“No, thanks though, I’ve got it,” she said with a smile.
“I’m Ziva, by the way. I saw you over here working your tail off and thought I’d come over and say hi.”
“Megan Kennedy, and thanks. I think everything’s going okay, right?”
I looked around and surveyed the crowd. Everyone seemed to be eating and enjoying themselves, maybe a bit too much. Are those two making out over there? Someone else appeared to be hunting for coins in Mrs. Devine’s fountain. Maybe it’s time to cut off the alcohol, buddy. I tried to refocus and assure Megan that everything was fabulous.
“Good to know. After my last gig, I need everything to be perfect.” I looked at Megan and waited for her to elaborate.
“I had my first wedding at Park Place and, let’s just say, it didn’t go as planned. I’m not sure I’ll get booked there again anytime soon.”
“Oh, the fire alarm…” How could I forget? “My girlfriend’s supposed to have her reception there Friday, and we’re not sure if the ballroom’s going to be repaired in time. She’s super stressed out.”
“Yeah, here’s the thing, they tried blaming me for it at first. I mean, I get it, a fire alarm goes off and you blame the cook, but that’s not even remotely possible. The only open flame I had were those little heaters that keep food warm. There’s no way the chaffing fuel would cause the fire sensors to go off.”
“They blamed you? That’s crazy.”
“They tried to, until I realized that I caught the real culprit on camera.”
“You did not? That’s awesome. How’d you manage that?”
“I was taking a quick promo video, and you can clearly see someone pulling the alarm in the background. I turned the video over to the hotel the next day. The only problem is, no one knows who she is.”
“Can I see it?”
“Yeah, of course. I wanted to ask around and see if anyone recognized her. Only problem with being new is that’s kind of hard to do.”
Megan flipped through her phone, and then handed it over to me. I watch as a video played across the screen. Up-close shots of the wedding cake, panning over to the bacon-wrapped asparagus and crostini’s topped with goat-cheese hors d’oeuvres. The food did look delicious, which reminded me that I should ask Megan what her plans were for Friday night. As far as I knew, Aria still needed a caterer.
“There, right there.” Megan pointed to a figure moving along the back wall. I peered a little closer and gasped. I’d recognize those stupid little braids anywhere. I watched in a mixture of amusement and horror as Christina reached over and nonchalantly pulled the fire alarm. Megan then must’ve dropped the phone. I could hear the siren going off in the back ground before the video cut off.
“Then, less than a minute later, another alarm goes off and then another. The girl must’ve pulled a couple more on her way out,” Megan said. I remembered the wedding coordinator saying that the entire system wouldn’t have been activated, unless it was a multi-sensor trigger.
“I know her.”
“You do?” Megan’s face lite up.
“Yep, and I’ll make sure she pays. Here, do me a favor, text me that video and I’m going to go hunt her down.” I had a feeling Christina was behind all of Aria’s wedding disasters.
I turned around just in time to see Whip running buck naked around Mrs. DeVine’s back yard. I slapped my hand over my mouth. Whip was shouting something about being king of the world, but from where I stood, it looked more like the prince of the pea pod, if you know what I’m saying. If I were his campaign advisor, I’d be telling him to keep his pants on at all further public appearances. Out of nowhere, that goofy guy with the trench coat and fedora jumped down from a tree, took photos of Whip, and ran across the backyard, through the hedge.
I looked around, expecting everyone to be shocked, but truth be told, they were acting kooky too. Even Mrs. DeVine seemed goofy. “My arms, they’re all tingly!” she happily explained. Suzanne might have supplied the honey for the baklava, but I had a feeling Vicki supplied the bud for the brownies. Seriously, they were all tripping out.
Megan was the only other person who seemed horrified. “I’m out of here,” I told her. I had no idea what was going on, but I did not want to be a part of it.
“I’m right behind you,” Megan said as she started packing up.
Before leaving, I promised her I’d pass on the video and the girl’s name directly to the police, and then call her tomorrow and let her know how it all went.
“Excellent. Thank you so much,” she said.
