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I let her skip over to them, my heart still pounding in my chest, my eyes on Danny, even as he catches my daughter in a one-armed hug.
Danny means so much to me…
He’s my brother, but he’s so much more. At one time, it felt like he was the only anchor holding me to this earth. Without him, I might have floated up into the air and gotten lost in the storm clouds forever.
I follow Izzy, who’s moved on to Mira and is exclaiming over the poinsettia, and Danny wraps me into a tight hug. Leonard stands off to the side, giving us space, but if he’s the slightest bit uncomfortable it doesn’t show.
“I guess I should say congratulations,” Danny says in my ear, his tone wry. “But I’ll admit I’m a little hurt that Josie the Great got to be there and not me.”
“I should have invited you.” I pull away, feeling the crush of conflicting emotions in my chest. “I’m sorry. I hate disappointing you.”
His mouth lifts a little. “Who said you’re the one I’m disappointed in?”
Oh. Oh. To my shock, I feel the urge to defend Shane again.
“Is that why he’s not here?”
“He said he was giving us some space to talk. I…I talked to our mother. I guess you’d already given her a call.” His mouth tips into a smile. “She didn’t seem pleased to hear from me.”
“Or me,” I admit. “But you don’t have to be upset with Shane, Danny. It was my idea…the not telling you until after, I mean. I…I knew you’d want to pay…”
I feel Izzy watching me, her gaze curious, and I can practically feel Mrs. Longhorn with her eye pressed up against the glass, so I ask, “Can we talk about this later?”
“Of course.”
I hear a door opening just as I turn to open my own door.
It’s Mrs. Longhorn, of course. She’s holding a little tote bag over her shoulder as if to signal she’s going somewhere, but there’s nothing inside of it. “Ah, there you are,” she tells me. “I heard noise outside of your apartment last night. Four in the morning. I looked at my clock, and I said to myself, ‘Nothing good happens at four in the morning, Ethel.’”
I could beg to differ, but my face feels like a heated brick. I can’t possibly look at Izzy, because if I do, she might offer up the information that “Uncle Shane” was still around when she went to bed last night.
Leonard lifts the bag in his hand. “Then it’s a good thing we’re here to install a security camera and some bells and whistles. We’ll make sure the rodents and perverts stay away, huh?”
“I had to bring the dog out,” I mutter.
“Did you?” Mrs. Longhorn asks. The way she says it suggests she saw more than she’s letting on. But why would she offer me an out? She must want something. I am honestly curious about what someone like Mrs. Longhorn could possibly want, but I have a feeling I’m not going to like it.
“Yes. She’s still getting used to apartment living,” I say.
“Did you also bring her out at five a.m.?” she asks.
Now I genuinely have no idea what she’s talking about, and I say so. I was dead to the world at five a.m. Was someone actually out here, or did a couple of squirrels wake her up?
The possibility that it might have been a person sends a shiver down my spine, but at least she’s proven she really is nosy enough to notice an intruder.
She turns from me with a sniff and returns to her apartment, the empty tote bag still over her shoulder. Standing in the doorway, she swivels to look at me again. “I should hope your camera won’t be directed at my door. I do enjoy my privacy. But if you’d like to come over sometime this weekend, Ruthie, I can tell you a thing or two about training your mutt. I’ve had many dogs in my day.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if she stores their skeletons in a closet. I have less than zero desire to go to her apartment, but I nod because she’s clearly waiting for me to.
The door shuts behind her, and I finish opening my door, feeling a buzzing in my ears. Shit. What if the whole apartment smells like sex? Izzy wouldn’t have understood what it meant, earlier; they will.
But Flower has provided me with a good cover by peeing all over the carpet. I’m going to pretend that’s because she understood the problem and not because she clearly isn’t potty trained at three years old.
“Guess that four a.m. walkabout didn’t do the trick, huh?” Leonard says, getting on his haunches to say hello to Flower.
Izzy joins him, wrapping her arms around her in a hug that can’t possibly feel good for Flower, who wags her tail anyway. “Doesn’t she have the cutest little face, Leonard?”
“That she does, Little Bit, that she does.”
