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He ran the brush against the side of the can, scraping off the excess. “Seems a little early for Halloween, though.”
She didn’t follow. “Halloween?”
He glanced up at her. “Didn’t your mom tell you?”
When she shook her head, he reached up to take hold of the door handle, obviously wanting to get back to painting before it dripped off his brush. “Yeah, they drew a pentagram.”
Then he pulled the door shut, leaving her standing in the hallway, staring gape-mouthed at nothing.
Becca wanted to storm over to Chris’s house and demand answers.
Instead, she had to suffer through a phone demo at the Verizon store in the middle of the mall, given by a guy not much older than she was. Christ, she knew how to send a text message. Couldn’t they just swipe her dad’s card so they could get out of there already?
When the salesman finally went into the back to program the phone, her dad leaned on the counter and looked at her. “You all right?”
She couldn’t stop thinking of the pentagram on her front door. Had Tyler done it? Seth?
They had a gun and they knew where she lived?
She shrugged and picked at her nails.
“Do you like the phone?” he asked.
“It’s fine.” It was great. Better than her last one, with Internet access and a keyboard instead of just ten digits on the face.
“You want to tell me what’s bothering you?”
Yes. She did. She didn’t care who listened, but she needed to spill her guts and ask someone what to do. If he asked twice, she might actually do it.
She hunched her shoulders and stared at the wall of protective cases. “No.”
“Fair enough.”
Well, that solved that. She shifted to trace her finger along the peeling edge of the service agreement taped to the counter until the man came back.
“Becca, this thing between me and your mom—I think you might have the wrong—”
“God, Dad.” Of course he thought this was all about him. She spun to look at him. “Here? Really?”
“Easy,” he said softly, making her realize her voice had risen in pitch. “I’m just trying to talk to you.”
She scowled. “I’m not going to listen to some story about why you screwed over my mother. And me, for that matter. In the middle of the mall or otherwise.”
iscovered her mom surrounded by a dozen boxes of cupcake mix and Shake ’n Bake, scrubbing the shelf liner with a rasp-back sponge.
Becca sighed and grabbed a mug from the cabinet. “Really, Mom? The shelf liner?”
“This is filthy. It’s crazy.”
Becca spooned three heaping tablespoons of sugar into her mug. “Right. That’s what’s crazy.”
“Did you know your dad was in town?”
Becca almost spilled creamer all over the counter, but she saved it at the last second. “Oh?”
Her mother was scrubbing with a vengeance. “He said he left a message for you.”
Busted. “Maybe Quinn took it. You know how she is. You talked to him?”