“No, trust me, thank you.”
20
I called Aria the minute I reached my truck. She answered right away.
“Hey, girlie, got a minute?” I asked.
“I’m about to walk into Nine’s and hand my wedding over to Christina. I’m done. She can just take over and do her thing.”
“Don’t!”
“What? Why?”
“I’ll explain when I get there. Just order yourself a drink,” maybe two, “and I’ll be there in a jiffy.”
I drove fast on most occasions, and tonight was no exception. I thought about all the drama Aria had put up with this last week and all the stress Christina had caused—the missing dress, the cancelled flowers, the ruined reception venue… I was willing to bet there hadn’t even been a catering issue, Christina just made that last part up. I was steaming by the time I pulled in front of Nine’s. Part of me wanted to ask Christina to step outside, but I thought of my mother again. Bar fighting always got her so worked up.
I walked into the lounge and spotted Aria and Christina, sitting at the long booth that ran the length of the side wall. Well, Christina was sitting in the booth. Aria sat on a chair across from her. I pulled a chair over from the next table and joined their two-top, effectively blocking Christina from being able to make a run for it, and cementing my position next to my bestie. Christina had her notes neatly placed in front of them along with color swatches, seating charts, and pictures of flower arrangements.
“Hey, girls,” I said with a little wave. Christina looked surprised to see me. Perfect. Aria hadn’t tipped her off. Christina recovered quickly though and replied with the fakest smile ever. Keep smiling, I thought. I noticed that one of the tiny braids that zig zagged up her head had come loose and fallen across her face. For once, her hair didn’t look perfect. If she was frazzled now, I was excited to see how she would be feeling in a few moments. This is going to be fun.
“Sorry to crash your little shindig here, but I need to show Aria something. It’ll just take a minute.” I handed my phone over to Aria and smiled. “It gets really good at about a minute fifteen.” I turned my attention to Christina. “So, you’re taking over the wedding plans now?”
“Well, somebody has too.” Christina’s expression turned smug.
“I don’t know; it looks like you had plenty of time to think all this through.” I motioned to the wedding plans spread out on the table.
“I work fast.”
“Uh-huh.” Yes, you do.
“Right there.” I pointed to the figure on camera. Aria gave a little gasp and I knew she recognized Christina.
“And bingo,” I said to Aria as we watched Christina pull the alarm.
Christina tried to look over at what we were watching. “What’s that?”
I folded my hands and placed my elbows on the table, leaning forward and batting my eyes. “Just a little video I found from last week’s disaster at Park Place.”
The color drained from Christina’s face.
“You’re busted.”
“I didn’t. It was an accident. I just—” Christina looked side to side. On one side of her was a wall, on the other side was me.
“Christina! What’s wrong with you? Seriously!” Aria shouted.
Christina stammered some more, threw in a swear word or two, and then crawled under the table and tried to make a break for it. I meant to grab her shoulder, but grabbed one of her braids
instead. Christina screamed and pivoted around. She lunged for me, arms outstretched as if she were going to choke me. I flipped my hand upside down and grabbed her by the wrist, twisting it over. Her purse had been on her arm and the contents of it spilled out onto the floor. I wasn’t paying any attention, but Aria was. She picked up a little green bottle and handed it to me. I dropped Christina’s wrist. The bottle had a picture of a poison ivy plant on it, which I could now identify, thanks to Vicki’s class. Above the image was a giant warning label. Sweet sugar! Christina was the one tampering with my products. Christina turned and snatched the bottle out of my hands. I readily let her have it. She wasn’t expecting that and, in her aggression, she slipped and hit the ground. Glass crunched underneath her and I took a giant step back. Christina rolled over and her entire shirt was soaked in poison ivy oil.
“No one touch her!” I shouted to all the lookie-loos standing around. Aria grabbed a pitcher of ice water from a nearby table and doused her in it. Christina shrieked. Aria looked up at me as if to say, “What? Bad idea?” I shrugged my shoulders. Worked for me.
