Chapter Five
At closing Jazzi received a text from Parker asking if she and Dawn wanted to meet at The Wild Kangaroo for a late supper. After checking with Dawn and finding out she was busy, Jazzi texted Parker back.
Live music tonight, right?
There is. Meet me there? Seven thirty?
She texted a smiley emoji.
At seven thirty she stepped into The Wild Kangaroo and saw Parker had snatched a table for two near the bar. She didn’t always like sitting there because it was noisier, but tonight with live music it wouldn’t really matter.
“I ordered cheese fries and crab sticks to get us started,” he said. “You can check the menu. I didn’t know what to order for you to drink.”
She slipped into her seat. “I’ll try lemonade for now. I heard about their new sunset creamsicle drink. It sounds delicious. I’ll save that for later.”
“It has whipped-cream vodka in it, doesn’t it?” Parker asked.
“One night a week, I have to let my hair down, right?” she teased.
And she had let her hair down. It flowed to mid-back, straight and glossy. She’d flat-ironed it into a smooth style with the very ends waving. She’d dressed up a bit tonight in lime-green bell-bottoms, a yellow spaghetti-strapped tank, and a tie-dyed bolero jacket. Maybe she just wanted to uplift her mood. She didn’t know. After all, she felt like wearing black. But her attitude had always been to soldier on.
Parker’s gaze drifted over her. “You look nice.”
It was something a brother would say, and Jazzi smiled. She was glad she and Parker were friends.
The waitress brought them their crab sticks and cheese fries and took their drink orders.
After ordering cheese and bacon rolls, Jazzi glanced around. There was loud chatter and voices everywhere. The place had filled up fast. Music usually started around eight thirty.
“Have you heard anything about the group who’s playing?”
“They’re supposed to be good.” Parker gave her a sly smile. “They’re called the Snob Barrel.”
She laughed out loud. “Okay, let’s hope they sound better than their name.”
Parker downed a few cheese fries. “Everybody comes to be social and just have background music while they talk, don’t you think?”
After she dunked the golden crispy fried crab stick into a soy dip, she shook her head. “I don’t know. It depends if they treat the night like happy hour, or if it’s just a place they come to with their friends.”
“I’ve been thinking about those dating apps,” Parker admitted.
“Are you thinking of creating one?”
“No. I’ve decided they should have background checks attached to them. They’re only safe if the user actually uploads a true profile. What if there was a way to create an app that somehow utilized background checks?”
Jazzi shrugged. “Even then, not everything that can be hidden in somebody’s past would show up. How thorough could that be?”
Parker chose a crab stick and spritzed it with vinegar. “And there would probably have to be a charge.”
“As well as fostering advertising for the app?”
“How do you know about that?” Parker asked.
“I know someone who started a podcast. Once he started gaining subscribers, it took off because sponsors signed up.”
“Computer matchup dating services were once the rage. These apps have taken over. I can’t believe someone as attractive as Brie Frazier had to use one.” Parker blushed a bit as he said it.
“I haven’t dated that much, Parker, but I do know it’s hard to connect with guys. Using an app or not.”
“I haven’t dated much either. But we haven’t dated much for different reasons.”
“What’s your reason?” She picked up a cheese fry and ate it.
“I’m socially incompetent.”
“You are not,” Jazzi protested vehemently. “You can talk to anybody.”
“I can talk to anyone about computer stuff. Everyday stuff? I’m not so great.”
She shook her head again. “I don’t believe that.”
“Let’s face it, Jazzi. I’m a nerd. During my teen years, I mostly lived in my room with my computer. And truth be told, I still spend a lot of time that way.”
Jazzi waved a crispy crab stick at him. “I guess the question is, do you want to spend it that way? Or out alone in your boat? Or do you want to mingle with a crowd of people?”
“Not a crowd. I do enjoy book club, though.”
“See? Everybody needs friends who get them. The book club accepts you.”
“You mean they accept my quirks,” he said self-deprecatingly.
She chuckled. “We all accept each other’s quirks, don’t you think?”
They settled in with their appetizers, chatting when it felt right, quiet and just listening to the surroundings in between. After a jostling group of four men came in and sat at the bar, Jazzi noticed Oliver was tending it. That wasn’t usual, but maybe tonight with music, his duties were a little different. He tried to be everywhere, she knew that.
Oliver seemed to know the men who were sitting there. Suddenly her ears perked up. She heard the name Nolan more than once.
Jazzi leaned her shoulder closer to Parker’s. “Do you know any of those men sitting at the bar?”
