I sighed and did. Gathering my hair, I pulled it over my shoulder and out of the way. “Thanks.”
His chilly fingers brushed my skin as he loosened the ribbon holding the dress up. Several awkward seconds later, he said, “All set.”
When I faced him, he already held his bag.
“Thanks. At the rate she’s going, I might have been waiting another hour.”
He laughed. “See you around.”
“I can’t believe you ditched me like that,” I exclaimed as Kaylee and I walked to the MINI.
“I told you I was sorry.” She pressed the button on the remote to unlock the doors. The lights flashed, followed by a faint click.
“How long does it take to change?”
“I wanted to see the strapless one on me again.” She’d bought the black dress.
“Yeah, well, while you were making up your mind, I had to have my dad’s hired hand help me out of my clothes.” I groaned. “I really hope I don’t see him again anytime soon.”
“Forgive me?”
I had to fight back a laugh when I looked at her. “Don’t give me the puppy-dog eyes.”
She added a slight pout to her lips.
“Fine, I forgive you.”
It wasn’t like I could stay mad at her anyway. The longest fight we’d ever had was in the seventh grade, and that one had lasted all of three hours, twenty-eight minutes, and twelve seconds before we’d both caved and gushed our apologies. I can’t even remember what we had been fighting about.
Kaylee opened the driver’s side door and paused. “What the heck?”
She reached over the windshield and picked up a single ice-blue rose. She examined the tag. “That’s creepy.”
“What?”
She held it over the roof of the car so that I could take it from her. I read the message:
“Is it from Isaac?” she asked.
“Definitely not.”
First of all, Isaac didn’t talk like that. Second,
“Reed?”
“I’ve talked to him all of ten minutes, and eight of those were waiting for you.”
I scanned the parking lot. A person in a dark coat sank into the shadows, but I’d seen enough of him to know he wasn’t wearing a flannel jacket.
“Get in the car,” Kaylee instructed.
I chucked the flower aside and did. Kaylee practically ran over a woman and her stroller getting us out of there. She kept glancing at me out the corner of her eyes.
“Madison, the last person to have a secret admirer went missing.”
“We decided Natalie ran away, remember?” I said in major denial. I couldn’t be the target of a psychopath.
Chapter 12
“Maybe M wasn’t for Madison,” Josh said. “It’s not like Kaylee drives the only dark green MINI Cooper in the state.”
“Perhaps,” Isaac said, bouncing a fist off the arm of my family room couch.
Disney movies and frozen corndogs weren’t exactly my idea of a fun Saturday night, so to lessen the sting of being stuck with brother-sitting duty, I had enticed (a.k.a. begged) my friends to join me, promising I’d have lots of junk food. Isaac had shown up with a kiss, a two-liter of pop, and an extra-large cheese and sausage pizza. Josh had arrived a few minutes later with a couple dozen chicken wings and a perturbed-looking Kaylee. The guys’ mood had gone from carefree to tense in the time it had taken me to tell them about the rose.
“That doesn’t explain the person you saw duck into the shadows when you spotted him,” Isaac said.
“He might have just been walking into the mall,” I replied, not sure if I’d imagined him backing into the darkness.
“Kaylee, did you see anyone?” Isaac asked.
She shook her head as she chewed a bite of pizza, a permanent frown stamped across her face.
“Where’s the flower now?” Josh asked.
“Kissing asphalt. I wasn’t going to keep it.” I handed my brother a napkin. “Really, Chase, you have to stop dissecting your food.” He took the napkin without taking his eyes off the television and Lightning McQueen. Leaning closer to Kaylee, I whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Super.” She smiled. Sort of. I think. I gave her a questioning look, and she snapped, “I’m fine.” Which in Kaylee-speak translated to she was pissed, but about what I didn’t know, and she obviously didn’t want to say it in front of the guys.
“I don’t like it,” Isaac said, dropping a chicken bone into a bag in the center of the coffee table.
I didn’t either, but the more I thought about the rose, the more I felt Kaylee and I had overreacted. If it hadn’t been for Natalie’s Houdini act, we would have assumed the rose had been meant for someone else. Besides, we’d shopped in Peabody, miles away from home. No one had known where we were.
“I’m sure Josh is right,” I said. “Someone got the wrong car. Don’t you agree, Kaylee?”
“Yeah.” She pushed her plate away and slouched back against the couch.
I jumped up. “We need more napkins. Kaylee, can you help me?”
She frowned. “You need help carrying napkins?”
I glared at her through narrowed eyes, wondering if she and Josh had gotten into an argument on the way over. “There’s chips too.”
“Fine.” She trudged to the kitchen as if she were walking the plank off the side of a ship.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
I swear her ears drooped. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from calling her Eeyore. And the fact that a Winnie the Pooh reference had popped into my head confirmed I’d really been spending too much time with Chase.
I rested a hand on her arm. “Kaylee, I know you. Now spill.”
“I’m fine. Okay? Can we get the chips and go watch
“You don’t have to get snippy.”
“I’m not snippy.”
I fought back my rebuttal. I really didn’t want to fight, and Kaylee wasn’t one to bite her tongue long, so I knew she’d talk soon enough.
“Popcorn or chips?” I held up a bag of Ruffles and a package of microwave popcorn as if the options were stupendous and would lighten her mood.
“Whatever you want.” Kaylee blew out a breath, sending her bangs flying. “Isn’t the whole point of hiring people so that the boss doesn’t have to work weekends?”
And there it was: the reason behind her sourpuss demeanor. Only, normally Kaylee didn’t mind hanging out
