Page 106 of It Runs in the Family

“Seems wrong to just watch.” I grabbed a pair of jeans, using the hand bracing JJ to hold them steady while my free hand searched the pockets. “Selena and I used to share clothes. We started back in middle school. Neither of us had much money, so if we liked the same thing, we saved money by sharing.”

“My sisters never shared clothes,” he said. “And if one of them borrowed something, all hell broke loose.”

“Rita and Selena were like that, but not her and I. We rarely fought.” And we still rarely fought. I just hardly saw her.

“So that’s your favorite shirt, huh?” Boone said, glancing at me with a grin.

“What of it?” I asked with plenty of attitude.

“Nothin’,” he said, dumping a tank top into the box without examining it. “Just filin’ it away for reference.” He sounded a little too glib to suit me.

I narrowed my eyes. “What does that mean?”

He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the pair of denim Daisy Duke shorts he’d picked up. “Just that you wore it today.” His gaze lifted, his eyes dancing. “With me.”

My face flushed. “I didn’t wear it because of you,” I said in a menacing tone. “I wore it to spite Hannah. I asked her for a ride this morning, but she said she’d only help me if I burned this shirt.”

“What’s the big deal about owning the same shirt?” he asked in genuine curiosity.

“Because she doesn’t want to risk us wearing it at the same time in the same place ever again.”

I picked up a denim jacket that didn’t look like something Selena would wear. “And yeah, I know, she could see someone else wearing it out somewhere, but she doesn’t want to see me in it.” I nearly froze when my fingers brushed something slender and plastic in one of the pockets.

I let my fingers glide to the end, pinching around what felt like a metallic USB nub. A flash drive?

He grinned. “She’s probably jealous. I’m sure you look ten times better in it than she does.”

I forced a laugh as I removed my hand, leaving the flash drive in the pocket. “Probably.” This had to be what she’d taken from Tommy T, because she didn’t even own a laptop.

Boone moved on to the next item, a bikini top. “Don’t think there’s anything in this one,” he said with a laugh.

“Agreed,” I said, trying to act natural, unsure of what to do. I didn’t want to pull the flash drive out, but I didn’t want to toss the jacket back in the box either. I could come back later and get it, but it would be more efficient if I took it with me now.

“You know,” I said, lifting the jacket up. “I think this is mine.”

Boone gave me a surprised look. “That men’s jacket is yours?”

Well, crap.

“Yeah,” I said. “It was an old boyfriend’s, and I kept it.”

“And your cousin took it from you?”

“Can’t trust Selena,” I said putting the jacket on the concrete floor behind me. “I’ll just tell Rita I found this too.”

“Okay…”

There were only a couple of pieces of clothing left, so we finished those and moved to the next box. It was filled with a spare purse, a couple of books, a dead iPad, several charger cords, and shoes. Boone went through the purse, making a face when he pulled out some used tissues.

“Makes me wish I had gloves.”

“Don’t be a baby,” I said as I fanned through the pages of the first book. “Any germs are long dead.”

Next, he pulled out a nearly empty pack of chewing gum and a tube of lipstick. He took off the cap and twisted it up, revealing a bright shade of red.

“I’m not sure you can pull that color off, detective,” I said.

He gave me a dry look as he twisted it down and put the cap back on.