But for the first time he wondered if there was something darker going on with the insomniac Rollerblader/handyman.
Which is why after Tyler left, Luke took the glass of water Tyler had used and wrapped it in a sheet of newspaper until he could get his hands on a fingerprinting kit. It wouldn’t hurt to run Tyler’s prints though the system and see what came up.
“If you tell me you’ve finished all your Christmas shopping already, I’m going to have to kill you,” Julia warned Pam as the two of them met outside the library after work.
“There are still one or two things I have to get.”
“I hate you, you know that, right?”
“Absolutely.” Pam grinned. “That’s why we’re such good friends.”
“How have your December weddings been going?”
“So far, so good. We have two down and two yet to go.”
Julia looked up at the feathery flakes of snow starting to fall. “Have you heard a weather report?”
“We’re under a winter storm watch. Five to six inches of snow possible by morning.”
“Which means we might have a white Christmas.” So far they’d only been teased with a light dusting of snow earlier in the month which had long since melted.
Julia liked her Christmases to be white. Growing up on the West Coast, she hadn’t had many snowy postcard holidays. Nothing traditional. Her mother often celebrated Winter Solstice with small handmade gifts and told her that Santa was taking advantage of the elves by not paying them decent wages or benefits.
They would usually attend a midnight Christmas Eve service, going to a different church and denomination each year—Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Episcopalian. At other times in the year they’d visited Buddhist temples and Jewish synagogues. Angel was an equal-opportunity believer.
“We better get going before the snow really piles up,” Pam said.
Julia had already done some shopping online—ordering books, music, and a few educational toys from Amazon .com, and specialty yarn for her mom from an online knitting store.
She had no idea what to get for her sister Skye. Or for Pam.
“How are things going between you and Luke?” Pam asked.
Julia shrugged. “I haven’t heard from him lately. We’ve both been busy with holiday preparations.”
“What’s he doing for Christmas?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Ah, ladies.” Walt walked up to them. “Good to see you both. Julia, I meant to tell you that after further consideration, the town council has decided to temporarily shelf the idea of the llamas as prognosticators.”
“That’s good.”
“Otherwise, we’re still on track with the preparations for the Best Small Town judges.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you if they show up incognito or what?”
“They have a scheduled visit coming up in April, and they also have an unannounced visit before that. Of course, we already know that Serenity Falls is a great place to live and raise a family. Smart Americans are leaving the crowded metropolitan areas and moving to quiet, peaceful communities such as ours.”
Since the mishap at the Wiener Races, things
had
been relatively quiet around town. That made Julia wonder when chaos was going to return—and which one of her family members would be the cause of it.
Luke looked up from his distributor’s alcohol re-order form to find Skye sauntering into Maguire’s. It was cold enough outside that she should be wearing a coat. Instead, she had what looked like a Peruvian blanket wrapped around her and a weird hat with flaps over her ears.
“We don’t open for another ten minutes,” he told her.
“Then you shouldn’t leave the front door unlocked.”
“You’re right.”
“But as I’m in here . . .” She paused and deftly settled onto a bar stool. “Angel wants you to come to Christmas dinner.”
“Angel does? What about your sister?”
“What about her?”
“Never mind. Tell your mom thanks but no thanks.”
“You don’t understand. Saying ‘no’ is not an option.”
“Why not? Is your mom some kind of New Age mob kingpin or something?”
“She’s really looking forward to you and Tyler and Algee coming to dinner. You don’t have other plans, do you?”
“No, but . . .”
“Good.”
He glared at her. “Look, I don’t do family dinners.”
Skye shrugged. “Hey, we’re not your usual family.”
“Yeah, I noticed that.”
“You’ve noticed my sister a lot, too. So just look on this as another chance to get in her good graces. Or get her in your bed.”
“Yeah, you’re definitely not your average family.” He didn’t know many sisters who’d try to get their sibling into bed with a guy.
