Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel (A Chick-lit Paranormal book) (The Angela Panther Series) (28 page)

“Evan? As in Evan Barnes?”

“How should I know? All I know is he kept running around saying, his first name like he was talking to himself.
Evan wants you to take another pill, honey. Evan wants to know if you’re having fun
. It was creepy, if you ask me.”

“Ma, can you describe the front of the house? Were there big white columns outside the front?”

“Yup, and it was all fancy schmancy inside, like these people had money and wanted everyone to know it. I think it was tacky, but I’m no interior whatchamacallit. I just know what’s ugly and what’s not, and it was ugly.”

“Holy crap, Ma. That’s the Evan Barnes’s house. Evan Barnes is on the school board. And his kid is having pill parties? Wow. This kid is a big deal at school. He’s the student council president and the quarterback for the football team. Em had a crush on him all last year. He’s going to be a senior. If this ever gets out, it will destroy his future.”

“The kid owns the house?”

My mother, always listening, never paying attention. “No, Mother, his father, Evan senior owns the house and if this gets out about his son, it’s going to destroy him, too.”

“So maybe it should come out, then, huh?”

I shook my head.

“What? Like I can say anything anyway. What do you think I’m gonna do, write it on a wall at the school with a used lipstick or something? I can’t hold anything yet. So it’s up to you, Angela. You gotta stop being so goody two shoes and do something about this.”

“I’m not a goody two shoes, Ma.”

“Ah, yeah, you are, and you’re a little boring, honey. It’s nothing personal; you get it from your dad.”

“Dad. Oh, crap. I need to call him. I haven’t checked on him since Taylor died.”

“Your dad’s okay. I just checked on him.”

I smiled; relieved to know Ma was keeping track of Dad.

“What are you going to do about these parties, Angela? Something has to be done before another kid dies.”

“Ma, I have my own children to watch after and it’s not my responsibility to babysit everyone else’s kids. They have parents, and if those parents can’t keep them safe, how do you expect me to?”

“That’s my girl. Stayin’ out of other people’s business, even if it means a kid can die.”

“Ma, stop it. What am I supposed to do, tell Evan Barnes that my dead mother snuck into his house while his kid had a party, broke a table and saved the kids from possible death? And oh, be careful because their kid does drugs?” Ma rubbed her transparent chin. “You got a point.”

“Uh huh.”

“But you gotta do something, Ang.”

“Okay. You're right. Something needs to be done, but I don’t know what that is. Let me think about it a little. But right now, I want to call and check on Dad, okay?”

“You should.”

“I thought you said he was fine, Ma?”

“Angela, he’s old and he’s in poor health, but he’s still breathing, so that’s good, right? But over all, he’s not well, Ang. You know that.”

I pulled my cell phone off of my waistband and called my father.

“He’s sleeping in his chair,” Helen said.

“How’s he doing?”

“Okay, I guess. Still not eating much, though.”

“How’s his breathing? Is it any worse?”

“It’s about the same. He’s sleeping more now. He has trouble sleeping at night. It’s harder for him to lie down because of the coughing.”

“Poor Dad. Do you want me to come out again?”

“Angela, you’re welcome to come out any time you want, but I don’t think you need to right now. I promise, if he gets worse, I’ll let you know.”

“Okay, I’d appreciate it.”

We talked more, and I filled her in on Taylor and how her death impacted Emily. Dad never woke up, but Helen promised to tell him I called and give him my love.

###

L
ater that evening, with Josh at a friend’s and Em begrudgingly at the subdivision pool, Jake and I had some time to ourselves and decided that eighty-seven degrees was the perfect temperature to burn a plastic tub full of old bills in the fire pit. Ten years worth of bills, actually. Instead of having sex. Clearly the honeymoon was over...years ago.

“Frick, it’s hot out here,” I complained.

“Why did we keep all of this?”

“Because you promised to buy a shredder two years ago.”

“Oh, yeah.”

I smiled. My phone dinged, notifying me of a text from Mel.

“OMG,” she texted. “The Girl Scouts have a new Crunch Bar cookie. I just bought three boxes. I’m going to be huge. What am I saying? I’m already huge.”

“You are not huge.”

“You’re supposed to say that.”

