by Jennie Marts
Her coworker had been late coming in for her shift, and Piper didn’t feel right leaving until she arrived. She knew she smelled like coffee and had hoped to grab a quick shower before the other women arrived.
Now she’d be lucky to get her hands washed.
Running through the recipe steps in her head, she pushed through the front door of the Victorian and stopped dead in her tracks at the scent of garlic in the hall.
Instantly taken back to the day of the murder, her mouth went dry, and she couldn’t breathe. What if the murderer had come back?
Oh no. Mom.
She ran forward, fumbling with the key in the lock, then burst into the room. “Mom!”
Expecting to see her mother laid out on the floor, a plastic sack wrapped around her head, she stopped again and sagged against the door frame as she spied her mom standing at the stove.
Claire turned around, a wooden spoon in her hand. “Good Lord, what’s wrong? Are you okay? You’re white as a sheet.” She tossed the spoon in the sink and rushed to Piper’s side. Putting an arm around her, she led her toward the kitchen table.
Piper shrugged off her mom’s arm and sank into the chair as she gasped for breath. “I’m sorry. The smell of garlic—it was the same as the day Brittany was killed. I thought you were dead.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” She got Piper a glass of water and set it on the table in front of her. “I started the spaghetti. I was trying to help.”
Piper took a big gulp of water as she glanced at the stove and the bubbling pots of water and sauce. Relief flooded her, both at the fact her mom was alive and that she’d already made the meal for that night. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know. But I wanted to.”
“That was nice of you.”
“Why don’t you take a minute to wash your face and pull yourself together? I’ll finish setting the table. You still have fifteen minutes before they show up.”
Piper nodded and headed for the bathroom. She took a quick shower and put on yoga pants and a T-shirt. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, she walked back into the living room, this time inhaling the scent of spaghetti sauce and appreciating the smell.
She really should thank her mom, but she wasn’t in the kitchen. She could hear her in the bedroom, but before she could say anything, a knock sounded at the door.
The Page Turners had arrived.
Her nerves were jumpy as she opened the door and let herself be engulfed by her Aunt Cassie’s arms.
Edna and Sunny were in the hall behind her, and they both gave her hugs as they entered the living room.
“It smells wonderful in here,” Cassie said, sniffing the air.
“How’s the new roommate working out?” Edna said, dropping her coat on the sofa.
“Seriously, did I give you this recipe?” Cassie asked, reaching to hang her purse on the back of the chair. “I swear it smells like my mom’s sauce.”
“About that…” Piper said as Claire stepped out of her bedroom.
Cassie’s purse missed the chair and hit the floor with a thud. Her hands flew to her mouth.
Then she ran to her sister and threw her arms around her in a tight hug. “Oh my gosh. I’m so glad you’re all right.”
Glad you’re all right? Not glad to see you? Why wouldn’t her mom be all right?
Claire hugged Cassie back. “I’m okay.”
“Why haven’t you called me? I haven’t been able to reach you in weeks.”
“I had to get a new phone.” Claire glanced at Piper then squeezed Cassie’s arm. “But everything’s fine now.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I live here. I’m Piper’s new roomie.”
“You’re what?”
Edna chuckled. “That sounds like a bad reality TV show—Rooming With My Mom.”
Piper groaned. A bad reality TV show that had become her life.
Claire gestured to the table. “Why don’t we sit down, and we’ll tell you all about it while we eat.” She crossed to the kitchen to drain the spaghetti.
Sunny put her arm around Piper’s shoulders. She was always the perceptive one. “Are you okay? I mean, really? This must have been a shock to have her show up out of the blue like this?”
“Not just show up, but move herself in,” Edna added, a noticeable huff in her voice.
Piper shrugged. “I’m okay. I didn’t have any other options. No one even called about the apartment. And she’s already paid this month’s rent.”
The door to the apartment burst open, and Maggie rushed in. “Sorry I’m late. I had to drop Dylan off at soccer practice.” She stopped midway into the room as she saw Claire holding the pot of sauce. “What the hell are you doing here?”
She glanced from Claire to Piper, her maternal instincts obviously firing on all cylinders. Drew might have broken up with her, but his mom still treated Piper like she was one of her own kids. And she didn’t have the extra baggage of being related to Claire like Cassie did.
“She’s her new roommate,” Edna said, arching an eyebrow.
“Like hell she is.” Maggie flashed her gaze to Piper.
Piper shrugged again. “I needed the rent money.”
“Not this badly. You don’t need to go this far. If you need money, I’ll pay your rent.”
Cassie pulled out a chair and motioned for Maggie to take it. “They were just getting ready to tell us all about it. Let’s sit down and eat, and then we can form an opinion.”
“Or rip someone’s eyes out,” mumbled Maggie as she grudgingly sat down.
The rest of the group took their places and spent the next five minutes dishing up the food and digging in.
Piper watched the women eat, wisely keeping her mouth shut, except to shovel in spaghetti and garlic bread. She wanted to hear her mom’s story without actually having to ask her about it.
But her mom was the queen of deflection, only giving little pieces of the story, then directing questions at Cassie or Sunny. She tried to ignore Maggie, who had barely eaten anything and who continued to glare daggers at her throughout the meal.
