Page 77 of Spark
Grizzly Creek Ranch
Monday, June 25
10:00 a.m.
“Feeling any better?” Mom asked when Sophie finally emerged from her bedroom late the next morning.
“Not really,” Sophie replied. She paused at the kitchen island’s device charging station to plug in her phone, then made a beeline for the coffee maker.
Athena had already left for her summer classes, but there was a folded piece of notepaper tucked under a clean mug sitting next to the coffee pot, with “Sophie” written across it in her sister’s handwriting.
“No one blames you for what happened at dinner yesterday,” Mom assured her.
As usual, she was sitting at her computer desk in the far corner of the great room. Now, she swiveled her ergonomic office chair around to face her daughter.
Sophie’s eyes were still sore and gritty from all the crying she’d done last night, so she was wearing her glasses again, along with her oldest, most comfortable sweatpants and the super-soft tank-top that was loose and saggy from repeated laundering. She had crazy bed-head because she hadn’t had the energy to brush her hair yet.
“Really?” Sophie asked, skeptically. “Because Annabeth and Margaret both cornered me right after dinner and begged me not to break their boys’ hearts.”
“So that’s why you disappeared before dessert?” Mom’s eyes narrowed. She suddenly looked angry, and almost as dangerous as a shifter in full protective mode. “I’m gonna have a little talk with them about that. They need to let you guys work it out on your own.”
Gentle Annabeth would probably be a pushover when it came to facing down Mom in full metal mode, but Margaret was another story.
As sweet and grandmotherly as Margaret looked, she could kick serious ass when needed.
One of Chris's favorite stories was about the time when Margaret had single-handedly taken down two sabertooth thugs. They had tried to abduct him not long after he and his uncle moved to Bearpaw Ridge, and Margaret had shifted into her bear shape and made them regret trying to harm Chris.
Besides, the thought of Mom getting into fights with members of the clan just reinforced Sophie’s conviction that she’d made the right decision last night.
“Don’t, please, Mom,” she begged. “It’ll only make things worse. Besides, I broke up with them last night because I realized that things weren’t going to work out.”
“Oh, kiddo, I’m so sorry.” Mom rose and came over to the kitchen. She enclosed Sophie in a warm hug, and Sophie felt fresh tears rising. “I was really hoping that things would work out for you with one of them. They’re both great guys and you’ve all been friends for such a long time.”
“That’s why I had to do it,” Sophie sniffled. “I thought they were going to get into a fight last night. And then everyone started taking sides afterwards… I just want us all to be friends again!”
Mom sighed, and rubbed Sophie’s back. She didn’t offer any fake reassurances like, “Everything’s gonna be okay,” because Mom never said something like that unless she was 100% sure of it.
Sophie leaned her forehead against Mom’s soft shoulder. Someday, she might be too old to let her mother comfort her like this, but right now, she was hurting badly. She needed this.
Then she remembered that there was one more important thing she needed to tell her mother.
“So, um, Noel called me yesterday,” Sophie began. “About a job—”
Just then, her phone began to ring. Sophie figured it was either Chris or Matt calling, or maybe even Maggie, wanting the scoop. But when she glanced over at her Caller ID, it displayed,TRINGSTAD, S.
Sven’s calling me?
Jolted out of her haze of fatigue and depression, Sophie stepped out of Mom’s embrace “Hold on, I need to take this.”
She picked up her phone and tapped answer. “Hi, Mr. Tringstad?”
“I thought you promised to call me Sven,” he said, in a warm, friendly voice. “After you left here last week, the missus and I talked about that story you’re writing about our niece’s murder. We started looking through old photo albums from Laura and Silvio’s engagement party and wedding, and we found a few shots that I think you might be very interested in seeing. Maybe you'll even want to include them in your article.”
This sounded very promising. “Oh, that’s great! What kind of photos?”
Sven hesitated. “It’s difficult to explain without seeing for yourself,” he said, finally.
Suddenly feeling energized, Sophie asked, “Do you mind if I stop by and look at them?”
