AllFreeNovel
Share Us
In retribution, I holler out the back. “Send him up this way.”
My annoying cousin pops his head out his kitchen window and twists his neck. “I can’t. Da garbage bin is in the way.”
Fine. I pull on the rope, the trap door opens, and I lean over the hole. “Rose? Mia? If you’re not decent, stay in your rooms. Frankie’s on his way up.”
Rose stomps her feet and bangs her bedroom door shut. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Why not use the back entrance?”
I shout back, “I dunno. Ask Joey.”
While I peerdown, Frankie adjusts his soft pet carrier, pops his head up over the railing, and traverses the second-floor’s kitchen.
Halfway up our attic steps, he hands over Chloe. “T’anks. I’ll come get her in a day or so.”
“Sure. Nice seeing you. Um, good luck.”Awkward.
Chuckling, he waves as he disappears back down the stairs. After the bottom door slams shut, I let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. The yellow look-alike cousin of my feline hisses and hides under the couch.
“C’mon, sweetheart. Be nice. Your Dad will off someone and be back before you know it.”
Rose, in flannel PJ’s with hearts on them, pushes her door until it hits the lowered steps. “Jesus, it’s like Grand Central Station in here.”
Mia, her sister, shouts from the other bedroom. “Do not use the Lord’s name in vain.”
“In vain means without success or result, which is not the case. I am praying to get some more goddamn sleep.”
“Sorry, youz guyz.” I shrug. “I had no idea he was coming.”
I raise my volume so my male cousin, listening two flights below, can hear. “Knucklehead blocked the pathway again.”
His muffled voice responds from below. “Here a few days and already you’re bitchin’.”
“God, Joey. You are so annoying.” For the benefit of my cousins, I stick out my tongue.
Rose giggles and squeezes around the stairs to her coffee maker and pours. “It’s like old times.”
Running down, I squeeze her tight. “I’m so glad you two decided to keep me company.”
“Well, now that your bodyguard is home, you don’t need us, right?”
“But Hands and Wheels left again. Why not stay until they finish their assignments. Where are they, anyways?”
Mia, her dark hair half out of a ponytail, slaps her bunny slippers across the floor and helps herself to caffeine. “They’re not telling us, so it must be awful.”
I hug her. “Slate won’t allow anything bad to happen. Don’t worry. I’ll see if I can wrangle more information out of Suds.”
My spouse calls down the stairs. “I will exchange sexual favors for intel. Come get dressed, your son is rarin’ to go.”
Halfway up the steps, I stop to explain. “Joey says some trees fell off a truck down the block and they’re going fast.”
Mia gives me a disapproving glance. “You’re going to buy a stolen Christmas tree? Anyone else see the irony?”
“Hey. No one knows for sure and we’re not going to ask. Do you know what the sprucesat Danny’s are going for? Holy Christ… mas.”
Rose glances at her phone. “Well, dress warm. This wind chill makes it feel like twenty degrees.”
“Thanks for the heads up. Talk later.” I run up the stairs and meet my husband coming down.
“Cats are fighting. I put one in our bedroom.” His solution is short term. We only have the one kitty litter box.Damn. They’re usually so good together.