“So you are coming to dinner?” Skye asked.
“No.”
“How about this? How about we play a hand of poker for it?” She reached for a deck of cards someone had left at the end of the bar. “I win, you come and you get your buddies Tyler and Algee to come, too. You win, and I’ll drop this.”
Luke paused.
“Come on. You strike me as a gambling man.”
Oh, he’d gambled plenty. Right down to his last dime and then some. That’s why he was stuck here in Podunkville. Because he was broke.
That hadn’t always been the case. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact date when things had gone bad. He’d spent day after day mired in violence and tragedy in a job where one mistake would get you or others killed, losing himself bit by bit, blurring the lines that had once been so clear to him.
That’s when he’d started gambling, not just with his life but with his money as well. By the time he realized how out of control he was, it was too late. He was broke, in debt up to his eyeballs.
He’d gotten help and walked away.
Luke stared down at the cards. They beckoned to him. Tempted him. Like that belly-dancing librarian sister of Skye’s. “Just one hand?” he heard himself say.
Skye slipped off her silly hat and nodded. She looked like a radioactive porcupine with her brilliant neon-red hair spiked up. How much could she know about cards? This was a simple way to make her invitation go away—beat her at cards and get on with it.
“Okay, you’re on.”
Five minutes later he stared down at the four of a kind she had laid out on the bar in front of him.
“Great,” Skye said cheerfully. “We’ll see you at two on Christmas Day.”
Watching her walk away, Luke had the unmistakable feeling he’d just been played by a pro.
Chapter Eleven
“You
want me to do
what
?!” Tyler growled.
“Come on, don’t make it sound like I’m asking you to strip naked in the middle of town or something,” Luke replied.
“You might as well.”
“It’s just a meal. What’s the big deal?”
“It’s Christmas dinner.”
Luke nodded. “Yeah, so?”
“So it’s a big deal.”
“Look, we have to go.”
“Why?”
“Because Skye won the bet between us.”
“Important word there. The bet was between
you
and Skye. Nothing to do with me.”
“Yes, it is. You were included in the invitation.”
“Why?”
“How should I know? Because Angel wants you there, I guess.”
“She said that?”
“I haven’t talked to Angel.”
“What about Julia the librarian?”
“What about her?”
“Have you talked to her?”
“Not about this, no.”
“Why not?”
“You’re just full of questions, aren’t you?” This time Luke was the one who growled. “Look, do you want to break Angel’s heart by refusing her invitation?”
The look on Tyler’s face answered that.
“Right, so I’ll see you there at two on Christmas.” Luke watched Tyler stomp out of Maguire’s. One guest down, one left to go.
Algee’s only concession to the holiday was a vintage aluminum tree with superhero ornaments hanging from it; superhero action figures placed around it, and red, white, and blue lights surrounding the window.
“Hey Big Al.”
Algee responded with one of his huge smiles.
“I hope you’re not doing anything Christmas day,” Luke quickly continued, “because we’ve got an invitation we can’t turn down. From Angel. For dinner. You can’t say no.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You weren’t?”
Algee shook his head, the overhead lights gleaming on his bald head. “Sounds like fun.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Luke muttered.
“You don’t sound very excited about it. And why couldn’t we turn down this invitation?”
“Because I lost a bet.”
“Ah.”>
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Luke demanded.
Algee shrugged. “Whatever you want it to mean.”
“Don’t you go sounding all New Age on me now.”
“Yo, Luke!” The shout came from Billy as he entered the store. His pants were almost as wide as they were long and hung well below the waistband of his black underwear, which was clearly visible.
“Hey, I heard your dad is working on an ordinance banning the public display of underwear. That true?” Algee asked.
Billy shrugged. “Do I look like I care?”
“So what’s up with the football jersey?” Luke asked. “I thought you weren’t a fan.”
“Football sucks,” Billy declared with a hip-hop jab of his fingers. “Who names their team after a condom, anyway?”
