by Kathi Daley
Wednesday, October 28
“Pancakes?” Ben asked when Tj came down the stairs for a cup of coffee. “Schools are closed due to the flooding.”
“I’d love some.” Tj walked across the room and gave her grandfather a big hug. “I saw the text from the school when I first woke up. Let me get the girls and we can all eat together.”
“That’d be nice. Your dad had to run over to the lodge, but he said he’d be back in twenty minutes.”
“Perfect. That will give me time to grab a quick shower.”
Tj let Echo out for his morning run, then headed upstairs to wake up her sisters. She was looking forward to having breakfast with her family. It had been too long since they’d sat down and shared the first meal of the day together. Tj had been raised by her dad and grandparents after her mom had left when she was three. If there was one thing Maggie had insisted on, it was that the family have the first and the last meals of the day together. Ben continued to try to keep the custom alive by taking care of most of the cooking, but with the busy lives they all led, it seemed that more often than not everyone was on a different schedule.
After Tj woke her sisters she headed to her bathroom for her shower. Tj, Mike, and Ben all had baths adjoining their bedrooms, while the girls shared a bathroom between them. When both of her sisters needed showers before bed Tj had one of them use her bathroom, which meant the room wasn’t as tidy as she liked to keep it. Making a mental note to give it a good scrubbing when she had the opportunity, she quickly showered and then dressed in warm but comfortable clothes.
After making her bed and straightening her room, Tj headed down to the kitchen. She could hear the girls talking to Ben. When Tj first found out she was going to be responsible for two young girls, she’d been concerned about how being an instant mother would affect her life. She’d been living in town in a small apartment and wasn’t responsible for anyone but herself. But after the girls came to live with her, she’d decided to move back to the resort where she’d have the support of her dad and grandpa. Looking at what she’d given up and what she now had, she knew she wouldn’t trade her cluttered life for anything.
“Papa said that he is going down to the valley to look at a new horse for the stable,” Gracie announced when Tj walked in.
“That sounds like fun.” Tj glanced at her dad. “Are you still thinking about adding to our breeding stock?”
“I am.” Mike, dressed in a warm sweater and blue jeans, grinned as he answered. “We have a couple of mares who are ready to be retired. I’ve found them good homes with families with young children but I really need to find a couple of replacements before breeding season.”
“My friend has a horse of her very own,” Ashley contributed. “I wish I had a horse of my own.”
“The stock at Maggie’s Hideaway is working stock,” Mike reminded her. “But you know you are welcome to ride with supervision anytime the horses aren’t busy.”
“What are you doing today, Grandpa?” Gracie asked after everyone else had shared their plans. Leave it to Gracie to make sure everyone participated in the conversation.
“I thought I’d decorate the house for Halloween.” Ben turned to look at Tj. “Do you know what happened to the Halloween decorations we put up in the house last year?”
“I think they’re in the attic. I’ll look for them after we eat. The girls can help me bring them down.”
“Can we put up the giant mummy we used for the Halloween party last year?” Ashley asked. “He was cool.”
“I thought we’d put him on the front porch,” Ben said. “I checked the weather forecast and it looks like it’s going to rain again today but then be dry until after next weekend. Besides, the porch is covered, so there’s no problem even if we get a few sprinkles. I’m going to put orange lights around the door and windows as well.”
“We should string spider webs too,” Ashley added. “And we can put those big rubber spiders on them. It will look spooky. I’m going to make my pumpkin extra spooky this year. Can I help you decorate?”
“I’d be happy to have the help,” Ben said.
“Can Pumpkin help too?” Gracie asked.
“The more the merrier. Still no word on an owner?” Ben asked Tj.
“Not so far.”
“Rosalie seems to think she’s a stray,” Mike confirmed. “She said she has the look of a pup that’s been on the street for a while.”
“I’m so glad we found her so she can have a forever home,” Gracie declared.
Tj glanced at her dad. They hadn’t discussed keeping Pumpkin on a permanent basis, but he just smiled and winked at her.
“Can we get Pumpkin a costume for Halloween?” Gracie asked.
“I’m not sure she’ll want to wear a costume. She’ll probably just pull it off and chew it up. Maybe we can try a hat or a special collar,” Tj suggested. “I think there might be something up in the attic from when Echo was a puppy. I always wanted to dress him up, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Every time I tried to put something on him he rolled around until he got it off. I finally gave up.”
“Pumpkin likes to dress up,” Gracie assured me. “I put one of my shirts on her and she liked it.”
“She does seem to have more patience than most puppies,” Tj admitted.
“If she likes wearing a costume can we get her one?”
“We’ll see,” Tj answered noncommittally.
Everyone finished their meal and Tj and the girls headed up to the attic to look for the decorations, as well as the old costumes Tj remembered saving. Attics were the best places, she decided, as they sorted through boxes filled with remnants from experiences she had all but forgotten.
“Look at all these old books.” Tj pulled a pile of mysteries out of the carton in front of her. “These used to belong to Grandma Maggie, and then she gave them to me. I bet they’d be just about perfect for you,” Tj said to Ashley.
