Good Girls Do (5 page)

“Poomedoo.”

Luke ignored her words, perhaps because he couldn’t understand them. She’d been trying to say “Put me down,” but it hadn’t come out right. Her legs were shaking—all of her was. She felt like an ice cube.

“Which house is yours?” he demanded.

“The one with the g-g-g-green door.”

“They all have green doors.”

“F-f-fifth one from the corner.”

The door was unlocked. He set her inside and reached for the lights. He was quickly followed by Julia’s family.

Normally, Julia always felt welcomed by her home and the way she’d decorated it with items from places like Pottery Barn and Crate & Barrel. Dark woods. Cream walls and upholstery. And piles of books, neatly placed in stacks by subject or placed on Arts and Crafts-style bookcases that filled an entire wall.

Today was different. Today she felt like her quiet sanctuary was being invaded by a rowdy hoarde.

“You poor thing. I’ll make some herbal tea to warm you right up,” Angel said. “Skye, you’ll have to take care of Lucy and Ricky on your own. Come along, honey.” Angel put her arm around Julia. “I’ll run you a hot bath. Where’s the bathroom? Upstairs?”

Julia nodded and mumbled, “Gilooja.” She meant to say,
Give Luke his jacket
. But no one understood her. No surprise there. She’d always been the misfit in this circus.

Luke couldn’t help noticing that the librarian had great legs. Supremo really. She looked incredibly sexy wearing his jacket, her creamy thighs a contrast against the black leather. She’d felt all curvy and feminine in his arms. Her breasts had rested against his white T-shirt, the leather slipping aside during one of her many shivers. And he’d been able to look right down the neckline of her Bo Peep top for an eyeful of cleavage. One lacy edge had barely covered the rosy tip of her nipple.

Oh, yeah, his body was on full alert, ready and reporting for action.

Apparently, he wasn’t the only one to notice that. “So how long have you been having sex with my sister?” Skye demanded.

 

 

Julia heard voices. Which was strange because she lived alone. Had she left the television on last night? What day was it? A work day? No, Sunday. Today was Sunday.

Her brain hazily gathered the pieces of her consciousness. She’d never been one to jump out of bed all bright-eyed and full of energy.

Then it hit her.

Last night. Luke carrying her home, half-naked. Her family. Here. In Serenity Falls. Disaster. Big time.

After her hot bath the night before, Julia had simply crawled into her bed and passed out from exhaustion. Or maybe sleeping had just been an avoidance technique for her. Or a coping mechanism.

It was barely seven in the morning, but she knew her mother loved greeting the sun every morning with a special chant she’d learned from an Indian shaman.

Julia didn’t want to leave her bed. She sleepily gazed around the room, which was decorated exactly the way she wanted it in calming shades of soft blue. Antique David Roberts prints adorned the walls. Her floral sheets had a thread-count a queen would envy, pampering her every time she slid into bed. She loved her bedroom, which had taken her months to finally get just right from the crystal chandelier to the Victorian birdcage. Her surroundings soothed her . . . normally.

But today wasn’t normal.

Reluctantly, she got up and peeked out the window. The soft texture of the carpet was familiar beneath her bare feet. So was the view beyond the cream brocade drapes she cautiously moved aside. Daylight was just starting to break, the sun’s rays creeping above Mrs. Selznick’s roof behind her house.

There was no sign of her mother. Maybe Julia had dreamt last night? Maybe it had all been a nightmare caused by the corn dogs the Junior Women’s League had been selling?

Then she caught sight of Angel, wearing a flowing purple skirt and a thick sweater along with her trademark hand-knit cap and scarf. This set was in shades of orange and fuzzy pink.

Julia needed caffeine. Badly. Yawning, she tugged on a microfleece baby blue robe and headed downstairs to her automatic coffee maker. Once in the kitchen, she could hear her mom talking outside the door.

“I hope you slept well last night, Ricky and Lucy. I know this isn’t California, but I think you’ll eventually settle in here if you leave yourself open to the experience.”

Great. Her mom had people camping out in Julia’s backyard last night.

