Page 28 of Silver Sanctuary (The Silver Springs #3)

Seventeen

T he warm Autumn sunshine kissed Lacy’s face as she tilted it towards the sky.

The community was out in full force for Silver Spring’s Annual Fall Festival.

She hadn’t been able to go as a kid, so seeing Embrie run up and down the street with Sage while Gunner and Nash chased after them made her feel warmer than the sunshine ever could.

The scent of fresh apple fritters filled the unseasonably hot air.

Leave it to Silver Springs to still try and make something feel cozy on a day when most people, Lacy included, were dressed in T-shirts and shorts.

Her eyes looked up and down Ford Avenue, pausing at each booth and table to scope out what goods everyone was selling.

Because Petals was a bit out of the way, and not in a prime festival spot like Montgomery Defense, Nash and the guys had volunteered their sidewalk space as a place for her to set up a little booth.

It had been a last minute decision for her to participate, so they’d had another impromptu party at the flower shop the night before.

Everyone stayed late and Lacy had indulged in far too many slices of pizza while they finished the arrangements for that morning.

Gage and Stone had even spent the time building her an adorable little display case for some of her arrangements from the plywood they’d previously used to cover her broken window.

“This looks great.” Nash wrapped his arms around her from the back, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “How’s it going so far?”

“Good. It’s been better than I thought. Dolly stopped by and got some arrangements for the diner, and I’ve had a couple smaller purchases too.”

“That’s great, baby. I’m so proud of you.”

“Embrie.” She smiled down at her daughter. “It looks like you’re having the best day.”

“I am! It’s been so much fun.” Her head swiveled to Nash. “Are you gonna ask her?”

“Ask me what?” Lacy’s eyes bounced from Embrie over to Nash.

“Smooth, Muenster.”

“Why do you two look like you’re up to something nefarious?”

“Us?” Nash feigned shock.

“Just spill before I start to worry.” Lacy crossed her arms, waiting for them to come clean about whatever they were up to.

Nash held out his hand to Embrie. Oh boy. The two of them were about to gang up on her. “I wanted to ask if it was okay for me to take Embrie down the street to get some fresh fritters. She’s been hounding me for a hot minute, but I said I had to check with you.”

Oh, her heart. “I appreciate that so much, but you’re part of the parental team now. You don’t need my permission for everything. Just let me know where you’re taking her before you disappear.”

“Are you sure?” Nash asked .

Her hands slipped up to frame his face. “I trust you; I know she’s safe with you. Go. Have fun together.”

“You’re too good to me, wife. ”

“Not yet.” Lacy laughed.

“Soon enough, you’ll see. Embrie, close your eyes.” His hand covered Embrie’s eyes, and she giggled. Nash pressed a kiss to Lacy’s nose, but that just wouldn’t do.

Lacy wrapped her arms around his neck before he could pull away, her lips slamming against his. When she licked along the seam, he opened to her. Their tongues danced together for a second before she pulled away, laughing.

“You are so naughty?—”

“Lacy!”

Her stomach pitched as soon as the sound of her name being called hit her ears. No. No, that voice couldn’t belong to who she thought it did. Not there. Not in Silver Springs. She promised . She promised they would be free.

“Lacy! Don’t ignore me.”

Her eyes went wide as the voice got closer, but she didn’t take the time to look at the woman calling out to her. She needed to get Embrie away—to safety.

“What? What is it?” Nash’s hand landed on her back, the worry evident in his voice.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered as she crouched down. “Embrie, run to Lily and Sloane, and tell them she’s here. Tell them you need to go upstairs to the apartment and stay there until I come up.”

Lacy watched Embrie’s eyes drift over her shoulders, her little body immediately shrinking in on itself.

“Mom? Do I tell them…”

Lacy shook her head. “I’ll tell them when I get upstairs. Just let them know she’s dangerous. Ask Gunner and Gage to go with you.”

“What the fuck is going—” Nash stepped behind Lacy, his presence a reminder that she was safe. Embrie would be safe with their friends, too, while she dealt with a problem she wanted to believe she would never see again.

“Now, Embrie.” She interrupted his question. Brie took off running toward Sloane's office, and Lacy’s eyes never left her daughter until she was wrapped safely in Lily’s arms.