Ashley shrugged. “I like to read. I guess I can take a few down and try them.”
“Are there any books that would be perfect for me?” Gracie asked.
“I’m pretty sure I saved the set of Raggedy Ann books Papa found at a garage sale. They aren’t in this box, but we can keep looking.”
“Is this your cheerleading uniform?” Ashley asked after opening another box.
Tj nodded. “I was a cheerleader for all four years of high school, so there should be four uniforms in there. I’m not sure why we thought we needed a new uniform every year, but we did.”
“I want to be a cheerleader,” Ashley decided.
Tj was surprised to hear that. It didn’t seem like Ashley was in to typical girly stuff.
“The fact that you’re taking dance will help you,” Tj informed her sister. “In order to be on the cheer squad these days you have to be well versed in gymnastics. It’s fun, though. You make good friends and you get to go with the team to all the away games.”
“Was Dr. Hunter on the football team?” Gracie asked.
“He was,” Tj said.
“Did you smooch on the backseat of the bus?” Ashley giggled.
“We might have,” Tj admitted.
“Ewww,” Gracie said as she buried her head in her arms.
Tj laughed. “Just wait a few years. You won’t think it’s so ewww.”
Tj noticed Ashley hadn’t parroted her younger sister’s sentiments. She was growing up so fast. It wouldn’t be long at all before she was sneaking kisses in the backseat of the team bus.
“Is this your yearbook?” Ashley held up the book from her senior year.
“Yes.”
“Is the girl who died in here?”
“Yes. There’s a special page dedicated to her in the middle of the book.”
Ashley opened the book as Pumpkin wrestled around with Echo on the floor and Midnight hissed at them from atop a trunk.
“She was really pretty,” Ashley said. “It’s so sad she died.”
“She was pretty but not always all that nice.”
Holly enjoyed her status as one of the popular girls of the high school and wasn’t afraid to tear other people down if it meant building herself up. Until now Tj had forgotten how mean she could be if she felt threatened by those she considered to be on a lower social rung than she. Tj thought about what Chantel had said, and Lexi and the bullying she had fallen victim to. Could the killer be one of the girls Holly had bullied? Several of the girls at the party that night had been Holly’s victim at one time or another. Maybe the bullying angle would be worth considering.
“Look at Pumpkin,” Gracie squealed.
Pumpkin was lying patiently on the floor with an orange and black witch hat on her head. Tj pulled her cell out of her pocket and snapped a photo. Pumpkin really was the perfect puppy for Gracie, calm and patient. Tj hoped her owner wouldn’t show up at the eleventh hour. Gracie would be crushed.
“I think these are the boxes Grandpa wants us to bring down,” Ashley said after setting the yearbook aside.
“It looks like it. But only carry boxes you can pick up comfortably. Leave the heavy ones for me.”
Each of the girls picked up a box and headed down the stairs. They’d have the best decorated house in town.
“I never remember the u,” Gracie whined later that morning. Tj had been helping her to study for the spelling bee and the word had been glamour.
“The u is tricky,” Tj admitted. “It sounds like it should be glam followed by or. Don’t worry. We’ll keep practicing until you know it like the back of your hand.”
“What does that mean anyway?” Gracie asked. “The back of your hand. Why would I know the back of my hand?”
“It’s just a saying. To be honest, I have no idea where it came from.”
“Let’s Google it,” Gracie suggested.
“Good idea. What did we ever do before we had Google?”
“We just didn’t know stuff.”
Gracie giggled as Pumpkin jumped up onto her bed and began licking her face. Gracie loved animals and they loved her. Tj had really thought Crissy would abandon her when Pumpkin made herself at home on Gracie’s bed, but the cat seemed unwilling to give up her spot, so she was tolerating the dog.
Tj typed the phrase into her laptop. “There are a bunch of answers. The most common is that when you know something well you know it like the back of your hand because you know your hand well.”
“That’s dumb,” Gracie commented.
“I have to agree. It’s not like I spend a lot of time looking at the back of my hand. Let’s move on to the next word: proximity. The dog was in the proximity of the doghouse.”
“P-r-o-x-i-m-i-t-y,” Gracie said. “Proximity.”
“Very good. You really do know most of these words.”
“Grandpa has been helping me, but the really hard words are on the last page.”
Tj turned to the last page. “Articulate? Are you sure you have the second-grade list? These words seem hard for second grade. Heck, they seem hard for any grade.”
“They’re supposed to be hard,” Gracie insisted. “If they weren’t, everyone could spell them and it wouldn’t be any big deal to be the spelling champion.”
“I guess that’s true.” Tj continued to study the list. There were several words she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to spell herself without the help of spell-check. There’d been a debate going on in the English department as to whether computers and smartphones weren’t actually making people dumber. With all the knowledge easily accessed on the internet, Tj thought people were actually becoming smarter, but she could see that with each new generation skills such as spelling and handwriting might decline.
“Most of the time the words on the very last page aren’t used, but you need to know them just in case,” Gracie informed her. “There’s a girl in my class who told me that her parents make her study for three hours every day. They go through the dictionary and pick out random words. Any words. If she can spell them all she gets some time to hang out with her friends on the weekend; if she misses them she has to study on the weekend.”
