I had my hair up, then changed my mind and pulled it down, fluffing it as much as I could. Originally, I had on black capris until I realized they would have cat fur all over them in minutes. I switched to jean capris and my Tom Waits T-shirt and sandals. I didn’t want to look too desperate in front of Mick. He was coming over for part two of our conversation, and I was beyond excited.
Doorbell. One more look, a flip of the hair upside down with a quick spray for a fuller look, grabbed the nearest lipstick and flipped it over to see the name of the color—Euro Trash—perfect!
I ran to the door and opened it with a huge smile on my face.
“Well hello, beautiful,” he said, pulling a big, colorful bouquet from behind his back.
“Yikes, no one has ever bought me flowers before,” I reached for them and inhaled. I was so touched by the sentiment.
“That seems wrong. We need to remedy that,” he said, walking past me but not before leaning down, putting his arm around me and kissing me. This was the life.
“So, I’ve got a bit of competition, I see,” Mick said, reaching down to scratch behind Lenny’s ears.
“What? I’m his mama, not his girlfriend,” I said giving a little love spanking to Lenny. My cats loved a good tushy patting.
“Not Lenny, Tom,” Meiser nodded his head to my T-shirt.
“Nah, you know who Tom Waits is? No way you are that cool!” I teased.
“No way you are that cool, young one!”
“I’m an old soul with excellent taste in music.”
“I have a surprise for you in the car,” Meiser grinned.
“More surprises?”
“Yep, only the best for my girl!” He headed out to his car as I grabbed a vase. I had to hunt for one since it had been so long since I had fresh flowers. I think I may have cut some from the garden at one time way back when.
“Whoa, that’s a ton of food,” I said, placing the floral arrangement in the middle of the island. I grabbed some plates, napkins, and reached into the fridge for a couple of Cokes.
“It’s from the best Italian restaurant in this town.”
“So, they opened up a new place?”
Eyebrows raised and he gave me the lengthy detective stare. The one where they fill the room with silence to get the perp to fill the void and confess.
“Kidding,” I mumbled.
He laughed.
We sat down to a feast of pizza, calzones, and a yummy Italian sub. I took some of everything. As I shoved food in my face, I noticed Meiser watching me.
“Sorry, I’m hungry. I guess I shouldn’t eat like a pig in front of you.” I thought back to the book and realized I needed to stop apologizing so much.
“What are you babbling about now, woman? I love the enthusiasm you have for food. I love to watch you eat. You’re cute.”
“Well then, you will find me to be one of the most adorable people you’ve ever met.”
He reached over and wiped a smear of sauce from my chin and grinned.
“Remember, cute, right?”
He nodded and his eyes turned dark. I started to get that feeling again. Suddenly food wasn’t on the front of my mind.
“So, we are doing this, right?” he asked.
“Seems like we are officially doing this . . .” I looked up at him hesitantly. “Could you say what ‘this’ is, for the record?”
“Sure thing, Counselor,” he teased. “We are officially in a relationship. Boyfriend, girlfriend. Yikes. I’m too old for that term. Partners? A couple.”
“Soul mates.” I made the statement. Whether Mick knew it or not, that was a huge step for me.
“I can agree to that,” he held up his Coke can, and we toasted to that.
“So, since we are soul mates now and going to be so honest with each other— “I began.
“I knew it—you women are so wily!”
I ignored that comment, “I met your brother, Miles, at the town meeting last week. He was hanging with Nestle.”
“Yeah, those two know each other from way back in the day.”
“They do? Is Nestle involved with the mafia? What about Miles? Peggy told me that he had to resign because a man did a blog and reporters started sniffing around—”
“Whoa, we go from soul mates to twenty questions in ten seconds,” he said, wide-eyed. “And who is Peggy?”
So far, I wasn’t doing so well on this whole adult soul-mate thing. “Right, sorry. Peggy is my friend from Tri-City. She runs Peggy’s Pies and Purses on Morrison Ave near the Triopolis campus.”
“Oh yeah, I know that area. I’ve never been there before. I do love a good piece of fig jam pie.”
“That does not sound good to me.”
“Trust me, when I make you one, you will love it!”
“I have no doubt I’ll love whatever you make for me,” I got lost in his eyes for several seconds, forgetting where I was going with anything.
“So, more rumors about my family are swirling around, I see.” Meiser pulled me out of my reverie.
“I guess. Do you know why your brother resigned?”
“I do. I know we said transparency here, and I understand trust is important in a relationship. There are some things I will not be able to talk about with you if they are ongoing investigations.” His tone was very firm.
“You do know that leaves me to make assumptions.” Equally firm tone. We were now having a stare-off.
I was the first to cave to fill the silent void—he was really good at this detective stuff. “So, have you heard about how your other brother, Marty, is doing?”
Marty was in jail. There was no doubt he was involved in the mafia, and he had attacked both me and Mick with a knife last Thanksgiving while being involved in other nefarious activities.