“Don’t eat them.”

“What? I can’t
not
eat them. I bought them. It wouldn’t be right to waste the money.”

“Why did you buy them? I thought you were trying to lose weight?”

“I’m always trying to lose weight. And I had to buy them. We were required to sell three boxes.”

“And you couldn’t sell them?”

“I did sell them, to myself.”

“Uh huh.”

“I wish they would suck, but...OMG! They’re almost better than the Thin Mints.”

“Nothing is better than Thin Mints. Not even sex. With Ryan Reynolds.”

“Sex with the dudes from Heartbreak Ridge would be better than sex with Ryan Reynolds. Why didn’t you ever tell me about them?”

“I don’t know who they are. Never saw the movie.”

“Good. Then they’re MINE. You can have Ryan, I get them.”

“Who are they?”

“Not telling. You’ll Google them and steal them from me.”

“I can Google the movie, ya know.”

“Still mine,” she texted.

“You’re selfish.”

“Duh. I have PMS. That’s why I’m eating a box of Girl Scout Cookies.”

“Three boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. Damn Eve. She screwed us women for life.”

“I know!”

“We could write books about how she screwed us, ya know.” I texted back.

“You could. I’d just provide creative input.”

“Good point. But seriously, had Eve eaten an onion we wouldn’t be in this position. Vegetables would be our downfall instead of sweets.”

“Eve’s a beyotch.”

“Damn straight.”

“But maybe it would have turned Adam off so much we’d have been forced to become lesbians. Eek,” Mel texted.

“But if calories didn’t count, I might be willing to play for that team.”

“You’re a calorie whore.”

“The pot callin’ the kettle black.”

“I hate Eve.”

“Me, too.”

Mel and me, we texted about the important stuff.

“Gotta go. Jake and I are burning old bills and he wants to bond. I’m sweating my ass off and it’s making me cranky, and he wants to bond. Should turn out well for both of us. Later.”

“What’s she saying now?

“We were discussing world peace. We’re close to a solution. Once we have the kinks ironed out, I’ll fill you in.”

“Uh huh.”

“Hey, Ma told me that Evan Barnes had one of those pill parties. Apparently they did it in honor of Taylor.”

“Evan Barnes?”

“Yes, Jake. Evan Barnes.”

“Do we know him?”

“He’s the one Em had a crush on all year. The football player? Remember? His dad is on the school board.”

“No.”

I shook my head, knowing it was pointless to try to jog his memory. “You’re missing the point, honey. The party was to
honor
Taylor. They had a pill party to honor a child who died from the drugs taken at one of those parties. What the hell is that about?”

“It’s what stupid teenagers who don’t have fully developed frontal lobes yet do, Ang.”

“Well if they keep this crap up, they won’t live long enough to know better.”

“How’d you find out about it?”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. Fran the invisible spy.”

“Hey, don’t blame me. I didn’t send her. I can’t help it if she’s out snooping. In fact, I think it’s a great idea. Something needs to be done about these parties or someone else is going to lose a child.”

He nodded. "Was Em there?”

“No, thank God, but we still have to do something about this, Jake. These parties are dangerous, you know that.”

He took the fireplace shovel and mixed up the ashes in the pit. “Yes, I know that, but what can we do? It’s not our kid having the parties. We can’t parent every teenager in town, Ang.”

Great minds think alike, don’t they? “I’m not saying we have to parent them, Jake. I’m saying something has to be done to stop these parties.”

“What did Fran say happened at this last one?”

“She stopped it.”

He stopped mixing up the ashes. “She stopped it?”

I threw more bills into the fire. “She made sure no one took any pills and that they all left.”

“Oh boy.”

“Yeah.”

“She can’t keep doing that, Ang.”

“That’s what I thought too, but if it’s the only way to stop these drug parties, then I’m not going to make her stop. Besides, this is my mother we’re talking about. When have I ever been able to make her do anything?”

“The kids aren’t going to stop taking the pills, Angela. They’ll just find another place or another way. She’s not going to stop them completely, just postpone the inevitable.”

“I know.”

