Lucky Streak (15 page)

“Excuse me, but did you just call my father
crazy?
” Mike stepped forward to defend his parent.

“Pot and kettle,” Edward muttered.

“Just how do you know this woman?” Mike asked.

“Ask
her,
” Edward said.

Amber turned to Clara. “Well?”

“I'll explain in a moment,” she said to Mike and Amber. She glanced at Edward. “Now, what in the name of the Goddess were you thinking, making that animal your pet, you crazy old coot!” Clara asked him. “You're nuttier than you were seven years ago!”

“And you're bossier,” Edward snapped.

“Age will do that to you.”

Watching the byplay, Amber shook her head in dismay. Clara hadn't mentioned knowing Edward before. And worse, the mild-mannered Clara Deveaux Amber had met in her shop had been replaced by a strong, take-charge woman with an agenda, leaving Amber feeling betrayed.

“How could you have deceived me that way?” Amber asked Clara. “I invited you here to help him and you used me to…to what?” She splayed her arms in front of her, frustrated and annoyed.

She couldn't bring herself to look at Mike. Beyond his confusion, Amber was sure there was anger simmering below the surface. Anger at Amber for bringing this woman into his father's already off-
kilter world, creating more chaos and causing him obvious pain.

“I should have told you…” Clara stepped toward Amber.

“That's right, you should have,” Amber said.

Beside her, Amber felt Mike's curious stare, but he remained quiet. Obviously, he was content to observe and find out just what kind of trouble Amber had caused him now.

“Honey, when you first came into the shop, you were just another customer.” Clara touched Amber's shoulder.

“And when you realized I was talking about
the Corwins?
” Chilled, Amber ran her hands up and down her arms, shocked she'd been taken in by this woman.

“You were talking about us to this stranger?” Mike asked, his voice hard.

“I was looking to buy a gift for my father-in-law. I said he believed in curses and I wanted something to show him I respected his beliefs, something that would help him,” Amber said. “She drew the conclusion after I gave her my full name.”

Mike nodded slowly, seeming to accept that explanation, and Amber's guilt eased a little.

“Edward and I knew each other a lifetime ago—” Clara's stare drifted toward Edward and lingered, softening.

“One I wish I'd never lived!” the other man shouted at her.

“Oh, be quiet, I'm talking to Amber.” Clara waved a hand, causing her bangles to clink together the way Amber remembered.

Mike blinked. “They're bickering like some old…couple,” he said to Amber under his breath.

She nodded, having caught those same undercurrents. Shocked, Amber merely glanced at Edward, expecting him to balk at being told what to do, but to her surprise, Edward crossed his arms over his chest and heeded Clara's words. He shut up.

Though Clara spoke to Edward in a no-nonsense tone he understood and respected, there was no mistaking how her whole expression changed, grew softer and more caring when her gaze fell on him.

“I don't know what to say,” Mike said.

“Beats me,” Amber said. But realizing Clara had genuine feelings for Edward allowed Amber's feelings of betrayal to let up. But she was still upset she'd been played for a fool.

Much the way Mike must have felt when he realized Amber had lied to him. For the first time, Amber not only knew what she'd done to him, she was able to empathize and feel his pain. She owed him an apology, not just for the omissions, but for getting angry when he hadn't understood her so-called justification.

For now though, she turned her attention back to Edward and Clara.

“Honey, once you invited me to visit you here, I
realized the Goddess had a larger plan at work for me. She'd sent you to my shop for a reason. We had a past—” she gestured between herself and Edward “—and I never lived up to my end of things. You were offering me another chance to right an old wrong,” Clara explained.

“Why didn't you just tell me you knew Edward after I'd invited you?”

“I was afraid you'd take back the invitation and I'd lose this second chance at our relationship.” Her eyes grew damp and misty at the prospect.

Amber's heart clenched as she finally accepted the other woman's reasons.

“We ain't got no relationship!” Edward insisted before Amber could forgive her.

“We shared a past,” Clara said firmly.

Amber wasn't sure she wanted to know what kind of past.

“I promised to help you once, Eddie, and I mean to do it now!”

“Eddie?”
Amber repeated numbly.

“Eddie?”
Mike echoed. “Somebody's going to have to tell me what exactly went on between you two and when.”

Edward shook his head. “I ain't telling you nothing about my personal life,” he said before storming off and heading back toward the lake.

“I didn't know he'd ever had a personal life,”
Mike said, confusion and a whole lot more in his expression.

“Why don't we go inside and I'll make us some tea,” Amber suggested.

Amber needed to hear Clara's explanation. And she definitely had to discuss Edward's mental health with Mike. It was going to be a long night.

 

M
IKE SAT
in his father's kitchen, watching as Amber made herself at home. He'd grown up here, but his childhood memories weren't the best. He'd lived in an armed camp before his mother had moved out, and the kitchen had never been a place of refuge.

Until now, because Amber was here. Mike didn't know what had gone on between his father and Clara Deveaux, but clearly something important had transpired. He was glad Amber would be beside him when he found out what.

Amber made tea for Clara and herself, and without asking, she poured Mike a cola, his preferred choice in soft drinks. She knew better than to offer him herbal tea. And though he could use something stronger than soda, he always made sure there was no alcohol in his father's house. He had a healthy fear of the possibility of alcohol abuse in addition to his father's other issues. Thank goodness, to his knowledge that had never been a problem. Mike intended to keep it that way.

