“NO, MARILYN, IT WASN’T A severed head,” my mom said into the phone. “Maegan is fine, by the way. Thank you for asking.” She jabbed the button on the cordless phone to disconnect the call. “It’s times like these you miss slamming the old-fashioned phones down to hang up on someone. Stabbing that button isn’t nearly as satisfying.”
“That makes how many calls since Maegan got here?” my dad asked.
“I lost count,” my mom replied.
“At least fifteen,” Milo said from beside me on the couch. “We’ve only been here for twenty minutes too. This must be a record for nosy calls.”
“Not a single one of them asked about her well-being?” Dennis Miracle wasn’t pleased that no one asked about his baby girl. “You remember that when these same people expect you to work ridiculous hours procuring some nineteen fifties vase or a British teapot that is rumored to have traveled over on the Mayflower. You need to start charging more for your time.”
“I will, Daddy,” I said, nodding my head. “I’m going to need a list of names, Mama.”
My mom, thinking I was serious, pulled a pad of paper and pen out of the drawer in the side table and began writing names down. It was best to give her something else to focus on before she started knocking on doors and giving them a piece of her mind.
“You and Lulu should stay here with us tonight,” Mom said.
“She has a date with the cop,” Milo told her before I could respond.
“Really?” my mom asked, looking up from her Nosy List.
“It’s not a date,” I told her. “Elijah is just picking up dinner for me at the diner and making sure that I’m okay after tonight.”
“You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend. When are we going to meet this fella?” Dad asked.
“He’s not my boyfriend, Daddy, so there’s no reason for you to meet him.”
“If there’s food involved then it’s a date,” Mom said, looking at me over the rim of her glasses. “Is that what you’re going to wear?” I looked down at my outfit and didn’t think there was anything wrong with my casual jeans and sweater. Saturdays were about comfort for me since they were my longest work day.
“Don’t forget about sex,” Milo tossed out there. “I saw the sparks flying between the two of you this morning, so don’t tell me you’re not planning to shimmy on up that sexy-as-fuck tree.”
“I don’t want to hear this,” my dad said, plugging his ears and most likely praying he could unhear what Milo had just said.
“Milo, stop it,” I hissed.
“What?” he asked innocently.
“Elijah and I aren’t dating. We’re just…”
“Fu—”
I covered his mouth before he could finish. Technically, Elijah and I were fuck buddies, or neighbors who fucked, but that wasn’t something I wanted my parents to know. Not only that, I didn’t like reducing what I shared with Elijah to something that sounded so crude. I didn’t have expectations of a happily ever after with the man, but a girl could hope. Right?
“Enough,” I said firmly. One hand still covered Milo’s mouth, and I used my index finger on my free hand to point at him as a warning. “Are you going to behave?”
“Mmm hmmm,” Milo mumbled against my palm. He dramatically gasped for air when I lifted my hand. “You don’t let me have any fun, Maegan. It’s like you go out of your way to steal the spotlight.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I was born first and our parents were overjoyed with their dark-haired angel, but then you had to come kicking and screaming into the world with your gleaming blonde hair.”
“Oh, whatever,” I replied. “I had zero control of our birth order or the color of my hair.”
“Let’s talk about my coming out confession over pot roast, carrots, and potatoes,” Milo countered.
“You remember what we had for dinner?” my dad asked.
“It was a momentous occasion in a young lad’s life,” Milo replied huffily.
“My pot roast is pretty spectacular,” my mom teased.
“There I sat,” Milo said theatrically, “my heart pounding in my chest just knowing that it could be my last meal in the house.”
“Did he think we were moving out of Blissville because he was gay?” my dad asked my mom.
“Dennis, I think he’s trying to imply that he worried we would toss him out on the street because he liked to kiss boys.”
“Oh,” my father replied then looked at Milo. “Dude, there was glitter in your afterbirth. We knew from day one that you would be fabulous. There was never a chance that we would toss you out.”
“Good to know, Father, but that doesn’t detract from how Maegan stole the show.”
“I did not,” I said between loud guffaws of laughter. “You’re insane.”
“Shall we recap what happened? Mom and Dad were sitting at the dinner table staring at me with their mouths hanging open after I poured my heart and soul into my big announcement. You—”
“Wait a minute! They couldn’t understand a word you were saying because you were sobbing the whole time. I just clarified things for you.”
“I had no idea what you said,” Dad agreed. “I could only make out every fourth word you said and those weren’t real clear.”
“It was an emotional night for me,” Milo declared defensively.