“We can’t worry about everyone else. We have to focus on our kids and keeping them safe. I’m not saying we should ignore the problem, but we aren’t going to solve it either. The best we can do is inform the parents about what’s happening and hope they’ll do what’s right for their kids too. Then maybe the parties will stop, but even if they do, the kids are just going to find another way.”

He said much of the same things I’d said to Ma, or thought to say, and we were both right. I leaned my head into my husband’s chest and inhaled the smells of the man I loved and a hint of the memory of the bonfires of my childhood. My heart ached to go back in time, to a time when life wasn’t so complicated. “It sucks being an adult sometimes.”

He wrapped his arms around me. “Yup, it does.”

###

L
ater that night when the kids were safely tucked into bed, I snuck peeks at both of them, and Ma floated in as I tiptoed around Em’s room, picking up the clothes on her floor.

“Your room was always a mess, just like this.”

I walked out of Em’s room into the hallway. “My room was never that bad, Ma.”

“Like hell it wasn’t. I couldn’t see the floor from the time you turned fourteen until you left for college, Angela. It was so bad I forgot the color of your carpet.”

I smiled at her. “It was multi-colored neon, duh.”

“No, child. That was the color of your wardrobe. The carpet was underneath all that crap.”

“My clothes weren’t crap, Ma.”

She tilted her head and smirked.

“Okay, so maybe I was a little too Flashdance, but it was the ’80s and I was hip.”

“It was ugly, but I compared to what girls wear now, you looked like Mother Teresa.”

I laughed. “I’m going to bed, Ma.”

“That’s a good idea, Ang. You look like a raccoon with those dark circles under your eyes.”

“Thanks, Ma. I can always count on you to make me feel better.”

“That’s what I’m here for." She shimmered away.

T
he next morning I was back in swing, my normal morning routine on schedule. I fed the dog, straightened up the kitchen, left post it notes everywhere to make sure everyone knew what they were supposed to do, and then headed out for a run. It was early enough to run a good three miles and not die from heat exhaustion. I drove to the greenway, parked the car, put my ear buds in and clipped my keys onto my shoe.

I did a few stretches and then started my run with a brisk walk. My mind focused on the feel of the air against my face, and I felt my feet start to run to the beat of the music. I thought about the pill parties and tried to figure out what I could do to stop them but kept coming up with the same solution. Nothing except talk to other parents but I realized that these things were just going to have to work themselves out. Jake and I had to focus on our kids because ultimately they were what were most important in our life.

Frustrated, I ran a little harder and it felt pretty good. I didn’t realize how much stress I’d bottled up since Taylor died and it felt good to be hot and sweaty, so I kept my speed at the kicked up rate and barely noticed the cold rush of wind when it hit me. The woman running next to me though, was another thing entirely.

“Hello? You can see me, right?"

I didn’t acknowledge her, just kept running.

“I know you can see me. They told me you could.”

They? My eyes shifted in her direction, and I was pissed at them for betraying me.

“You can see me. I knew you were the right one. Please. I need your help.”

It was early, but the greenway was already filled with earlier risers. I didn’t want to talk to this ghost and look like a nut case, so I sped up into a sprint and about burst a lung running to the closest bridge. Once I reached it, I veered off to the side and bent over to catch my breath. The ghost was right next to me, and I can admit it ticked me off that she wasn’t breathing heavy at all.

I held my side and started walking in circles. “Cheese and rice, that hurts.”

“You can run fast."

I held my side. “Yeah, well, thanks, I guess.”

“I need your help. They told me you could help me.”

I stopped circling and look at the woman. “Who told you that?”

“The others like me.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“They told me if I focused my thoughts on you, I would find you and that you’d help me. Will you?”

“Listen, um...what’s your name?”

“Heidi."

“Okay, Heidi. I don’t know who these others are you’re talking about, but yeah, I know you’re dead, and yeah, I see dead people and all that, but I don’t really help them, okay? Maybe every once in a while, but I’m trying not to make a habit of it.” I squatted down and tightened my shoelaces, then put my ear buds back in and started to walk back to the path.

“Wait, please.”

I stopped and spoke softly. “I don’t want to help you. I just want to finish my run, go to the grocery store, go home, make something in the crock pot for dinner and clean up the house. I just want my easy, boring life back. I do not want to help ghosts.”