“You don’t think he’d go and . . .”
“What?” Rudy asked when Jimmy faded off.
“That’s exactly what I think,” Asher fumed, reading Jimmy’s mind. “He’s going to get back at me for going after him last night. He’s going to go and tell my father I’m not working for GGM before I ever get a chance to.”
“Fuuuck,” Rudy muttered, looking floored. “He’d really do that?”
“Yeah. I think he would,” Jimmy said quietly.
“He really is every bit of the asshole you said he was from the start,” Rudy told Asher.
“What are you going to do?” Jimmy asked.
Asher unclenched his grinding teeth. Damn that stupid, interfering fuck. It was bad enough that he had plotted to further damage Asher and his parents’ already shaky relationship. But because of Eric, Asher was going to have to cancel his meeting with Laila at the secret lake this afternoon. It was that, as much as anything, that had him ready to explode.
“I’m going to have to drive to Chicago and either try to stop him . . . or mop up the mess he’s already made with my parents,” he said to Jimmy and Rudy. “It sounds like Eric is going to try to ambush my dad at his office downtown, but my dad has been away on business in Boston. He called me from there a few nights ago. Maybe there’s a chance I can get to him before Eric does.”
“Your dad should be back already . . . or back soon,” Jimmy said, standing up and looking worried.
“What makes you say that?” Asher asked.
“The Summer Soiree at the Blackhawk Country Club. I heard my mom mention last week that our parents were all going together, and that’s tomorrow night.”
Asher cursed. “You two just stay here and try to enjoy yourself. It’s only a three-hour drive to Chicago, four to Winnetka. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He felt his phone vibrate as he turned to leave in order to throw a change of clothes in a bag. He glanced at the screen and saw that the message was from Laila. Pausing, he read it, and then picked up his pace.
It wasn’t enough for it to just rain trouble. Fate just had to pour it down like a shitstorm.
• • •
She was waiting for him when he arrived at the secret lake just twenty minutes later. It was strange—a little jarring—to see Laila there not wearing a swimsuit or beachwear. Instead, she perched stiffly on the big rock, wearing a pair of jeans that were rolled up at the bottom, sandals and a loose short-sleeved light blue top that highlighted her even tan and smooth skin. Her long hair spilled around her shoulders, but the front had been pinned back. Her face looked tight with worry, but it lightened some when she saw him walk onto the beach.
She stood to greet him. “Thank you for coming as soon as I texted,” she said as he approached her and tossed his backpack onto the beach. She looked so earnest . . . so scared, it made him feel like something had been rubbed raw inside his chest.
“Of course I’d come,” he said, putting out his arms. She came into his embrace, squeezing him tight. For a few seconds, he nuzzled her fragrant hair and absorbed the feeling of her in his arms. “Have you had any more news? How’s your grandmother?”
“She was resting when I left the hospital,” Laila said, moving back in his arms a little but keeping in contact with his body. “My mom and dad, and Aunt Nora and Uncle Taha stayed, but they said we should all go home. Knowing all her grandkids were around would likely keep Mamma Sophia awake. We’re all going back at one thirty, so that’s why I asked if we could meet early. Mamma Sophia’s blood pressure is still high, so the doctor doesn’t want her to be discharged until they can get it under control.”
“And it was definitely a heart attack?”
She nodded. “Not a bad one. Not a mild one either, though. My dad told me the doctor reported she responded well to the emergency room therapies. She should be fine, once they get her blood pressure down.” She blinked back some tears.
“What?” he asked, rubbing her back, sensing her spiking unrest.
“They could have given her aspirin and oxygen therapy right away if she’d been in an ambulance, but Mamma Sophia refused to get in one. My parents and Khal-ti Nora had to drive her to the hospital. They called at around seven this morning and said she’d been admitted, so we all drove over.” She glanced up at him, and he saw her misery in her clear green eyes. “I sleep in the same room as Mamma Sophia while we’re here on vacation. If I’d been there, I might have been able to convince her to take an ambulance. We’re really close. I can talk her into things sometimes, when Mamma and Baba can’t. Things might have gone better for her.”
“Don’t blame yourself. You told me it’s normal operating procedure for Tahi, Zara and you to sleep on the porch on hot nights . . .”
“But I wasn’t there at all,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “If I’d been on the porch, I could have run over when Baba came to tell us what had happened before they left for the hospital. As it was, Tahi and Zara had to lie and say I was in the bathroom. Baba never noticed anything different, because he was so distracted about Mamma Sophia. But all the while, I was with you—”
He pulled her tighter to him, his hands at the curve of her back. “You don’t know that you could h
ave changed your grandmother’s mind if you were there, or that the earlier treatments would have made that big a difference.” She looked up at him uncertainly through thick, damp lashes. He brushed his mouth against her eyebrows. She closed her eyelids. He kissed her, his lips coming away damp with the tears on her lashes. He lowered his face, pressing their foreheads together. “It’s natural in a crisis to wonder what you could have done differently, to imagine what things would have been like if you’d done this or that,” he said quietly. “But stuff just happens, Laila. All we can do is deal with it the best we can when it does.”
“You’re right. I’m just so worried about her. Mamma Sophia has always been a part of my life. I can’t imagine things without her—”
“Shhh. You don’t have to worry about that. Not yet,” he said, kissing her mouth. “From what the doctor said to your dad, her prognosis sounds good.”