“I was too busy staring at the herbs stuck in your braces,” Mom confessed. “Like your father said, we already knew that you were into boys. I knew it was no coincidence that your GI Joes and Maegan’s Ken dolls shared a bed in Barbie’s playhouse.”
“Do you think Barbie knew?” my father asked.
“How could she not? The evidence was right in front of her.”
“I always thought that Barbie was too self-absorbed,” Dad replied. “How much time could she spend paying attention to her man if she was always putting on lipstick? No one looks that plastic all the time.”
“She is plastic, love. Looking pretty and being aware of the people around you aren’t mutually exclusive. There’s nothing wrong with putting your best foot forward.”
“Says the former beauty queen,” Milo muttered under his breath.
My mom narrowed her eyes at my brother, letting him know that she caught his little remark. “A woman can put on lipstick and pay attention to her family. I wear lipstick and… wait! Are you saying that I’m self-absorbed or don’t have my priorities straight?” she asked my father.
He stared at her through wide eyes, his mouth opening and shutting as he tried to find the right words to say. “I would never—”
“Can we please get back to how Maegan ruined my coming out?” Milo asked with a pout.
“Sure,” Dad said, sounding relieved to shift the spotlight on someone else.
“We’re very sorry to have interrupted your hallucinations,” Mom added.
“As I was saying,” Milo continued, “I was sitting there with my heart in my throat and Maegan just blurts out that she has an announcement too. She paused for dramatic effect to ensure she had your full attention, which I taught her, then said ‘I like boys too.’ You guys were like ‘oh, okay’ then started talking about how you hope Maegan and I don’t get crushes on the same boy.”
“It’s still a concern,” my mom said. “We’d hate for you two to fight over the same guy.”
“Our tastes are completely different,” Milo said, sniffing the air snobbishly.
I thought that my heartthrob and his weren’t all that different. Both Andy and Elijah had similar builds and physical appearances, but that’s as far as I could compare since I didn’t know much about Elijah’s personality. Of course, Andy seemed to have changed a lot since he moved back to Blissville, so I couldn’t say that I really knew him anymore either.
“Let’s not forget Maegan’s theatrics our junior year in high school,” Milo continued. The gleam in his eyes told me that he was enjoying himself immensely. “I finally got my first boyfriend and Maegan had to go and get cancer.”
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “I’m so sorry that my battle with leukemia was a hardship for you.” What I loved most about my brother was that he never looked at me different or changed the way he treated me. Many of the kids at school treated me like a pariah, almost like they worried they would catch it if they breathed the same air as me.
“You just had to show off your perfectly round head and impeccable bone structure when you lost your hair,” Milo teased, but he threw his arm around my shoulders and pulled me until my head rested on his shoulder. He wasn’t taking a chance that I mistook his teasing as genuine hurt or criticism.
I hoped my laughter dispelled any doubts. “I’m sorry, I think. That almost sounded like an offhanded compliment.”
“You should be sorry, so don’t you dare get cancer again,” he said haughtily. “You’ve had your fair share of attention, which is why you should’ve let me discover the severed head in the alleyway.”
“Oh, you!” I elbowed him in the stomach and sat up. “It wasn’t a severed head.”
“Finger?”
“Nope.”
“Foot?”
I shook my head. “I told you already. It was a marble bust.”
“That’s much too boring for your typical theatrics. Last night it was a dead body and tonight it was the potential murder weapon. Does that mean you can expect the killer to come knocking tomorrow, or do you think he’ll toy with you some more?”
Okay, sometimes Milo’s sense of humor runs a little on the macabre side, but I knew he didn’t really want the killer to come knocking on my door. He had the twisted mind of Stephen King but sometimes his attention span resembled that of a five-year-old.
The killer entered the back door and silently crept up the back staircase, careful to avoid the creaks in the steps he had discovered the last time he was in her house. He was only a few feet away from the top when… Squirrel!
I giggled at my inner musings, but shook my head when Milo raised a brow in question. He wouldn’t find it nearly as funny as I did.
“You think a crazed killer on the loose is funny?” he asked.
“No, I think the idea that the killer has a personal vendetta against me is funny.”
“I think you need to consider moving in here until he’s captured just to be safe,” Mom said.
“Yeah, Mae. Your bedroom is in the exact same shape that you left it,” Milo said. “Same posters and pictures on the wall and all your trophies still lining the shelves. I bet Mom goes in there every week to dust them just in case you ever need to move back home.”
“I do not,” Mom rebutted.
“More like once a month,” Dad countered. “She does your old room too.”
