“You’ve been gone for what . . . ten years?”
“Twelve. I see the gossips have been busy at work filling you in.”
“Someone mentioned who you were.”
“And did they also tell you all about my evil-doings?”
“They may have related one or two highlights.”
“And probably warned you to stay away from me.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Sure, it was.” He shrugged, but there was something in his eyes, the flicker of a shadow that was there and gone. “Town bad boy. Trouble. Evil seed. I’ve heard it all before.”
So had she, about her own family . . . but that was another matter and certainly not one she ever intended to share with him.
“So what are you going to do about it?” Luke demanded.
“About what?”
“About their warnings.”
“I don’t plan on doing anything. What about you? What do you plan on doing?”
“Raising some hell. Isn’t that was hell-raisers do?” Luke considered hauling her in his arms and kissing her, but one of the llamas was eyeing him the way a con artist eyed an easy mark. Llamas spit, and the big brown one looked aggravated.
So did Julia.
“If you came into town to make trouble, that’s your business,” she said.
“Actually, my business is Maguire’s Pub.”
“Where you plan on raising hell?”
“Raising hell and the price of the burger on the menu. It’s been the same for more than a decade.”
“Sounds like an astute business decision.”
“You say it as if you don’t expect me to make many of those.”
“No, I just meant that takes a lot of thought.”
“What does? Raising prices?”
“Running a business.”
“And you’d know this because . . . ?”
“My mother has run a number of businesses.” Not that Angel put a lot of thought into her endeavors, instead relying on the runes, or fate, or karma, or a blind belief that everything would somehow work out.
“What kind of businesses?”
“The details aren’t important. However, if you’re interested in checking out some books on business administration, you can do so at the library.”
Luke wanted to check her out, see if her lips were as smooth as they looked, her breasts as firm. He felt kind of weird having these thoughts about a librarian. Bookworms had never been his type before.
But there was always a first time for everything. And he was definitely looking forward to his first time with Julia.
“Are you crazy?” Julia confronted her sister in the kitchen a few minutes later. She’d somehow managed to evade Luke and send him on his way so she could come inside and set Skye straight.
“I can’t believe you said something like that to him.”
“And I can’t believe you’ve got matching red towels in your downtairs bathroom.” Skye frowned at her while dipping a tea bag into Julia’s
Smart Chick
ceramic mug. “Don’t you know that unbleached cotton is the most environmentally friendly?”
Julia waved her hands. “That has nothing to do with what we’re talking about. Stop changing the subject, and answer my question.”
“So you’re saying that the welfare of the entire planet is of no interest to you?”
“I’m saying that I want to know why you said what you did to Luke.”
Skye took her time wrapping the tea bag around a teaspoon before replying. “It’s obvious.”
“What is?”
“That you two are hot for each other.”
Julia rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I just met the man yesterday.”
“So what? Time is irrelevant. I refuse to live in the world of time. It’s too restrictive.”
“Are you saying you’d have sex with someone you just met?”
“If I wanted to, yes.”
“Well, I wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t what? Want to?”
“Wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Skye shook her head, making her spiky hair stand even more on end. “You are such a prude. I can’t believe we’re sisters.”
“Ditto.”
“So how did you get this way?”
“What way?”
“All puritanical.” Skye took a sip of her tea. “Is it from living here?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Has living in this town brainwashed you into believing their propaganda?”
“No one has brainwashed me. And there’s nothing wrong with Serenity Falls.”
“Not if you’re into cloning. The houses all look the same.”
“That’s not true.”
“They all have green doors.”
“Walt thought it made them look more uniform, so it was part of a neighborhood improvement effort last year.”
“You’re living in a town that tells you what color to paint your doors. Come on. You don’t think that’s strange?”
“No, I don’t. Having llamas in my backyard is strange. Having a four-year-old tell me about her vagina is strange.”
Skye grinned. “Toni is very proud of her female power.”
“Good for her. But she doesn’t have to go bragging about it in front of everyone.”
“Define everyone.”
“Luke.”
“I’m sure he’s heard the word
vagina
before. And had intimate contact with a number of them, I’ll bet.”
Julia put her hands over her ears. “I am
so
not having this conversation with you.”
Skye shrugged. “Hey, you’re the one who started it.”
Julia lowered her hands and gave her younger sister a firm look. “Just don’t speak to anyone else about me.”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.”
Skye just laughed.
“I mean it. Don’t speak to anyone about me.”
“Get over yourself.” Skye took her mug and walked away.
“Wait a minute. Angel didn’t say how long you planned on staying with me.”
“Because we don’t know. You know how Angel is.”
“There’s not enough grass in my backyard to feed llamas. Not to mention the fact that it’s illegal to have them there.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Everything in this town is illegal.”
Too bad housing family from out of town wasn’t illegal,
Julia couldn’t help thinking to herself. She did love her mother and sister. She just loved them more when they were on the opposite side of the country.
“Trust me, we wouldn’t have come here if there was any other option,” Skye noted. “You were definitely our last choice.”
Julia should have been pleased with this news, but somehow it ended up making her feel totally inadequate. But then Skye had been doing that since she was old enough to talk—making Julia feel incompetent. You’d think as an older sister, Julia would be the one who’d be more in control, more confident.
Au contraire.
Skye was always the one who marched right in and did whatever she wanted.
Julia was always the one who tried to clean up the mess afterward.
It stopped here.
Okay, maybe not right here right now at this very second, but in the extremely near future.
