She so wanted to roll her eyes. “Hezzie’s been dead for over seventy years. I don’t think she’ll care what comes to light about her.”
“Oh, she’ll care about this all right,” Derwin argued. “So will some of her kin, because they won’t want to think of Hezzie as anything other than a proper woman passing along proper Parkman DNA to them.”
Lily wasn’t sure DNA had anything to do with the kind of people Hezzie’s heirs had become, but she had heard stories of some folks doing genealogy and then getting upset to learn they were related to outlaws and such.
“You didn’t hear this from me, but before Hezzie settled here and founded Last Ride, she—” Derwin stopped and ducked down out of sight. “Someone’s coming,” he whispered.
Lily didn’t hear anything, but she followed Derwin’s gaze toward the back of the house. It was possibly Hayden, but she expected Derwin to at least finish the rather intriguing revelation he’d started or to tell her that they’d talk soon.
The man didn’t do either of those things.
He just took off running toward the road, and when Lily pressed her own face against the screen so she could better peer out, she could see Derwin’s car that he’d left out on the road. He hightailed it out of there as if a pissed-off T. rex were after him.
Lily turned back to see what Derwin had been trying to avoid, and she made another of those garbled sounds of surprise when she came face-to-face with Jonas. He was glowering and hiked his thumb toward Derwin, who was now speeding away.
“I saw a man wearing a weird hat outside your window, so I came running because I thought you had a Peeping Tom,” Jonas explained. “Was that Derwin Parkman?”
She nodded and tried to steady her heart that was now thumping hard. “He apparently wanted to dish up some dirt on Hezzie, but he got spooked when he heard someone coming. He can run fast for a guy his age.”
Jonas’s forehead bunched up as if he were trying to make sense of why an elderly man dressed like Sherlock would deem it necessary to communicate with her through her bedroom window.
“What dirt?” he wanted to know.
Lily had to shrug. “He didn’t get a chance to tell me specifics, but he insisted whatever’s in the box that Alma gave me will be lies. Right before he ran off, he said, and I quote, before Hezzie settled here, she—”
She definitely hadn’t wanted Derwin to hang around, but Lily so wished he’d been able to finish that particular fill in the blank because it was causing some interesting scenarios to pop into her head.
Jonas sighed, shook his head. “You want me to have a talk with him and tell him to stay away from your bedroom window?”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I hate to admit this, but he piqued my interest. I guess I always figured Hezzie was a straitlaced...or maybe a plain decor...kind of person.”
And that caused her to frown. Because she was apparently now a “plain decor” person, but once upon a time she’d certainly done some scandalous things. Like lie to her daughter and everyone else in Last Ride for the past fourteen years.
“Are you okay?” Jonas asked, drawing her attention back to him.
One look at his handsome face and she could see he was troubled. “Been better. How about you? Is something else going on I should know about? Because you seem worried.”
Her stomach tightened when he didn’t jump to assure her that all was well, that there was nothing in that “should know about” category. She would have pressed for him to spill, but like Derwin, Jonas shifted his gaze to the back of the house.
“It’s Hayden,” he relayed. “She’s heading to the back porch.”
Talk about tightening her stomach even more. It was showtime. She wouldn’t get that hot bath to settle her nerves after all, but that would have been asking a lot anyway from a mere bath.
“If you need to talk afterward, let me know,” Jonas muttered.
He headed away from her window. Not running, and he didn’t go in the direction Hayden would be approaching. Jonas went toward the front of the house, where he no doubt intended to circle around and make his way either back to his office or home.
Gathering the strength that she was certain she’d need, Lily forced herself to get moving as well. She walked out of her bedroom and went to the back door to wait for Hayden. She didn’t have to wait long. It was only a couple of seconds before Hayden came rushing in, and she practically skidded to a halt when she spotted Lily.
“Oh, I thought you’d be diving into the research on Hezzie,” Hayden remarked.
Lily noted the tightness in her daughter’s voice. Actually, the tightness everywhere. Something was wrong.
No, no, no.
Had Cam already gotten in touch with her? Did Hayden know the truth?
Lily tried to interpret what all that tension was about, but if Hayden did know, she wasn’t hurling eye daggers at her. Nor did she appear to be in shock.
“I’ll start the research soon,” Lily said, still keeping her attention pinned to Hayden. “Did, uh, anything happen?” she asked at the same moment that Hayden said, “Have you talked to Mr. Buchanan?”
By Mr. Buchanan, she meant Jonas, and that snagged Lily’s attention, too. It was possible Hayden had overheard Jonas and her talking in his office. But if so, why wasn’t she just blurting out what she’d heard?
Lily decided how best to approach this and went with a safe option in case there hadn’t been any eavesdropping in Jonas’s office after all. “Derwin Parkman came by again to pester me about the research, and when Jonas saw him, he came to the house to nudge Derwin into leaving.”
That was close enough to the truth, anyway.
“Oh,” Hayden repeated. She looked and sounded way too relieved. “Good for Mr. Buchanan.”
Yes, her daughter was way too relieved, which meant something was, indeed, wrong. Since this could be about Cam after all, Lily just decided to confess her wrongs to Hayden here and now.
But Hayden didn’t give her the chance.
“I’m so tired,” Hayden blurted out. “I’m going to take a bath and do the online forms for school. Some of the teachers want to know about hobbies and junk. Get-to-know-you stuff. Good night, Mom,” she added. Within a blink, she’d kissed Lily on her cheek and hurried to her room.
Lily considered going after her, but it was obvious Hayden wasn’t in a chatty mood. Maybe what was wrong with her had nothing to do with Cam or learning the truth. School was starting in a week, and Hayden could be apprehensive about that. Heck, since she was a teenager, the list of apprehension-causing things was likely pretty long.