“I’m so sorry… I’ve been lying to you, but this isn’t how I wanted you to find out.

” Shit. She was lightheaded, her heart pounding so loudly in her ears from the second she’d heard her mother’s voice call out from across the street.

But nothing could have prepared her for what she saw when she finally got the courage to turn around.

Because the woman walking toward them looked healthy. Her skin was plump and peachy. Her body moved with control and grace. Lacy could see, the closer she got, that even her mother’s eyes looked clear.

This wasn’t the woman she was used to dealing with. Could she have gotten clean again? Would it work out this time? She absolutely despised that her mind was trying to pump hope through her body that maybe her mother had finally chosen her over the addiction.

Lacy needed answers, and she needed them fast. Maybe if she was able to get her mother to walk down the street, the conversation that needed to happen could avoid the prying eyes of everyone in town. Lacy moved to step away from Nash and her table.

“No.” Nash’s arm banded across her chest and stomach, his hand coming to rest on her hip. In one quick motion, he had her tucked safely behind his back.

“Nash—”

“Can I help you?” Nash held on to Lacy’s hip, not letting her move.

“Please don’t do this,” she begged as her eyes connected with her mother’s. “Please. Just go. You shouldn’t be here—you don’t need to be here.”

“I think I have a right to see my daughter.” Wow, her eyes really were so clear. There was no slurring to her words, and nothing about her appearance said she was using. But Lacy had fallen for the same act before. When her mother was sober before… when Embrie was born.

“You don’t—you don’t have any right. When we left, you agreed?—”

“I’m clean now, baby. It’s different this time,” her mother interrupted.

“It’s never different, Mom. I’ll never be your choice over the drugs.”

“You’re right. You won’t be.” Her mother snapped at her.

Nash’s fingers dug into Lacy’s hip as her mother’s eyes snapped to his face.

“I’m here to see my daughter, and you’re in my way.

You can move, or I can make a scene.” Her mother crossed her arms, hip jutting out to the side as Nash continued to keep Lacy tucked away despite her best efforts to move around him.

“I’m Nash Caldwell,” he said, not offering his hand to her mom. “Lacy’s fiancé. You can speak to me because, unlike you, I will always protect Lacy and Embrie.”

Her mother’s eyes went wide. Lacy could see the wheels turning as she cooked up a new plan in her mind. Lacy felt the heat of her mother’s eyes land directly on her engagement ring. Nash was only trying to protect her, but he just made everything ten times worse with that admission.

“Well, that’s certainly one way for a mother to find out her eldest is getting married, but I wouldn’t put anything past Lacy.

I’m not surprised that she didn’t tell me about her upcoming wedding.

She’s always been a self-centered little brat.

You’ll have your hands full with her, but it looks like you can handle it. ”

She took a step forward and Lacy felt every muscle in Nash’s back tense under her hand.

“What are you doing here, Mom?”

“Like I said, I’m here to see my daughter.”

She slipped her hand under Nash’s, taking advantage of the freedom to move so she could stand next to him.

“I’m right here. But we should go somewhere quieter. Please.”

“You’d like that, wouldn't you? Then your fiancé won’t find out what you did that night?—”

She squeezed his hand. A silent promise to tell him everything later, and a prayer that he wouldn’t stop her from sending her mom away. “No. You told us to go, and we did. Don’t you dare try and say otherwise.”

“What you left behind wasn’t enough—not for what we suffered through because of you,” she hissed as her eyes darted back to Nash. “Seems like you’ve done well for yourself. Your soon-to-be husband should be able to provide what I need to keep quiet.”

Lacy dropped his hand, stepping back toward the brick building before he could grab a hold of her again. She took her mother’s arm, turning to walk past Nash.

“Lace, don’t?—”

“I’m sorry. I really, really am,” she whispered. “Will you watch the table for me? I’m just going to speak to my mother privately for one minute. Right in the alley.”

“I don’t think—” he started to argue, but she just shook her head.

“I’ll be okay, and if I’m not, I’ll shout for you.”

He finally nodded, but she felt his eyes on her the entire time she was walking her mother into the small alleyway between buildings.

“You’re not getting anything from us. He attacked me that night—I acted in self-defense.” Lacy’s words rushed out, her body shaking with the memories of what she’d had to do to keep Embrie safe.

