Boundary Born (Boundary Magic Book 3) - Melissa F. Olson Page 0,36
down into the mud with them.
Tensions increased, and then the Atwoods made Ardie an offer: full tuition for as much education as she wanted, plus a down payment on a house anywhere but Boulder. And although women didn’t usually inherit in their clan, her family offered to make her the Atwood heir should anything happen to Billy—which was a safe bet, since he was already something of a cretin. All Ardie had to do was agree to leave Lily and have kids with a man.
When she heard about the offer, Lily got ready for a knock-down, drag-out battle for love, assuming Ardie would feel the same. But Ardie took the money.
“I’m not sure she ever cared as much about Lily as Lily did for her,” Simon said in a low voice. “But at any rate, she was Lily’s first big love, and getting dumped kind of crushed her. Especially because Ardie would sneak back into town now and then to, um . . . reconnect. And then she’d leave again.”
My eyes narrowed. “So she used Lily.”
Simon nodded. “For years.” He looked angry and sad, but also just . . . tired. This was an old story, one that all the Pellars had wanted to forget. Now we were dredging it up again.
“You said she studied ecology,” I said, trying to sound tactful, even though I wanted to slap this woman I’d never met. “Isn’t it possible that Ardie grows belladonna?”
Simon shrugged. “She’d know how, sure, but so would my mom, or pretty much anyone with a rudimentary understanding of gardening. Or an internet connection. Growing it is easy. The hard part is finding the belladonna seeds from the ancient strain.”
“But if Atwood had it on the property, and Ardie inherited . . .” Quinn spoke up.
“No.” Lily banged down a sloshing coffeepot. Simon hastily took a mug from the counter and began filling it while Lily set a couple of granola bars in front of me. “Keep eating,” Lily told me. To all of us, she added, “Ardie always said the fetters were too dangerous to dick around with. She’s many things, but she’s careful.”
“Calculating, more like,” Simon muttered into his mug before taking a long sip. Lily glared at him, but he just shrugged and swallowed. “She might have changed her mind about the belladonna, Lil. Or she might have moved to Finland, and she’s got nothing to do with any of this. We haven’t seen her in years.”
A guilty look flitted across Lily’s face, but Simon didn’t notice. I didn’t want to call Lily out in front of the others, so I got to my feet, not needing to feign the shakiness. “Lily, can you help me in the bathroom for a second?” I asked.
She looked a little surprised by the request, as did Quinn, but she unhooked my IV bag from the coatrack and led me down the hall, helping me weave around Simon’s piles of equipment. When we got into the small bathroom, I closed the door and sagged against a counter. “You’ve seen Ardie recently?” I said gently.
Her dark skin flushed, but she nodded. “She stopped by last year, after Billy’s funeral. But I still don’t think she’d mess with the fetters.”
“Do you have her address or phone number?”
Lily bit her lip. “Simon made me delete her numbers from my phone . . . but I know she works at the Denver Botanic Gardens. She’s a horticulturist.”
“Okay. Quinn and I are going to need to pay her a visit.”
“I know.” Lily switched the IV bag from one hand to the other, uneasy. “I should go with you.”
“I don’t think that’d be a great idea.”
“She might not talk to you.”
“Oh, she’ll talk to me.” Something in my face must have hardened, because Lily took an unconscious step backward, the IV tubing wobbling between us. “You can stay here and give Simon a hand, okay?”
She nodded again, and I turned to grab the doorknob. Before I could turn it, Lily reached out and touched my arm. “You’re not going to ask me about sleeping with girls?”
I shrugged. “None of my business.”
Something sad and bitter touched her eyes for a moment. “Some women would be worried that I was secretly lusting after them.”
It hadn’t occurred to me, but I cocked an eyebrow as dramatically as I could. “Lily, are you secretly lusting after my body?”
An actual giggle spilled from her lips. “Not so much.”
“Well, obviously you have no standards and I pity you.”