California Schemin' - Kate George [14]
“What?”
I inclined my head in the direction of MMF.
“She’s a shape shifting alien, that’s why you don’t recognize her. She has trouble maintaining her appearance during flights.”
The attendant was looking at me as though I’d grown a second head. I smiled and got off the plane. Are you losing your mind, Bree? You don’t honestly believe in aliens, but you just made an ass out of yourself anyway.
Meg was waiting outside the security check area with Gemma and Louise, as always. Meg was a little shorter and a little heavier than me. The girls both had their mom’s curly brown hair, and twelve-year-old Louise had her eyes. Gemma’s brilliant green eyes weren’t inherited from anyone, as far as Meg could tell. If you asked Gemma, she’d tell you she was a changeling.
The girls squealed when they saw me and darted through the line of passengers to get to me. They almost flattened a little man who was foolish enough to cut between us when I stopped to brace myself for impact. Their little arms twined around me as they blurted out all the important news.
“Bree! We thought you were never coming home.” “Annie hasn’t eated anything since you’ve been gone.” “Did you know that Rosie is pregnant?” “Annabelle pooped on your bed, but momma cleaned it up.”
They towed me along, peppering me with questions and filling me in on the day-to-day progress of my animals. Meg smiled at me and shrugged. We’d say our hellos later when the girls calmed down.
“Where are the boys?” I managed to sneak a question in.
“Stayed home with their dad,” said Meg.
“The boys couldn’t be bothered to ride in the car for so long,” said Louise.
“They wanted to stay home and play horseshoes in the barn with daddy,” said Gemma. “Bree, when is Uncle Beau coming home? We miss him.”
“He’ll be home in a couple of weeks, Hon.” The fact that Beau was planning to stay in California skittered through my brain, making me uneasy. Tom, Meg’s husband and Beau’s brother, had every right to know what was up, but I wasn’t about to spill the beans. Let Beau break their hearts. I wasn’t about to.
Meg was oddly quiet on the drive home. Louise and Gemma filled the time with chatter about school and the goings on around town while I was away.
“We saw Jim yesterday, Bree.” Louise was smiling. Jim Fisk was my newest ex-boyfriend. “He told Jeremy that he’s not dating Lucy Howe, even though she is always hanging around him. He d said to make sure that you knew that he wasn’t seeing anyone. Only Jeremy didn’t come, so I get to tell you.”
“That takes a lot of nerve, asking your kids to pass on that he’s not dating. What a jerk.”
“He likes you, he knows he made a mistake, and he’s rightly scared to death of you. I think the kids just seemed like a safe option,” said Meg. “Not that I think you should get back with him, because I don’t. I’m just saying he’s not a bad guy, just stupid.”
“Point taken. How are things with you and Tom? Has he got the barracks under control and stopped working overtime so much?” Tom was the Captain in charge of the local Vermont State Police Barracks where overtime was a given. Even rural Vermont kept the State Troopers busy.
“Oh, he still works too much, but it’s not as bad as before. And we’ve been going out once a week and leaving Jeremy in charge. He’s doing okay with it, but the other kids,” Meg nodded toward the girls in the back seat, “give him a hard time. We had to lay down some pretty strict rules to keep things from getting out of hand.”
“Sounds like things are getting better.”
Meg nodded.
“Yeah, pretty much. How are things with you and Beau? Is he still mad at you?”
“I don’t think he was mad so much as worried. He thought if I came to California everything would be OK. I’d be safe and he wouldn’t have to worry about crazed soap stars or murderous housekeepers. I can’t say as I blame him. I thought finding dead people was a one-time thing myself.”
I looked out over the landscape. So different from the dry and warm California hills. There was a layer of snow over the countryside, smoke was rising from chimneys, and