Parker took a look at them. “No, I can’t say I do. They could be tourists. Oliver seems to know them. My guess is they come and go in here a lot.”
“I heard the name Nolan,” she admitted.
His eyes grew wide. “Do you know somebody named Nolan?”
“I know someone named Nolan Johnson, but not personally. Brie dated him.”
“Someone from one of those apps?”
“Yes.”
“You mentioned him for a reason, Jazzi. What’s up? What do you know about him?”
“I know Brie didn’t want to date him again. He called her the night I was there for dinner, and she made some excuse.”
“That’s not unusual with the dating apps, from what I hear.”
“No, I know. It’s just . . .”
“This is me, Jazzi. Spit it out. It’s just what?”
The look on Parker’s face was totally serious. She knew he didn’t gossip, and neither did she. This was something she could run by him and get his opinion on. “Brie had a bruise on her wrist.”
“And? She could have knocked herself against something. She was out on her paddleboard a lot, right?”
“Yes, but she said it was a mishap. It happened on her date with Nolan.”
“What kind of date was it? Out on a boat? Something like that? Anything can happen.”
“I know. Maybe I’m simply too suspicious.”
“Are you watching Forensic Files again?”
She smiled. “No, I’ve switched to British mysteries.”
Parker stared over at the bar. “There could be more than one man in Belltower Landing with the name of Nolan, you know.”
“I know, but he seems to be about the right age.”
“Did you tell the detective about him?”
“No. I didn’t want to get him in trouble if nothing actually happened.”
“You mean maybe nothing abusive happened.”
“Yes. But, like you said, on a boat anything can happen . . . or on a paddleboard.”
The waitress came over to their table with the cheese and bacon rolls they’d ordered.
Jazzi decided nothing ventured, nothing gained. She nodded to the second man at the bar with red hair. “Do you know him?” she asked the waitress.
“Sure, he comes in here a lot. His name’s Nolan Johnson. He’s one of our regulars for happy hour. Do you want me to introduce you?”
Quickly Jazzi shook her head. “No, I was just curious. Thanks. The cheese and bacon rolls look really good.”
“They’re always good. Oliver makes sure about that. Enjoy them. The music starts soon.”
The yeasty aroma of the rolls had Jazzi’s mouth watering. The Wild Kangaroo’s rolls weren’t only topped with cheese and bacon but were stuffed with provolone and bacon too.
“What are you going to do now that you know Nolan Johnson is sitting over there?” Parker asked. He watched Jazzi pick up a roll and smell it as if it was fine perfume.
“I’m not going to do anything. I had my curiosity quenched. Let’s dig into these.”
At Parker’s probing look, Jazzi heard that mantra in her head again—Keep your distance. That’s what she was going to do. And now she knew one of the men to keep her distance from.
“You are an interesting Gen Z specimen,” Parker announced, like a proclamation, as she took a large bite of the roll.
“How so?” she asked after she swallowed.
“You like books and tea, conservative as well as flashy clothes, you paddleboard, you cook for you and Dawn now and then, and you like cats, especially kittens. You’re digitally aware, but you’re not constantly on your phone. I’ve even seen you poring over old maps. You know, the kind that fold up?”
Jazzi almost sputtered. “Parker, you can’t fit any Gen Z woman into a box. You should know that by now.”
“But I can, Jazzi. That’s just it. You’re the first woman I’ve met in a while who cares more about ideas than clothes, who cares more about friends than what they think of her. You had the courage to look for your birth parents and start a business.”
“Dawn started the business with me.”
“Yes, she did,” Parker agreed. “But she’s still attached to her parents. She cares about their approval.”
“Don’t we all want our parents’ approval?”
“I suppose,” he said, finishing the last crab stick. “But I think whoever raised you, raised you to be an independent thinker, and that’s a good thing. And speaking about being an independent thinker, I believe you should convince Dawn to let me develop an app for Tomes and Tea. Just imagine how that will connect you to your customers. I’m willing to develop one if you want me to.”
Jazzi picked up her glass of lemonade and took a long sip. “I think too much is happening at once.”
Guitars began strumming on the other side of the bar.
Parker said, “We can’t see very well over here.”
“No, but we can listen.”
Parker sent her a glance with a smile that told her something she didn’t want to know. It might be that Parker Olsen liked her for more than being a friend.
* * *
Two hours later, Parker insisted on walking Jazzi back to her apartment.
