Page 30 of Midnight Auto Parts

>Whose?

>>That’s the million-dollar question.

>>Want to meet for coffee?

A quick check of the time quirked my brow.

>How do you know I’m not home in my pajamas?

>>Josie tracks your phone. She says you’re at Bonaventure. With Kierce.

>She’s tracking him too?

>Scratch that. Of course she’s stalking him. She can’t help herself.

Probably because she didn’t try very hard not to be a bratty little sister.

>>Is that a yes?

>Yeah. Sure. Text us the address.

“The crime scene techs found bones.” I couldn’t shake my unease. “Carter wants to meet for coffee.”

“Are they related to your missing loaner?”

“She didn’t say.” I tapped my phone against my chin. “Are you up for a rematch?”

His slight hesitation betrayed his concern over my recent impression of a tumbleweed in a tornado.

“I have more energy to burn.” I rose with a grunt I was shocked to realize was only habit not necessity. “I understand if you’re too scared to—” Dirt sprayed my cheek as he sprinted for the gate. “Hey.” Laughter bubbled out of me as I scrabbled to catch him. “It doesn’t count if you don’t say ready, set, go.”

“Ready, set, go,” he called back to me, not slowing down.

“I had that coming,” I mumbled to myself.

Judging by my smile, I didn’t mind one bit.

When I thought of Mallow,located in downtown Savannah, I pictured it as a hot chocolate bar. Hand-cut marshmallows, seventy-five percent cacao drinks, hand-whipped cream. The short coffee menu featured heavy mocha undertones, and the tea menu was nonexistent. The lack of cheddar-based options made it a peculiar choice for Carter.

The fact she sat at a table with two cupcakes pierced with candles and a lighter made it even weirder.

Cautious of what ill omen her choice in snack heralded, I approached her slowly to ensure my sister wasn’t hiding under the table, poised to jump out and scare ten years off my life. Though I couldn’t recall any holidays, birthdays, or special occasions matching today’s date, siblings required no excuse to terrorize one another.

“Sit.” Carter kicked out two chairs. “Have a salted caramel cupcake.”

As Kierce and I lowered ourselves onto our seats, she lit the candles then propped her phone facing us.

“Happy first kiss day to you,” Josie sang. “Happy first smooch day to you. Happy first liplock, Frankie and Kierce-y. Happyyou finally reached first baseto you.”

“I vow to spend tonight switching stakes in your garden so that you don’t know what you planted until it sprouts. Then I will pick all your underripe fruit and vegetables and feed them to the crows. Crows I’ll let Badb handpick from the local flock to join her in feasting until they poop seeds across your garden, mixingfruits and vegetables all willy-nilly and ruining your carefully segregated raised beds.”

“Youmonster,” she breathed, clutching her throat.

“Blow out the candle,” Carter prompted Kierce. “Then make a wish.”

While he considered what to ask for, or perhaps whether she was pulling his leg, I jumped on mine.

“I wish Josie’s secret recipe for fried chicken, the one so secret even she can’t remember it, gets lost.Forever.”

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