3 Buried Leads (3 page)

Harriet left the store before Carly. I could tell Carly wanted to talk to me – but I wasn’t all that happy with her right now. Dyed lilac shoes? Would I ever live down the shame?

Carly knew I was agitated. She led me outside before I lost it.

“Were you just going to spring those shoes on me the day of the wedding?” I was incredulous.

“Basically,” Carly admitted. “I knew you would never agree to wear them. I figured you’d take one look at me in my white dress and not be able to tell me no.”

Well, at least she was honest.

“I don’t want to wear dyed shoes.”

“You can take them off and go barefoot after the photos have been taken.”

“Photos!”

Carly bit the inside of her cheek. “Of course there will be photos. Don’t be purposely obtuse. You knew there would be photos.”

“Will the shoes be in them?”

“Only a few.”

I blew out a sigh.
“How long until the wedding?”

“A little less than a month.”

“No offense, but I’m ready for it to be over with.”

“You and me both.
The less I have to see of that woman, the better,” Carly said bitterly.

“We could smother her in her sleep,” I offered.

“We would get caught. I would be the first suspect and Jake would know you wouldn’t let me commit a murder on my own.”

She had a point.

When Carly was sure that I was sufficiently calm – or as calm as I was going to get in the next hour – she said her goodbyes and left me fuming on the street. I was so caught up in my righteous indignation, I didn’t notice a pair of feet stop next to me on the street corner.

“Is this a private freak out, or can anyone
join in?”

I jumped when I heard the voice. I recognized it. I didn’t even have to look up to know that I would find Eliot standing next to me.

I plastered a fake bright smile on my face and met his gaze. He looked as good as I remembered. His shoulder-length brown hair was glinting under the sunlight and his rich brown eyes were filled with amusement as he regarded me. “I’m not freaking out,” I lied.

“Then what are you doing?”

“Contemplating the meaning of life?”

“And?”

“And? And it sucks.” Seriously, dyed shoes are just embarrassing.

“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Eliot’s smile was fairly welcoming. I took that as a good sign.

“How are you?” I bit the bullet. We might as well have the uncomfortable conversation that was bubbling under the surface. At least, when it was over, I would have a better understanding of where I stood.

“I’m fine,” he said. “No long-lasting injuries.”

“That’s good,” I offered lamely.

“How are you?” The question was pointed.

“I’m fine.”

Eliot looked up at the bridal store behind me. There was a question in his eyes. I wasn’t sure if he actually wanted to ask it, though.

“I was getting fitted for my bridesmaid dress for Carly’s wedding,” I explained hurriedly. I lifted up the lilac sheath, which was covered in a plastic dress bag, as proof.

“I was wondering,” Eliot laughed. “I didn’t think you and Jake would make a rush for the aisle that quickly.”

What? “I don’t . . . what?”

“You and Jake.
I figured you’d made up. That was why I hadn’t heard from you.” Eliot steadfastly averted his gaze from mine.

“Jake and I are not together,” I said. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you just disappeared after you came and saw me at the hospital.” There was a certain edge of frustration laced throughout Eliot’s words.

“I did go back,” I protested. “You were already discharged. I figured you would call me when you were feeling better but . . . it never happened.”

Eliot smiled to himself, the first real smile today. “Do you have one of those phones that only receives calls?”

“No. I just figured you would call me if you wanted to talk to me.”

“And I figured you would call me if you wanted to talk to me.”

Eliot and I both burst out in laughter. It was a surreal situation. We lapsed into silence when our giggles had subsided. Eliot broke the silence. “So you’re not with Jake?”

“Of course not,” I scoffed. I didn’t tell him that I hadn’t talked to Jake since that day in the hospital either.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” Eliot said honestly. “I was hoping that maybe . . .
“ He broke off uncertainly.

“Maybe what?”
I prodded.

Eliot swallowed hard. He was clearly waging an internal battle in his own mind. “Do you want to have dinner with me?” He asked finally.

I was surprised – and thrilled. “I would like that,” I said honestly. The sense of relief that was washing over me was a surprise – even to me. It was like the stress I had been carrying for the past month was just erased. Sure, my boss still hated me and Jake was avoiding me like the plague, but the Eliot situation was definitely looking up.

Eliot seemed equally relieved by my response.
“Really? This would be a real date, you know?”

“I figured,” I said sarcastically.

Eliot paused a second, then he fixed me with a hard look. “If I’m going to date you, then I’m going to date you.”

