Free Falling to Pieces by Denise Grover Swank

we walked out of the station in silence, all eyes in the station on both of us. When we reached his car, he opened the door for me and drew in a breath. “Jonah’s mother, Wanda Pruitt—otherwise known as Rhonda Bellamy—is being held on a hundred thousand dollars bond. After talking to Jonah this morning, I suspect he won’t put up the money to bail her out, even if he had the money to do so.” His hand rested on my shoulder as he looked into my eyes. “Rose, I want you to know she won’t be able to hurt you again. And if by some miracle she comes up with the bail money, I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I know it.”
    “Will you be trying her case?”
    “No, not since I was personally involved in her apprehension. The DA will be prosecuting her.”
    “Oh.” I couldn’t imagine the pain Jonah was going through after finding out what his mother had done. “How’s Jonah doing?”
    “He’s still in the hospital, but he’ll probably get out tomorrow. He’s pretty upset about his mother, but he’s got plenty of the older women who are under his spell waiting outside his door, eager to help him when he gets home.”
    “I found out why all the older woman love him so much. He told me yesterday.” Everything from the day before seemed like it happened weeks ago.
    Mason’s eyes widened in surprise. “Did you now?”
    “It’s because he spends time with them. They’re just lonely old women who need someone to talk to. Jonah likes their cooking and they like his company. Nothing suspicious there.” I dropped my gaze, unable to look at Mason. The older women’s loneliness only reminded me of my own.
    “Well, thank you for setting the record straight.”
    I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
    “I’ve dealt with Taylor, but you need to let me know if he upsets you again.”
    I closed my eyes and leaned against the car. “You didn’t have to do that, Mason. Now he’ll hate me even more.”
    “If you think I’m going to stand back and let him treat you disrespectfully, then you don’t know me very well at all,” he said, his voice hard.
    I opened my eyes. “I do know you, Mason. That’s why I said it. I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me.”
    A soft smile lifted his mouth. “Don’t worry about me. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
    “And so am I.”
    Pride filled his eyes. “You’ve proved that time and time again, Rose, but it doesn’t mean I can’t intervene on your behalf when I feel the need.”
    Joe said he’d take care of me and where was he now? I spun and slid into the front seat, trying to keep my tears at bay. Was there no end to my tears?
    Mason shut my door then came around and climbed behind the wheel. “Do you want me to take you home?”
    “No, to the nursery.”
    “You’re working today?” He sounded surprised. “Aren’t you supposed to be recuperating?”
    “I’m just working this afternoon, I need to do something.” As I said the words, I realized how true they were. I needed to feel the potting soil in my hands. I needed to be anywhere but home where memories of Joe lingered everywhere.
    Mason was silent a moment. “So, Joe went back to El Dorado?”
    I looked out the side window. “Yeah.”
    “Is he still on his undercover assignment?”
    “No, he decided to run in the senate race.” I was proud my voice didn’t tremble.
    After a couple of seconds, Mason’s soft voice broke the silence. “Rose, are you okay?”
    He sounded so concerned that I couldn’t stop a fresh batch of tears from rolling down my cheeks. “No.”
    Without a word, he turned into the parking lot of the hardware store, parking his car in the empty back lot. “What happened?”
    I took a breath. “Joe and I broke up this morning.”
    He was silent for several seconds. “I’m sorry.”
    “You’re not going to ask why?”
    “I already suspected. You’ll tell me if you want me to know.”
    I sniffed. “How did you know we broke