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“You blame that on the McClouds?” Petrie’s mouth twitched.
“Look at yourself. You get interested in them, and suddenly you’re in intensive care, tubes up every orifice. I’m telling you. It’s the curse.”
Petrie let out a philosophical sigh. “Maybe so.”
“Don’t try to run,” Aaro added, helpfully. “It’s too late.”
Movement caught his eye, through the wall of the conservatory. A bright color that whipped his head all the way around to see if…yes, it was. Oh, holy shit. “That’s Lily Parr,” he said.
Petrie lunged to see, and winced. “That’s gonna be interesting,” he said. “What’s she doing?”
Aaro craned his neck to keep her in sight. She stood in the shadows of a rhododendron bush, looking pale and spooked. Her red-gold hair gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. “Lurking, like us,” he said.
“Should we, uh…” Petrie hesitated.
“Tell Bruno? Hell, yeah.” Aaro stubbed out his cigarette on the sole of his shoe. “I’ll go find him.”
Bruno burst out the door that led to the solarium, decked in a tux, a bag hanging over his shoulder. He held his newly adopted baby girl Lena under the armpits. He looked wild-eyed and hassled.
“There you are,” Aaro started. “Good. Look, man, we just saw—“
“I need diaper wipes!” Bruno bellowed.
Aaro and Petrie exchanged panicked glances. “Huh?”
“Wipes!” Bruno repeated. “Lena’s leaking! And the ceremony’s about to start, and I’ve got the rings in my pocket! And I can’t find Zia, or Liv, or Margot, or anybody with wipes!”
“Oh. Uh, well, shit,” Aaro said, helplessly.
“Yeah!” Bruno yelled. “Like, literally! A lot of it! Cascades of it!”
Sveti wafted out, looking stunning in a dress that swirled and fluttered. She waved a package. “I found wipes! Erin had some.”
“Thank God,” Bruno muttered.
In the distance, the string quartet started a wedding processional. Bruno jerked. “Oh, Christ,” he moaned. “Not now. Not yet.”
“Go, go,” Sveti urged, grabbing the toddler from him. “I’ll change Lena for you and take her to Zia. You hurry.”
“Wait!” Aaro shouted after the man as he loped away.
Bruno stopped in the doorway. “What?”
“Just thought you should know. We saw Lily Parr outside.”
Bruno looked like he’d turned to stone. His mouth moved. No sound emerged. “Where?” he finally croaked.
“That way. In the rhododendrons outside. She’s hiding.”
“Bruno!” Sveti shouted, as he lunged blindly in the Lily-seeking direction. “The ceremony! The rings! You have to go! For Kev!”
Bruno swung on his heel, confused and agonized. He fixed Aaro with a burning stare. “You. Find her for me. Do not let her get away.”
Don’t fuck up again,being the subtext of that directive.
Aaro nodded. “Got it.”
Bruno’s stiff arm dropped, but he still could not seem to move.