Julia refused to feel guilty about that.

But she should offer them something for breakfast.

She opened the door and stepped outside. It was definitely nippy out. She could see her breath. “Mom, did you want to invite your friends inside . . . ?”

Angel turned. “Oh no, dear. The llamas aren’t house-broken. Yet.”

Julia blinked. “Llamas?”

Angel nodded. “Lucy and Ricky. Their previous owners named them. They were fans of
The Lucy Show
.”

“You put llamas in my backyard?”

“Of course. As I said, they’re not housepets.”

“What are they doing here?”

“Waiting for breakfast.”

“What are you doing with llamas?”

“Feeding them.”

“I mean, why do you have a pair of llamas?”

“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’ve started a new venture. Luna Llamas. I’m starting small, only two llamas. But I hope they’ll breed and I’ll have babies. Well, Lucy will. Ricky and I will be there for moral support.”

Julia was speechless.

Her mother wasn’t. “Llamas are excellent fiber producers. You shear them every other year usually. They have a dual fiber fleece. The fiber is hollow, which makes it excellent for creating warm clothing. And the fact that it’s oil free makes it a spinner’s dream. We’ve got a spinning wheel out in the VW van. Aren’t you proud of all the research I’ve done?”

Julia remained speechless.

Angel continued with her explanation. “We all just need a little time to gather ourselves, to regain our beginner’s mind. You remember the Zen percept, right? Of bringing a clean slate and a pure mind to everything we do?”

Julia nodded. That’s what she’d hoped to do in Serenity Falls. Start with a clean slate. Away from her wild family.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Angel continued. “But this time things are going to work out. Trust me.”

If only Julia had a dollar for every time she’d heard her mother say those words. “What happened to your ice-cream store in Seattle?”

“Exotic Gellato was doing very well.”

“Then why start raising llamas?”
And why say you’re moving in with me? Please let that be a joke. Not that her mother had that kind of a sense of humor.

Angel bit her bottom lip. “Well, I may have invested a little too heavily in the newest exotic flavor.”

“Which was?”

“Garlic. Sales fell, and the next thing I knew, I had to close up.”

Julia’s stomach sank. Great. Her family was broke. That’s why they were here. She was doomed. “Just like Friendly Franks. Remember that?”

“Of course.” Angel tossed her scarf over her shoulder with a sense of flare. “The tofu hot dog stand did exceptionally well in California.”

“But it was a bust in Fairbanks, Alaska.”

“I still can’t believe it didn’t take off up there. There was such a crowd for the Ididerod. Other vendors have made enough in a few weeks to last them almost a year.”

“Other vendors weren’t selling tofu hot dogs.”

“They eat moose and caribou burgers. How was I supposed to know they would turn up their noses at tofu? A much healthier and kinder alternative, I’d like to point out. You make it sound like I didn’t have any successes. Being a New Age entrepreneur isn’t easy these days, but I have made a go of several projects. I mean, Wicca Wiggs in Mendocino was a big hit.”

“Because witches have to look good, too.” Julia repeated her mother’s pitch.

“They prefer to be called Wiccans. And Friendly Franks was a hit in Mendocino after that.”

“Until you moved us up to Alaska,” Julia reminded her.

“All the signs, tarot cards, and runes said I’d excel at a new project.”

What Julia’s flighty mother really excelled at was moving on, from one wild endeavor to the next, one zany West Coast location to the next. She didn’t have a practical bone in her body. Success was completely irrelevant to her. The “cosmic trip” was the important thing.

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” Angel recited one of her favorite Chinese proverbs.

Julia was tired of falling down. She’d come to Serenity Falls to get away from the world of chaos that surrounded her mother the way the scent of Chanel Number Five surrounded the mayor’s wife. All she wanted now was peace and quiet. And a gallon or two of caffeine.

 

 

Luke sipped his coffee and reflected on his first night back in his hated hometown. Not that he was normally the reflective type. His philosophy was that too much thinking just made your head sore. Most things were better left alone. Forgotten. Erased.

