Chapter 15
Hours later, after going through every moment between Arlo and me in my head and dissecting it like a pro, I pace the foyer of the B&B, waiting for the girls.
Lark made fun of me when I stopped in at the bakery and grabbed sweet rolls, then again when I backtracked to the grocer to grab a few bottles of wine…not to mention walking out and then walking right back in for ice cream for the sweet rolls.
I feel like I’m back in high school, waiting around for the popular girls to notice me. News flash, they never did. Except after the conversation with Autumn this morning, I found myself hopeful, and now I feel foolish.
Lark and Saffron ate and now sit in the parlor, consuming the other package of sweet rolls I grabbed just for them. Arlo sits beside them with his nose in a book, and that makes me feel even weirder.
Why is this so hard?
“Stop pacing,” Arlo growls from the other room, and of course, my legs chill out. “I’m trying to concentrate here.”
Movement catches my eye outside the window, and Autumn crashes through the door with a dimpled smile and another bottle of wine. She tosses a bag at the foot of the steps, nodding when it sounds like something shatters in there.
“Refreshments!” she mock slurs before stumbling to the other room, peeking in at her brother for a moment before continuing on.
Maybe she’s already drunk. The bottle looks unopened.
As I’m about to shut the door, Bloom walks in with a smile on her face. Before I know it, I find myself wrapped up in her arms as she squeezes me in a death hug that smells like a floral bouquet. Pulling back, she squeals in hysteria.
“I’m so excited.” She tosses a bag down beside Autumn’s. “I haven’t done this since I was in grade school.” She bounces down the hall.
“A kid free night!” Paris stumbles through the door with an open wine bottle in her hand as she salutes me.
She looks a little less like a hot mess today as she saunters in, wearing bright red, heart-shaped sunglasses and a thousand-watt smile.
She has a Minion bookbag on her shoulder and a jean jacket on her curvy frame.
“Where is your little guy?” I shut the door, wondering where the last of the squad is.
“With my mother.” She sighs in peace the way only a single mom can.
I understand that feeling all too well, only I wasn’t in love with my baby daddy and Lark was a well-behaved child.
She slept through the night from day one and didn’t fuss too often.
I don’t know what her son is like. “I’m going to go get a cup for this with some ice.
” She sways down the hall to a tune that plays in her head.
A moment later, the door opens again, and this time, the red-haired goddess walks in, her white shirt tucked into a pair of high-waisted jeans and a long coat.
“Wren.” She kisses my cheeks before setting her own bag down on the steps, her heels clacking on the hardwood. “What an incredible idea.” Her eyes light up as she walks past the parlor. “Lark,” she gushes. “I love your hair.”
Swinging the front door shut, I walk past the parlor and smile with wide eyes that probably make me look insane. Lark gives Kenzie a weird look before she shakes her head and goes back to her book.
As always, my eyes find Arlo, who smirks at me before returning to his own reading.
Clomping down the hall, I join the others in the kitchen. Five bottles of wine sit on the counter, and there’s one in the hands of a half lit Paris, who’s still bouncing around to the music in her head.
“How are we going to do this?” Kenzie questions.
“Oh!” Autumn slides to the pantry on her socks before tossing things on the floor to get to the bottom of whatever hides in the chest there. “Ah-ha!” She whips out a little board.
“Is that what I think it is?” Bloom gasps in outrage. “Those are portals to hell.” She whispers the word as though saying it alone will transport her to such a place.
“My mom used to use it all the time.” Autumn eyes it like it’s just another object and not a witch board.
“We should see if we can speak to the dead.” Paris hiccups, but there’s sadness in her eyes, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s drinking so much because she wants to connect with her husband or if she doesn’t.
I clap my hands and pull out the chicken dip Saffron made and set it on the counter with chips. “Food first, shenanigans later.”
“That is the weirdest word.” Paris hops on a stool to get to the chips, wiggling between Kenzie and Autumn.
“I like to say it.” Bloom pours herself a drink. “Shenanigans.”
“Ever try to spell it?” Autumn shovels a scooped chip in her mouth. “She-the-nan-I-gains.”
“You’re drunk, go home,” Kenzie mutters.
“I am not,” Autumn slurs like a drunk. “Gimme your breathalyzer.”
Without skipping a beat, Kenzie pulls out her breathalyzer and hands it over. “It’s a good thing we are staying here.”
“You guys walked anyway,” I point out.
Autumn’s face turns beet red as she blows and blows.
With a sigh, Kenzie flips it around. “Try again.” She gives the rest of us an eye roll.
