Shelley’s face was a picture of scandalized horror. "In your underwear? That’sso gross!"
I grabbed Aunt Ruby’s arm. "Listen. This is important. That brooch?—"
Her phone rang, and she pulled away from me, giving me an impatient glance. "Tess. I have important town business to take care of today."
She answered her phone, said "Yes," "No," and "I’m on my way," and then rushed out of my shop, ignoring my protests.
"I have to go meet the doctor. Please keep Shelley with you. With any luck, we’ll hire her and be on our way with the new health clinic," she said, opening her car door.
"But Aunt Ruby. I need to talk to youright now.That brooch?—"
She glanced down at the pin resting on the lapel of her pink jacket. "Oh, this? It’s nice, honey. I’ll keep it. Let me know later how much you want for it. I have to run now."
"But you can’t?—"
"Bye, now!" She waved, hopped in her car, and took off.
I groaned. "This will not be good. Not good in any way."
From behind me, Shelley piped up. "What’s wrong?"
"We need to call Susan. Now."
"Why do we need the sheriff?"
"Because Aunt Ruby may need to be locked up."
5
Jack
Any trip out to visit the boys started off with acquiring food.
Lots and lots of food.
None of them were shapeshifters; in fact, they were all plain-vanilla humans, but they were guys, and ex-soldiers, and hard workers who put in full days at their tourist airboat business.
And I needed a favor, so it needed to be great food. I planned to hire the Fox twins officially and pay them, but I’d be asking them to move my request to the front of their busy queue, so … food.
I parked my truck and walked into Lauren’s Deli, smiling at the owner. Tess’s friend Lauren had dyed her long, spiral curls red, white, and blue for the holiday, and she wore a T-shirt with a sequined flag on the front with her denim shorts. She grinned at me, her dark brown eyes flashing with good humor, and I realized she wasn’t just Tess’s friend anymore.
She was now my friend, too.
Every time I realized I had a home and friends and family, it hit me in the chest with a kind of baffled wonder. During all those years as a soldier, I’d made a few friends and a lot of allies, but they’d all felt temporary. We knew we might only see each other a few times a year, with different assignments. Or, worst-case scenario during the vampire wars, we might never see each other again.
I shook off the melancholy memories. "Hey, Lauren, looking festive! How are you?"
"I’m good." She slid a tray of fresh sandwiches into the glass counter, stood, and brushed off her hands. "But how are you? I didn’t realize you were back from the honeymoon already."
"Two glorious weeks. I tried to talk Tess into a month, but she didn’t want to be gone from the shop longer."
She sent me a wry look. "The joy of being a small-business owner. I don’t like to be gone from the shop for more than a week at a time, no matter how capable my stand-in might be. Are you here to chat or looking for lunch?"
I studied the display case. "Always a pleasure to chat with you, but definitely need lunch, too. I’m going out to see the boys."
"Say no more," she said, laughing. "Luckily, I stocked up in case of a pre-holiday crush. How many and what kind?"
I ordered enough sandwiches, bags of chips, and giant cookies to feed everybody and added in a case of soda and one of water.