“There’s a killer out here somewhere,” Parker had said. Jazzi knew she shouldn’t be foolish so she agreed. Up on the landing, she asked, “Do you want to come in?”
“And meet the kittens?”
“That’s the reason,” she said. “Dawn might be home too.”
Once they were inside, Jazzi had two kittens cavorting around her feet.
Parker leaned down and picked one up, staring Zander in the face. “You’re going to protect your cat moms, aren’t you?”
Zander meowed at him, and Parker laughed. Then he set down the kitten, and Zander and Freya ran off toward Dawn, who was lounging on the sofa.
After he said hi, Parker looked at their door. “You still don’t have a peephole.”
“We’re going to put one in,” Jazzi assured him. “I have a drill down in the storeroom. I can figure it out.”
Dawn protested. “When I was at my parents’ tonight, my dad said he’d put one in for us. He’d put a sturdier dead bolt on the door too.”
“We can do it ourselves,” Jazzi told her.
Parker gave Jazzi a look, and she remembered what he’d said about Dawn being close to her parents. Parents like to be protective. She knew that. She’d been fighting against her mom’s protection for a few years now.
“Okay,” Jazzi said with a shrug. “If he wants to do the dead bolt.”
“He does. But I told him he has to let us know when he’s coming so we can put Zander and Freya in one of the bedrooms. Did you see anyone you knew at the Kangaroo?” Dawn asked, curling up her knees on the sofa and settling back in the corner.
“We did. Kaylee and Derek came in, so we sat at a table with them for a while. It was nice. You should have come.”
“My parents wanted to talk to me.”
“About the bookstore’s plan for promotion?” Parker asked.
“Well, that’s part of it. My mom doesn’t understand how social media influencers work. She doesn’t realize how important it will be if Delaney coaxes that runway model to come to the store to sign her books. No, my parents wanted to talk to me about opening a second Rods to Boards store, maybe in Ithaca. My brother’s going to manage it. They wanted me to do it. I hate to disappoint them. I like to please people, especially my parents. But Tomes and Tea is important to me. Our store, not their store. My brother can handle business on their side. He can be the inheritor of their franchise if that’s what it develops into. I don’t really want anything to do with that. I’ve got to find my own life, just as Jazzi has.”
Jazzi didn’t believe she was a role model for that. She was trying to find her way just like any zoomer was. She was fortunate. . . even blessed . . . that she’d been given the opportunities she had.
Parker had come in and pulled out a chair at the little table. He turned it around and sat facing Dawn. “Have you given up the idea of connecting with your birth parents?”
“I have for now. For one thing, I don’t want to upset my parents even more. But the second thing is—look at what happened to Brie.”
Jazzi shook her head. “I really don’t think that has anything to do with her birth dad.” Though she did remember that email address and the fact that Brie had met with him. Could that have had something to do with what happened to Brie? She didn’t want to think so.
“Are both of your parents against finding your birth parents?” Parker asked.
“Mom’s against it more than Dad. They confuse me sometimes. They say they want me to be happy, but then when I make a decision on my own, they have all these reasons why it might not work out. Even Dad wants me to take over the outfitters business someday. It doesn’t make sense to me. My brother’s into it. He knows every product and every account.”
Like with Jazzi, the Fernsbys’ first-born child, a son, was their natural child. Dawn had been adopted. Jazzi’s older sister Vi was a natural child. Part of Jazzi understood exactly where Dawn’s parents were coming from.
“They don’t want you to feel like you’re adopted. They want you to know that they see you the same way they see Farrell, right?”
“I guess so. I understand how much they love me. I also understand that they want to be enough for me, and that’s why they don’t want me to go searching.”
Jazzi had lost her adoptive father to cancer by the time she’d searched for her birth mother. That had a lot to do with her search. Everybody’s life was messy. Dawn’s was no different.
Jazzi was about to say so when her phone played “As It Was.” Taking it from her pocket, she studied the screen. “It’s my mom,” she said and cringed.
“Don’t you want to talk to her?” Parker asked.
“It’s not that. I bet I know why she’s calling. She’s heard about Brie’s murder. She knows people . . .” Jazzi started to say, and then stopped. There was no reason to tell Parker and Dawn that her mom knew detectives in the small town of Willow Creek, that she’d worked with them, had barbecues with them, and called them her friends. Jazzi had no doubt whatsoever that they had told her about the murder in Belltower Landing.
“Do you really think she heard about the murder here?” Dawn asked.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to tell her that you knew the victim?” Parker asked.
