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“Because he started throwing tomatoes before they reached the front step.”
I tucked the idea away for future reference. “Are people going to start inviting me to potluck dinners?” Sweet angels above, I hoped not.
“Not once they’ve met you.”
At least I had that going for me.
My skin tickled. At first, I thought I’d brushed my arm against the overgrown bushes until I realized I had a visitor. I peered above the row of bushes as a girl waltzed over the bridge to the Castle like she owned the place. She couldn’t have been a day over fourteen, all gangly limbs and a height she hadn’t yet grown accustomed to. Long brown braids extended from her head in thin, tight rows. The straps of a turquoise backpack were looped around her shoulders; she looked like she might’ve come straight from school.
I intercepted her at the porch. “A little early in the season for Girl Scout cookies.”
She pulled a face. “Do I look like a Girl Scout to you? Those are joiners. I do my own thing.”
I liked her already.
“Cool moat,” she said. “Looks like the heat dried it up though.”
“I’ll get to it eventually. There’s a lot to do here.”
“My mom says you must be either batshit insane or have deep pockets to buy a money pit like this.”
“Do I know your mom?”
“No, but you know Grampa, or that’s what I heard. I decided to come and see for myself.”
“I don’t know anybody called Grampa.”
“His name is Ray Bauer. He’s my grandfather.”
Ah.
She started toward the cemetery. “He’s buried out here. It was the first funeral I was allowed to go to.”
I followed her to his headstone. She climbed up and sat on the bumpy edge. “I used to come here to talk to him, but then you moved in and my mom said I should steer clear in case you owned a gun.” She gave me a hard look. “Do you own a gun?”
“I own a lot of weapons,” I said truthfully, “but you don’t need to worry about them.”
“I saw your sign out front,” she said. “It isn’t very effective.”
“No, it doesn’t seem to be.”
Nana Pratt appeared next to me, along with Ray. “I told you she was here.”
Ray chuckled. “There’s my Alicia.”
“This is your granddaughter?” I asked.
He nodded. “Look how tall she is. She’s going to be a force of nature, this one.”
“Can you see him right now?” Alicia asked, wide eyed.
“I can.”
“Does he look the same?”
“I don’t know how he looked to you, but I suspect so.”
She pulled her phone from her pocket and scrolled, finally turning her screen to me. “This is him.”
