CHAPTER
forty-one 
AFTER WE ENTERED Déjà Vu, I noticed that the store looked different. The boxes piled near the register had disappeared.
Merlin smiled at us. Both Nimbus and Marshmallow pooled around his legs, and his grin grew wider. “Nice to see you, too, kitties.”
I stood before Merlin. “Did you end up reconciling your books? Your place looks much more organized.”
He adjusted the spectacles on his nose. “Finished all the paperwork this morning. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to call you about the inventory and receipts.”
My fingers danced across the glass counter with its embedded coins. “What did you find out?”
“Actually, we didn’t have that many old thermometers in stock. And we accounted for all the ones that got sold.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Who’s ‘we’?”
“Marina and I. She was indispensable in figuring out the numbers.” He knocked himself on the head. “I’m not very talented at math.”
Marshmallow let out a moan, and Merlin asked, “Is your cat all right?”
“I’m fine, but your shop might not be doing so well,” my cat said.
Marshmallow had a point. If Merlin had relied on Marina to evaluate the stock, could I trust the results he’d gotten?
“Thanks for your time,” I said to Merlin.
Oblivious, he gave me well-wishes for Marshmallow’s improved health as I led the cats out the door.
“She cooked the books,” Marshmallow said when we got back in the car.
“You don’t know that.”
“It’s a strong possibility.”
Merlin had relied on Marina to check on the inventory earlier in the morning. The timing was oddly coincidental. “I do admit it’s suspicious that Marina came to visit us at Hollywoof—”
“To ‘prove’ her innocence. She even diverted your attention and used Brandon as a scapegoat by giving you that wedding brochure.”
My hands gripped the steering wheel. The word “wedding” reminded me of the upcoming bound-to-be-awkward talk with my baby sis.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said as I revved the engine.
Alice greeted us with a warm welcome when we showed up at her place. I was about to spring some horrible news on her, and I couldn’t stomach destroying her joy right away. Even after she invited us inside, I remained standing before her in the entryway, hopping from one foot to the other.
“Mimi, what’s wrong?” My sister guided me to the dining table, a place where I could typically let go of my anxieties through food, but I continued standing near it. Marshmallow, though, led Nimbus over to lie down under the table, maybe to await future crumbs.
“Let me brew a pot of tea,” Alice said. “Dragonwell, extra strong.”
Dragonwell was the supreme selection of tea. “Emperor tea,” Ma called it. She served it to us as a panacea for all kinds of pains, even heartaches.
I watched as Alice placed a kettle on the burner. Then she opened a tin canister, letting a whiff of herbs float in the air.
Only after the water had boiled and she’d transferred it to a teapot with a bamboo design to steep the leaves did I begin speaking. Both she and I could deal with this better over a nice cup of tea.
“It’s about Dad,” I said, spitting out his name like a licorice-flavored watermelon seed.
She poured out the tea into dainty matching porcelain cups. After setting them at the dining table, she gestured for me to sit down next to her. “Yeah, I got the e-mail a few minutes before you arrived.”
At the table, I said, “Excuse me? He e-mailed you the news?”
She gave me a quick nod. “Actually, it was an Evite.”
I almost fell out of the chair. “He gave you an electronic invitation to the ceremony?”
“Uh-huh. Who knew he was so modern?” Alice was handling the news well. Maybe she’d already been prepared for it since she’d spent time with Ma and Dad after the Ultimate Date Fail.
Josh had told me he couldn’t find any divorce filings, though. “I don’t understand. How can Dad get remarried?”
Alice gave me a strange look. “I wouldn’t quite call it remarriage . . . By the way, you’re on the guest list, too.”
I pulled out my phone and checked my e-mail. “Nothing,” I said.
“Try your spam folder.”
There. An electronic invitation sent from my dad. My eyes misted as I lingered upon our last name. “Family is satu,” or “number one,” was our Lee motto. How could he have gone so astray?
Marshmallow purred from under the table and climbed onto my lap. “Mimi,” he said, “read the heading.”
I blinked back my tears and focused on the words. It read, You’re invited to a recommitment ceremony.
“What?” I dropped my phone on the table with a clatter. “They’re doing a vow renewal.”
“Right.” Alice smiled at me, and it seemed like the sun peeping out behind my rainfall of tears. “In the details, it says it’s meant to be a surprise for Ma. That’s why she doesn’t have a clue about it.”
“No wonder he’s been so distant.” I double-checked the ceremony date. Two days later. Exactly on time for this year’s Leap Day. “He’d been planning a big anniversary celebration for Ma. I’ve had it all backwards.” Dad said he’d hated keeping a secret from us—the organization of this important event.
Alice held up her teacup and clinked it against mine. “To our parents.”