Grave Secret - Charlaine Harris [11]
Iona was still not meeting our eyes, still stirring the damn coffee.
Hank came in the garage door then, which was good timing. Hank was a big man, with a broad, high-complexioned face and thinning blond hair. He’d been very handsome when he was younger, and he was a good-looking man still, now that he’d reached forty. His waist was barely thicker than it had been when he and Iona had married.
“Harper, Tolliver! Good to see you! We don’t see you-all enough.”
Liar.
He kissed the top of Gracie’s head and chucked Mariella under the chin. “Hey, you two!” he said to the girls. “Mariella, how was that spelling test today?”
Mariella said, “Hey, Daddy! I got eight out of ten right.”
“That’s my girl,” Hank said. He was pouring some Coca-Cola out of a two-liter bottle. He chunked a few ice cubes into the glass and pulled up a folding chair that stood beside the refrigerator. “Gracie, did you have a good time in chorus today?”
“We sang good,” she said. She seemed relieved to be on familiar conversational ground.
If Hank had noticed the tense atmosphere in the tiny kitchen, he didn’t comment on it.
“How are you two doing?” he asked me. “Find any good bodies lately?” Hank had always talked about our livelihood as if it were a big joke.
I smiled back faintly. “A few,” I said. Evidently, Hank didn’t read the newspapers or watch the news on television. I’d been mentioned more often than I wanted to be in the past month.
“Where you traveled to?” Hank also thought it was amusing that Tolliver and I were always on the road, pursuing this strange living of ours. Hank had been out of Texas when he was in the army, but that was the extent of his traveling experience.
“We were in the mountains of North Carolina,” Tolliver said. He paused to see if either Iona or Hank would pick up on the reference to our last, most notorious, case.
Nope.
“Then we went to another job between here and Texarkana, in Clear Creek. Now here we are in Garland to see you-all.”
“Any big news in the corpse-finding business?” Again with the teasing smile.
“We have other news,” Tolliver said, irritated by Hank’s facetiousness. This happened every time. Every damn time. I looked at Tolliver, saw the intent way his eyes were focused on Hank.
Uh-oh, I thought.
“You found you a girlfriend and you’re going to settle down!” Hank said jocularly, since Tolliver’s lack of a steady girlfriend had long been the subject of many pointed jokes from both Iona and her husband.
“As a matter of fact, I have,” Tolliver said, and the smile on his face made me close my eyes. It was bright and hard.
“Well, listen to that, girls! Your uncle Tolliver has got himself a girl! Who is she, Tol?”
My brother hated it when someone abbreviated his name.
“Harper,” Tolliver said. He reached across the table and took my hand. And we waited.
“Your . . .” Iona almost said “sister,” but recalled the word in time. “But . . . you two?” She looked from me to Tolliver. “That’s just not right,” she said hesitantly. “You two . . .”
“Are not related,” I said, smiling brightly at my aunt.
The girls were looking from one adult to another, confused.
“You’re my sister,” Mariella said suddenly.
“Yep,” I said, smiling at her.
“Tolliver is my brother,” she said clearly.
“Also true. But we’re not related to each other. You understand that, right? I had a different mom and dad from Tolliver.”
“So,” said Gracie, “you gonna get married?” She looked pleased. Confused, but pleased.
Tolliver looked across the table at me. His smile gentled. “I hope so,” he said.
“Oh, boy! Can I be in the wedding?” Mariella said. “My friend Brianna was in her sister’s wedding. Can I wear a long dress? Can I get my hair done? Brianna’s mom let her wear lipstick. Can I wear lipstick, Mom?”
“Mariella, we may not have a big wedding,” I said, since I could guarantee that wasn’t going to happen. “We may just go to a justice of the peace. So it might not be in a church, and I wouldn’t wear a long white dress.”
“But whatever we do, you can be there, and you can wear whatever you want,” Tolliver said.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!