Page 36 of Trouble Comes in Threes

Ashley rolled her eyes, smiling despite herself, while Mike giggled.

“They was washable mawkas.”

“Good thing. I’d hate for you to get marker on your favorite T-shirt,” he said.

She looked down at her pink T-shirt with white, embroidered flowers. She’d worn it so many times; it was faded and had stains that wouldn’t come out. But she loved it, so I still let her wear it. “How’d you know it’s my favowite?”

“Because I’m your daddy, silly,” Joe said, then leaned over and touched her nose with the tip of his finger.

“Everyone knows it’s your favorite, Hopey,” Mikey said good-naturedly. “You tell us all the time.”

“Oh,” she said, as though considering it.

“Anything else happen?” I asked, picking noodles off Liam’s highchair tray and putting them back into his bowl.

“Only one mow thing,” she said. “Cole thwew up on his shoes.”

Joe and I exchanged looks, both of us offering silent prayers that Cole didn’t have a contagious stomach bug.

“And one mow thing!” she exclaimed. “We ate ice cweam afta school.”

“Mommy let you and Liam have ice cream too? It wasn’t just for Mikey?”

“No, silwy,” Hope said with a wide grin. “Mommy shawas.”

“Yes, she sure does,” he said, giving me a soft look I couldn’t interpret.

Liam’s turn was next, but he just crammed noodles into his mouth, so I told them that his paper from daycare had said he’d played with his friends, was a good napper, and ate all his lunch.

“Your turn, Uncle Joe,” Mikey said enthusiastically.

“Oh, my day was boring,” Joe said, shooting me a glance. “Lots of bor-ing paperwork.”

Mikey must have bought the hard sell because his nose wrinkled before he swung his attention to me. “Did you dig up another box today, Aunt Rose?”

“Not today,” I said with a dramatic sigh. “But I made a new friend named Miss Adolpha. She lives in a place with lots of other older people. I thought maybe we could all drop by to see her sometime. I’m sure she’d love a visit from some sweet children.”

“Sweet children? Where are you gonna find some of those?” Joe teased.

Mikey burst into laughter, and Hope and Liam joined him, mostly because he was laughing, which meant something had to be funny, even if the joke had gone over their heads. To my relief, Ashley cracked a smile.

“What were you doing at a nursing home?” Joe asked as he scooped more casserole onto his plate.

“She was one of the homeowners from the house where we dug up the box.”

“Did she know anything about it, Aunt Rose?” Ashley asked.

“She didn’t. She said her husband had passed a few years ago, and her kids were too young to bury it, so we hit a dead end.”

Joe lifted his brow in surprise but didn’t say anything.

“So what happens to the box?” Ashley asked.

“I told Neely Kate to open it and see what’s inside.”

“What was in it?” Mikey asked, his eyes bugging with excitement.

“What was in it?” Hope parroted, even though I was pretty sure she didn’t have any idea what we were talking about.

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