“Ha!” Autumn shoves it under her nose. “One, I blew a zero point zero. Two, I am not drunk, like I told you. And three, this is my home, you red devil.”
“Means nothing. You pre-gamed, and I know you have something up your sleeves to torture us.” Kenzie flutters her perfectly manicured hands.
“I want you four to lift my chub up and off a grave.” Paris wiggles her sunglasses at us before letting them drop back on her face.
“Don’t think we won’t try,” Autumn retorts.
“I’m first.” Paris raises her bottle to the ceiling before marching out into the cold sans jacket.
“Paris, coat.” Kenzie takes a dainty bite of her chip before looking around. “Are we doing this now?”
“Yep.”
A screech echoes through the kitchen, startling the five of us as Bloom jumps onto the table, blubbering. Paris skids back inside before falling to a heap on the floor. Autumn cackles like an uncontrollable loon, and Kenzie doesn’t even look fazed as she continues to eat a chip and sip her wine.
“What?” I walk around the island to see what Bloom is pointing at, only to find my little beastie, his tail fluffing up with his red nose in the air as he stomps the ground.
“Cooper, not nice,” I scold him. “We don’t spray friends.
” He stomps again, trying to look intimidating, but to me, he just looks too darn cute.
Autumn laughs harder as Arlo skids into the kitchen. “What happened?”
I lift Cooper and snuggle his stinky self into my chest. “Just Cooper startling the guests.” I look up at him, holding back my laugh. “Guess I should have warned them.”
Arlo points a finger at me, his jaw opening and closing like a fish out of water. Reaching out, I shut his jaw with a smile as Cooper settles against my chest, his tail no longer fluffing to intimidate everyone.
Arlo grumbles at me, squinting at the furry beasty in my arms. “Remove his scent glands.”
I gasp, covering his little ears. “He doesn’t mean that,” I whisper to my pet.
“Birdie, I mean it.”
“Pet him.” I go to lift Cooper off my chest, only to have Arlo scuttle backwards. The normally balanced man stumbles into the doorway, causing his twin to laugh even harder.
Between gasping breaths, she points at him. “You are afraid of a skunk.”
“Then you hold him!” Arlo throws back at her, righting himself with irritation as he fixes the cuffs of his flannel like it’s a tailored suit jacket.
It is! It’s a mountain man suit.
A flannel is a redneck suit.
“No.” Arlo points at me, a deep frown wrinkling his face.
“Aww, he loves you.” I pet Cooper like a villain, feeling no shame in this moment.
“I mean no to whatever thought just crossed your face.” He crosses his arms, and his muscles bunch and pull, distracting me momentarily.
“How?”
“Because, Birdie” —Arlo’s voice dips for a moment, his eyes sparkling— “you wear every little emotion on your face.”
“I am not that readable.” Is that even a word? Well, it is today.
“Huh.” Autumn snorts before grabbing her brother and pushing him down the hall. A moment later, she yells, “Lark, acquire the scented bunny.”
“Cat,” I mutter. “He’s a scented cat.”
“Cats don’t hop.” Autumn walks back in with Lark on her heels, and without fear, unlike her twin, she picks up Cooper and snuggles him for a second before handing him over to Lark, who just takes each moment with a grace that none of us adults could achieve.
“He likes you,” I tell her as I dust off his little hairs.
“I once came across a nest of them. Mom wouldn’t let me keep them, but…” She drops her voice to a whisper. “I kept them in the shed in a little box, anyway.”
Tilting my head, I see Autumn in a new light. Of all the things to bond with a person over, I didn’t expect it to be Cooper. But the half smirk on her face and the way her eyes follow Lark as she moves out of the room with Cooper says it all. She has a soft spot for animals.
I didn’t expect that, and something about it warms my heart.
The moment dissolves as Bloom hops off the table, her feet clanking down on the hardwood. “Well, that was more excitement than I’m used to.” With her hands on her dainty hips, she releases a long shiver, her eyes finding mine with an anxious flicker.
“Let’s do this,” Paris shouts in the air, startling all of us. With a wink, she saunters outside without a coat, holding a full bottle of wine.
“Really, it’s amazing she is such an incredible mother,” Kenzie mutters under her breath. “Because the woman is a hot mess.”
“That’s because, as moms, we save all of our energy for the creatures we spawn.” I tug my own coat on and follow her out into the chilly night, though it’s still warmer, or rather seasonably warm for this time of year—a stifling forty degrees Fahrenheit.
To me, it may as well be as cold as the Arctic.
With a full body shiver, I follow Paris into the night. Our path is lit by a motion light on the back of the house, then a couple of small beams held by Autumn and Kenzie.