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“Do you want me to come home, baby?”
It was almost funny that her mother was asking this question. Since retiring, she had lived in Greece. She actually did hair over there and had a villa, and Cheryse had visited her only a year ago, admiring how quaint and lovely the countryside was. The last time her mother had been home, it had been for Joe’s burial. Not because her mother had liked Joe, but because she had wanted to support Cheryse during the investigation.
A lump formed in her throat as she thought of that crazy time in her life. “No, don’t come.”
It wasn’t just that she didn’t want to be vulnerable. It was that she didn’t want others to think of her as vulnerable. She didn’t want to burden her mother, or anyone, really.
Her mother sighed. “Are you sure, baby?”
“Yeah,” she said. She moved inside her home, going to her room. She would change her clothes and put in a good workday. “I’m good, Mom. I’m actually going to just chill and do some yard work. I want to figure out how to make some square-foot boxes, and then I want to rip out the landscaping. There’s a lot of stuff I can do today. Productive things.”
Yes, doing productive things was the key to mental success. At least, that was what she had found in her own life.
“You’re not going to go over to the Stone Inn and be with all your friends? Be there for Hunter?”
Cheryse paused in the middle of changing out of her dress. “I don’t … Hunter left, and …”
“You need to find Hunter, don’t you think? You said he stormed off. Where would he have gone?”
Cheryse’s chest swelled with a sense of purpose, and she went to her closet to grab a pair of flip-flops. She took the bobby pins out of her hair and swapped them for a high ponytail. She gave herself one glance in the mirror, then added the yellow necklace. A look into her own eyes showed her they were clear, without a trace of red.
“Cheryse, what are you doing?”
“I’m going to take your advice. I’m going to go find Hunter.” She rushed toward the door and grabbed her keys off the hook. “Love you, Mom.”
“Wait.”
Barely pausing to lock the door, she hustled over to her car. “Yeah?”
She planted herself in the driver’s seat. She didn’t want to talk to her mother anymore. She had to find Hunter. Maybe by the petroglyphs. The lighthouse. Or … the other place. She knew where he would go. That was becoming more and more clear.
“Cheryse, I know you don’t want to talk about this, but I need you to answer if you’ve been keeping up on your therapy and everything since Joe?”
Instantly, Cheryse froze. She sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “Mother, back off.”
A couple months ago, she and her mom had gotten into a fight over her therapy situation, and it had left her reeling for days.
“I told you I wasn’t the broken one in that relationship. I can talk to a thousand therapists with the same result. Sometimes life just sucks. Sometimes husbands try to hurt you. Sometimes you hurt them back. It was an accident.”
“I know it was,” her mother said quickly.
Irritation poured through her. “Then why are we talking about it?”
“Because I just … worry about you.”
“I know, but you don’t have to. I’m fine.”
“How is Roger?”
“Oh.” Her mind flitted to Roger and her conversation with him last night about how sad he was that he couldn’t be here, but he couldn’t put off his donor meeting. “Fine. Out of town. Back next week.”
“So, things are good between you?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t want to discuss Roger right now.
“Good, because… I just worry that he makes you doubt yourself too much. I haven’t wanted to say it, and today’s not the best day, but—”
“It’s not the best day, mom.”