“You can’t prove that. And Adam’s here, Lacy—he lived—and he wants money to keep his mouth shut about what you did to him. It’s your word against his. Ours, actually. And I’m clean now, Lace. Really clean. I could pass any test a court gave me.”

That gutted her. Amber Graves was clean again, but not because she wanted to make things right with Lacy. “I’m happy for you—that’s how it always should have been. I just don’t understand why that means you had to track us down? Why did you come back here?”

“We want money, Lacy. One hundred thousand dollars and he won’t go to the police.

One hundred thousand dollars and I walk away from you and Embrie forever.

I’m in Texas for the next two weeks…” Her mother’s eyes shifted to the street in front of her as she held out a piece of paper for Lacy to take.

Bell Ridge Midnight Motel

- Room 212

“Not in Silver Springs though—too many bad memories here. Too many people who remember and can’t move on from the past. This is my number now. Call me when you have the money ready.”

“I don’t have that kind of money!” she cried.

“Don’t lie to me! I know… I know all about the little flower shop grant. About why you really came all the way back here.”

“That grant was to open my shop—to give Embrie a chance at a normal, good, safe life. All things you never gave to me and sure as hell never tried to give to her. So listen to me when I say this, Mom: I do not have that money any more. It went into my shop. It’s barely making enough money to keep the doors open, nevermind the fact that we were almost homeless just a few weeks ago. ”

“I knew it!” Her mother sneered.

“Knew what?”

“That you were just a charity case to him. Your fiancé has a savior complex, doesn’t he?

Wants to help out poor, defenseless, Lacy Graves?

I can smell his type a mile away. You might not have that money, but I’m betting Mr. Bodyguard out there does.

” Her eyes dropped to Lacy’s hand. “Pawn that ring—it looks real. Would probably make a little dent in what I’m asking for.

You’ve got options. Maybe I should ask for more in that case.

That Montgomery man the article I found talked about…

he could certainly part with more than a measly hundred grand. ”

“No! I’m not taking advantage of Nash or his family—my friends. No. Nothing you say could ever make me change my mind.”

The saccharine smile that grew across her mother’s face curdled her stomach.

“You might not care about the police coming to arrest you for attempted murder, but I know for a fact you do care about where your sister ends up. Don’t get that money to me in time, and I'll take Embrie back to West Virginia with me. You can play mommy all you want, but in the end, she’ll always be my daughter. ”

And just like that, the real reason why her mother had gotten clean came to light.

Because if Lacy was reported for taking Embrie across state lines, if her mother went back on her word and made it seem like Lacy had taken Embrie without her consent, Embrie would be forced to go back to West Virginia and Lacy would go to jail.

“You need to leave, right now.” Nash’s voice had Lacy nearly jumping out of her skin.

In her spiral, she’d missed him walking around the corner, but the warmth at her back told her exactly what she needed to know.

She braced an arm against the cool, dark brick, praying for the ground to open up and swallow her.

Because the second she’d heard his voice, she’d known there was no saving what was between them.

He knew her secret.

And she hadn’t been the one to tell him.

“I want to be holding that money in my hand before next week,” her mother taunted as she walked down the alley with her head held high. Lacy would have laughed if she didn’t feel like the walls were closing in around her.

Nash’s hand held steady on her back, but she couldn’t gather the courage to look into his eyes.

The fear that he was about to reject her felt like an elephant had taken up residence on her chest. She couldn’t do it.

She couldn’t spill everything she’d been holding inside only to have him end things with her.

Because she knew that was what was going to happen.

He was going to tell her to get out, that her lies were too much.

That he didn’t want to deal with her drama anymore.

But as he tipped her face, forcing her to look into his eyes, she could see everything no words would ever be able to adequately express.

There was so much warmth, so much concern.

They hadn’t said the words to each other, but she could see it.

There was love in the way he was watching her, waiting for her to make a decision.

Lacy swallowed, her throat feeling raw with emotion.

With just a nod, Nash was pulling her into his chest, where he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

She stayed there, allowing his hold to flood her with comfort, knowing that the conversation they needed to have would be one of the hardest she’d ever have to face.

But for the life that he’d been wanting to build with her, for every way he’d been proving himself to her, she owed him honesty.

Even if it was the last thing she ever shared with the man who’d stolen her heart.