Death, Doom and Detention
Page 39I avoided eye contact. “We’ll just have cereal.”
“Think healthy,” Granddad said, referring to my culinary choice. I was actually thinking more along the lines of chocolaty, but okay. I took down a box of something with the word “wheat” in it. Brooke crinkled her nose and went for a toaster pastry as Glitch raided the refrigerator.
Since Plan A had gone awry, our sleuthing adventures would have to wait until tonight. At least Jared was back. That single thought occupied 98 percent of my brain function. The other 2 percent was on Plan A. It didn’t hurt to do a little investigating. To grill the authority figures for intel. I wondered what Grandma and Granddad knew about my other grandfather, the one on my dad’s side. They didn’t tell me the truth about my parents’ disappearance for ten years, and even then, I had to practically force it out of them. I doubted they would have told me if not for Jared’s appearance and everything that happened six months ago.
I cleared my throat. “So, I was looking at some pictures and I realized I don’t have a single one of my other set of grandparents.”
Grandma choked on her coffee, coughing a full minute before recovering, and I didn’t know if her seizure was due to my question or the fact that I was talking to them.
Granddad patted her back, his eyes rounding in surprise, when he said, “I’m not sure we have any. Your dad didn’t bring much in the way of personal effects when he and your mom moved back here.”
I took a bite of cereal, going for nonchalance, then said, “I wonder if my chin is like his.”
And with that, Grandma and Granddad leveled the most shocked expression I’d ever seen on me. So I continued.
“I mean, you know, I don’t really have either of your chins, so I thought maybe my chin came from the other side of my family.”
Granddad recovered first. “Yes, well, you definitely have the cleft from your dad’s chin. That’s a signature McAlister trait if I ever saw one. Right, Vera?”
“Do you think there are pictures of them somewhere?”
“Well, there are some records stored in the basement,” she said. “There might be something in there.”
“Cool. I might check it out later. Just out of curiosity.” I practically had their permission to snoop now and felt better for it.
Brooke thinned her mouth, admonishing me with her furrowed eyebrows. I stuck out my tongue, then proceeded to ignore her.
At least until Cameron came in. “The truck’s warm,” he said.
“If you guys don’t get cold,” Brooke said to him, picking up her backpack, “why do you wear jackets?”
“It’s frowned upon in society to walk around without a jacket. I used to catch all kinds of heck in grade school. Now I just get odd looks. It’s easier to conform.”
“Oh.” She strolled out the door with the rest of us behind her.
“Have a good day, pix,” Grandma said, her voice full of hope.
Jared met us at Cameron’s truck, wearing his bomber jacket and jeans. His wide shoulders filled the jacket so nicely, and the brown color went well with his height.
“Hey, you,” he said, and I melted a little inside. He was already almost completely healed, at least the parts of him I could see.
“Hey.”
He reached out and brushed a thumb over my mouth.
An electrical current shot through me with the contact.
“You look nice.”
His hand was warm against the crisp day. “Thank you.”
He looked past me. Cameron had stopped and was assessing him with his signature glower.
With a boyish smile, Jared raised his hands in surrender. Then he opened the door for me, but from the corner of my eye, I noticed him look back at the house as though checking to see if my grandparents were watching. Then he turned and spit into the mud. A very guy thing to do, but just odd.
Glitch strode to his car without so much as a by your leave. He was getting so moody.
I scooted to the middle to make room for Jared. He slid in and closed the passenger-side door. The warmth of his body seeped into my clothes.
“So, these descendants don’t sound very smart,” I said, trying not to let my worry filter into the tone of my voice. “I mean, who would be dumb enough to jump you? Besides Cameron, that is.”
Cameron tossed me a scowl as he pulled onto Main. He was a master of scowls. Probably invented several of the more defiant scowls so popular with kids today.
In response, Brooklyn flashed her version. “She’s just being honest. If you’ll remember, you guys made a mess of downtown Riley’s Switch a while back. Not just anyone could have done that.”
Brooke was right. When Jared showed up a couple of months back to take me when I’d been dying, Cameron knew what he was. And since Cameron had literally been created to protect me, he didn’t take kindly to Jared showing up to take my life. Not without an appointment at least. The two of them fought like two gods hell-bent on destroying our small town.
They may have laid aside their differences to figure out this war thing, but the animosity between them hadn’t subsided completely.
With a shrug, Cameron conceded to Brooke’s logic.