Page 18 of Bad to the Bone

“What the hell was that all about?” My hands shake as I pick up the half empty tea cup and take it into the kitchen.

I only half expected Zayne’s parents to make an appearance here. I thought it would be much later and for a much more controversial issue. A single day of detention is nothing to get bent out of shape over. But, I guess not all parents feel that way. Especially not in political families. Every move is constantly under scrutiny, and any sign of trouble in paradise could translate to voter perception in the next election.

Still.

“I think you handled that well,” Shannon says, giving me a quick hug.

“Hey, what’s with you and the wardrobe change? You two looked like the Bobbsey twins out there. It was seriously creepy,” I ask, tugging at her shirt sleeve.

“You don’t like it,” she pouts.

“I mean, it worked like a charm, but they might think you’re trying to Single, White, Female their son.”

“Aunt Kim, you have got to get some more up to date references. You’re still in your twenties. Who the hell remembers the Bobbsey Twins?”

“They do!” I lift my chin and wrinkle my nose, mocking the Turners. “That’s why they damn near ran out of here. It’s amazing how similar you two look when I see you side by side like that.”

Shannon smiles one of her Mona Lisa smiles, the one that acknowledges that she heard you but gives nothing away as to her thoughts on the matter.

“That was your plan all along, right. You wanted them to see you as siblings, not as potential lovers.”

“Something like that.”

“Why do I have the feeling that you and Zayne are keeping something from me? Every time I see you two together you seem to be plotting something.”

“Maybe we are, but nothing bad. I promise.”

“It better not be,” I warn her, trying and failing to sound authoritative. “I’m sticking my neck out on the line for you here. Don’t make a fool out of me.”

“Why is that, anyway. I thought you would be much nicer to the Mayor because, you know, he is THE MAYOR,” Shannon asks, taking her ponytail down.

“Well, he just rubs me the wrong way. This whole town does. I swear, if it weren’t for you, I would be out of here on the next thing smoking.”

I retrieve the half risen ball of bread dough and give it a whiff.

“Is it supposed to smell sour like that?”

“Beats me,” Shannon says with a shrug.

We finally get the bread into the oven but the mood is gone. All of the warm feelings that the smell of freshly baking bread with a generous helping of brown sugar and molasses should evoke are soured by the memory of Zayne standing in the corner, silent and miserable. I want to call him and make sure he’s alright, but my instincts tell me this is the wrong moment. By the time the bread is done Shannon and I are both chewing our bottom lips, waiting for the phone to ring with news.

“There’s no point in us sitting around here being nervous,” I say, trying to take charge of the situation.

“Aunt Kim!” Shannon jumps up and walks over to me. “What if there was another reason why Zayne’s dad didn’t want him to date me?”

“Like what?”

“What if we didn’t just LOOK like siblings? What if we actually are siblings?”

Something tells me this isn’t just a hypothetical question but my whole body short circuits as I think about the possibility. I blink several times before letting a high, thin, laugh escape my mouth.

“You’re kidding right?”

“Aunt Kim, what if it might be true? We both know Mayor Turner is a dog. What if he is the mystery man my mom never talked about?”

“Your mom was a lot of things, but she wasn’t the kind to hook up with a married man?”

Shannon’s face crinkles into a sneer and she folds her hands across her chest “Why not? She slept with your fiancé?”

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