Pete sat on one of the chairs, pushing aside a swag of chiffon. All the others began to move toward their cars, Cal pushing Docia a little doggedly. Pete stared down at the weathered Saltillo tile beneath his running shoes. A pair of paws clicked into view.
Pete blinked, then looked up. Janie stood holding Olive’s leash. “Do you want to drive,” she asked, “or should I?”
“That’s okay.” He reached for Olive’s leash. “Go on ahead. I’ll catch up later.”
Janie stood watching him for a moment, then sat on another chair beside him. “You couldn’t have done anything.”
Pete stiffened. “That’s not the point.”
“What is?” She reached down to scratch Olive’s ears.
He sat silent for a few moments, then shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. I just feel like shit.”
“Lars is the only one who can deal with this. My guess is he will.”
He stared out at the rows of grapevines climbing the hillsides. “You know my mother told her we’d be here. That’s the only way she could have found out.”
“Yeah. And now your mother feels awful about it. So maybe she’ll stop trying to bring them back together again.”
“There is that.” Pete squinted in the late afternoon sun. “The whole thing’s heading south again, isn’t it?”
Janie shrugged. “Not a problem. We’ll just work another miracle, now that we know how it’s done. Olive and I are ready to go.”
“Bag of tricks is about empty, ma’am. And no more walks with Olive. I’m supposed to take her over to Armando at the clinic early tomorrow.”
Janie stood, handing him Olive’s leash. “Come on, Mr. Toleffson. You’ve got a rehearsal dinner to host.”
As he pushed himself up beside her, he felt his cell phone vibrate. He flipped it open, frowning. Claire Larkin. He nodded to Janie. “Go on ahead. I’ll catch up.”
She grimaced, then took Olive’s leash again and headed for the parking lot.
Pete pressed the accept button. “Yeah, Claire.”
“Mr. Toleffson?” Claire’s voice sounded slightly breathy. “There’s a sort of…problem. Bo Amundson’s been released.”
Chapter Twenty
The rehearsal dinner was in the same room at Brenner’s where Reba and Billy had hosted the first wedding get-together a week ago. Pete paused, counting backward. Yeah, impossible as it seemed, it had only been a week.
Cal and Docia sat on the raised stone hearth in front of the massive fireplace, their heads together, whispering. Reba sat next to Billy at the side, looking slightly pole-axed. The other guests—Wonder, Allie, Horace, Bethany, the judge and some people Pete figured were behind the scenes types—milled around the room.
He was thirty minutes late. The only reason he wasn’t forty-five minutes late was that he’d run out of people to call. Evan wasn’t answering, which probably meant he was at Lake Panorama for a weekend of booze and bimbos. The detective who’d arrested Amundson was on vacation, as was the judge from the arraignment, as was Pete.
Which explained why Amundson’s lawyer had been able to slide the request for bail through so easily—nobody had been around to stop him, or to notify Claire Larkin until after the fact.
Pete rubbed his chest absently, trying to ease the dull ache behind his breastbone. Stopping Amundson before he walked was a lost cause. Now they had to find his wife, Maureen, before he did, which was what Claire Larkin was currently trying to do, using a list of possibilities Pete had given her from memory.
He paused in the doorway, staring.
Erik was talking to Lee Contreras, motioning toward the table in the center of the room.
Pete stepped up quickly. “What’s going on?”
Erik shrugged. “Mom and Dad went off after Lars. Mom told me to get things started. They’ll be back.”
Pete’s jaw tightened. “I’ll do this.”
“Okay. Whatever.” Erik stepped back, his face blank.
Lee gave Pete a professional smile. “It’s all been arranged. I was just telling your brother—we’ll bring the food in whenever you want it.”
“Bring it in now.” Pete sighed. “Did Dad remember to order any alcohol?”
“Wine with dinner.” Lee gestured toward the bar at the back. “We can start it now.”
“Do that. Sooner the better.”
“Soda for me,” Erik said.
Pete glanced at him curiously. Erik gave him a bleak smile. “Three hundred days and counting.”
Pete nodded, then glanced at his phone. Nothing. No calls. No messages.
Janie had joined Docia on the hearth as Pete started back across the room. Cal stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Are we going ahead with this?”
“With dinner? Sure. Dad and Mom have it all set up and they’re supposed to be back soon.” He gave Cal a reassuring smile that almost hurt his lips.
Cal shook his head. “You suck at deception.”
“What do you want me to say? They’re chasing Lars and Sherice and Daisy. They’ll be back when they get back. My guess is Mom’s suffering from a belated attack of guilt.”
