“No,” he said, chuckling. “Just an example of something I’m afraid she might do. After she levitated those massive rocks last year when the bank blew up, we’ve seen how much power she has.”
“Rose and Alejandro will be coming to visit next month, if she’s still able to travel then. She’s pregnant with twins. Rose promised to help Shelley—and us—navigate this. She has younger sisters who were quite a trial, so she knows what she’s talking about.”
We cleared the table and made coffee, and then we settled back down for a good catch-up session. I checked my phone, but still nothing from Jack or Susan.
“Okay,” Aunt Ruby said, pouring coffee for all of us. “Tell us about everything.”
“Wow. That’s going to take some time.” I drank coffee and ate a piece of cinnamon cake while I told them about the Phleabottoms, Cordelia’s stalker, the dangerous objects, and Susan’s godfather. I didn’t tell them about Lizzie because that was her business.
“That’s concerning,” Uncle Mike said, when I finally finished talking. “You tell Susan that we’re here for her if she needs us.”
“I will, but after today … She told me to mind my own business. I think she was just blowing off steam, but I’m waiting to hear from her. I might go over and talk to Andy about what to do about Henrieta Quirksley.”
Uncle Mike groaned. “It won’t be great if she robs our new bank.”
“Especially if she’s wearing a Dead End Pawn shirt while she does it,” I said glumly. “I think I need more cake to cope with this day.”
“You said Carlos is out of town? That’s too bad. Sadie is more of a burden than a help to Susan, although she does her best to take care of their grandmother,” Aunt Ruby said, slicing me another piece of cake. “I might just check on Granny G myself tomorrow. Susan is going to face a tough decision about full-time care for her soon.”
“I know. It would be great if you could go see her,” I said sincerely. “I have to work, but maybe I could stop by after.”
“We’ll make sure she’s okay. If Ish was the one who took off with her yesterday, well … well, I don’t know what. He doesn’t sound like the type to humor an old lady.”
Mrs. Gonzalez was eighty going on a hundred and twenty and frequently believed she was sixteen and would be going to prom with her friends at any minute. She was a sweetheart, but we—pretty much everybody in town—kept an eye out for her, because sometimes she’d wander off. Occasionally she even got Sadie’s car keys, and nobody wanted Granny G to drive after the flamingo incident.
May they rest in peace.
Aunt Ruby drank the last of her coffee and pushed the mug away. “Okay. On to business. After I talked to you, I went along with the town council on the anonymous donation. We’re going to accept it, with the caveats you and I discussed. And we’re thinking, with Susan’s recommendation and if Andy agrees, of offering the job to Deputy Underhill. Do you think she’d be interested?”
I smiled. Finally, some good news. “I am positive she would be interested. She was telling me at lunch that she’d love to work here full time. Oh, I’m thrilled for her.”
And for Jack, who’d surely get fewer calls to help with criminal activity after Lizzie was sworn in as our newest deputy.
“What else is going on in town council land?”
“Not much. Oh, but we gave that nice Connor Murphy permission and the proper zoning to open a pub just past the fire station. It will be nice to have a proper pub in Dead End.”
I raised my eyebrows. “I didn’t know he wanted to open a pub.” Connor was new to Dead End, relatively speaking, not having been born and raised here. He’d moved here after college and worked from home at some kind of internet job, from what I’d heard.
“Well, he’s Irish,” said Michael Callahan, my very Irish uncle, his eyes twinkling. “Of course, he wants to open a pub. Now it just remains to be seen if he can pour a proper Guinness.”
I had to laugh. “It will be fun. I hope it works out for him.”
“He’s planning to have the grand opening on the evening of our annual softball game against Riverton.”
Uncle Mike and I made hissing noises. Riverton, a small town thirty miles from Dead End, was our mortal enemy when it came to softball. Luckily, I was the queen of the softball diamond. “Riverton is going down!”
“What Tess said,” Uncle Mike said. “That’s a smart idea to have the grand opening that day—or an unbelievably bad idea. If we … the L word—”
“Don’t even think it!” I knocked on the wood of the old farmhouse table. “Anyway, it will be fun to have a pub in town.”
“On a different topic. Where is Jack? When is he coming back? And are we still having the garage-raising party on Thursday? I know he wouldn’t miss Shelley’s dance.” Uncle Mike frowned. “You know I don’t want to interfere—”
I groaned. “Tell that to any boy who ever liked me. Or Owen. Or, especially, Jack.”
“I don’t like to interfere,” he repeated stubbornly. “But I worry about you. We know he had a dangerous past. If his past is going to keep showing up in the present, what does that mean for the future?”
That took me a minute to untangle, but I understood what he meant. I’d thought about it, too, but I loved Jack, and I knew he loved me. That was more important than anything else.
