Page 6

Chapter Six

“B igfoot ?” my husband Heath said, his eyes wide as he sipped at his mug of blood. Heath’s a vampire. It’s a long story, but he became one again to save me. He’s truly my knight in shining armor. “He’s real? Get out.”

I smiled, relaxing against the soft cushions of Nina’s sofa, relishing the warmth of the fire on this freezing cold night. “He’s very real and his name is Hank.”

Heath whistled while he bounced Charlie on his knee, making her giggle with infectious squeals. We’d finished up another framily dinner, and as we relaxed by the fire in Nina’s great room, I told Heath about our day.

“How absolutely incredible,” he muttered, the wonder in his deep voice evident. “And you invited him for dinner?”

I chuckled, patting his leg. “I did. Who are we if not inclusive? He seemed so lonely, and as crazy as this sounds, he speaks like a scholar. It was truly a revelation. He’s not a monster, just one of a kind and lonely for it.”

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to my lips, one that to this day, all these years later, made my stomach do somersaults. “I miss your face, beautiful lady. It’s good to spend some time with you.”

Sighing, I nodded, pressing another kiss to his lips. “Same. I know it’s been busy as of late. Promise after we figure out what’s happened to Neerie, we’ll do date night.”

Charlie grabbed our jaws and made kissy noises, to which we responded by smooching her tiny cheeks, as one does, making her giggle hysterically.

“I understand,” Heath said, his chestnut hair falling over his forehead, making him look sexier than ever. “I know you love what you do, honey, and I would never ask you to stop. I’m just saying, I miss you, and it’s nice to have a minute with you.”

What Heath said was true. He’d never ask me not to pursue what fulfilled me, and helping people fulfills me—even when the person is Neerie. But we had periods of time where we didn’t see each other as often as I’d like because of OOPS and our detective agency, and I was going to make a point of doing better, for the health of our marriage and our family.

“How about this? I promise to carve out more time for us and the children. I love you, and I don’t ever want you to feel neglected or like I’d taken advantage of you.”

He smiled that smile that made my heart flop like a fish out of water. He cupped my face, running his thumb over my jaw. “I love you, too, honey. Don’t let me get in your head. You’re an amazing wife and an even more amazing mother. I wouldn’t change a thing about us.”

Oh, this man. There was no one I wanted to do immortality with more than I did him. “Thank you.”

He tucked me against him on the couch, his hard frame instantly relaxing mine. “So tell me about the phone Bigfoot…er, Hank found. Have you gotten anything from it?”

I shook my head, pulling Charlie into my lap and snuggling her chubby body to mine as she tucked her face into my neck. “We tried every passcode we could think of, but nothing. So Tottington is going to have his contact look at it. Until then, we have to go through Neerie’s house and see if it’s her basement she meant in that text.”

“She’s a little left of center. I’ve run into her a couple of times when I was picking up the kids. She lost her mind when I parked in the incoming lane instead of the outgoing for pickup.”

Neerie was certainly a stickler for the rules. “She’s definitely difficult and I swear to you, if I find out she’s run off with one of her conspiracy friends from Facebook and left her sister and her daughter to worry, I’ll drain her myself.”

Heath covered Charlie’s ears and gave me an admonishing look. “Little ears, honey.”

“Drain her! Drain her!” Charlie cried, her head popping up.

Oh dear. I winced.

Nina gave Heath’s shoulder a shove from behind. “Hey, what are you teachin’ my kid, big guy?”

He took Charlie from me and handed her over to Nina, then promptly threw me directly under the bus. “It wasn’t me. It was her.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my finger. “Oh, you.”

He chuckled, his eyes lighting up. “You know what she’s like. I’m not up to a massacre tonight. It’s been a long day with the kids and she can take me.”

Nina laughed, swinging Charlie up into her arms. “Dang right I can.”

“Speaking of the kids, they need baths and bed,” I reminded him. I wasn’t a stickler, necessarily, but I did like the children to stay on schedule. It made for happier campers and a happier mommy.

Marty winked at me. “Auntie Marty took care of that. All bathed and ready for a bedtime story.”

I mouthed a thank you to my friend, who was as much an integral part of their lives as I was. Both she and Nina made parenting our children a collective effort. I don’t know what I’d do without them. And I say that even with Nina’s gruff exterior and unfiltered opinions. She’s nothing short of a blessing when it comes to our children.

She loves my babies almost as much as I do, and when I’m weary, when I feel as though I’m drowning, she’s the first hand to reach for me and yank me out of the water. Mostly because she’s quicker than Marty—you didn’t hear me say that—but also because there isn’t anything she wouldn’t do for me.

Olivia and Sam came barreling down the stairs, where they’d been playing in Charlie’s playroom. Seeing as it was Friday night, we were having a sleepover at Auntie Nina’s, something the children did often with Carl and Hollis. It would also allow me to spend more time with them while I did some snooping around Neerie’s social media.

They launched themselves at us, smelling of soap and toothpaste, tucking between us in what we called a family sandwich. Heath hugged them hard, burying his face in their necks and making them laugh out loud as he scraped his stubble over their skin.

“Daddy!” Olivia screamed with giggles, her small hands grabbing at Heath’s jaw. “It tickles!”

Sam, while incredibly logical and stoic most times, wasn’t above letting loose when it came to us. “Tickle fight!” he yelped, stuffing his glasses in his pajama pocket.

As they dissolved into giggles, rolling around the couch, I fought tears. There was a time when I didn’t think I’d be able to have a family with Heath. To have been lucky enough to adopt Sam and have Olivia was a blessing I couldn’t find a word for. Sometimes, it still caught me in the back of my throat.

