by Raven Snow
“That one should be enough.”
“How do we get them to all show up to our house for dinner?” asked Rowen. Even if the Stonewall family had been unusually nice as of late, they were very busy people. At least, they liked to give off the vibe of being very busy people. Rowen wasn’t sure they would be able to get the whole family. The whole family was huge.
“Tobias and Jeana are the immediate family. I say we work with that. Ask them and the kids over.” Lydia nodded as if she was liking her plan more and more as she spoke about it. “That should be good. We’ll just have to see that the rest of the family is away… Oh! We can do it during work hours. It’ll be more of a family to family late luncheon.”
“And if they don’t want to come to a late luncheon?” asked Margo.
“Give them some incentive.” Lydia motioned to Margo like she should automatically know what that meant. “Use your relationship with Jasper,” she extrapolated when Margo just stared back at her.
Rowen cringed. She had hoped they could go this whole meeting without mentioning Jasper. She hadn’t expected them to, but she had hoped. Meanwhile, Margo’s face was growing redder by the moment. “How in the world am I supposed to use Jasper for this?”
“Just announce to his parents that you’re in a relationship.” Lydia said like it was the most obvious course of action in the world. “I’m sure they’ll want to meet you. It won’t matter where they meet you. The Greensmith house might even be preferable. I’m sure they can find all sorts of ways to put us down there.”
“Is that something we want?” Rowen asked, dubious.
“Best that they underestimate our family.”
“Hold up,” Margo interrupted. “I’m still not sure about all of this coming out as Jasper’s girlfriend nonsense. I’m not sure I want him as a boyfriend. I’m not even sure he wants me as a girlfriend!”
“He definitely wants you as a girlfriend,” Rowen assured her cousin.
“Okay, but does he want me as the kind of girlfriend you introduce to your parents?”
That was a little trickier, Rowen had to admit. Still he seemed like a man who was smitten. “It’s worth a shot. Tell him the threat of his family disapproving is like your Sword of Damocles or something. Tell him that’s what it’s going to take to go forward with the relationship or you can’t go forward at all.”
“That feels wrong.” Margo had cheated on her last boyfriend and even she had some reservations about this. “I really don’t want to lead him on. He’s not a bad guy.”
“Unless he helped murder your grandmother,” said Lydia.
“Oh, come on. He didn’t murder anyone. He’s not a murderer.”
“You would be surprised how many people can stand by and let murders happen without saying anything.” Aunt Lydia stood again, as if everything was settled. “Set something up for tomorrow. I’ll make sure everyone will be out of the house in time and that I have all the ingredients for a meal they won’t turn their collective noses up at.”
Margo and Rowen both watched their aunt go. Maybe Rowen had been a little too right. Lydia was beyond willing to help with this investigation of theirs. “This is such a hassle,” Margo sighed, pulling out her phone to give Jasper a call. Something caught her attention. She looked at Rowen. “What’s wrong with you? Isn’t this what you wanted?”
Rowen only now realized that the expression she was wearing probably wasn’t a very cheerful one. She shook her head. “It’s no big deal.” She tried to play it off, but Margo wasn’t buying it.
“Tell me.” Margo put a hand on Rowen’s arm. It was the kindest gesture she had extended to her cousin since their last fight back at the Greensmith house. “What’s wrong?”
Rowen wanted to pull her arm away and downplay her emotions. Maybe she could even outright lie about it again. But that didn’t feel right. Better to just get these things off her chest. “I just… I keep thinking about it. Grammy’s gone. She’s moved on. She’s not… with us anymore.”
Margo gave Rowen’s shoulder a squeeze. “I know. It hurts me too. It hurts all of us in our own way, I think.”
That was something Rowen did have trouble accepting, that everyone grieved in their own way. She needed to be better about recognizing that. It still hurt. “The town doesn’t miss her.” That probably hurt Rowen the most, that Grammy had spent her whole life here and no one cared when she had passed. “The only people who even showed up at the funeral besides us were a bunch of Stonewalls. And you know how Grammy felt about them.”
“They came out of respect.” Margo sounded sure of that. “I don’t think it was to rub salt in anyone’s wounds. I genuinely think it was a nod to another one of their kind.” She had spent so much time with Jasper, she would probably know better than Rowen did. “As for the rest of the town… Screw ’em. You’d think the people who went to her back in the day for spells would have come. You’d think her funeral would at least be something people wanted to peek in on out of curiosity. Not that we wanted that sort of thing, but still.”
“This isn’t particularly comforting.” Mostly Rowen just found herself getting more upset.
“Sorry.” Margo stood and held a hand down to Rowen. “I have to go sweet talk Jasper into this devious, hospitality plan. You should probably go fill your husband in on what’s going on.”
“I’d rather not.” Rowen let Margo help her to her feet. “He hasn’t exactly been supportive of my investigation.” That wasn’t totally fair. He had put up with it for a while there. Now he was likely trying to dial it back some for her own safety. To someone without magic, it must look like she was veering into crazy person territory.
