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Keller was ten. This child had been younger. Zoey was almost certain of it.
She called the Garrity office, to speak with the dispatcher. She’d given Zoey’s number out, when the little girl had said she needed her mother’s other phone number.
The dispatcher said the child stated Zoey Daviess was her mother’s name, and she couldn’t find her mother’s cell phone number. And she was ready to come home now from her grandfather’s. The dispatcher had just forwarded the call to the number she had for Zoey taped next to the front desk phone.
The woman had sounded confused.
Well, now Zoey definitely was. She thanked the dispatcher and disconnected. She dialed Nikkie Jean's number next.
Zoey explained what had happened quickly. "And she sounded just like Keller. She used the word Mommy several times. And she just felt younger.” Keller and Everett had been ten for three weeks. Ariella’s daughter Katie was a bit younger. It hadn’t been Katie either. She’d known that immediately.
"Keller has recently informed me she is too old to useMommynow. She calls meMo-ohm. She’s in the shower washing her hair with special shampoo that’s supposed to make it super soft and shiny so it can look just like yours tonight. She’s been in there for over an hour and a half. I’m trying to mount an extraction mission, but the twins keep doingstuff. I need to get Keller out of there, or I won’t have time to shower myself. We can talk more tonight, when I get there.IfI get there.”
"Gee, thanks." She would have said more, but the sounds of two angry toddlers drowned Nikkie Jean out.The devil twins were awake.
"I have to go. The beasts are starving. Little vampires, I swear! See you tonight!"
She called Madison, a friend of hers at the TSP. Asked her to run the phone number. Madison agreed to help Zoey out, when she got a chance—off the record. Just like Zoey had known she would.
It was probably a prank call, someone talking to whoever answered the random dial. There wasn't anyone else it could be. There was only one person who could ever—would ever, for that matter—be calling Zoeymommy. Even teasingly.
Pen was with Sydney, Grace, and Josie tonight.
Melody showed up, an evening gown in the maid Lucy’s arms. "Time to get to work. Maybe you’ll find Prince Charming tonight."
"Like that is ever going to happen. The men here? Not my kind of man. Not at all." Zoey still didn’t feel…right.
It was five o’clock. The dinner started ateight.They had plenty of time before the evening fundraiser began.
No one had answered when she’d called the number back. That kid had sounded too much like Keller. It had most likely been a prank caller. Until Madison got back to her, that was what it was. But Zoey’s skin crawled.
Something definitely did not feel right.
14
It was somuch fun to play dress up with her friends, Penelope thought as she sat on a fancy couch, waiting for her family to arrive. Her dress was ice blue—her favorite color—and made her look like she was an actual grown woman. Well, her dress had a lot of built-in padding, but there were semi-boobs there now.
She shot a look of envy at Sydney right there next to her. Sydney preferred black dresses, and there was no denying Sydney had an adult woman’s body.
Sydney looked like a vintage pinup girl.
Not all skinny arms and legs and hair like Pen.
The dancing with all the hot older guys in tuxes that would happen later was really fun, too. As long as they didn’t spin her around or anything, anyway. Pen avoided waltzes for a very good reason. She’d almost hurled on the governor of Texas’s shoes once.
Not one of her best moments.
At least he was her brother-in-law. That had made the embarrassment tolerable. She’d learned fast no whirling around.
Mostly she just liked being with Grace, Sydney, and Jo-Jo. Her friends “got” her. She'd spent the last few days with her besties—they were as good as family. But Pen was beyond worried about Sydney.
Sydney and Grace, really.
Her brother Luc had brought Grace back from St. Louis with his family this time. She was Sydney's other best friend—just like Josie, well, they called her “Go! Go! Jo-Jo!” now because she wasalwayswound up and just going nonstop—was Pen's. Grace was flat out gorgeous, too. Even though she was quiet and shy and kind of hid how beautiful she was. Her hair was the lightest strawberry-blond Pen had ever seen, and her eyes were a weird bright green. She was as tall as Pen’s own almost five eleven, too. Grace looked like a woman, instead of a stick. She was skinny, definitely not as curvy as Sydney, but Grace at least had boobs.
Skinny, but curvier than Pen. Not that it took much.
A two-by-fourboardwas curvier than Pen, damn it. It really was unfair.
