“‘Best of terms?’” Mandaline let out a shrill laugh that made the other six customers in the store turn and look. “Best of terms? Is that what you call using your mommy and daddy’s money to screw me over just because my spiritual beliefs didn’t align with theirs?”
Before he could say anything else, she stepped closer and jammed her finger in his face, not quite touching, but enough to make him step back. “Listen, mister. You basically left me penniless and homeless and having to start over from scratch. If it hadn’t been for Julie, I wouldn’t have had a roof over my head until I got my feet back under me. You have a lot of nerve showing up here out of the blue like this.”
“I just wanted to apologize.”
The silence in the store was deafening. Ellis took another few steps forward, shadowed by Brad and Sachi.
“Go ahead.” Mandaline crossed her arms. “I’m listening.”
“Yes, my parents didn’t like you. I’m sorry I listened to my mother. Okay? It was a shitty thing to do to you.”
Sachi spoke up. “Boss, I can go get my—”
“No,” Mandaline shot back.
Sachi pouted. “Okay.”
Mandaline cocked her head and looked at Carl. “That’s it?”
He looked confused. “What do you mean?” He glanced around and tried to lower his voice a little. “I’d like to talk with you. Alone.”
“This is as alone as you’re going to get with me, Carl.”
Ellis took yet another step forward, as did Brad, until they both stood flanking Mandaline.
He looked up at Ellis and Brad, then back to Mandaline. “Who are these guys?”
“They are none of your business,” she shot back. “And they aren’t going anywhere. So start talking, or turn your butt around and get out.”
Ellis straightened a little and crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down at the guy. Brad did likewise. They were each at least a foot taller than the guy.
Carl refocused his attention on Mandaline and lowered his voice even more. “I’d like a chance to take you out to dinner. We had some good times. I’d like a chance to spend some time with you. See if—”
Mandaline let out a loud, scoffing laugh. “Are you serious? For starters, no way in hell. Secondly, I’m not available for any half-baked romantic ideas you might have flitting around in that follicly challenged head of yours. Thirdly, I might have forgiven you a long time ago for being such a spineless weasel—”
“See, told you so,” Sachi muttered to Ellis.
“—but I will never, ever forget what you did to me. And I will never, ever trust you again. Any positive feelings I had for you died when you did what you did. I’d wanted to stay friends, but you let your parents institute a scorched-earth policy against me. I don’t wish you ill-will—”
“I do,” Sachi muttered.
“—and I even talked Sachi out of hexing you”—she glanced over her shoulder at Sachi, who instantly produced a manically innocent grin—“but I have absolutely no place for you in my life or my mind. I definitely have no place for you in my heart.”
Ellis tried to read the man’s body language. He’d always had a knack for that, which had served him well during depositions and trials. Carl seemed borderline desperate, nervous. Which Ellis didn’t understand.
“Mandaline, please, if you’d just give me a chance—”
“What’s really going on here?” Ellis asked as he stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mandaline. “You didn’t just suddenly get a magnanimous idea and decide to come see her. What’s really on your mind?”
“Nothing!” Carl’s face reddened. “Not that it’s any business of yours! I don’t even know who the hell you are.”
He draped his arm around Mandaline’s shoulders. Brad stepped forward and slid his around her waist.
“It is our business, because she is our business. I’m also an attorney.”
“Our?” Carl looked up at Ellis, to Brad, and back again. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Can I please shoot the dipshidiot now?” Sachi asked from behind them.
Brad, Ellis, and Mandaline all said, “No.”
“Dammit,” she muttered.
“Good-bye, Carl,” Mandaline said. “I wish you well—”
“I don’t,” Sachi muttered.
“—but if you ever set foot in my store again, I’ll have you thrown out and a trespass warrant issued against you.”
“And I’ll get a restraining order against you,” Ellis added.
“Mandaline, you are really being unreasonable.”
She sighed and stepped back as the men released her. “Okay, boys. Have fun.”
Brad and Ellis stepped forward and closed ranks, forcing the guy backward through the front door without laying a finger on him.
“If you ever come here again,” Ellis said as he jabbed a finger in the air at him, “we won’t be as nice.”
They waited on the sidewalk, watching until the guy finally walked to a car and got in it. When they returned inside, all the customers, as well as the employees, gave the two men a rousing standing ovation.
Mandaline looked around, suddenly self-conscious and red in the face. “Holy crap,” she muttered.
“Want me to find out what the hell he really wanted?” Sachi asked.
“Go for it.”
“Finally!” She whipped her cell phone out of her pocket and rushed into the office, where she closed the door behind her.
Ellis and Brad surrounded Mandaline, hugging her. “You all right, sweetie?”
She let out a sigh. “Not really, but I will be. It’s like the crazies have all crawled out of the woodwork today. I know we just had full moon, but holy crap on a crap cracker, can’t a girl catch a break?”
Chapter Nineteen
Mandaline knew Sachi, with her vast network of friends and clients in the area from all walks of life, would most likely be able to dig something up in the next hour or so, if not sooner. She was better than a private eye.
She also didn’t want to step away from Ellis and Brad but knew if she stood there too much longer, she’d want to be boinking them there in the middle of the store.
And while that might amuse at least some of her customers and more than a few of her staff, she suspected it was against county health codes, at the very least.
“I’m going back upstairs. Now I’m wishing I hadn’t come down.” She looked up into Ellis’ blue eyes. “No offense.”
He smiled. Such a sweet, handsome smile. “None taken. So that was the ex, huh?”
“Yeah. Seeing him now, it makes me want to slap myself silly and scream, ‘What the fuck were you thinking?’”
She untangled herself from the men and kissed both of them. “Brad, please don’t let Sachi shoot him if he comes back.”
He snapped her a playful salute. “Yes, boss.”
“Oh, great. Now you’re doing it.” But she gave him a smile.
Ellis followed her upstairs. When they were alone, he touched her arm to get her attention. “Are you really okay?”
“I’m as okay as I guess I will be considering everything that’s happened in the past couple of weeks. Sachi’s going to help me go through Julie’s clothes tonight, so I asked her to stay for dinner with us, too. I hope you don’t mind.”
He smiled. “Nope. I don’t mind. I’m glad you’ve got a friend as good as her.”
“Me, too. I couldn’t have made it through this without her and Libbie. And not just them. Everyone’s been so great.”
“I’m going to change clothes and head to the house to get some things, then go to the grocery store. Anything to add to the list?”