Once they were all seated, Amber met Clara's
gaze. “I didn't know about your relationship with Edward when I asked you here. That makes his distress my fault.”

Oddly, Mike didn't blame Amber for trying to help Edward. But he did need to know everything. “Why don't we start at the beginning,” Mike said to Clara. “How do you know my father, and what happened between the two of you?” he asked.

Clara sighed. “It was seven years ago. I'd just opened my shop and Edward walked in. He was scruffy and a little grumpy, everything I shouldn't be attracted to—and yet I was drawn to him.” Clara met Amber's gaze, probably searching for female understanding.

And maybe forgiveness, Mike realized. After all, as Amber said, she'd met and invited Clara here without knowing about the other woman's agenda.

“Did Edward…um…look different seven years ago?” Amber asked.

Mike tried not to laugh. He could understand why she'd wonder about Clara's attraction to the wild-looking man Mike called his father.

Clara smiled. “He looked the same. He's an attractive man and all that bluster covers a wounded nature.”

Clearly she saw something in Edward that the rest of the world, even his own son, couldn't. A part of Mike always feared digging too deep because really understanding Edward meant that maybe, Mike wasn't too far from the madness himself.

Clara took a sip of tea, then said, “Edward came to my shop the first time because he wanted to find ways to ward off the curse, but after a while, he came back just to see me.”

“Edward pursued you?” Amber asked, surprised.

Mike was glad she was asking the questions. For a cop who specialized in interrogation, he couldn't bring himself to verbalize anything that might lead to more intimate knowledge of his father.

“He didn't pursue me directly. But a woman knows when a man is interested. When he cares.”

Amber nodded. “I agree. A woman knows.” Her soft gaze slid to Mike's and an uncomfortable lump formed in his throat.

“Edward and I had much in common and I promised to help him overcome his fears,” Clara continued. “But he came into my life at a tough time. My father had just arrived in the States from Jamaica. My mother is American and raised me here, but my father arrived with a friend of his, planning to marry me off.”

“You were how old?” Amber asked.

“Forty. Too old to be told what to do. But we're never too old to want our parents' approval, now, are we?”

Another telling comment, Mike thought.

“I suppose not,” Amber replied. “So what happened?”

“I did as my father asked and went on a date with
this man, but I had no intention of marrying him, so I kept it from Edward.” Clara glanced down.

Mike stiffened. If his father had come out of his shell, extended himself enough to reach out to her and she'd hurt him…He tensed, waiting. “What happened?” he asked, his voice harsh.

“The next morning, the gentleman brought flowers to my shop.”

“And Edward was there,” Amber guessed, shaking her head in disappointment.

Clara nodded. “My father was there, as well, making vocal assumptions about my future.”

A knot formed in Mike's stomach as he pictured his father's reaction. Just as he'd taken the first steps to letting go of the curse, fate had knocked him down once more.

“Damn,” Mike muttered.

Amber covered his hand with hers. “Do you remember this time in your father's life?”

He thought back. His parents had divorced ten years ago. “Seven years ago? I was twenty years old and in college. I didn't come home often and when I did, I rarely came to Dad's house,” he admitted, looking away.

Amber squeezed his hand tighter. Mike tried not to blame himself for not wanting to be around his father, but when something like this happened, he felt the kick of guilt strongly. Eventually he'd grown up and accepted his father, failings and all, along
with his responsibilities as an only child. He loved Edward and didn't blame him for not being there for him as a real father.

But clearly, if this woman had broken Edward's heart, he would have become bitter and angry and even more entrenched in his negative beliefs. And Mike hadn't been there to help him through it.

“How did Edward handle the situation?” Amber asked, continuing the conversation.

Clara expelled a long breath. “He didn't say a word. Just walked out and took my heart with him.”

“Did you go after him?” Amber asked.

“I cleared things up with the other gentleman and my father, but then yes, of course I went after him. But he wouldn't listen. I called. He changed and unlisted his number. I wrote. The letters were returned unanswered.”

“That I remember.” Mike took his first sip of soda, his mouth dry. “My mother wanted to reach him, to tell him about her remarrying, but he'd changed his number. She was upset that she had to drive out here to tell him in person.”

“You need to know, I didn't give up right away. I gave him some time and dropped by a few times, but he always refused to answer the door. There was no talking to the man.” Clara spread her hands in front of her, expressing her useless feelings.

Amber wasn't surprised. “So seven years passed.”

Clara nodded. “I never met another man who
affected me the same way. And then you walked into my shop and I took it as a sign. It was time.”

Amber pinched the bridge of her nose. This story had been heart wrenching, on so many levels, she thought, glancing at Mike, who was sitting beside her, learning about the reasons for his father's mental deterioration firsthand.

“You decided it was time to what?” Amber asked Clara.

“I had to right the wrong I did Edward all those years ago. I had to know if we could possibly have a future.”

Her words echoed inside Amber, rendering her unable to stay angry. Suddenly Amber viewed herself and Clara as kindred spirits, two women who wanted the same basic thing from life.

Amber sighed. “I wish you'd told me the truth so I could have prepared him.” Or at least prepared herself. She bit the inside of her cheek before speaking what was on her mind, too aware of the hurt man sitting beside her. “But since I've kept a few secrets of my own lately, I can't hold it against you,” she told Clara.

Without warning, Mike rose from his seat. “I appreciate the explanation. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my father.”