Gator in the Gallery by Heather Huffman

Author:Heather Huffman [Huffman, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Heather Huffman
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

“Good heavens, Nora! What happened to your face?” Emily didn’t bother masking her horror.

Nora opened her mouth to reply but August beat her to it. “She was mugged. It was horrible. But you’d be proud of her. She fought him off. For real, you should see the other guy.”

Leo choked on his beer.

Emily gasped. “I don’t know how I feel about you living somewhere this dangerous.”

“It’s not so bad, Mother. San Francisco was worse,” Nora reassured her, wishing August would think of a more mundane story next time.

“How many times were you mugged in San Francisco?”

“Well, none, but that’s not the point.”

Emily fixed her with a pointed glare. “That’s exactly the point.”

“I’m not moving back to California, Mother.” Nora effectively ended the conversation.

“Go get in comfy clothes,” August instructed. “I’ll make you some soup.”

“Are we not going out to dinner, Nora?” Emily asked.

Nora hesitated at the door. “Under the circumstances, I was kind of hoping we could stay in.”

“Eat in?” The concept seemed foreign to Emily.

“Sure!” August took control of the conversation. “Come on, Emily. You can help me get dinner going.”

Emily eyed the wild-haired redhead. Nora could only begin to guess what she thought of August’s boho skirt and the t-shirt that said, “I’m sorry, did I roll my eyes out loud?”

“Okay, what do you need me to do?” Emily asked.

“If you can chop the veggies, I’ll get started on the soup base.” August started grabbing things from the fridge, not waiting to see if Emily agreed or not.

“Hello?” Rafael called from the front door.

“We’re in here!” August called out. A moment later, Rafael appeared in the doorway, his smile fading when he saw Nora’s face.

Before he could even ask what happened, Emily rounded on him. “My daughter was mugged in your city. What are you going to do about it?”

Panic splashed across his face as he looked from Emily back to Nora, who shook her head no and rolled her eyes.

“You’re going to want this.” Leo handed Rafael a beer from the fridge. “I think I’m going to go check on Charlotte and Margo.

“Nora, go change. Rafael, go with her so she can fill you in.” August was being uncharacteristically bossy, but Nora didn’t mind. It was nice to have someone else take charge for the night. It was especially nice watching her mother struggle to keep up with someone.

Sensing Nora didn’t want to talk in front of her mother, he waited until they were alone in her room to press the subject.

“Nora, please tell me you weren’t mugged.”

“No, August was just trying to get my mother off my back.” Nora left out that August had given every person who asked a different response.

“What happened? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she promised. “And I’ll tell you what happened, but first I’m going to remind you that you love me and ask you not to be too mad.”

“That’s a concerning way to start your story.”

“I walked into a door.”

He quickly caught his bark of laughter. “You just walked into a door? Why would I be mad about…wait… where was this door, Nora?”

“Diane’s office.

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