“Isn’t that how dating usually works?”

“For normal people,” Eliot replied. “You’re not normal, though.”

“I’m better than normal,” I teased.

“You are. You’re also frustrating – and you don’t listen for shit.”

The warm glow I had felt when Eliot asked me out was starting to fade. “Are you asking me out or insulting me?”

“Both. Get used to it.”

“When do you want to have dinner?” I didn’t want the invitation to just sit out there and ferment. I wanted a definite plan of action. I was ready to move forward for a change.

“What are you doing tonight?”

Tonight?
He was as eager as I was. “Nothing,” I said hastily.

“Well, then let’s go out tonight.”

I remembered my mom’s call from earlier in the day and slapped myself in the forehead. “Oh, I can’t.”

Eliot regarded me suspiciously. “Why?”

“Family dinner,” I explained.

“Family dinner?”
Eliot looked confused.

“Once a week, I have to drive up to my family’s restaurant in Oakland County and have dinner with all of them. I’ve missed the last two weeks. If I don’t go tonight my mom will send out a search party – and it will be a really shrill and loud search party.”

Eliot smiled despite himself. “Well, I guess that’s a good enough reason.”

I was mentally toying with an idea. I couldn’t tell if it was a good idea or not, but I didn’t want to lose the forward momentum I was feeling. “You could come with me, if you want.” I had said it relatively quietly. I think Eliot was surprised by the invitation.

“Go to family dinner with you?”

“Yeah,” I plowed on. “It’s not a big deal. It’s pretty casual.”

“Define casual.” Now Eliot was the one who was hedging.

“We have a family table at the restaurant,” I explained. “All my aunts, uncles and cousins will be there.”

“And your mom?” Eliot looked dubious.

“And my mom.”

“I don’t know . . . “ Eliot looked torn.

“You don’t have to. It was just an idea.” I averted my gaze from Eliot.

He regarded me for a second. “Why not.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Eliot said. “I’ll have to meet them eventually. They’re just normal people, right?”

Define normal.
“Of course.”

“And they’ll like me, right?”

I looked at his long hair, white tank top, flannel shirt and the Native American tattoos on his forearms and realized one thing with absolute certainty: My mom was going to hate him on sight.

“They’ll love you.”

Eliot insisted on driving to dinner – even though he had never been to the family restaurant before. I don’t think he trusted my driving. The last time he had been near me when I was behind the wheel I had accidentally hit him with my car. Personally, I blame him for running into the middle of the road. I don’t think he felt the same way, though.

The restaurant itself was located an hour north of Detroit, in an area of Oakland County that was still more rural than urban. My great-grandmother had started it in the 1960s, and she had passed it down to her son – my grandfather. My grandfather was still technically in charge, but he had passed on the day-to-day operations to my Uncle Tim. My grandfather still went to the restaurant everyday, but it was usually to just hold court with the regular coffee drinkers that frequented the establishment.

It was a real family endeavor – with much of the family still working there. The décor was basic, and the booths vinyl. I found it warm and inviting, but I was curious about how Eliot would see it.

For his part, Eliot seemed to be getting increasingly nervous during the drive. He kept asking me pointed questions about my family.

“So, you’re an only child but you have a lot of cousins, right?”

“Right.”

“And you’re all close?”

“Right.”

“Will
Lexie be there?”

That was a good question. Eliot had met
Lexie when she had been living with me a few weeks ago. It was his idea for her to go to rehab – a move she had initially fought. Eliot didn’t overtly dislike Lexie, but he wasn’t exactly fond of her either. He thought she spent too much time flitting from thing to thing – and leeching off whatever person was most convenient at that point in her life.

“I don’t know. Last time I heard, she was still in rehab.”

“She should stay there,” I heard him mutter.

“Don’t say that in front of my family. They’ll lynch you.”

Eliot looked at me out of the corner of his eye. I had a sneaking suspicion he was starting to rethink family dinner. It was too late for that, though.

“Will Derrick be there?”

My cousin Derrick, Lexie’s brother, was a sheriff’s deputy in Macomb County. He worked for Jake. We were close in age, which meant we usually fought like brother and sister. Between Lexie and I, Derrick was constantly being teased by his co-workers.

“Probably.”

“Will he have that television reporter with him?”

Much to my disdain, Derrick had started dating a television reporter from Channel 4 about five weeks ago. I had thought he was doing it to irritate me at first, but they were still going strong. I still couldn’t stand her.