“Well, it isn’t because I’m expecting my kids to move back home, Dennis. You know damned well I can’t sleep if there’s dust in the house.”
“Of course, I know it,” my dad replied. “That doesn’t make it sane.”
“Sane? Are you saying I’m insane?”
“Just when it comes to dust,” my father answered calmly.
I could sense that my mom was working up to a good snit. I might rather tango with a killer than watch my parents argue on a Saturday night. As if I emitted a distress signal, Elijah chose that exact minute to call me.
“Hello?”
“I got extra rolls, Freckles. Emma put in some cinnamon butter for you. She said you love it.”
“Aww, I do.”
“I think they just got engaged,” Milo said to my parents.
“What?” my parents asked at the same time. I shook my head and elbowed my brother again.
“Your house or mine?” I asked Elijah.
“I imagine you’ll feel more comfortable in your own bed, so we’ll hang at your house tonight.” Bed? I wanted to tease him about his assumption, but let it go, especially with my family hanging onto my every word.
“Sounds good.”
“Maegan, I didn’t mean to imply that…”
“I know,” I assured Elijah. “I’ll see you in fifteen minutes or less.”
“Bye, Freckles.”
I stood up and smiled. “Well, this has been an entertaining night to say the least, but I must be going. There’s a guy across town that’s delivering Emma’s beef stew and extra dinner rolls to my front door. I don’t want to be late.”
“It is a date,” my mom said hopefully.
“Mom, its… I don’t know what’s going on with Elijah and me, but it’s exactly what I need right now.”
“That’s good enough for us, darling,” she said with a sweet smile.
My parents hugged me a little harder and held on a little longer than normal. “I’m going to be okay,” I told them.
“Of course, you are,” Dad said. “You’re a badass, Maegan. That’s why those people didn’t ask how you were holding up. They know that you’re a warrior.”
“Thanks, Daddy.”
“I’ll walk you out, Mae,” Milo offered.
When we reached my SUV, Milo pulled me into the circle of his arms. He couldn’t hug me as tight as normal with Lulu tucked between us, but I understood the sentiment. His teasing was to cover up the fear he felt for me.
“I’m going to be okay, Milo. No one has a reason to hurt me.”
“I want to believe that, Maegan. You’re my sister and best friend; I can’t lose you.”
“No one is losing me. Elijah will keep me safe and catch the killer.”
“Don’t let all the air out of his muscles with sex then,” Milo said then pinched the tip of my nose. “He needs to save up some strength and stamina in case he wants to use that body for something other than pleasing you.”
I thought back to the glimpse of strength and stamina that I witnessed already. I had a feeling it was just the tip of the iceberg too. “Somehow I don’t think Elijah has to worry about that.”
“Now you’re just bragging. Take your lucky ass on out of here and go get you some.”
“Want to grab breakfast in the morning before we open?” I asked once I put Lulu in the car.
“I’ll call you once I’m up and moving. Let’s cross our fingers that nothing goes wrong at Books and Brew because we could both use an easy day.”
“I hear you. Night, Milo.” I pulled the door shut and fired the engine to life. Milo waved when I backed out of the driveway. I glanced in the rearview mirror when I reached the intersection at the end of the street and saw that he was still watching me. I felt his fear as strong as I felt my own earlier in the evening.
I’m going to be okay. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince Milo or myself, maybe both. I wanted it to be true and decided that’s how it would be. Whoever killed Thom was going to screw up and get caught. I just needed to stay out of his way until that happened.
Elijah was waiting on my front porch with a huge paper bag filled with food. “Aren’t you cold?” I asked when I joined him.
“Focused,” he said, scanning the street. “Take the bag and hand me your keys, Freckles.”
“Why?”
“I’m going in first to make sure things are okay.”
“What if he attacks me on the front porch while you’re checking out my house?’
“You’re going inside with me, but you’ll stay by the front door while I check things out.”
“This is silly,” I said, marching around him and sliding my key in the front door. “I was just here earlier and nothing was disturbed.” I pushed open the door and a blur of black fur darted out the door, scaring the fuck out of me. I cried out in surprise and Lulu barked at the escaping intruder.
“Since when did you have a cat?” Elijah asked.
“I don’t have a cat, and it wasn’t here when I picked Lulu up.” I covered my racing heart with my hand and looked up into Elijah’s eyes. “I can’t be sure, but I think that is the same cat from the alley when I discovered the bloody object.”
“Fuck me!” Elijah said, pulling out his cell phone.
“I had planned on it,” I mumbled.