“Why do you think I’m avoiding her?” I said, turning my attention back to the pathway. “She’s being a pain and I like to get her really good and angry before having to see her. That usually cuts down on the invasive questions as she spends half the get-together reminding herself that she’s angry with me.”
“Well, at least you’ve thought it through.” Alice went back to annoyingly scuffing her feet. “What are you going to do in the meantime?”
“About what? And, if you ask me about Hunter again, I’m going to tackle you into the river and drown you right here. There’s nothing to be done about Hunter. We’re just friends.”
She looked dubious, but she didn’t press the matter. “I was talking about the witch thing. Are you really going to wait until Great-Grandma gets here? That’s a long time, especially if you really are burning off people’s eyebrows.”
She had a point. “I don’t know what to do. I have to think.”
“You could always ask our grandmother. She’s never been shy when it comes to complaining about Great-Grandma.”
That was true. “I have tomorrow off. I’ll decide then.”
Alice was quiet for a few moments, something I appreciated, and then she pushed things to an uncomfortable place. “What’s the over-under for when Hunter dumps Monica and officially asks you out? I say it happens in less than a week. I wouldn’t have said that before I saw you together, but it’s definitely coming.”
“I will kill you,” I warned.
“Promises, promises.”
18
Eighteen
I didn’t wake with a hangover — at least from alcohol — but my head was fuzzy when I finally crawled out of bed the next morning. The kitten opened one eye, gave me a long look, and then rolled over and went back to sleep. His opinion on how I was spending my time was obvious.
I was still half asleep when I trudged to the kitchen to make coffee. It would’ve been faster — and probably better — if I’d just gone down to the restaurant and filled a mug there, but that would’ve meant changing out of my pajamas, far too much work. I was still waiting for the Keurig to finish heating up when Grandpa strolled into my apartment, a newspaper tucked under his arm. He pulled up short when he saw me.
“We have to talk about your drinking habits, kid.”
I stared at him for a long moment. “We have to talk about your knocking habits.”
“Technically this is my apartment.”
“But I live here. What would you have done if I’d been naked?”
He shrugged. He was no stranger to nudity now that I thought about it. In fact, if he was reading the newspaper at home, he refused to wear pants — no matter who wandered into the house. “Laughed while you ran screaming into the bedroom probably.”
I heaved out a sigh and turned back to the Keurig. “Try not to be in there all day.” The conversation Alice and I had shared on the walk back from the party last night bubbled up. “I need to shower in the next half hour or so.”
“Big date?” Grandpa didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get to the bathroom, which didn’t bode well for the schedule I was setting in my mind.
“If you say the name Hunter, I’ll wrestle you down and beat you with that newspaper.”
He chuckled. “Right. Good luck with that.” His gaze was speculative as he looked me up and down. “What did you do last night?”
“I drank in a field.” I saw no reason to lie. “Apparently everyone I went to high school with still hangs out in the same field on weekends.”
“There’s not much to do in this town,” Grandpa conceded, moving the newspaper to his other hand. “Do you want to tell me what’s bothering you?”
Did I? Would he think I was crazy if I told him about burning Monica’s eyebrows off her face? What was I thinking? He would jump straight on the crazy train and call the men in white coats to fit me for a straitjacket before I was even caffeinated. “Nothing. Why does something have to be bothering me?”
“You have one of those faces that expresses everything. You get that from me. You can’t hide what you’re feeling, and right now you’re feeling stressed.”
He was good at reading people, I had to give him that. “Maybe I’m stressed because my grandfather walks into my apartment without knocking — and uses up all my toilet paper.”
“No, that’s not it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “That could be it. You don’t know everything about me.”
“I know that you’re internalizing something. You always were the worrying sort. I remember when you were a kid and there was a chickenpox outbreak at school. You were convinced you were going to get it and die.”
“I did get it.”
“You didn’t die. You were sick for three days, ate ice cream for every meal, and watched utter nonsense on television.”
“Lost was not nonsense.”
“It was an island with giant polar bears. It doesn’t get more nonsensical than that.”
“They were from a research project.”
He rolled his eyes. “The point is, you’re a worrier. You always have been. You get that from your grandmother.”
I blew on my coffee to cool it before taking a sip. When I risked a glance in his direction again, I was uncomfortable with the level of scrutiny he was applying. “Speaking of Grandma, I thought I would visit with her today. She doesn’t have anything planned, does she?”
Grandpa arched an eyebrow. “You’re going to see your grandmother?”
“What? That’s allowed.”
“You haven’t visited her since you came back to town. Why are you going there today?”
“Maybe because I haven’t visited her yet. She’s stopped by the restaurant a few times. We’ve talked.” I was feeling defensive, though his comment wasn’t entirely unearned. I’d spent the better part of my time in Shadow Hills avoiding as many members of my family as I could. “I thought it would be nice to catch up.”
“It would be nice,” Grandpa agreed. “She’s having coffee with her friends this morning. It’s a regular date.”
“In the restaurant?” I didn’t want to ask my questions in front of an audience. That wouldn’t work.
“She doesn’t like coming here for coffee. She jumps from house to house with her pack of beauty-parlor complainers. Today they’re at Charlotte’s house. She’ll be home by noon.”
That was a timetable I could work with. “Then I guess you can spend as much time in the bathroom as you want.” I figured I would live to regret the offer, but it wasn’t as if I could control him. “I’ll be out here watching television while you’re ... getting caught up on the local news.”
“Fair enough.” He turned in the direction of the bathroom and stilled. “If there was something really wrong, you’d tell me, right?”
The question caught me off guard. “There’s nothing wrong.”
“You keep saying that, but you’re acting out of sorts.”