He jerked from her. Clearly shaken, he stepped out of her easy reach. “Rachel—”

“Good-bye, Nick,” I said flatly, feeling my blood pressure rise. I still didn’t understand how he could think that selling Al information about me, even harmless information, wasn’t a betrayal of everything we had shared.

I didn’t watch him leave. Eyes lowered, I took a sword-pierced cherry. The sweet mush was bland in my mouth. Swallowing, I set the red plastic sword beside Jenks for him to take home to his kids. “I’m tired of this,” I whispered, but I don’t think anyone heard me.

Jenks took a scoop of the cobbler, watching me with his intent green eyes. “You going to be okay?” he asked around his full mouth.

Picking up a spoon, I held the plate so I could wrangle an even bigger bite of ice cream. “Just dandy.” Why was I eating? I wasn’t hungry.

The music finally died, and in the renewed sound of chatter, Ivy held a napkin to her mouth and muttered, “I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. I don’t like Nick. I don’t trust Nick. And if he doesn’t show up with that truck to do his part, I’m going to kill him.”

“I’ll help,” Jenks offered, carefully cutting the remaining ice cream in two and claiming the largest half.

“Okay, I made a mistake in trusting him. Can we move on to something else?” I said, scraping the lion’s share of caramel to my side of the plate. God help me, but I had been stupid. Stay with your own kind, Rachel. Not that your track record there is much better. “But I do trust his greed,” I added, and Jenks’s eyebrows rose.

Shifting my shoulder, I touched my bag on my lap. “He wants the statue. He’s going to show, if only to try and steal it back after all is said and done.”

Ivy crossed her arms in front of her and seethed.

Jenks cocked his head in thought and ate another bite of cobbler. “You want me to have Jax shadow him?” he asked, and I shook my head.

“It might be too cold,” I said. “He can sit this one out.”

“He’s doing well with low-temp excursions,” Jenks said around his full mouth, then swallowed. “I’m proud of him.” A satisfied smile hovered in his eyes. “He can read now,” he added softly. “He’s been working hard at it. He’s serious about taking after his old man.”

My smile faltered at the reasons for the lessons. Jenks didn’t have many more battles left to fight. Ivy steadied herself, visibly forcing herself to be cheerful.

“That’s great,” she said, but I could hear her stress. “What grade level is he at?”

Jenks pushed his plate away. “Tink’s titties, I don’t know. Enough to get by.”

I sent my attention to the bathroom door when Nick came out, his head down, clearly worried. I exhaled in a slow puff, leaning back into my chair. “Oh that’s just swell,” I said sourly. “Something’s wrong with the charms.”