“I’ve always been honest with my mom. I’m not going to stop now. But I’d better go to the bedroom to take it. Parker, I’ll see you later, okay?”
He held up his fist for a fist bump and she gave him one and then disappeared into her bedroom. After Zander followed, she shut the door.
* * *
The neon green and blue LED lights glowed in the bookstore’s cubicles as Jazzi, Dawn, and Delaney sat at the back table. The Edison lights above the sales counter shone brightly as Delaney opened her laptop and began to prepare for a Zoom video meeting.
Dawn pulled her chair up next to Delaney’s and Jazzi’s as Delaney clicked on the link. Dawn nudged Delaney. “Is this really going to happen?”
“The odds are good,” Delaney said with a short quick smile and a flutter of her eyelashes.
Jazzi knew their friend was feeling proud of herself that she could help make this meeting with Emilia Perez happen.
There was a ding of a notification. Delaney pressed a button on her laptop and there, in vivid color, Emilia Perez smiled at them.
“Hi, Emilia,” Delaney said. “Meet my friends Dawn and Jazzi. They own Tomes and Tea.”
As Jazzi studied the screen, she realized Emilia Perez was truly strikingly beautiful. Her dark brown hair was parted in the center, high off her forehead. Each side was finger waved away from her face. Her brows were demure yet dark, her eyeliner flowed into her cat-eye markings. Her nose was narrow and her lips, a perfect rose bow, were plump and glossy. She was wearing a white short-sleeved dress with black jewel accents. It was obvious she worked out from the muscles of her shoulders. The beauty mark on her left cheek was a signature one and she didn’t try to cover it. Jazzi knew from Emilia’s stats that she was five-foot-eleven and regal in her bearing. If crowns were made for women, this woman would take the prize.
Emilia smiled broadly, and her black onyx earrings shone as she turned her head. “Hello, Dawn and Jazzi. Delaney has told me all about you.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Jazzi said, meaning it. “We’re so grateful if you’re willing to help our bookstore.”
“You sound surprised,” Emilia said with a laugh. “I do book signings all the time. I’m in the middle of a tour now.”
Dawn chimed in, “We know your book has made the best seller list. That’s why we’re so eager to have you.”
“And have me you will, if we can figure out our schedule.”
“Tell us what you have available,” Delaney suggested. “As a resort town, we’re going strong all summer.”
“Delaney, you know on the weekends I’m tied up the most. However, I had a bookstore back out of a book signing, something about a problem with the roof. I don’t even think you know about that yet.”
“When was it scheduled for?” Delaney asked, looking at the calendar on her phone.
“It’s in a month on a Friday. I hope that isn’t too short notice to promote it well.”
Jazzi leaned forward, excited in spite of herself. “That date is absolutely perfect. It coincides with our town’s Welcome Summer Festival on the summer solstice. We should have even more traffic than usual.”
“Especially if we get the word out there far and wide,” Delaney said. “We’ll put together a special promo for Emilia’s Instagram feed and yours. We should have a really successful signing. It will certainly bring interest to the store, beyond the confines of Belltower Landing.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Emilia said. “Delaney will be our go-between. She’ll take care of my travel arrangements and the time you want me there. I have to go now, but she’ll keep me informed and I’ll keep her informed. It was a pleasure meeting you both. Now go take some pictures of the store inside and out, and post them on your Instagram feed along with the fact that I’ll be doing a book signing at your store. Four weeks is a short time, but it’s also enough time to jazz up excitement for the event.”
After a wave at the three of them and a winsome good-bye, Emilia clicked off.
Dawn hopped up from her chair. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe she’s actually going to do it.” She gave Delaney a hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Jazzi hugged Delaney too. “She’s absolutely beautiful, isn’t she?”
“Inside and out. Sure, she cares about followers and sales, but she also genuinely wants to help you.”
Erica came in from the storeroom and saw they were grouped together around the laptop. “It’s time to open, girls.”
“Emilia Perez is going to come here for a book signing in four weeks,” Dawn told her. “We’re going to put this store on the map.”
Erica laughed. “I never doubted it. I’ll open the door.”
Jazzi was aware that one book signing with somebody famous wasn’t going to be enough to assure success, but it was a start. They needed a strategy and they’d have to develop that too. Jazzi hadn’t been naïve enough to think a bookstore would take care of itself. She knew online sales had cut into the numbers for brick-and-mortar stores. On the other hand, brick-and-mortar stores were becoming relics. That meant a store with the right amount of events and promotion could make a success of itself, and she intended to see that happen. Maybe she’d been asleep at the wheel up until now, simply trying to become an adult rather than a business owner. That was going to change.