“Belated is right.” Cal glanced at Erik, his jaw hardening. “Is he staying?”
“Yeah, Mom asked him to hold down the fort until they get here.”
Cal sighed. “Train wreck.”
“Is Docia talking Vegas again?” Pete looked back at Janie, hovering on the hearthstone beside Docia. Her smile was a little too bright all of a sudden.
“Nah. Not with the wedding of her dreams set for tomorrow.” Cal looked back at his bride-to-be and grinned. “Better go rescue Janie, though. She’s tap-dancing so fast she’s going to hurt herself.”
As Pete started back across the room, Ken Crowder handed him two glasses of wine. “Viognier. From Morgan Barrett’s vineyard. I’ve got more coming.”
“Right.” Pete nodded. “I have a feeling this had better be a very alcoholic evening.” He glanced back a little guiltily.
Erik leaned against the table, a glass of soda and ice at hand. He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. If the booze starts to bother me, I’ll leave.”
Pete nodded a little stiffly, then walked to the fireplace and handed a glass to Janie. “If you keep smiling like that your face will freeze in that position.”
Janie turned her glittering grin in his direction. “It already has.”
“I’ve been trying to convince her she doesn’t need to cheer me up.” Docia took another glass of wine from Cal. “I’m okay, Janie, I’m not going to run for the border, honest.”
Cal grimaced. “Lars is the one who should be running. With Daisy under one arm.”
“Can she really do that, take Daisy away without Lars’s consent?” All three of them turned to stare at Pete.
He raised his hands. “I don’t do family law and I’m not licensed in Texas.”
Janie put a hand on his arm, staring toward the door. “Oh my god. It’s your folks. And they’ve got Daisy.”
Pete turned back and caught his breath. His dad had stopped in the doorway to say something to Lee. His mom was walking across the room, carrying Daisy in her arms. She didn’t look exactly happy about it, but she didn’t look unhappy either. Just sort of…Mom.
He hurried toward her, and she glanced up at him as he approached. “Peter, good, I need your help.” She shifted Daisy to her other arm. “See if you can find Daisy some mashed potatoes or some peas. Maybe a banana. Something I can puree for her.”
“A banana?” Pete envisioned himself wandering around Brenner’s kitchen, looking for overcooked vegetables. “Now?”
“I’ll do it.” Erik stood, placing his soda on the table next to the door. “I‘ll go talk to the manager. They’ll probably have something.”
He was gone before Pete could say anything. His mother gave him an annoyed look. “Erik had never even met Daisy, you know. Her own uncle.”
“Well, she’s got a lot of uncles to go around.” Pete smiled at Daisy, who pulled back from him, thrusting out her lower lip.
Pete sighed. “Where’s Lars?”
“Still talking to Sherice, I imagine.” Mom’s lips firmed. “Running away with a child like that. I don’t know what got into her. Disgraceful.”
Dad appeared behind them, holding two glasses of wine. “Here, Millie, drink up. There’s more where that came from.” He gave Pete one of his calmly beatific smiles. What was one more crisis after thirty-plus years of them?
Pete kept his expression carefully bland. “So Sherice let you bring Daisy back to the rehearsal dinner?”
“Let me? She put the child down.” All of a sudden his mother’s voice was trembling. “Daisy was crying, and Sherice just put her down on a picnic table. Like she was some kind of package that had got too heavy to hold. I picked her up.”
Dad reached out to pat her shoulder, giving Pete a narrow-eyed look, but Mom had just gotten started. Her chin rose to a dangerous angle. “Daisy’s staying right here with us. Just let her try and stop me. Daisy wants to go to the wedding, don’t you, sweetheart.”
“Ma!” Daisy crowed at her.
Pete’s mouth dropped open, but he shut it quickly. “Right. Would you like some food, Mom?”
“If you please. You can hold Daisy.”
Daisy’s lower lip began to tremble as she looked at him. Clearly, Pete was not her uncle of choice at the moment.
“I’ll take her.” Cal swept her up into his arms. “Come on, sweetie, you can come drool on Aunt Docia.”
“Da!” Daisy agreed.
Pete watched them go. “Is she always going to think I’m a monster after that scene with Sherice?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” His mother sighed. “I need more wine too.”
Pete took a bottle of viognier and poured her a healthy amount. “So you picked Daisy up. Then what happened?”
Mom sipped her wine and then pursed her lips. “I like the wine I get at home in a box better than this, but I suppose it’s okay. Yes, I picked her up, and your father and I left.”
