Done.
Starting the car抯 engine, Rita was a second from throwing the car into reverse when she caught Aaron, Peggy, and Belmont closing back in, varying degrees of irritation etched into their familiar features. Without turning her head, Rita rolled down the driver抯-side window and waited.
揂ll right, look.?Aaron smoothed a hand down the front of his still-pristine dress shirt. 揟he front runner for the presidential nomination桮len Pendleton梚s going to be stumping at the Iowa primaries on December tenth. Senator Boggs already recommended me as a campaign adviser; I just need to make contact. If we can pause our little road trip long enough for me to meet with him and secure the position I want厰 He pinched the bridge of his nose. 揑 can抰 believe I抦 about to say this, but I抦 in.?
揑 have a condition thingy, too,?Peggy chimed in, unable to stop herself from bouncing. 揥e stop at U of C between Iowa and New York. There抯 an old friend I抳e been meaning to visit.?Rita narrowed her eyes at Peggy抯 blush. As far as Rita knew, Peggy had mostly maintained contact with her cheer squad from the University of Cincinnati, but why would that turn her face red? 揑抦 only asking for one day,?Peggy added. 揗aybe two, depending on how things卲rogress.?
Nothing with her family could ever be cut and dried, could it? She jerked her chin at Belmont. 揥hat about you? Any special requests??
Belmont抯 gaze was locked on his shoes, but he tipped his head down in Peggy抯 direction. 揑 need匢 might need棓
揝age,?Peggy supplied, surprising Rita. 揧ou want me to invite Sage.?Belmont didn抰 answer, remaining eerily still, but Peggy only nodded. 揑抣l ask her if she can take the time off, big guy.?
Sage梐s in Peggy抯 wedding planner? Why would Belmont need his sister抯 best friend along for the ride? Rita traded a baffled look with Aaron, but neither of them commented. Prying never worked with Belmont. He would only clam up more.
But they were actually considering coming along. There was a spark of gratefulness梞aybe even reluctant excitement梚n Rita抯 chest, but she doused it. 揕ook, if you guys are doing this because you feel sorry for me and my burned-down pile of bricks, I don抰 need your pity.?
揇oes that sound like us??Aaron asked.
揘ot even a little bit,?Rita admitted, hands twisting on the leather steering wheel. 揝o協ine. I need a week to handle the insurance company and tie up loose ends. Unless Peggy has another wedding scheduled I抦 not aware of, we leave Tuesday. December first.?
Aaron did a quick check of his phone and sighed. 揊ine.?
Peggy clapped her hands once. 揑抣l bring snacks.?
Rita抯 three siblings left her feeling as if the earth had shifted beneath her feet. In a matter of twelve hours, everything had changed. Everything.
What else could she have expected after committing arson?
Chapter Three
The Suburban抯 fan belt blew two hours after they crossed the Arizona朜ew Mexico border.
Looking back on the day of departure, calamity had been inevitable. Having spent two days meeting with insurance adjusters and calling in favors to get replacement jobs for her Wayfare employees, Rita had shown up half asleep in her pajamas, drawing exasperation from Aaron and an offer to borrow clothes from Peggy. Each of them still wary about the whole trip and what it symbolized, the siblings had ridden in relative silence throughout the first night and into the morning, Belmont a steady presence at the wheel. Despite Rita抯 negative predictions of squabbling and battle cries of shotgun, leaving San Diego had gone almost卻moothly.
She should have known Murphy抯 Law would take effect sooner or later.
After all, disaster was the Clarkson way.
When Rita was sixteen, Miriam had taken the four of them camping. For their family, camping had roughly translated into a borrowed Winnebago parked beside Carlsbad Beach, mere feet from convenience stores and a busy highway. Not exactly braving the harsh conditions of nature. Although, after one night, they could have fooled the emergency room staff at TriCity Medical Center into thinking they抎 just spent a week in the swamp.
Peggy had sneaked off with the son of their neighboring campers, skinny-dipping in restricted waters, leading to a nasty jellyfish sting. Upon hearing his sister抯 distressed screams, Aaron had sprinted toward the beach and carried a towel-wrapped Peggy back to the Winnebago, stepping in a gopher hole on the way and spraining his ankle.
That was the Clarksons?first and last family vacation, but the misfortunes hadn抰 started or ended there. Belmont had fallen into a well on a class field trip in third grade and stayed missing for four days. Later, they抎 found out he抎 shouted himself hoarse on the first day, leaving him unable to call out to the search party that passed by. On the fourth day, when firemen had managed to extricate him from the obscured thirty-foot-deep well, the media attention had been intense, complete with cameras and flashes going off and questions being hurled at young, filthy, and starving Belmont. At the time Rita had been too young to process why Belmont had withdrawn into himself after that, but the television footage she抎 found on the Internet as an adult explained a lot.
Rita抯 personal misfortunes had once occurred with less notoriety or incurred medical costs, but were no less imprinted on her psyche. Such as slugging a classmate for Photoshopping her head onto a porn star's body and circulating it online. Hello, expulsion.
Little did she know her claim to fame would also come once again via the Internet a decade later. And for the first time, irony didn抰 amuse her.
Now, at the unmistakable sounds of car engine trouble, Rita shot up in the far backseat and pushed her dark hair out of her face. 揟he hell happened??
Belmont jerked the Suburban into park and sat perfectly still, white-knuckling the cracked steering wheel. Peggy sat up slowly from where she抎 been sleeping in the middle row. She sent Rita a troubled glance over her shoulder, then returned her attention to Belmont. Rita抯 concern for her oldest brother laced through her alarm. Ever since Peggy had shown up without her friend, Sage Alexander, Belmont had been wound more tightly than usual. Rita had been able to glean only a fraction of the story from Peggy before they抎 been locked up in the car and private conversation had become impossible.
Sage had been Peggy抯 wedding planner for all four failed wedding attempts, and they抎 become close friends. Best friends. As the standin for their absent father who would walk Peggy down the aisle, apparently Belmont had developed some sort of attachment to Sage, too. Because his reaction when Peggy apologized and told him Sage couldn抰 make the trip had been nothing short of extraordinary.
Rita wasn抰 being insensitive in using that description. Belmont rarely showed a reaction to anything, let alone women, whom he barely gave the time of day. But something about being without this Sage girl had turned him to ice.
Aaron roused in the passenger seat, tugging the headphones from his ears. 揑s there something wrong??He looked out the windshield just in time to see smoke curl from under the hood. 揙h, for the love of God. Tell me you have Triple A.?
揘ope,?Belmont said, his voice sounding rusty. 揑 have a toolbox in back, but that isn抰 going to help if we need a new part.?
揕et抯 just call a tow truck.?Rita was already searching through her purse for her cell. 揂nyone know where we are??
揌opefully near a bridge, so I can throw myself off of it,?Aaron answered briskly before pushing open his door and climbing out. They all watched as he rolled up his tailored sleeves, mouth moving to form what were obviously curse words.