“Now, Marty—I can talk about Marty. He’s getting by just fine in prison. There are places in this world where being a top guy in the mafia buys you respect. Prison is one of those places. Doesn’t mean he wants to stay there, though.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine all you’ve been through with your family. It still amazes me to think about how you managed to get out of that life.”
We had been sitting in the kitchen chatting after eating and I offered him some coffee while I made myself some tea.
“You know if I’m going to be hanging out more here, then I’m going to need to get us an espresso machine.” He sidled up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, softly kissing the nape of my neck.
I turned around while in his arms to face him, “I should let you know, when you hold me like this and kiss that spot on my neck, you can pretty much get whatever you want.”
“That is great intel to work with.” Mick’s eyes glowed.
I turned off the tea kettle as my heartbeat accelerated and my stomach fluttered.
I woke up the next morning with four fluff balls splayed out across me and—I propped up on my elbows and my mouth fell open. That little Sammy Jr. was laying at Mick’s feet. He had always been a one-woman cat—a true mama’s boy. Furry little traitor!
“Don’t tell me you are going to be a handful first thing in the morning too,” Meiser said lazily, looking at my expression.
“He’s supposed to be a mama’s boy.” I pointed at Sam splayed across the blanket on top of Mick’s legs.
“Yep, still a handful.” He reached out and put his arm around me as I snuggled against his side, laying my head on his chest.
“This is nice,” I said.
“Very nice. I’m happy we are pursuing this. I hope you know that I’m all in, Jolie. We’ve both been through a lot in our lives. I feel a strong connection with you.”
I looked at him, then kissed him lightly. “I agree. I’m not going to lie. I’m worried. You know I have trust issues. Among other issues.”
We both laughed.
“I know that. I hope you don’t think I’m holding things back from you because I don’t trust you. You know, with some things with my family, because—”
“You don’t have to explain. I do understand that with your job, regardless of how much I pry, you can only divulge so much. I promise—I get that.”
“I know you can do what you want—go off with your PI bestie and investigate anything you want. I’m not trying to hold you back. It’s just that I worry about you getting hurt. Nestle is not a man to mess with. Getting caught up with my family—well, you saw firsthand what that looks like. I couldn’t live with it if I was the reason—”
“I get it, Mick, I really do. But here’s the thing you need to know—there is an age difference here. And I have no issues with that. But I’m still figuring out a lot of things—trying to understand myself more. I think that’s important to do before starting a family.” I was lying on his chest and suddenly froze, realizing what I had just said. “Oh, I didn’t mean—I just meant—I swear I’m not going there yet—it’s just—are you going to let me blabber on forever?”
Mick and I sat up in bed, and he cracked up, “Why yes, I was thoroughly entertained!”
“I’m so happy to amuse you!” I playfully slapped him.
“Hey, our age difference doesn’t bother me at all. And all joking aside, the one thing that frightens me in all this is that I do want a family too. As you know, I have MS. That was one of the reasons I was gone for so long. You know I had a flare-up while you were in Santo Domingo. I started a new treatment—it’s a trial—in the hopes it will help with my balance issues. I worry about that, or rushing you into something you aren’t ready for because I’m older.”
“I get it. I think for now we should focus on enjoying the beginning of our relationship and see where it takes us.”
“Starting with breakfast?”
I put on my robe and Meiser dressed in yesterday’s clothes and we headed down to the kitchen to see what we could make. We walked into the kitchen holding hands to find my Grandma Opal and her beau Tom Costello trying to sneak out the door.
“What in the name of–?” I roared.
Lowering her eyes, Grandma said, “Sorry, I made you a pineapple upside-down cake. I knocked but when you didn’t answer, I assumed you two went on a walk for tea so I thought I’d leave it on your island.”
Poor Tom clearly felt so awkward he couldn’t even raise his eyes to mine. His chin seemed to be glued to his chest.
“Hi, Opal,” Mick said, walking to the cake cover and opening it.
Suddenly, my anger dissipated when I saw the caramelized sugar drizzling down the side of the moist cake and the cooked pineapple rings with the bright red cherries in the center of each ring.
“We’re sorry,” Grandma said, lumping Tom into her bad behavior. “We’ll get out of your hair.”
Grandma, all four foot nine inches of her, began shoving Tom out the door as he grunted and yelped, “I told you we shouldn’t do this!”
“Just go, shush you!”
“And … that’s what it’s like to be with me and how my family is—unfortunately,” I groaned.
“Well, that’s better than them being a mob family.”
He made a good point.
I went into the restaurant to do some prepping for the dinner special that night since Ava and I would be doing our last cooking class. I still needed to stop at the store to pick up the ingredients for the skillet chocolate chip cookie. I figured college kids would love it, and it was something I could make in my sleep as often as I made one for myself.
“Wow, you have a glow about you,” Ava said, leaning her elbows on the counter with a dreamy look on her face.