“Sherice didn’t object?”
Dad grimaced. “Sherice was too busy telling Lars how much money she expected him to give her for the privilege of divorcing her. I don’t think she noticed we’d taken Daisy with us.”
“She wasn’t paying any attention to Daisy at all.” Mom took another sip, this time without the pursing. Her voice trembled again. “I think she’d forgotten all about that child, except as a bargaining chip.”
Pete took a sip of his own wine. Unlike Mom, he felt no urge to pour himself something out of a box. “So does this mean you’re not trying to get Lars and Sherice to stay together?”
Mom stared down her glass, her gray eyes bleak. “It’s better if parents stay together, Peter. Usually, that is. But Sherice isn’t a good mother for Daisy, and I don’t think she’s good enough for Lars either. I never did, you know. I just pretended. For Lars’s sake.”
Pete couldn’t resist. “So what do you think about Docia?”
Dad looked like he was holding his breath. Mom sipped and shrugged. “She seems nice enough. At least she’s not after his money.”
“Definitely,” Pete agreed, watching Billy Kent bring Reba a glass of wine, “since she has tons and he doesn’t have any.”
“He does quite well.” His mother straightened her shoulders. “He has a very successful practice. Your father and I are both proud of him. As we are of all of you. Except…” She turned to look at him again. “You need to get married and settle down, Peter. And find a new job. That Polk County Attorney’s Office has wrung you dry. It’s time you found a job that didn’t make you sick.”
Pete’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly. He felt a little like a guppy. “I’ll think about it,” he croaked finally, then took a deep breath. “What do you think of Janie Dupree?”
Dad squinted across the room, studying Janie. “She’s lovely. And a very sweet girl.”
Mom nodded. “You could do a lot worse. And you have, as I recall.”
Pete blew out a quick breath. “Yes, ma’am.”
Mom patted his hand, absently. “You’re a good boy. Now go find us some food.”
Lee and his waiter were laying out a buffet on a table by the wall—cheeses and breads, fish, ham, turkey and grilled vegetables for Cal.
“How about that?” Cal grinned. “For once, Mom isn’t trying to turn me into a carnivore.”
“Mom is…a revelation.” Pete began filling a plate. “Where’s Daisy?”
“Playing peek-a-boo with Docia.” Cal gestured at the fireplace where Docia and Janie were taking turns making Daisy laugh. “So where’s Lars?”
“With any luck, putting Sherice on a fast plane to Des Moines. But I wouldn’t count on it.”
Wonder appeared at Cal’s elbow, plate in hand. “Thank god! I was afraid all this drama was going to put me off my feed. Clearly, it hasn’t.”
“Clearly.” Cal grinned at him too. “We all know the perils of putting you off your feed.”
“Indeed.” Allie slipped her arm into Wonder’s. “Come on, gents, let’s eat!”
The bridesmaids took charge of Daisy, although Pete wasn’t entirely sure how it happened. One moment Daisy had been his mother’s problem, the next moment she’d moved onto Bethany’s lap and Allie was playing pat-a-cake, for which, as a baker, she had a natural flair.
Mom sat at a table with Reba and Billy. She was actually smiling for a change, but Pete wasn’t sure how long that would last. Probably until she bit into Lee’s take on potato salad—with anchovies.
He pulled his cell off his belt and checked the voice mail again. Nothing. Not even a text. What the hell was Claire Larkin doing?
A bowl of mashed potatoes and something that looked like squash had magically appeared on the table near Daisy. Erik dropped it and moved back quickly, as if he thought she might bite. However, the only uncle she was apparently interested in gnawing on was Pete, who provoked incipient tears every time he walked into her line of sight.
Pete felt close to tears himself. “Come on, Dais,” he pleaded with her after he’d brought her a brownie. “I’m the one who taught you how to wade in the creek, remember?”
Daisy gave him an uncertain look, then stuck out her lower lip in protest.
“Come on, Daisy. You used to like me.”
“Daisy!” Lars stood in the doorway, smiling at her. “Stop torturing your Uncle Pete.”
“Da!” Daisy shrieked, wriggling off Docia’s lap.
Allie sighed, watching her totter across the room to her father. “I want one of those.”
A moment of profound silence spread while everyone avoided looking at Wonder.
“Better watch yourself, Doc.” Horace grinned in Wonder’s direction.
“Nonsense,” Docia said crisply. “We all want one of those. I just want a guarantee that they’ll be as cute as she is.”