I wasn’t quite sure how it all was going to go down, but I didn’t expect cops! A couple of the boys in blue walked in a minute later and tried to figure out what had happened. Apparently, a few fingers were pointed at me and, before I could talk my way out of it, my butt was sitting in the back of a cop car. This wasn’t a first. Hopefully, my mother wouldn’t find out. Finn would probably find it hilarious. Before the door was shut, I did manage to say, “Call Detective Roxy and tell her I solved the poison-ivy case.”
Thankfully, the cops listened to me, or maybe it was Aria. I could see her flapping her arms and pointing at me in the police car, trying to get them to let me go. Detective Roxy showed up not too long after and opened the squad-car door. I stepped out as I saw Christina ducking into the back of another.
Detective Roxy was in biker-chick apparel, black leather pants with a matching vest. She was a bigger badass than I was. I just had to do something about that lavender lipstick she was sporting. Blech.
We stood on the sidewalk for a few minutes while I filled her in and showed her the video.
“Mind texting that to me?” the detective asked.
“No problem. Like I said, I got it from the caterer, Megan Kennedy. You’re going to want to chat with her, too. I’ll text you her info.” I took a mental note to give Megan a heads up that Detective Roxy would be getting in touch with her.
“Hey, not sure what’s going on with the whole Paulette case, but I’ve been doing some digging.” Detective Roxy did the eyeing-me-up thing again. “Anyway, you might want to look into Vicki Kline … well, her gardening shed, anyway.” I left it at that, not wanting to incriminate myself.
“Oh! And Whip McGovern? Yeah, his family has a beef with the mayor. Not sure if you’d heard.”
“Anything else?” Detective Roxy seemed amused.
“Nope. Am I good to go?”
“As long as you’re not planning on doing anymore investigating.”
“Not tonight.” I winked and ran over to meet Aria. She had been chatting away on her cell phone while I was, let’s say, detained. Christina had since been taken away.
“What’s the game plan, yo?” I was willing to pull an all-nighter and help Aria re-plan her wedding. We had less than forty-eight hours until the scheduled I do’s and I was fully up to the challenge.
“Vince is on it,” Aria said, putting her phone back in her purse.
“You told him?” Aria nodded her head. “About time.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“No, seriously, I’m glad you filled him in.”
“Me too. I guess these things don’t stress him out like they do me. I’m actually going to go meet up with him now. Is that cool?”
“Yeah of course. Absolutely.” I gave my bestie a hug and told her to call me soon and let me know if I could help with anything.
Aria took off, and I stood in front of Nine’s in deep thought. It took me more than a minute to switch gears. I was used to being the one to swoop in and take charge, to take care of my bestie, but Aria didn’t need me to now because she was marrying an amazing man. Vince texted me less than ten minutes later to say that he’d have everything taken care of and to stand by for an updated itinerary. I had to do a mental check to see how I felt about all this. Guys had come and gone out of our lives, but I had always taken care of Aria. Even her late husband, Raja, was content with letting me be in charge. If felt weird to not have to do that now.
I exhaled and wondered if chocolate would address my feelings, but the answer was no. I stepped off the sidewalk and headed toward my truck, driving to the only other place I knew to go.
No, it wasn’t to Finn’s. Although, I wished he was home for the umpteenth time that week.
My mom was in the kitchen in her floral nightgown, getting ready to put her evening tea on—a ritual I had seen her do a thousand times. Through the front window, I watched her fill the kettle with her filtered water, place her tea leaves in her infuser, and then select her favorite cup to enjoy it all in when it was done. She must’ve seen me out front because she didn’t even flinch when I opened the back door.
“Would you like a cup?” she asked.
“Sure, why not.” I peered into the living room and saw my dad dozing in his recliner, a baseball game on the TV. Both men in my life had a love for the MLB. Another reason why my dad probably liked Finn so much.
I took a seat at the oak kitchen table and waited for my mom to join me. She brought over two mugs of tea and a little plate of cookies, and sat.
