with Bobbie Jo. I’d talk to Pepper later when we got back.

Bobbie Jo and I carried our boxes, specimen tanks and all the other stuff we’d brought with us into the high school lab. Sometimes the kids made me nervous but, luckily for me, these weren’t the small kind. I hoped they were kids with more than half a brain and a thought for their future. I wasn’t nervous, more distracted than anything, and I kept my eyes hidden with my sunglasses until I absolutely had to teach. Once the kids had gathered in and the bell rang, I removed my Oakley’s and stood behind the table.

“Dude, you must have kicked somebody’s ass!” somebody said from the back of the group and I couldn’t hide the shock on my face. Were kids allowed to talk like that in school now?

I laughed nervously and said, “Um no, there was no kicking, or ass for that matter.”

The pimple-faced kid wasn’t about to let me off the hook so easily and said, “Oh, so you got
your
ass kicked?” The class tittered and I looked over at the teacher and hoped for her to take control of her students, but she offered me no help whatsoever and merely grinned and shrugged her shoulders.

“No way. He’s too hot to get the beat down.” That bit of encouragement came from a smiling teenage girl in the front row who wore a ridiculously short skirt. I must have turned beet red because the kids all laughed again.

“Yeah, he is,” agreed another girl. More laughter. I could see this was getting out of hand, and quickly.

I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay, let’s be clear now…” I paused and stared into the expectant faces of the kids who’d come to hear me speak. “All right, I kicked his ass, now let’s move on.” The kids laughed and in one fell swoop, I’d managed to capture their attention and, hopefully, their respect. The presentation went smoothly, better in fact than any other demonstrations I’d done before. After I’d finished, the kids hung around, lingered and wanted to talk with us about joining our summer volunteer programs and future internships. It felt good to see kids involved in science, even if it did come by way of my black eye.

“You should get your ass kicked before every demonstration. That seemed to work!” Bobbie Jo laughed at me as we loaded the car again.

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” I chuckled along. “I’m too damn old for that.”

“Come on. You? Old? You’re a babe in the woods. Now tell me the truth—what really happened? I can’t imagine you duking it out with someone at a bar.”

“Nothing that exciting. I got into an accident.”

“Geesh, Gabe. Are you okay? Oh my God, is
the car
okay?”

My naturally competitive associate had a thing for my car. Once I’d let her drive it to pick up something from the office supply store and she’d grinned for a whole hour afterwards. Yeah, she liked it—probably much more than she liked me if she had to choose between the two!

“Yes, I’m fine, but the car’s in the shop. It’ll be fine, too, and thanks for your concern.”

“I’m glad you’re okay. I’d hate to have to take your job,” she chuckled. Bobbie Jo’s comment ended with a laugh, but I knew deep down inside, she’d have no problem taking over if ever I were to leave. Sometimes I wondered if maybe she still felt a little angry or jealous about my promotion. Comparatively, we had similar qualifications although she had a bit more time in at the Lab than I did.

She had a bad haircut, but Bobbie Jo was super-intelligent and had kind, brown eyes. I thought they were her most attractive feature, but they didn’t reveal very much about her. You’d never know what she was thinking until she wanted to tell you what she wanted you to know.

I knew absolutely nothing about her family and I only found out by accident that she was from Pensacola Beach, because she was asked in a television interview a few years ago.

“You want to grab some lunch before we get back to the Lab?”

“Yeah, I could go for a burger.” She gave me a gap-toothed grin.

“I thought you were a vegetarian now?” I laughed as I opened the door for her.

“Only during months that have an “R” in them.”

“Okay, then. That makes complete sense.” We drove out of the school and into a nearby burger shack. We ordered, took a seat in a vinyl booth and waited for our food to be delivered.

“I’m glad we finally have a chance to talk, Gabe. I’ve got some questions about Pepper Anderson.”

“Come on, Bobbie Jo. Please don’t give me a hard time about her. I thought we were past all that? Let’s just have a nice lunch.”

“What? I can’t ask questions now? I’m not attacking her. She’s proven to be good with Singh and she’s a decent worker, but you have to tell her everything. She doesn’t have any initiative when it comes to free time. Outside of the pool, she’s not one to pick up a broom on her own, but that’s beside the point. A lot of the younger generation is like that, I know—we just left a classroom full of them. What pisses me off about her is the Good Old Boy system that we seem to have going at Sea Lab.”

I had a feeling I knew what she was about to say, so I covertly took a deep breath and committed myself to listen to my co-worker.

“Okay, and before I jump to any conclusions, tell me what you mean by that.”

“How was she, in any way, qualified to be an intern for Sea Lab? Now, we’ve got her and that’s that, I understand, but how did that happen? Her rich daddy paid you a visit and the next thing I knew, she was in—that was it. And what really annoys me is somebody, somewhere worked their ass off to have a shot with us and Miss Florida comes in and takes it right from under their nose. What the hell, Gabe? I thought you were a different kind of rich kid.”

Bobbie Jo had made her point and I could tell she was angry. She just stared out the huge window next to the booth. This obviously bothered her deeply and I wondered why. Again, I’d probably never know.

“I didn’t know Pepper Anderson before she came to work for us, so you can put that idea to rest. I’d never even met her. Her father came to me and said he needed some help to get a mixed-up young woman—his daughter—to change her life. Doug Anderson isn’t a good ol’ boy. He’s a nice guy who happens to be wealthy and who’s been a very good friend to our facility, but no money changed hands. No promises were made and there was no quid pro quo, as you suggest. As far as the intern slot goes, there’s another program coming up this fall and dozens of volunteer positions available for the rest of summer, so there’s no shortage of opportunities, Bobbie Jo.”

“It wasn’t right, Gabe.”

“Well, that’s the decision I made based on our meeting and like you said, that’s it. Now what? Are you going to continue to be pissed off at me?”

“No, not all, but I’d like you to promise me that in future, you’ll talk with me before you give away intern positions when I’m the one who has to train them. You told me we were a team, so are we or aren’t we?”

She had me there, but she’d spelled out what the problem really was. Bobbie Jo hadn’t been consulted before I “hired” Pepper. I leaned back in the booth and surveyed my associate. What did she expect? What would make her happy?