All Piper really found out about the past few months of her mom’s life was she’d moved several times, following Spider’s motorcycle gang, and things hadn’t worked out like she’d thought they would, and in the end, Claire had left. From the few things she’d said the night before and from the way her eyes narrowed when she said his name, Piper gathered Spider hadn’t turned out to be such a great guy.
In fact, he sounded like kind of a douche.
“It worked out great that Piper needed a new roomie right when I came back to town,” Claire said. “The timing couldn’t have been better.”
“It didn’t work out so great for Brittany,” Edna muttered.
Claire ignored her and started to gather the plates. “Why don’t I clean up while you all talk about the book? I read it this afternoon. It was quite good.”
What? Her mom had read the book? Why? To get closer to Piper? Or just because she was bored and it was sitting on the coffee table?
It made Piper’s head hurt to try to figure that woman out.
True to her word, she stayed in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher and washing pans while the rest of them moved to the living room. They talked a little about the book, but it was obvious from the awkward silences and furtive glances toward the kitchen that Claire remained the bleached-blond elephant in the room.
Claire rinsed the last pan and dried her hands on a towel. “I’m going back to cutting hair and have enrolled in some refresher courses to keep up with the new trends,” she announced. “We’re working on color right now, and I need to practice if anyone wants some highlights or to add some fun color to their hair.”
“Fun color?” Cassie asked. “Like what?”
“Like stripes of purple or blue or dyeing the underside or the ends of your hair pink or teal.”
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” Piper said. “
There’s a girl in my class who has the ends of her hair dyed blue, and it looks cool.”
“I could do that for you,” Claire offered. “Easy. What color do you want?”
“I don’t know. Pink, I guess.”
“Pink would look adorable with your blond hair. And I could liken you up a little as well. Let me grab my stuff.” Claire hurried into the bedroom.
Piper suddenly wasn’t so sure this was a good idea. But it was only hair. And she had been thinking about adding some color. This way she could try it and would save the cost of having it done at a pricey salon.
Claire returned with her tools and a bag from the local beauty supply store. She laid a towel on the counter and emptied the contents of the bag onto it. Boxes of colors and hair product littered the counter. She showed them a picture in a magazine of some of the hot new ideas to do with color.
Edna peered at the magazine and touched her silver locks. “I think the teal looks like a lot of fun. Or the royal blue. It would match most of my outfits. I do wear a lot of blue.”
“Then you could do both. It’s easy to do several shades of one color,” Claire said. “That’s what I’m going to do with Piper. Her hair will transition from blonde to light pink then get darker pink toward the ends.”
“I’m not sure…” Piper started to say.
“Oh don’t worry. If you hate it, we can always dye it back. Don’t worry. It’ll be fun,” Claire assured her while pulling on a pair of plastic gloves.
Famous last words.
Two hours later, the ends of Piper’s hair were a gorgeous hombre shade of pink, Cassie had a few strands of purple in hers, and Edna’s curls were suffused with tints of blue, green, and turquoise.
Claire even colored her own hair, changing it back to the chestnut brown it had been years ago. It looked better than the bleachy blonde—the soft caramel color complementing the skin tone of her face. She’d also cut a few inches of the dry ends off and let Cassie give her bangs. The new cut and color made her look younger, healthier.
“It looks great,” Cassie said, stepping back to admire her sister’s new look. “You could almost pass for a different person.”
Maggie pursed her lips as she gave Claire a cool once-over. “I’m surprised you went darker. I thought blondes were supposed to have more fun.”
“I’ve had enough fun for a while,” Claire muttered, as she turned to clean up her tools.
Although Maggie was still wary of Claire, the women did settle into somewhat easy conversation, and they were all laughing five minutes later when a knock sounded at the door.
“That’ll be my Johnny,” Edna said. “He’s picking me up.” She threw open the door with a flourish and plumped up her newly colored hair.
Johnny stood in the door, his mouth hanging open as he stared at his new bride. “You look like a mermaid,” he finally sputtered.
“Thank you.” Edna planted a hand on her hip, narrowing her eyes at her husband, her voice carrying a hint of steel as if daring him to say one negative thing. “And what do you have to say about it, mister?”
His mouth opened and closed again. “I say…”
They all waited, holding their collective breath, the room deathly quiet as they watched Johnny and waited for his reaction.
“I say I’ve always wanted to kiss a mermaid,” he finished with a devilish grin.
“Swoon,” Cassie whispered, as they all let out their breath.
Edna laughed and batted her eyes. “I say with that answer, you’ll be getting more than a kiss from this mermaid tonight. I might even show you my tail.”
“Ew,” Piper said. “Get a room.”
Edna flashed her a saucy grin then gave her a quick hug. “Take care of yourself. Call me if you need me.” She grabbed her coat and purse and followed Johnny out the door.
“Well, aren’t they just the cutest?” Claire said.
“They were high school sweethearts who just found each other again,” Cassie explained.
“Speaking of high school sweethearts,” her mom said, staring pointedly at her. “When are you going to get back on the dating horse, Pip?”