After tea was brewing and the store opened, Dawn said, “I’ll stay in here and take care of the customers. You and Delaney shoot the photos. You know what Emilia needs.”
Dawn didn’t like to be the front woman, and she knew Jazzi enjoyed taking photos with her phone.
Delaney said, “You take some outside. I’m going to take photos in here before it gets crowded. I’ll do panoramic photos so people can get a hint of what the store is like. The lights will make things pop. But I’ll need pics of the two of you together too.”
Jazzi agreed. The outside photos probably weren’t as important as the inside ones. But Jazzi could take enough that Delaney could send whatever she wanted to Emilia.
First Jazzi went across the street and started clicking from different angles—the bay window, the side panels, the windows up above. The store was unique and she wanted to show that off. But she also wanted any of Emilia’s followers and their own who were seeing the feed to understand the geographic location and how Tomes & Tea was cuddled in between other stores. Lakeview Boulevard with its Knock Out roses was pretty in itself. You never knew what would tickle followers’ imaginations.
After she finished across the street, she took close-up shots of the window with its children’s display inside. She was contemplating what she should take next when she heard a familiar voice over her shoulder.
“Hi, Jazzi. It’s unusual for you to be out here instead of inside.”
Theo Carstead’s eyes twinkled at her as she turned to face him. “Photos for promo,” she said easily, noticing again how handsome he was with that cleft chin and unruly hair. “Are you looking for something to read?” she asked.
“I am. Believe it or not, I like to hold a book in my hand instead of looking at it on an e-reader. I’m into books about planes now, and I think I’d like to become a pilot.”
“The wild blue yonder,” she said. “I don’t know how I’d feel being in a small plane out there with blue and white all around me.”
“The instruments do the flying now. You wouldn’t have to be afraid. I found someone who’s teaching classes at the regional airport. I’m starting them next week. I just want to investigate all the types of planes I could possibly fly. Anyway, I won’t hold you up. But while I’m here, how about going with me for that drink? Maybe tomorrow night?”
Like a chime in her head that kept replaying, Jazzi remembered what her friend said about Theo’s connection to Evan Holloway. She also knew Emilia’s book signing wouldn’t be enough to raise the profile of Tomes & Tea. Shouldn’t she just say yes to Theo?
Taking all of it into consideration and tired of thinking about it, she answered Theo, “Sure. Let’s have a drink together. Should I meet you at The Wild Kangaroo?”
“Seven thirty.”
“That’s good,” Jazzi said, and waved as Theo went into the bookstore. She was gazing after him when a little girl suddenly barreled into her and wrapped her arms around Jazzi’s knees.
“Hi, Jazzi.”
Pocketing her phone, Jazzi looked down to see Sylvie Bianchi. “Hi there, Sylvie. How are you today?”
Addison, a staunch member of the store’s book club, said, “She’s determined to find a book about baby rabbits. She thinks she wants one. I’m trying to dissuade her.”
Jazzi laughed. “Maybe a book will do it. Maybe two books.”
Addison wagged her finger at Jazzi. “You’re just trying to sell books.”
“You might want to think about the cost of a rabbit hutch and food and also the bunny getting loose in your house.”
Addison laughed, her long blond hair blowing in the wind. “You could have a point.”
Jazzi gave Sylvie a hug and then straightened, looking into the bookstore where Theo had gone.
Addison took a step closer to her. “What’s wrong? You look worried.”
“I am. I might have just done something I shouldn’t have.”
“Confession is good for the soul,” Addison advised, as she took Sylvie’s hand to make sure she stayed by her side.
“Remember we talked about my accepting a date with Theo Carstead?”
“Yes,” Addison drawled.
“I just did, and I feel as if I did it under false pretenses. It’s not like me to think the end justifies the means. Maybe I should break the date.”
“Wouldn’t that be worse?” Addison asked.
Jazzi pulled her braid over her shoulder and fingered the end. “It could be. I don’t know. I have until tomorrow night to think about it.”
“Before you wear yourself out thinking about it, why don’t you take a photo of me and Sylvie out front? I’ll post it on my Instagram feed and you can post it on yours too. Then you won’t just have a picture of a bookstore.”
“I wonder if I could get all of my customers to take selfies out front,” Jazzi mused.
“Now you’re thinking like a woman who wants to promote her store.”