“You have got to be kidding me! Grandma is out announcing to the townspeople that I got—”
“What? Grandma Opal caught you doing the nasty?” Ava’s beautiful amber skin blanched in disbelief.
“NO! Don’t be disgusting!”
“Hey, you may want to take this conversation in the back,” Magda’s mouth drew into a straight line then she bit her lip.
We looked up and realized that customers were starting to look our way.
I grabbed Ava’s elbow and led her through the kitchen where Carlos was cooking.
“She didn’t catch us in any act. She dropped a cake off and knocked, when I didn’t answer she thought I was out walking with Meiser since his truck was in the drive, so she and Tom used the key—which they were supposed to get back to me—to drop off the cake. Oh, hi, Carlos.” I smiled awkwardly at him.
“Oh man, this is great stuff,” Ava hooted. “You and Meiser finally get it together only for Mama Opal to come bursting in!”
“I just told you—”
“I leave you two alone for a bit.” Carlos nearly sprinted to the front.
I swear Ava and I should have T-shirts made that say I came. I saw. I made it awkward.
“If Grandma didn’t tell you, then how did you find out?”
“I live next door to you. I saw his truck in the driveway last night and then it was still there this morning. It doesn’t take a lot to put it together.”
“Oh yeah, that’s why my grandma thought we were out walking. That’s true. And you are a PI now.” I laughed.
“Wow, you are happy—you never let something go this easy. So, how was—”
“Nope, that’s as much sharing as this girl is going to do. I’m going to let Carlos know it’s safe to leave, and I’ll take over and then prep for the dinner crowd later when he comes back.”
Later that day, I was getting ready to head out to the store to pick up what we needed when I noticed a pensive look on Ava’s face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Aren’t you worried about tonight? That weirdo, Picasso’s whatever said someone wouldn’t make it to class tonight.”
My elated feelings had put all that out of mind. “That’s right. Well, it’s almost time for class and we haven’t heard anything.”
“True. I guess I’ll meet you at your house in a little while,” Ava pulled at her necklace with a pained expression on her face.
We were all set up and ready to get the last class over with—this entire culinary class project had been so chaotic we were seriously considering making this online cooking course our last one.
We looked at one another and both took a deep breath as the app opened. I made a mental note to make sure everyone was accounted for—except there seemed to be two Lahiri’s—Poppy was back at it again. Still, I exhaled when I saw all the faces looked safe and healthy, except Mod’s, who had bruises still healing. Since we weren’t supposed to know what happened, we acted surprised.
“Oh my gosh, what happened to you?” I asked.
Tad and Quinn stepped into the frame and stood, towering over Mod. Quinn said, “Hey, this is Quinn. Mod was mugged. I’ve tried to get everyone on board with always being in pairs. We’ve got each other, so we should be able to always be safe.”
Mod looked up from Tad to Quinn with a trembling chin, then went into a coughing fit.
I had had it with these two jerks. I was getting ready to lay into them when Ava pushed her face right up to the computer screen. “Listen up, losers! You are NOT a part of this class. I don’t remember seeing any money from either of you. I don’t care if you run a cult or not—get your creepy faces off of my screen NOW!”
I could see Tad’s cold, flinty eyes go from cocky to angry as his lip curled into a sneer, “This is our home. We have allowed these girls to take this cockamamie cooking class, meaning we are permitting you both into our home. I’d be careful how you speak to us.”
I felt a vein protrude in my forehead as red flashed in front of my eyes.
Nostrils flaring, Ava spoke in a voice that shook with fury. “‘Allowed,’ ‘permitted,’ oh, you had better be kidding me, man. You want careful? I’ll teach you the meaning of carefully smashing your face in you no good little punk—”
Tabitha reached to grab Ava’s arm trying to diffuse the situation. The gesture pulled me back to earth. I tried to think of the best way to change the mood when the screen went black.
I looked from Ava to Tabitha, who seemed to be in go-mode, trying to figure what had happened.
“Can they still hear us or see us?” I asked anyone—Bradley or Tabitha.
“Is that weirdo Picasso’s Peril coming back?” Ava asked.
“The feed has been cut—they can’t see or hear anything. I don’t think anyone is coming back on screen,” Tabitha said, reaching for her phone. “I’m calling Teddy. I don’t like what I saw from them or how terrified that girl looked.”
I reached for my phone, too, and called Mick filling him in on what took place and that Tabitha was talking to Teddy.
“Got it, I’m with Teddy. We’re heading to the commune now. I’ll call you when—”
“We’ll see you there,” I pressed disconnect looking at Ava as I grabbed my purse. Tabitha had headed out while speaking to Teddy a few minutes ago. Bradley followed behind us.
There was silence the entire thirty-minute drive. I pulled into the gravelly road approaching the cul-de-sac. There were sirens flashing from police vehicles, and two ambulances were on the scene. I felt sick to my stomach. No one moved to get out of the car.
Meiser saw my car and walked toward it with a grim expression.
“Mod’s dead.”