Tj frowned. “That’s crazy. It’s just a spelling bee.”
“Trisha’s parents are very ambitious and tenacious.”
Tj laughed. “Tenacious? Where did you learn a word like that?”
“That’s how Trisha describes her parents. Trisha knows how to spell tenacious. I don’t think I have a chance of winning, but I thought it would be fun to try.”
“As long as you’re having fun I’m all for it, but I don’t want you to forget to be a kid.”
“I won’t. Can we do some more words?”
Tj looked out the window. It was still raining. The girls wouldn’t be able to go out, making it a good day to study, but she had a long list of errands waiting for her.
“I think we’ve studied enough for today,” Tj said. “We can work on your words more tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“How about a snack?” Tj asked.
“Can Pumpkin have a snack?”
“Absolutely.”
Tj settled Gracie in the kitchen and went to find Ashley. The fact that Trisha’s parents were so driven really bothered her. Sure, academic achievement was important. Learning to be a good student made all the difference in the options you had as you approached adulthood. But kids needed to be kids as well. They needed to play outdoors and watch cartoons and do kidlike things while they were young enough to appreciate their simplicity.
She supposed Trisha’s parents had the right to raise their daughter however they saw fit. She might not agree with their methods, but there really wasn’t a thing she could do about it. Navigating parenthood was a difficult task. One wrong move and…Tj didn’t want to think about that. She’d just gotten to the point where she wasn’t second-guessing every decision she made.
“It’s time to turn off the television,” Tj said to Ashley, who was watching a popular sitcom on TV.
“Just a few more minutes.”
“You can finish this program and then we need to find another activity. You know the rule about TV time.”
“I know, but it’s raining. We can’t go outside and there isn’t anything to do.”
“I just don’t want your brain to rot.”
“That wouldn’t really happen. Can Kristi come over?”
“It depends. I need to go into town in a while to help Dr. Hunter decorate the gym for the homecoming dance. Where’s Papa?”
“He went into town. I think he was going to meet up with Rosalie. Are they going to get married?”
Good question.
“I don’t know,” Tj answered. “I guess Papa will tell us if he decides to take that step. Did Grandpa go up to his room?”
“He said he wasn’t feeling well. His back has been bothering him a lot lately.”
“I noticed that too. I’ll check on him, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to have company if Papa and I won’t be here and Grandpa doesn’t feel well.”
“But it’s so boring. Can we go over to Kristi’s?”
Tj realized that if Ben wasn’t feeling well it might not be a bad idea to get the girls out of the house, but she knew Jenna and Dennis were both working, so Jenna’s sister, Bren, was babysitting. Maybe Kyle would welcome some company.
“Kristi and Kari are over at Bren’s and I hate to ask her to watch two more kids, but maybe Uncle Kyle is home.”
Ashley grinned. “Can we call him?”
“Yeah, I’ll call him.”
Chapter 9
Luckily, Kyle was home and happy not only to have Ashley and Gracie over for the afternoon but Echo and Pumpkin as well. Kyle often said he got lonely living in his great big house since his mom m
oved out and his ward, Annabeth, had been accepted into a boarding school that catered to students in need of an accelerated learning environment. Annabeth still came home during the summer and school holidays, but Kyle was usually up for some kid time while she was away.
“Thanks for letting the girls hang out for a while,” Tj said after Kyle ushered the girls inside.
“I’m happy to have them and I wanted to meet Pumpkin.” Kyle knelt down on the floor to pet the rambunctious puppy. “Gracie told me all about her.”
“You talked to Gracie?”
“She called to tell me about the spelling bee and mentioned that she found the puppy.”
Tj watched as Kyle’s dog Trooper greeted Echo. One thing was for certain: with two wound-up grade-schoolers and three dogs, Kyle wasn’t going to be bored that afternoon.
“Did you hear about the accident on Old Sawmill Road last night?”
“No. What happened?”
Tj looked over at the girls, who were watching them with interest.
“I have a bunch of new video games,” Kyle announced. “Would you like to check them out? Annabeth even has one about being a fashion designer.”
“That sounds dope,” Ashley said.
Kyle turned to Tj. “If you have a minute, I can get the girls settled and then we can chat.”
“Sure, I can be a few minutes late.”
Tj called Hunter while Kyle headed toward the den with her sisters. During the two years since Kyle had inherited the house from Zachary he’d undertaken a major renovation. The lakeside estate no longer resembled the run-down mansion Tj had visited as a teen. While the house had always seemed so dark and dreary when Zachary lived there, Kyle had added additional windows and opened it up so the lake and surrounding forest felt as if it were part of the structure itself. The house was located on an isolated bay surrounded with old growth pines providing a feeling of both beauty and isolation.
“So what’s up?” Kyle asked when he returned to the living room, where Tj had taken a seat on one of the three sofas in the room.
Tj filled him in on everything she’d learned since her meeting with Samantha Colton the previous afternoon. It certainly seemed like more than twenty-four hours had passed since the domineering woman sat in her office and made her doubt everything she previously believed to be true.
