“So your
mother is trying to deflect things and having a hard time? Don’t suppose you’ve
thought about living in a castle with a really deep moat, stocked with
piranha?”
That got
a sickly grin from him.
“The
really sad and kind of ironic part is that until this mess started, Mom was
starting to put the ‘when are you going to make me a grandmother?’ pressure on
me.”
“So,
what’s this mail order bride like?”
He glared
at me. Then he must have seen the idiocy of the whole situation, because he
kind of deflated and slumped more in his chair and grinned back at me.
“She
showed up on Christmas Eve, at my folks’ place in Cincinnati, claiming
she must have missed my last phone call to discuss our ‘itinerary,’” he said, making
air quotes. “All apologetic about coming so late, since she was so sure I had
something wonderful planned for us to do. I went into panic mode when Mom gave
me this deer-in-the-headlights look. Especially since we had been talking about
some hinted threats from the future in-laws, if their darling little girl’s
feelings got hurt.” Daniel sighed and rubbed his face, then raked his fingers
through his hair. “All I could come up with for an excuse was taking over the Tattler.
Really busy, ignoring everything, keeping my schedule open for emergencies. It
was kind of weird how she didn’t react when I said Tattler, because
she’s from around here.”
I must
have made a sound. Trying to hold back the need to heave. My inner alarm of
impending doom was so loud I couldn’t think clearly for a moment or two. Daniel
gave me that worried look, like maybe I had turned green again.
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