Chapter 2
Call an audible – to improvise the next step in a plan because your sisters are too busy teasing you to help planning
“Hear ye, hear ye. The first meeting of the Mystery of the Black Hat Bandit’s Missing Loot is now in session,” I yell to make myself heard above my sisters yapping away.
“Wait. What? I thought we were here to discuss you and Rowan.” Aspen wiggles her eyebrows.
I groan. “There is no me and Rowan.”
“I don’t know why not. You like him. He’s hot. What are you waiting for?”
Waiting for? Is she serious? I’ve spent eight years of my life waiting for the man to realize I’m not some little girl. I’m done waiting.
Ellery screams and jumps to her feet. “What the hell is that thing?” She waves her hands toward the hallway.
“It’s not a thing. It’s Dale. The chipmunk Juniper promised she wouldn’t adopt,” I snarl at said sister.
Juniper widens her eyes and bats her lashes in fake misery. “You didn’t seriously expect me to abandon him at Unleashed, did you?”
Unleashed is the pet store in town. It’s owned by Forest who doesn’t understand not all animals should be pets. Juniper and him are thick as thieves despite Forest being old enough to be her grandfather and his penchant for forgetting to wear pants.
My sister never met an animal she didn’t love. Including rattlesnakes. I had to put my foot down before she brought one home. Sometimes I wonder what possesses me to live with my animal obsessed sister. And then I remember the magic word. It’s not please. No, this magic word is money.
When I came back to town after graduating from college, I assumed I’d live with my parents until my business was up and running. All it took was one Sunday of waking up early to grab a cup of coffee only to discover my parents in a compromising position in the kitchen and I was done. I moved in with Juniper and her two-thousand pets the next day.
“What I think is he’s a chipmunk,” I tell my animal lover sister. “Why can’t you let him free? You don’t seem to mind letting Phoenix’s goats free.”
She frowns. “Phoenix’s goats know where they live. They come home at the end of the day. Dale, on the other hand, has never lived in the great outdoors. He wouldn’t survive.”
And this is why she has the aforementioned two-thousand pets. She thinks it’s her job to save all the animals in the world.
“Whatever. Let’s get this meeting started.”
Lilac raises her hand. “Why are we having a meeting regarding the Mystery of the Black Hat Bandit’s Missing Loot?”
The mystery began a couple of months ago when Aspen returned home because her life was falling apart. She got conned into helping Saffron at the bookstore and while she was nosing around in the back room, she found an old letter. It turned out the letter was from a Patricia Hall to her lover Robert Adams who happened to be a bank robber who stole fifty-thousand dollars from the Hastings National Bank. Fifty-thousand dollars I’m convinced is hidden somewhere in town. And I’m going to find it.
“The name is way too long. I thought you were going to come up with a new one,” Aspen remarks.
I’ll get right on it. As soon as I finish the fifty-thousand other things I have to do. I grit my teeth to stop myself from speaking. Complaining about the gazillion odd jobs I do to pay the rent will lead to questions I don’t want to answer. Questions about what I’m doing with my life. I have a plan. Really, I do. It may not be going according to schedule, but it exists. Promise.
Lilac rolls her eyes. “I’m not interested in the name of this endeavor. I’m curious why we’re having this meeting now. Have you uncovered new information?”
“I had an idea,” I say, and everyone groans. “What’s with the groans?”
“Every time you have an idea someone lands in jail,” Juniper says.
I hold up a finger. “One time. One time you had to spend a whole five minutes in a jail cell. Will you get over it already?”
I don’t mention the other times I’ve spent in jail. What they don’t know won’t hurt them. Besides, it doesn’t count if the charges are dropped.
“Easy for you to say. You’re the one who ended up on a date with Officer Peace while I ended up with stitches.”
“I told you not to stand too close to the rocket.”
“And I told you it was a bad idea, but did you listen? No. You never do.”
Aspen claps her hands. “Ladies. Ladies. There’s no sense going over old ground. I think Ashlyn has learned her lesson about rockets.”