Page 30 of Inferno

She’d fallen anyway…fallen hopelessly in love.

Sighing deeply at the memory, Prissy shifted onto her side to face Stan, imitating his pose with her head propped in her hand. She wore one of his oversize CFD T-shirts and had her hair wrapped in a satin scarf.

“Okay,” she relented, “so maybe I can cross one or two things off my chore list for Manny. But onlyafterwe know what the fallout will be from Rory’s injury.”

Stan chuckled, affectionately tweaking her nose. “Rory’s parents aren’t gonna sue us, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Prissy raised a brow at him. “How doyouknow that?”

“For starters, hiring a lawyer is expensive, and I know the Kerrigans don’t have money like that. Second, I’ve worked with Rory’s father, so I know the type of man he is. I’m sure he realizes that filing a lawsuit against us would only draw attention to the fact that his son got his punk ass whupped byourson, who happens to be a freshman. Believeme,no self-respecting man would subject his own kid to that kind of public humiliation. Right now he’s probably just hoping that this whole thing will die down as quickly and quietly as possible.”

Prissy sighed. “I sure hope you’re right.Because the timing of this incident couldn’t be worse.”

“I know,” Stan agreed, gently stroking her cheek. “Tell you what. If you don’t hear back from Mrs. Kerrigan tomorrow, after I drop you off at the airport on Thursday, I’ll swing by the firehouse to have a man-to-man talk with Rory’s father. How does that sound?”

“It sounds good.” At the mention of her upcoming business trip, Prissy was suddenly reminded of the phone call she’d received from Celeste that morning.

After a brief hesitation, she murmured, “I spoke to Celeste today.”

Stan’s expression instantly darkened. “What didshewant?”

Again Prissy hesitated, knowing all too well how Stan felt about his former sister-in-law. “She wants to see me while I’m in Rochester for the conference. She’s spending the next four months there with Grant, who’s working on a research project for the Mayo Clinic.”

Stan stared at Prissy. “You’re joking, right?”

“You know I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”

“So let me get this straight,” Stan growled, angrily pushing himself up to a sitting position. “While my brother is working his ass off to make ends meet, keep food on the table and raise two sons who’re still reeling from the divorce, Celeste is off playing house with her fuckingboyfriend?”

Prissy grimaced.“In a nutshell, yes.”

“That selfish bitch!”Stan exploded, his dark eyes flashing with fury. “Just when I thought she couldn’t get any more shameless, she proves me wrong!”

“I know,” Prissy murmured. “I couldn’t believe she had the audacity to call and invite me to dinner.”

“And what’d you tell her?”

“I told her no, of course. I have no interest in hearing anything she has to say at this point.”

Stan scowled. “How the hell does she plan to keep her court-appointed visits while she’s in Minnesota? Does she plan to fly back to Atlanta every weekend?”

“I don’t know. She claims she’s going to work out an arrangement with Sterling. That is, whenever she gets around to telling him that she’s in Minnesota.”

“What?She hasn’t told him yet?”

“Apparently not.”

“Son of a bitch,” Stan growled, shaking his head in angry disbelief.“No wonder Sterl didn’t say anything to me when we talked yesterday.He doesn’t even know that Celeste has flown the damn coop.”

“And I don’t think we should be the ones to tell him.” At the dark look Stan shot her, Prissy elaborated, “As furious as we both are, and as much as we want to intervene on Sterling’s behalf, we have to let him and Celeste work through these issues on their own. They were married to each other for sixteen years. Ultimately,they’rethe only ones who know what truly went wrong in their marriage. But they both love Michael and Marcus, so I believe they’ll do what’s best for their sons.”

Stan scowled, muttering an expletive under his breath.

“Do I have your word that you won’t interfere?” Prissy pressed gently.

Stan didn’t answer.

“Stanton?”