I count myself incredibly lucky, every day, all day.

Olivia’s cherubic face, red from roughing it up with her father and brother, her wispy hair a ball on the top of her head, raised a hand. “Uncle!” she screeched with more chuckles.

“I’ll save you!” I cried, pulling her to my lap and snuggling her close.

She settled down on my chest, toying with the buttons on my shirt, her soft hair under my chin. “Mommy, Tamlin was crying today. I felt bad. I didn’t know how to make it better.”

My heart chugged. Olivia might be larger than life, but she also had a heart as big as the Texas sky. She hated when someone was hurt, and she loved animals almost more than all of us put together.

Like me, she’s a halfsie. We don’t know how that happened, we don’t even know how I became pregnant, but I was glad she was able to experience food and all the things she’d miss if she were only vampire.

“Did she say why, Punkin’?”

Of course, I knew why, but I wanted to see what everyone was saying. We couldn’t keep Neerie’s disappearance a secret forever. Neerie was front and center at school almost every day. Her disappearance would come out sooner or later.

Olivia sniffed. “She said she missed her mommy real bad.”

“And what did you say?”

Olivia sighed, long and dramatic. “I said if my mommy went away, I’d miss her, too. Then I gave her a big hug.”

I squeezed her to me. “Aren’t you a sweet girl? That was a nice thing to do. Did she say anything else?”

“She said she wished her daddy still lived with them.” Squirming in my arms, she cupped my face with her hands. “Our daddy’s never going away and giving us a di…div…”

“Divorce?” I asked, as I gazed into her beautifully innocent eyes.

She nodded with an adorable pout. “Yeah. That’s the word. Daddy wouldn’t give us a divorce, would he?”

Heath leaned over and looked Olivia in the eyes. “ Never, ever. Pinky swear promise.” He pressed a tender kiss to her cheek and then one to my lips. “Never,” he whispered.

Oh, how I loved this man.

Nina stuck her face between Heath’s and Olivia’s, dropping a kiss on her button nose. “Okay, lovebird family, Carl’s waiting with James and the Giant Peach upstairs, and Hollis promised to braid your hair in a French braid if you skedaddle.”

Sam wrapped his arms around my neck and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I love James and the Giant Peach ! And Darnell promised to make a sheet fort. C’mon, Olivia!”

I wiggled my fingers at them. “I’ll be up to say good night in a bit. Love you so much.”

“Love you, too!” he yelped before racing off to find Carl, pulling up his saggy pajama bottoms as he went.

Heath rose and pulled Olivia up off the couch, swinging her around on his back. “Your steed awaits, fair maiden! Onward ho!” He gave me a wink before he piggy backed her up the stairs while Olivia laughed uncontrollably.

Marty dropped down beside me, patting my leg as I closed my eyes and inhaled. “It’s been a long Bigfoot-filled day. Some tea, madam?”

I smiled in gratitude. “I’d love that.”

As if reading our minds, Tottington entered the room with a silver tray of steaming cups of tea. “Ladies, shall I serve this in the murder basement? I have some news on Mrs. Lincoln’s phone I’d like to share with you.”

My droopy eyes flew wide open. “Murder basement?” I asked Marty.

“Murder basement, it is,” she chirped, heading toward the stairs.

Nina held out her hand to me, yanking me upward. “Bigfoot took it outta ya, huh?”

With a laugh, I nodded. “I’m still in utter disbelief. C’mon, let’s go see what Tottington’s secret friend found.”

Marty was already at her desk, the TV on so we could all see the contents of Neerie’s phone.

As I poured some tea, Tottington used his newly purchased clicker to show us Neerie’s text messages and apps.

Marty busied herself fussing with her murder board, adding the pictures of Neerie and Thad that Tottington had printed. “We still have to find this Will Tempe, Tamlin’s biological father. If ever there was a suspect, it’s him. I mean, I’m not sure how he planned to make her life a living hell, but taking her out is certainly a possibility. I wonder if Tamlin even knows he exists? Add that to the list of questions for Naida.”

Nina popped her lips as she looked at the big-screen TV, planting her hands on her slender hips. “There’s a damn app for tracking Hank? I’d say these people are bonkers, but now that I know he frickin’ exists, I feel like I should apologize. I won’t, because they have plenty of other crazy shit running around in their little heads that’s just insane, but wow. We need to warn him to watch his ass, because this is eerily accurate.”

When Tottington switched to Neerie’s texts, we found the one she’d sent to Earl, but it didn’t illuminate anything of value other than make us wonder what basement she was talking about.

Shrugging my shoulders at the daunting task of going through the hundreds of texts Neerie had on her phone, I fought a yawn. “I guess we start at the beginning.”

We pored over each person she’d texted during the last two months. There were the usual demands she made of the PTA ladies and myself, text after text about the bake sale and other events we were planning for the future.

It was when we got to her texts with Thad that our mouths fell open.

One in particular from about a week ago, read: You’re paranoid as usual, Neerie. If you keep this up, I’m going to have to see about bringing Tamlin to stay with me for a while. This obsession isn’t healthy.

“ What obsession isn’t healthy? Chasing Bigfoot? Buying into the idea that Paul McCartney’s dead?” I wondered out loud.

Tottington scrolled a bit further. “I think he meant this, Miss.”

It’s not an obsession, you idiot! It’s happening. I’m telling you, something’s going on at the school. I saw what I saw, Thad, and you’ll take Tamlin over my dead body!