“Probably,” I growled.

Eliot smirked. “You still don’t like her?”

“No.”

“What’s your mom do?”

“She’s a teacher.” Which was probably why she was always treating me like I was in the fifth grade.

“And your dad?”

“He’s a businessman, but he won’t be there. My parents are divorced.”

Eliot seemed relieved by that little tidbit. I didn’t blame him. My mom was going to be bad enough. My dad would take one look at him and think he was a dirty hippie, though. That was a bridge we would have to cross at a later date. Thankfully, my dad traveled a lot.

When we got to town, I directed Eliot to the family restaurant. When we exited his Range Rover, I could see that the nervousness had returned. “It’s going to be fine,” I promised. I was mostly certain of that. “We’re a lot harder on each other than we are on newcomers.”

Eliot looked slightly placated.

“Of course,” I continued. “You’re the first guy I’ve brought to family dinner since I was a teenager. So they’ll probably look at you like you’re a circus freak and expect you to perform on command.”

Eliot groaned. “Did Jake come to these?”

“Yeah,” I admitted reluctantly.

“Were they nice to him?”

“Yeah,” I said blithely. “Of course, he knew them because we grew up together.”

“You’re not making me feel any better.”

“You’ll be fine.” I waved off Eliot’s concerns. I had my own problems to worry about. The truth was, I was happy Eliot would be there because it might stop my mom from railing at me in front of everyone for missing two family dinners in a row.

Eliot was still standing on his side of his truck. I could tell he was debating about getting in it and driving away – leaving me to deal with my family alone. I stalked to the other side of the vehicle, grabbed his hand, and started dragging him towards the front door.

Eliot let himself be led. Given his impressive muscle mass, I couldn’t have actually made him move otherwise.

When we entered the restaurant, I greeted Eva, one of the longtime waitresses, with a friendly nod.

“It’s a good thing you’re hear,” she trilled. “If you had missed another dinner you probably would have been on the menu next week.”

She was probably right.

Eliot was gripping my hand hard. I thought his terror at meeting my family was actually pretty cute. He was a former Army Ranger, after all. He had faced down terrorists and crazed soldiers – but my family was causing him to quake in his stylish cowboy boots.

I led Eliot to the family booth. I was relieved to see that my mom hadn’t arrived yet. The family booth is one of those long, rectangular tables made up of three eating surfaces – with gaps in between. Derrick was sitting at the far end. I slid into the booth next to him, making sure to leave room for Eliot on the end.

Derrick looked surprised when he saw Eliot. “You brought reinforcements, I see.” He nodded at Eliot in greeting. I had no idea how well they knew each other. I did know, though, that Derrick would be telling Jake about this. That was an uncomfortable conversation in the making.

“
Don’t be a pain,” I admonished Derrick. “Where is everyone?” I looked around the table. Only two of my cousins were there – Mario and Justin. They were busy talking to each other, though, and not paying attention to anyone else.

“Upstairs,” Derrick supplied.
“In the apartment.”

The second floor of the restaurant was actually a really nice two-bedroom apartment. Through the years, pretty much everyone in the family had lived in the apartment at one time or another. To my knowledge, it had been empty for the last six months.

“Why?”

“Sally is moving up there.”

My Aunt Sally was one of the free spirits in my family. She was on her second husband, after her first one turned out to be gay. Two of her kids were fully grown, but she had a 10-year-old daughter with her second husband.

“Why is Sally moving up there?”

“She’s leaving Steve.”

Steve was Sally’s second husband. In her zest to make sure she didn’t marry another homosexual, she had married an overt redneck the second time around. I missed the gay guy. He was a lot more fun.

“Why?” Personally, I never understood why she married Steve in the first place. I’m guessing her surprise pregnancy in her thirties had a lot to do with it. My grandfather had spent weeks lamenting the fact that a grown woman didn’t know how to use birth control.

“Wouldn’t you leave him?” Derrick wasn’t fond of Steve either.

“I never would have married him.”

I took the time to explain the Sally and Steve information to Eliot. My family used to embarrass me when I was a teenager. Now I just find them funny. Eliot merely shook his head. “You have an interesting gene pool, don’t you?”

“You have no idea,” Derrick answered for me. “Half the family should be committed and the other half should be locked up.”

“Where do you fall in that scenario?” I asked him.

“I’m the only normal one.”

Right.

Family members were slowly starting to descend from upstairs. My aunts Sally and Marnie were in deep conversation when they got to the table. “I’m going to go up there and paint tomorrow.”