“Thanks, Mom. This is nice.” I stirred some honey into my cup and took a sip. It wasn’t chai, but the chamomile would probably do a better job of calming me.
My mom doctored up her tea and took a couple sips, letting the silence linger for a moment longer until she felt compelled to break it. She may be prim and proper, but she also knew when to pry.
“I know Finn’s out of town, so this can’t be about him,” she finally said. She was right. I had done a lot of thinking about Finn over the course of the week, probably too much. I knew where I stood with him. Now I just needed to fill him in.
No, everything felt right in the relationship department.
It wasn’t really Aria’s impending wedding that had me feeling all philosophical either. Although, that may have started me down the path of self-reflection. No, this was about Justine and Todd and the way it made me feel, like I had been sucker punched. Christina might have tampered with my products, but I had no way of knowing if she had also cancelled with the realtor or stolen my product shipment, and I doubted she’d be confessing to it anytime soon. Justine and Todd could very well still be behind it. The fact that two people could potentially hate me enough to team up and plan my demise didn’t sit well with me or my karma.
“Do you think I’m a good person?” I asked my mom.
“Well, I’m pretty fond of you. I think your father, and Finn, and Aria would all think so.”
“I don’t think you guys count.”
“Whose opinion are you worried about?”
“Justine’s?”
My mom raised her eyebrows. I hadn’t given a hoot about what Justine thought for a long time.
“It’s just, someone’s been going through a lot of trouble to mess with my life right now and I think it might be her, again.”
“Well, maybe it’s time you mended that fence.”
“What, you mean like say sorry and make up? Mom, this isn’t grade school.”
“I know, but you two have been feuding for years, and it hasn’t done you any good. Maybe you should try a different approach.”
I stared at my mom for a long minute. She didn’t blink. I did not want to be friends with Justine. But I was also sick of dealing with her crap year after year. It had to stop.
“You know, they say that forgiveness isn’t something that we do for other people, it’s something that we do for ourselves,”
my mother added.
I rolled my eyes. “You really gotta stop watching the Hallmark Channel.
“Just think about it.”
I wrinkled my nose and took another sip of tea. Sometimes I hated it when my mother was right.
21
Someone woke me up at eight AM by banging on my front door. Captain Jack growled something fierce and I was about to join in. Anyone who knew me was aware that you didn’t wake me up before nine, and you sure as heck didn’t stop by before ten, unless it was an emergency.
The person knocked again. Whoever this is better hope it’s an emergency. I literally rolled out of bed. Captain Jack decided to stay. I gave him the evil eye as I shuffled toward the front door. I looked out my peep hole and saw a guy in full bicycle gear with an envelope in his hand. I looked down to see if what I was wearing was appropriate enough to answer the door in. I had slept in a pair of black yoga pants and an off-the-shoulder lightweight sweatshirt. A favorite of mine. I couldn’t have been the only person who turned up the air conditioning at night just so I could wear warm, comfy clothes, right?
The messenger went to knock again and I swung the door open. I may have even snarled. The guy winced. “Sorry, my directions specifically said to keep knocking.”
I didn’t say a word, just held out my hand for the envelope. My name was handwritten in script across the front and the back had a wax seal with an old English D stamped into it. Ah, Aria’s wedding itinerary. Of course. Only Vince would send someone out to hand-deliver wedding invitations at sunrise. How Aria’s fiancé had managed such an elaborate invitation on such short notice was beyond me. He operated on an entirely different level of wealth that us commoners couldn’t even comprehend. However, when I opened the envelope, I saw that the stationary only contained a list, a packing list to be exact, with a request to bring my passport, along with the time that my driver would be picking me up tomorrow afternoon. Aria was officially marrying an international man of mystery.
I walked back to my bedroom and looked inside the door. Captain Jack had moved over to my spot and was being a total bed hog. I think he was smiling in his sleep. I thought about moving him, but truthfully, I probably wasn’t going to be able to fall back asleep. No point in disrupting the cutie patootie.
Kiss & Makeup: Beauty Secrets Mystery Book 2 Page 14