Julia would help out her family this one last time and then they’d have to take responsibility for themselves.
What a concept.
“I hear you were visiting the librarian with the llamas,” Adele noted upon his return to Maguire’s.
“The rumor mill at work again.” Luke removed his leather jacket and tossed it onto a nearby chair. “Did you also hear we’re raising the price of our burgers?”
“That her idea?”
“Who?”
“The librarian with the llamas.”
“What makes you think it was her idea? You don’t think I can come up with a business concept on my own?”
Adele shrugged. “I’m just saying that you go visit her and come back here announcing the price of the burgers is going up. Anything else you want to raise? Because if we’re reprinting the menus, you might as well get it all done with at once.”
“Who said anything about reprinting the menus?”
“How else were you planning on letting the customers know about the price change?”
“By writing it in.”
Adele made a face. “That’s tacky.”
“So?”
“So my cooking deserves better than tacky menus.”
“Printing new menus costs money.”
“You have to spend money to make money.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. It’s a well-known fact.”
“It’s not known by me. We’re writing on the menus. Get over it.”
“You’re just a regular bluebird of happiness today, aren’t you?”
“I had a run-in with a sanctimonious idiot named Walt.”
“And what did our illustrious mayor have to say?”
“The guy’s a maggot.”
“I believe he’s a Republican.”
“I thought they believed in government staying out of people’s business.”
“That’s part of their national platform, I believe, yes.”
“Then where does Walt get off telling people how high their grass can grow? He actually had a ruler in his hand.”
“Well, they passed an ordinance, you know. To keep the town looking good.”
“How did they get away with that?”
Adele shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Lots of stupid things do. That’s why you give them further thought.”
“Hindsight is always twenty-twenty,” she replied. “Listen, since you’re redoing the menus, I think we should add sweet potato fries. They’re always popular when I make them, but not everyone knows about them because they aren’t listed anywhere.”
Luke belatedly recalled Julia’s comment about the menu needing some sprucing up.
“I’m not adding anything tofu,” he warned Adele.
“Veggie burgers might be a good idea. I’ve got a file full of ideas.” She hustled over to a small table in the corner of the kitchen. “Your dad refused to change anything.”
Which made Luke want to turn everything upside down.
“I met the nicest man down by the library,” Angel told Julia.
“What was his name?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
Don’t let it be the library director,
Julia prayed. “What did he look like? What did you say to him?”
“That big business was trying to ruin yet another scenic spot.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Serenity Falls. The waterfalls.”
“You went to see them?”
“No, but I was told they are beautiful. And that a big company wants to bottle the spring water and sell it.”
“Those are only rumors at this point.”
“That’s always how these things start out. As rumors. Then, by the time you wake up and smell the coffee, it’s a done deal.”
“What did this guy look like?”
“He had the saddest eyes.”
“That doesn’t give me much to go on.”
“He had long gray hair that was held back in a braid.”
“That would be Tyler.”
“Who is he?”
“He does odd jobs around town. No one really knows much about him.”
“He seemed like someone I could really talk to. Aside from the fact that he also appeared to be a man of few words.”
Julia could see how her mom could relate to Tyler.
“We should invite him over for dinner sometime soon,” Angel said.
“I don’t actually know him.”
“Well, I do.”
“You just met him today.”
“Julia thinks you shouldn’t have sex with a guy you just met today,” Skye stated as she strolled into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. “Are these organically grown?”
“I don’t think so,” Julia replied.
“Where’s the closest organic market?”
“I have no idea.”
“Do you have any idea of what kind of pesticides are used on stuff like this?” Skye held up the apple as if it were radioactive and might start glowing any second.
“I’d have to get organic food before I could invite Tyler to dinner,” Angel said. “I can check the Internet to find the closest organic market.”
“Since when do you surf the Internet?” Julia demanded.
“Angel is a pro,” Skye said. “That’s how she got Ricky and Lucy. Via the Internet.”
“You ordered them over the Internet?”
Angel nodded, looking quite pleased with herself. “More or less. I joined some listserves with other folks interested in llamas and got to know some people there. Those connections led me to Ricky and Lucy.”
“They can’t stay in my backyard.”
“Of course not,” Angel agreed. “That’s only temporary.”
That gave Julia hope. Her mother had been reasonable about the llamas. Maybe that meant she had a plan after all. One that didn’t involve crashing at Julia’s house.
But Julia couldn’t rely on that. “My neighbor may have somewhere they can go. Her cousin owns a farm nearby.” She paused as the phone rang. It was Mrs. Selznick.
“My cousin, the one who owns the dairy farm, is out of town at a funeral,” Mrs. Selznick said. “I won’t be able to reach him until the middle of the week. I could call him on his cell, but I didn’t want to bother him at the moment.”
“Of course not. I understand. We can wait a few days.”
“What do llamas eat?”
“I’m not sure, but my mother knows. They’re her llamas.”
“They don’t consume small house-pets, do they?”
“I’m sure they don’t.”
“Because I wouldn’t want anything happening to my little Terminator. He’s highly excitable, you know.”
Mrs. Selznick’s chihuahua got the shakes if anyone even glanced in his direction. “Yes, I know.”
“And seeing another life form so large might be stressful for him.”
“I understand.”
“I got him from the lady who ran my Spanish class.” Mrs. Selznick was addicted to taking classes. From Chinese cooking to tap dancing, you name it, she’d probably taken a class about it. “Her husband retired and was mean to the poor little guy. So naturally I had to take him and rescue him from such a bad situation.”