“It’ll just complicate things if you don’t tell him. I should know.” Margo gave Rowen a wink over the tops of her sunglasses. “Besides, he’s a Stonewall himself, isn’t he? They’ll expect him there.”
Chapter Sixteen
Eric wasn’t totally against going for lunch at the Greensmith house. Lunch wasn’t a bad idea in and of itself, he said. It was more that lunch carried the threat of being something else entirely. He knew who was invited, and he disapproved of Aunt Lydia coming along. “I told you not to tell her,” he said, sounding wholly unsurprised that she had. Anything that he said to her was always just a suggestion at best. He couldn’t have expected her to follow every piece of advice he had for her. Their marriage never would have worked out then.
“I can’t believe you roped Margo into this,” he said, coming down the stairs after getting dressed. He was wearing a blue dress shirt and jeans. He’d gelled his blond hair away from his face and looked absolutely delectable for it. He always had great fashion sense. Meanwhile, Rowen’s own t-shirt and jeans made her look like she was getting ready to help someone move.
“That was Lydia’s idea. I didn’t tell her to use Jasper as an excuse for this thing.”
“It doesn’t sound like you told her not to.”
“Fair enough.” Rowen tossed him the keys from the door. “I’m not all that invested in their relationship. How’s David taking the breakup, by the way?”
“Not well,” Eric sighed. “He’s sort of gone back to his old ways.”
“His old ways?” Rowen thought back to how David had acted when first she met him. She hadn’t liked him a whole lot back then. He’d been drunk, ran his car into the Greensmith house and killed Rowen’s rose bushes. He’d come around since then, due in no small part to Margo. Her presence had put an end to his days of partying too hard. He’d focused more on working for his parents and significantly less on his vices. “I hope you don’t blame Margo for that.”
“No, it’s his own fault.” It wasn’t clear if Eric actually believed that or not. He was trying hard to convince himself of it at any rate. “I’m hoping he’ll come to his senses. He has to eventually or our parents will take his job away from him. I definitely don’t want that. That would mean they’d start hassling me again. No one wants that.”
Rowen wondered if it was the same w
ay with Jasper. After tonight, would his family disown him because he was seeing a Greensmith? Would they hassle Flint into coming back and taking over or hand the whole thing over to Amber? Rowen pushed all of that to the back of her mind. It wasn’t important. Finding the murderer was what was important— even if she did feel a little bad for using Jasper like they were.
***
Rowen got to the Greensmith household before any of their guests. It was just Aunt Lydia and Margo inside. Lydia was cutting a sweet-smelling pie while Margo put little cellophane topped toothpicks in finger sandwiches. The two of them almost didn’t notice her come in. Margo jumped when she came to stand next to her. “Geez,” she breathed, a hand flying to her heart. “I thought you were a Stonewall. Don’t scare me like that.”
“What? You thought they’d just let themselves in?” Rowen went ahead and stole one of the finger sandwiches. It was tuna salad. Aunt Lydia made great tuna salad. “When are you expecting them anyway?”
Margo slid the whole plate of sandwiches away from Rowen. “Any minute now.”
“Not just any minute.” Lydia put the pie back in the oven so that it would stay warm until dessert. “They’ll be here at fifteen after. They’re always fashionably late. Always.”
Rowen looked around the room, making sure that none of her other family was there. She knew Lydia wanted this to just involve them. It might look odd to the Stonewalls, but it was easier than sharing their suspicions with the entirety of the family. “It’s just us, right?”
“Right,” said Aunt Lydia. “Everyone is working at the store— Except your mother.” She shook her head in disapproval. “She up and vanished on us last night with that boyfriend of hers.”
“They went to the bonfire.” Rowen didn’t doubt that one bit. “Tiffany remembered it was going on and just had to go.”
“That’s my guess, too.” Aunt Lydia swooped in to grab the finished finger sandwiches and take them to the table. “Ah, well. At least she’s out of the way. I’m sure she’s enjoying herself.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” muttered Rowen to herself before helping to set the table.
Even on such short notice, Lydia had really outdone herself. There were several different types of finger sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans, kale salad. It was all things that were easy enough to fix between the household leaving for work and the Stonewalls arriving. Rowen wasn’t sure how many of the Stonewalls were actually coming. They had all been invited, but she doubted they would all show. She set as many places as she was able at the table anyway, dragging in a few chairs from the porch. It wasn’t the fanciest setup, but Rowen wasn’t too worried about impressing the Stonewalls.
“I wish I’d had more time to prepare,” Aunt Lydia grumbled, looking down at the finished table with a scowl. Evidently, she was worried about impressing the Stonewalls.
“It looks great,” Eric assured her with a smile.
Lydia smiled at him. “You’re sweet to say that, but you’re wrong.”
Eric’s smile fell. At the same time, the front door opened. Rowen’s first thought was that it was the Stonewalls. But no. They wouldn’t just let themselves in. “Oh, no.” She moved to the hallway to see who it was. Not that she needed to look. She already recognized the laughter.