Luke frowned. “What?”
“Rock Creek. They’re the Trojans.”
Algee tried to keep a straight face while Luke tried for once to impart some knowledge. “The original Trojans were fierce warriors from Troy.”
Billy shrugged. “I don’t care about history. Everyone already thinks I’m a freakazoid. Being a brain would only make things worse.”
“So history and football suck. What do you like? Besides comic books.”
Billy’s face lit up. “Extreme snowboarding. When they get some good jo-jo going, the amplitude is awesome.”
Luke shared a blank look with Algee, who had the nerve to grin at him.
“They show it on TV,” Billy said. “You should have the screen at Maguire’s show that instead of a lame football game.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that would go over real well with the local patrons,” Luke noted sarcastically. In a state boasting two NFL teams—the Steelers and the Eagles—football ruled.
“Maybe after the Super Bowl,” Algee suggested. “Instead of arena football.”
“I happen to like arena football,” Luke said. “It’s not as good as the real thing maybe . . .”
Billy laid a counseling hand on Luke’s arm. “You need to be open to new experiences. You’re in a rut.”
Great. Now he was being counseled by Mini-Me in droopy pants.
“You don’t want your balls to the wall, do you?” Billy said.
“Who does?” Luke replied, trying to keep a straight face.
“Then don’t wait until it’s too late. Take my advice, Luke.” Billy gave him a mano-a-mano look. “Live a little dangerously.”
If only the kid knew exactly how dangerously Luke had lived the past few years. How he’d gotten hooked on the adrenaline rush of knowing you were going to die . . . and surviving. Only risk had made Luke feel alive. Which was a sure way to end up six feet under.
Oh, yeah, Luke had lived dangerously. The question was, could he live
without
the danger? The jury was still out on that one.
Luke waited two days before taking Tyler’s indirect advice and going to speak to Julia. She was working at the library. He didn’t get there much.
As luck would have it, the first person he ran into inside the doors was the town mayor.
“What are you doing here? Trying to get a library card?” Walt mocked.
“Maybe.” Luke pinned him with a narrow-eyed stare of a man who’d been trained in deadly force. “You got a problem with that?”
“Well . . . I . . . uh . . .” Walt backed up and then caught himself and regrouped. “The library doesn’t carry pornography, you know.”
“One man’s pornography is another’s classic piece of literature. Why look, there’s a poster with a list of books that people tried to ban. Hmmm,
The Catcher in the Rye
. Bad stuff, right? You trying to ban books at the library now, Walt? Want to set up a bonfire outside and burn a batch of them?”
“We don’t allow bonfires within the city limits,” Walt said.
“Can I help you with something?” Julia sounded a tad breathless, as if she might have raced across the library to prevent a fist fight between the two of them.
“Not unless you can get rid of this guy.” Luke pointed to Walt.
“We don’t need your kind around here,” Walt retorted, his face turning that reddish purple some guy’s did when they were about to blow a gasket.
“You’ve really got to work on that welcome wagon routine of yours, Mr. Mayor,” Luke drawled mockingly.
“You . . . you!” Walt both sputtered and shouted.
“Now, now. No yelling in the library,” Luke reprimanded him.
Walt’s face turned even redder before he stormed out of the building, unable to speak.
“Enjoy that, did you?” Julia fixed him with admonishing look.
“Not as much as I enjoy watching you, kissing you.” Luke saw her eyes darken as she nervously licked her lips. He was dying to taste her mouth. “Aren’t you going to shush me?”
“No.” But she did tug him around a corner and down a deserted aisle to the back corner of the library.
“Why not? We’re in a library. The capital of shushdom.”
“A library is an information center—” she heatedly began when he interrupted her.
“Yeah, yeah. Listen, did you know your mother wants us to come to Christmas dinner? Me, Tyler, and Algee.”
Julia nodded cautiously.
“Why didn’t you warn me?”