“Uh, I don’t know.” Her eyes widened, and she gave Maggie a questioning glance.
“It’s okay. Drew breaking up with you was his loss, honey,” Maggie assured her. “It won’t bother me if you start dating again. In fact, I think you should.”
“She will, when she’s ready,” Cassie said, putting an arm around her.
Was she ready?
An image of Fitz popped into her mind. He’d worked a different shift at the coffee shop today, and she hadn’t seen him since they’d talked on the phone a few nights ago. He’d texted her a couple of times, but his test was today, so he’d been in full homework mode the night before. She was hoping he’d text tonight. She still hadn’t had a chance to tell him about her mom moving in.
“Surely there are some cute guys in your classes.” Claire kept going, ignoring her sister, and charging forward like a bull in a conversation china shop. “Or what about online dating? That’s all the rage now. I’ve even done it. Have you tried that?”
The book club shared a glance, smirking at an inside joke. They’d all had some experience with online dating earlier that summer when they’d tried to find a suitable match for Sunny.
“No,” Piper declared. “And I don’t plan to. I can find my own dates. In my own time. And I’m just not sure I’m ready.”
“Maybe you don’t know you’re ready until you try.”
“Maybe we should change the subject.”
The next afternoon, Piper’s new pink hair got rave reviews from her coworkers at The Perk.
“It looks awesome,” Sarah told her.
“Wow,” Fitz said from behind the counter where he was opening a couple of bags of coffee beans and pouring them into the grinder. His eyes were wide, but a smile played on his lips. “Pretty in pink.”
What was that supposed to mean? She’d seen the movie, of course, but was he actually calling her pretty? Or was he making fun of her new shade? She couldn’t tell.
She twisted the ends of her hair around her finger. “I’m not sure about it yet. It’s pretty different.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes different is good.”
Hmmm. Was that a double entendre? Did he mean a different guy or was he just making a statement about different in general?
And why was she questioning every sentence out of his mouth? Why did she think every word might have a double meaning?
Sometimes it would make life a whole lot easier if guys wore signs that read what they were thinking. Although that idea could turn disastrous since she’d heard most guys think about something to do with sex every three minutes.
“I think it looks great,” Sarah said. “Who did it for you?”
“My mom.”
Fitz reared his head back. “Your mom? I thought you hadn’t seen or heard from your mom in months.”
“I hadn’t. But now I see her all the time. Apparently, through some jacked up cosmic joke of the universe, she is now my new roommate.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I wish I was.”
She filled them in on the arrival of her mom and their new roomie status.
“You doing okay with all that?” Fitz asked, a note of concern in his voice.
Piper shrugged. “I guess. It’s weird. And kinda cool. And kinda awful. I can’t really figure out how I feel about it. Sometimes I like it, and sometimes it makes my stomach hurt. It’s been a crazy couple of days.”
“I figured you must be busy, and that’s why I hadn’t heard from you,” he said as he stabbed the top of the second bag of coffee beans with a small pocketknife then neatly sliced it open. He didn’t look at her, but instead kept his focus on wiping the blade of the knife against the corner of his apron then folding it closed and pushing it back into the front pocket of his jeans.
Hadn’t heard from her? Had he been hoping she’d call or text?
<
br /> She’d been waiting for him to get in touch with her.
Ug. Another guy/girl communication breakdown.
Maybe she needed to up the ante—see if he really was interested in her. She could throw out an unmistakable hint and see if he picked up on it.
“Yeah, sorry. We’ve been getting settled and figuring each other out. It’s weird trying to be roommates instead of just mother and daughter. I can tell she’s trying, but she still mothers me a little. Yesterday she bought tons of groceries, which was good, but she also tried to get involved with my love life, which wasn’t so good.” Okay, she’d laid the groundwork, now to subtly drop in the hint. “She thinks it’s time I started dating again.”
Her timing hadn’t worked as perfectly as she’d hoped because Fitz had just turned his back to her to pour the coffee beans into the machine so she couldn’t see his face or read his expression. But his shoulders raised in what seemed like an offhand gesture.
“I agree,” he said, turning back around. “I think you should start dating again. Why not?”
She held her breath, waiting to see if his next question would involve asking her out.
“It was Drew’s loss when he broke up with you, and I’m sure there are lots of other guys out there who would be interested in you.”
Lots of other guys? She let her breath out in a defeated rush.
She wasn’t interested in other guys—she was interested in Fitz. Couldn’t he see that? She’d just laid down the perfect opening.
But maybe he wasn’t interested in her. At least not like that. Maybe mentioning Drew had been a purposeful reminder that he’d been Drew’s friend—and therefore not a dating option.
An ardent ache squeezed her heart.
What was she thinking? She knew Fitz was totally out of her league. She’d been fooling herself with the idea he was interested in her. So what if he’d called her the other night? One phone call didn’t mean anything. And he was her boss. Maybe he was just showing concern for her as an employee or to make sure she was okay so she didn’t call off and cause a disruption in the schedule.
Before she could respond, the door to the coffee shop opened and several customers flooded in. Which was probably just as well, since she didn’t know what to say anyway.