“Why are you going to paint? It looks fine.”

“I don’t like the color.”

They both pulled up short when they caught sight of Eliot. He didn’t exactly fit in. I could see a miasma of thoughts flitting through their minds.
Marnie was the first to speak. “Who is this?”

I introduced Eliot, who got to his feet to shake both their hands. Derrick was watching the scene with a mixture of bemusement and genuine curiosity. “I can’t wait until your mom sees him.”

When Marnie realized whom Eliot was, and that he was the one who had been responsible for directing her daughter, Lexie, towards rehab, she warmed to him considerably.

The bell above the front door dinged and I looked up to see my mom entering. She hadn’t seen me yet. I braced myself. Eliot had settled back in the booth next to me. “My mom is here.”

Eliot looked up at the door, taking in my mom’s blonde hair and blue eyes, and smiled. “You look like her.”

“I do not.”

“You do, too.”

“If you want to get into her pants, I wouldn’t keep saying that,” Derrick warned Eliot sternly.

“Why?”

“Let’s just say that’s not the way to her heart,” Derrick laughed. “It might be the way to her future ulcer, though.”

Eliot regarded me for a second. “You guys should have your own reality show.”

My mom froze when she got to the table and her eyes found Eliot. She met my gaze for a second and I plastered my patented fake smile on my face.
“Hi, mom! This is Eliot.”

I practically yelled the statement. I have no idea why. I guess I was nervous, too.

“The pawnshop owner?”

Eliot got to his feet again and extended his hand to my mom. She took it stiffly. Even though I could tell she was freaked out by his looks, she was nothing if not polite. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You, too.” If Eliot was nervous, he didn’t show it. He sat down next to me again, but his gaze never left my mom’s face.

For her part, my mom was stoic. She slid into the booth and positioned herself at the middle table. “I’m glad you could come,” she said. “I assume you’re the reason my daughter missed the last two dinners. She was afraid to introduce you to us? Was that the reason?”

“No ma’am,” Eliot said amiably. “This is our first date.”

I couldn’t help but snicker to myself. Eliot was utilizing my own defense mechanism. He was poking the mommy bear with a stick to see if she would bite.

To her credit, my mom didn’t take the bait. “I’m just glad she finally brought a man – even if he does have long hair. I was starting to think she was a lesbian.”

Derrick barked out a laugh beside me. I elbowed him sharply. “
Ow.” He rubbed his ribcage and shot me a dark look. “This is why she thinks you’re a lesbian. You hit when you should be using your words. A proper lady would use words instead of fists.”

“Shut up.”

“He has a point,” my mom chided me.

Dinner had a more relaxed feel after that. We ordered. I opted for my grandpa’s famous vegetable soup and a BLT, while Eliot stuck to a burger and fries like Derrick. I don’t think he wanted to rock the boat.

“This is really good,” Eliot said after we’d been eating in silence for a few minutes.

“I’m glad to see you’re not a vegetarian,” my mom said.

“Nope, not a vegetarian,” Eliot replied.

“I wasn’t sure because of your tattoos.”

“Why would his tattoos mean he was a vegetarian?” I asked irritably.

“You know, that’s how people are these days.”

“Avery has two tattoos and she’s not a vegetarian.” This time, Derrick managed to shift and avoid the blow I aimed at his mid-section.

My mom was eying me incredulously. “You have tattoos?”

“No,” I lied.

“Yes she does,” Derrick said. “She’s got a turtle and some
Lord of the Rings
thing.”

“You have a
Lord of the Rings
tattoo?” Eliot looked interested. “Where?”

“On my shoulder blade,” I muttered.

“Sounds hot,” he laughed.

I could tell he was making fun of me, so I ignored him.

Thankfully, the conversation at the table turned to Sally’s new living arrangements. “Why did you leave Steve?”

My mom gave me a dirty look. She vacillates between the
belief that you shouldn’t air your dirty laundry in public to garrulous gossip.

“He’s obnoxious,” Sally answered.

He was obnoxious when she married him. “So, what else is new?”

“He told me he doesn’t think women should work.”

“What should we do? Clean the house and pop out babies?” I was joking.

“Yes,” Sally said seriously.

“He’s a douche,” I supplied.

“Avery! Don’t use language like that,” my mom snapped.

I could feel Eliot shaking with silent laughter next me.

“I’m going to need help moving tomorrow afternoon,” Sally announced.