“You want more coffee?” The question came from Adele Adamson, the cook at Maguire’s Pub for as long as Luke could remember. Unlike the town, Adele had changed. She used to have long dark hair that she’d always worn in a braid down her back. Now her hair was cropped short. But she still had warm brown eyes and a crooked front tooth.

“Thanks for meeting with me this morning,” Luke said.

“No problem. You sleep okay?”

Hell, no. He’d been awake most of the night.

From the moment he’d stepped foot into Maguire’s Pub, he’d been hit with memories. The Marine Corps may have been maniacs about their rules and regulations, but they’d taught him one thing. Control.

So after that first episode when he’d exited the pub as fast as he’d entered it, Luke had zipped his emotions deep inside and focused on practical matters instead. But at night the memories had come out to taunt him.

Adele spoke into the silence. “You said you wanted to go over information about the pub.”

“That’s right.”

“Look . . .” She twisted her fingers awkwardly. “I, uh, I know you and your dad never got along. And I feel badly for not saying anything about the situation when you were a kid. But I was raised not to stick my nose into other folks’ business, you know? So I looked the other way when I saw the way your dad treated you those times he thought no one was around. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know. I’ve never said anything to another soul, and I never will. I just wanted you to know that . . . I guess just that I wish things had been different.”

Her words had caught him totally by surprise. He didn’t think anyone knew what had been going on. He wasn’t sure that her knowing was a good thing. The bottom line was that it didn’t change anything. “The past is gone. My only concern now is the present.”

“So you’ve come back?”

Luke nodded. He would have loved to have added,
I’ve got to stay here for six months before I can sell this place
.

But the terms of his father’s will were clear. He had to run Maguire’s Pub for six months and not tell anyone that he wasn’t back for keeps. If he did, he’d lose it all.

“I never thought I’d see this day,” Adele noted.

“You and most of the folks in this town.”

“Don’t be angry with them. They had no idea how things really were. I’m sure even I only had a glimpse of how bad things got.”

Luke hated this. Hated talking about this stuff. Hated remembering anything to do with this place.

But he’d lived through worse. He’d survive this, too. And then take the money and run.

“Here’s a pile of mail I kept aside for you.” Adele handed it to him. “I’ve been paying the bills out of the business account since your dad’s death. I was actually doing most of that, the bill-paying, before he had his heart attack.”

Luke looked over the account books Adele showed him, wishing he’d paid more attention to those damn math classes in school.

When she left him alone with the paperwork, his thoughts wandered. He’d called the meeting with Adele here, in the two-bedroom apartment above the pub where he’d grown up. There was nothing left from his old bedroom, which was now a home office with a table and a computer. And a depository for the beer can collection. His dad’s pride and joy.

Luke had packed them all up last night. No way was he looking at those. Or the talking mackerel hanging on the living room wall. They had to go.

He’d used a dozen boxes from the pub’s storeroom, dropping stuff in as fast as he could. And he’d called a charity first thing this morning to come pick up most of the furniture.

It was bad enough stepping into his father’s shoes at Maguire’s. No way was he sleeping in his bed.

Luke had actually spent much of the night sitting out on the metal fire escape, like he had as a kid. He’d covered a lot of ground since leaving town. He’d joined the Marine Corps right after high school and had gone into the Special Forces as a Force Recon Marine.

After that, he’d eventually ended up as a Special Agent in the FBI, where he’d gone undercover so many times he’d lost himself. And maybe that was no great loss, but it left him with a raw emptiness inside that ate away at him.

Luke had been good at what he did. Too good. He’d started thinking like the people he was infiltrating. The lines between black and white, good and bad became blurred. To keep his cover, he’d had to do things that seared his soul until, burnt-out and broke, he’d had to leave.

Yeah, he was a real success story all right.

Enough wallowing in his past. Luke gathered up his empty coffee mug and headed downstairs to the kitchen, Adele’s domain. While there, he sampled a piece of fresh bread still warm from the oven. “What do you know about a handyman named Tyler?” he mumbled with his mouth full.

“He does odd jobs around town, and he’s a Rollerblading insomniac sometimes in the middle of the night, but he’s not a bad guy.”