Page 54 of Lay It Bare

“Sure.” Alice nodded. “Ash and I need to talk with Ellisandre.”

Talk? Ellisandre carefully kept the amusement from their face.

“Then Dana and I will sit here and gossip about you three. I’ll unplug the iron and come up when she’s finished.”

“Organizing my life for me, now?” Ellisandre observed.

“We’re asking,” Alice batted her eyes. “And you said today was family dinner.”

“I see I have outplayed myself, then. Dana, are you at ease with Aunt Linda watching you finish?”

“Yes.” Dana’s tongue was just poking out the side of her mouth. She continued ignoring everyone in favor of moving the iron carefully up the long panel.

Ellisandre reached for a loose jacket and motioned for Alice and Ash to lead the way out. In Linda’s kitchen upstairs, Alice got started washing mushrooms while ordering Ash to collect the necessary pan and ingredients from the cabinets. Ellisandre amused themselves by taking a cantaloupe to the table and carving into it with one of the many sharp knives they kept in Linda’s kitchen. With a little imagination, it would make a graceful edible bird sculpture for the table. Dana would smile and clap her hands when she saw it.

Alice’s orders to Ash trailed off as she started chopping mushrooms and butter began to sizzle in a pan. She opened the conversation. “So, Ash and I were talking.”

“Yes?” Ellisandre drew out the “e”.

“You don’t have to make that sound so scary.” Alice mock groaned. “We just noticed some things. Like the fact you were out a few nights ago.”

“I’m out many nights.”

“And Damian’s “spermandor” showed up in the police station the next morning.”

“He did, didn’t he.” Ellisandre looked between the two teens, suppressing their amusement. Having young people about was entertaining. Especially these two. They were perfectly odd and deserved to be kept close.

Ash made a high-pitched sound of distress. “Daddy is not going to admit to anything, Alice. I told you this was a bad idea.”

Alice shrugged. “I want to know how they did it. The police weren’t finding him. Damian and Jun and the kids have been hiding out in hotels for weeks.”

“Who said I did it?” Ellisandre kept working the cantaloupe over with the blade. The top section was coming together.

“You didn’t have to say.” Ash leaned against the counter with his rear and crossed his arms. “You were in a bad mood and then you were in a good mood. And then you had bruises the next morning.”

Ellisandre’s lips twitched. They looked between the two young adults—well, not quite eighteen in Ash’s case, for all that he was emancipated. His birthday had to be soon. Ash and Alice were both staring back, matching mulish looks on their faces. They truly were a pair.

“You know your evidence would never stand up in a court of law.” They took a ball of cantaloupe and popped it into their mouth. Sweet, succulent, perfect ripeness.

“I knew it!” Alice slapped the counter and then spun around, checking the stove. She pushed the mushrooms around the pan and turned back around. “You did do it.”

Ellisandre raised one eyebrow and smiled, saying nothing.

Ash groaned dramatically and slumped forward.

Ellisandre chuckled. “You can’t prove it. Maybe those bruises were from a lover.”

“You don’t have a lover,” Ash retorted. “You said so yourself, when I moved in.”

“Hm . . . yes. But that was months ago. Perhaps I found someone.” Ellisandre fluttered their fingers and their eyelashes.

Ash cringed. “Ew, no.” His cheeks turned red. “Not thinking about it. Not thinking about it.”

Alice was watching, though, with more brain cells firing. She wasn’t in the least embarrassed. Her eyes narrowed. “If you had a regular lover, you’d come back relaxed more often.”

“Perhaps we have a tumultuous relationship.”

Alice shook her head. “You don’t do drama. Which is why I know you delivered that piece of shit to the police where it belonged.”