Page 145 of Will Bark for Pizza
“Kira?” Grandma Connie asked.
“When did Dad change the locks?”
“Right after he found out Margene left town. Almost two months ago, now. Why?”
I felt my body overheating.
It was a really shitty time for a panic attack.
There had to be a logical explanation. But whatever it might be, my overloaded brain just could not process it.
“Nothing.”
I returned to the office and closed the door, leaning my back against it. I was already overwhelmed. This was just . . . too much. My breathing was labored, as though I’d been running. The truth was there, but I couldn’t seem to accept it. It was one thing to smell Mom’s perfume from time to time. Quite another to accept she was playing locksmith from the grave.
The edges of a panic attack clawed its way in, but I fought it down.
I wouldnotbreak down.
Not here, in front of an audience.
I reached for my purse, knocking over a small framed photo on the desk. When I went to right it, I froze. The gold frame contained a picture of me in my college graduation outfit, Mom next to me. Her smile beamed so brightly it was damn near blinding. She was so happy I got a degree in English Lit, even if I had no intention of teaching. Back then, I only dabbled with the idea of being an author. I’d drafted some stories, most of them messy and incoherent. The degree was a frivolity. The accounting minor was what saved me when I searched for jobs.
“Mom, I don’t understand,” I whispered to the frame as tears threatened to fill my eyes.
I waited, hoping the scent of her perfume wouldtickle my senses and bring me comfort. But the office smelled as it always had—of old books and a hint of lavender from the air diffuser.
Maybe a quiet drive through the mountains would soothe me.
I shouldered my purse, but before I could sneak out the back door, I ran into Grandma Connie.
“I need some air,” I told her.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just . . .”A lot. But I couldn’t complete my sentence without falling apart.
“Be careful,” she warned. “The water is extra choppy today.”
“I’m not?—”
Thelma summoned Grandma Connie to the front counter. I took the opportunity to slip out before anyone else expressed concern, and headed to Ghost Lake.
FORTY-FIVE
BECKETT
“You know,for a guy who said he didn’t have much to move, you sure have a lot of shit,” Luke commented as he set a large tote next to the couch.
“Less than your sister did,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, and we’ll have to move all that again when she finds a place to live,” Luke grumbled.
We moved the majority of Kira’s things into the storage unit three down from mine. She was planning to stay with Connie and Dale until the bookstore got solid legs under it.
It was why I took Karl up on his offer to move in before the official closing date on the cabin. I didn’t trust myself around Kira, but I wasn’t about to be disrespectful to the people who took me in for the better part of four months. If I slept at the cabin, the temptation to sneak across the hall would be eliminated.
“That should be the last of it,” Connor announced as astrong gust of wind slammed the screen door shut for the third or fourth time. He set down an end table in the living room.