Tiffany and Clarence were falling all over each other in the hallway. Both smelled like campfire smoke and weed. Their clothes looked slept in, all wrinkled and dusted with dirt. It was obvious where they had come from. Why they had come back so early was the real mystery. Rowen stood her ground and frowned at them.
Tiffany froze upon catching her daughter’s gaze. She stood up straighter, the smile wiped from her face. “What are you doing here, Sweetheart?” She must have thought they would be coming home to an empty house. Typically, everyone was at work around this hour.
Explaining the situation had Rowen at a bit of a loss. Fortunately, Margo stepped in for her. “We’re having lunch with the Stonewalls, on account of me dating Jasper now. We’re trying to put our family differences behind us.”
“Aww.” Tiffany smiled. She went to the dining room and looked around, taking in the people assembled there. “Why isn’t the family here?”
“We’re taking it one step at a time,” Margo said quickly. “Not everyone is ready for it.”
“I’m always ready for love,” Tiffany assured her. “I’m hurt you didn’t invite me.”
“To be fair, we left the bonfire pretty early,” Clarence said, standing behind her.
“We did,” Tiffany conceded. She looked at her daughter. “Sorry, Baby. I know you don’t approve, but the siren call of that place was just too tempting.”
“It’s none of my business.” Rowen had learned long ago not to try and control her mother’s personal life.
That was all Tiffany needed to hear, apparently. She went to see what sort of spread they had put out for lunch. “This all looks delicious. Lydia, did you cook it?”
Rowen didn’t follow her mother. She stayed in the hallway. Through a window at the end of it she could see Flint’s car pulling up. Of course, he was coming. Rowen wasn’t the least bit surprised. If he smelled any sort of drama on the wind he was there. He wasn’t unlike Aunt Lydia in that way. Rowen went to greet him on the porch. “How many Stonewalls do you have coming behind you?” she asked before noticing he had a guest. It was Larry the lawyer from the Will reading. “Did you bring a date?” she asked accusingly. Flint could be an incorrigible flirt with either gender, but it was rather audacious of him to bring someone on this particular occasion.
Flint got out of the car. “What?” he asked, like he was perfectly innocent. “No one said I couldn’t bring a date.”
“I thought it was implied.” Rowen knew for a fact that Flint knew why they were really having the Stonewalls over. He was just trying to stir up trouble. Poor Larry, meanwhile, looked terribly uncertain. Rowen quickly put on a smile. “You’re welcome to join us, obviously. Come inside.”
Both Flint and Larry headed up the stairs. Flint lingered near Rowen so that he could whisper to her without anyone else hearing. “I thought it might distract my family from Margo and Jasper some. I’m doing you a favor by bringing a date.”
“You’re being a nuisance is what you’re doing.” Still, it was too late to do anything about it now. Rowen went to find her husband. He was standing away from the others, observing everything that was going on. “This is all falling apart already,” Rowen complained.
“Not necessarily,” Eric offered. “Though you do seem to have an odd people to spaces at the table ratio. If more than three Stonewalls show up, I’m not sure what you’re going to do.”
“Send Flint and my mom to go sit at the kid’s table.”
“I’d volunteer to go sit at one of those. I volunteer to skip this lunch altogether.”
Rowen hooked her arm around her husband’s. “Sorry, Babe. I’m afraid that your attendance is mandatory.”
“I figured, but it was worth a shot.”
Rowen glanced at the clock on the wall. It was just about fifteen after. She headed back into the hallway, Eric in tow this time. Sure enough, Lydia was right. Another car was pulling up. “Margo!” she called.
Margo joined Rowen in the hallway. Together they went out onto the porch to greet the Stonewalls properly. Amber and Jasper got out of the car first. Both of them looked uneasy. Jasper was nervous about his parents accepting Margo. Amber… something else seemed to be bothering Amber. Rowen would be keeping an eye on her.
Tobias and Jeana got out of the car next. They were dressed in the same clothes they had worn to the funeral. “Do you think that was on purpose?” Rowen asked Margo under her breath.
“Oh, definitely.” Margo didn’t even sound offended. If anything, she sounded impressed by such a master class level of cattiness. “I’m glad you guys could make it!” she called, waving.
Jasper picked up his pace. He got to the porch ahead of the family, pulling in Margo for a quick hug
and a kiss as soon as he was at her side. “You’re looking beautiful today,” he whispered just loud enough for Rowen to overhear. To her credit, Margo almost always looked good. Today, she was wearing a flower print sundress, her arms covered in cute chunky bracelets. She gave him a peck on the cheek in return.
Rowen didn’t miss Tobias and Jeana exchange some whispers of their own. At least their stony expressions mellowed a bit when they realized that Rowen was watching. Even Amber looked up and forced the gloomy look from her face. “Isn’t it a lovely day out today?” asked Amber with the false type of cheerfulness Rowen never had been able to stand.
“It is,” Rowen agreed. The sun was out and there was a light breeze that kept things from getting too warm.
“It won’t last,” said Jeana. For a moment, Rowen thought she was talking about Jasper and Margo. That might have been intentional. “There’s a cold front coming in tonight. I can feel it in my bones.”
