24. Alan
24
ALAN
A lan spent the entire morning trying not to moon over the memory of Kendra’s kiss or fret over her abrupt departure at Amy’s drop-off.
The Tiny Paws kids were a thorough distraction. Gil needed to be constantly reminded not to climb things and cannonball off of them, Jennifer was fighting with Franzi and Tara over some imagined slight, and Lucy didn’t quite set things on fire, but there were several smoking near-misses. Amy was still molting like mad, and one of the younger boys, Ryan, was apparently allergic to her downy feathers. Alan had to remind him constantly to cover his sneezes, and he used up half a bottle of weak bleach solution following around after him, even though he didn’t think the kid was actually contagious.
Alan had a little stab of unease right before the door alerted near noon. He checked his phone and saw Kendra standing there, her arms wrapped around her and her face drawn into a scowl that was obvious even to the grainy security camera.
He buzzed her in and peeled two kids off his legs to go meet her at the gate. She wasn’t due to pick up Amy until late that afternoon, so he’d have known something was up, even without the tickle of instinct suggesting it.
Kendra didn’t offer to take off her shoes and come into the room, so they faced off over the baby gate. “Do you know that Cherry’s landlord is suspicious about the kids here?”
“Veronica Chase. We have a file on her. Why? How do you know that?”
“I was window shopping at the real estate office down the street and she came storming in threatening to yank Cherry’s contract.”
“Do you know why?” Alan was sorting through his memory of Veronica’s file. She and Cherry had never been particularly chummy, and he knew that Veronica was trying to raise the rent, while Cherry had to be careful about her clients, protect their secrets, and keep the aging building running smoothly. Alan had already met her plumber, Roderick, who was the father of one of Amy’s agemates. He did most of his work for Cherry pro bono because Veronica dug in her heels about paying legitimate expenses. Cherry also had to balance letting Veronica in to fix things while keeping her very unstealthy kids from betraying their secrets.
“Clarice says that Veronica thinks Cherry is a witch and the kids are part of some kind of supernatural cult. She’s a little too close to the truth, Alan!”
“Who’s Clarice?” Alan asked crisply. His earlier distraction, thinking about Kendra’s kiss, was completely squashed in the business of the moment as he assessed this new threat.
“Veronica’s assistant.”
“Tell me more about her,” Alan commanded, not noticing when he’d slipped out his friendly and easy-going Tiny Paws facade. “Height? Build? Eye color?”
“Not very tall, a little on the round side. Glasses, I didn’t notice her eyes. Shoulder-length blonde hair, kind of frizzy but not really curly. Impractical nails, reddish-purple, slightly chipped. Generic brand clothing. No kids. Not a shifter.”
Alan wasn’t surprised that Kendra had a good eye for details. She’d be a good field agent. And being a vet would be a great cover, he realized.
Kendra blinked rapidly, like something had just occurred to her. “She’s from Las Vegas! You said that company was there! Stork. Could she be a plant ?”
“She doesn’t match any of my primary suspects,” he said thoughtfully. “It’s probably just a coincidence that she’s from Vegas. You are, and that doesn’t make you a plant.”
Kendra froze in place, her face shuttering. “How did you know that I’m from Las Vegas?” she asked dangerously.
Oh. Alan hadn’t gotten around to telling her about his research yet. “I looked you up,” he said contritely. “Nothing secretive. I didn’t use any back channel databases, just what’s online. I just thought...”
“Thought you should snoop on me? Was that before or after we kissed?”
“After,” Alan said honestly, keeping his voice quiet and intense. “I wasn’t kidding when I said that I wanted more than a notch in your ledger. I’m not going to say it was entirely right to snoop , but I’m not sorry to know more about you and you have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Outrage flashed in her eyes and Alan feared he’d worded that poorly.
“Did you plan on telling me you’d gone diving into my sordid past?”
“I did. Today, as a matter of fact.”
Kendra was clearly assessing his answer and Alan met her gaze steadily. “You’ve let your social media languish,” he said drolly. “I didn’t figure it was worth sending a friend request.”
Kendra gave a bark of laughter and Alan thought she relaxed a little. Could he feel that from her, or was he just guessing it from her body language?
Kendra sighed and shook her head. “I’ve been a bit busy to keep up with it.”
Her phone gave a buzz and Kendra pulled it out to frown at the text. A folded paper came out with it to fall on the ground and Alan picked it up for her. He really wasn’t trying to snoop, but saw that it was a realty listing on Veronica Chase’s letterhead. “Rita is just about finished at the auto shop,” Kendra said with a grimace as she accepted the flyer from him. “No savings to put towards that down payment this month. I’m not sure why I’m keeping this.”
She made a move to drop in the trash can by the door, but Alan stopped her. “Keep it. That could be our way into Veronica’s office. I’ve met her, but she doesn’t know who you are, right?”
“Didn’t seem to. I hadn’t seen her in person before, though I’ve heard horror stories from other parents here who rent. The tales always made me happy I was living in a house on wheels instead of leasing one of her places.”
“Your van is really recognizable, though. Would she have seen it in front of the day care?”
“It’s memorable, but it’s also too big for parking street-side in a single spot. I usually have to park at the grocery store and walk over. Except for those rare times that I double-park and get a ticket because I’m talking to the day care help too long.”
“Did you?” Alan asked in horror.
“Didn’t you find that in my public records?”
Alan was relieved to realize that Kendra was teasing him. She put the printout back in her purse as her phone buzzed again and she checked her phone. “They want to close up the shop and go home. They only took me in today at all as a favor. Anyway, I just thought you should know, if you didn’t already. Warn Cherry that Veronica is on the warpath about something .”
“I will,” Alan promised. “And Kendra…”
His attempt to say something chivalrous or romantic or epic was thwarted the moment that Amy realized that her mother was at the gate and hadn’t come to see her. She gave a shriek of outrage and toddled full blast for the door, yelling her indignation at the top of her lungs. Halfway there, she tripped and fell flat on her face. Her yowls went from affront to pain and shock.
Kendra winced and flinched. She probably knew that rushing to get Amy would only keep her there longer.
“I got her,” Alan assured her. “Go get Rita.”
Then he swooped back into the play room with a raven’s caw to sweep Amy up and distract her from her tears. He cuddled her up into his arms, bouncing her and pretending to drop her until she was laughing and clinging to him and had forgotten about Kendra altogether. When Alan looked around again, she had vanished.
Alan hadn’t forgotten her, though, and he carried Amy around a little longer than was strictly necessary, wishing he knew what their life together might look like. The realty listing was a house big enough for a family , and he wanted to be a part of that.