Page 43 of Night Falls on Predicament Avenue
Are you going to?
Yeah. Just need to figure out the best timing. He gets cranky with me.
Norah hadn’t seen the crankier side of Sebastian, but she’d heard its potential in the overtones. And “cranky” was probably an understatement for what his reaction would be when he learned his baby girl was to have her own baby.
Are you feeling okay?
Norah had to ask. She’d always taken care of Naomi, and now it seemed only natural to offer the same to Harper.
Nauseated, but so far nothing too bad. Just don’t offer to make bacon tomorrow morning, please. I almost puked this morning from the smell.
Norah bit back a smile.
Sebastian flicked on his turn signal, but he’d caught her smile from the corner of his eye. “Somethin’ funny?”
Norah looked out the window at the homes passing by, which were fewer and farther between as they neared the outskirts of Shepherd. “No,” she answered. “I just saw a funny meme on my social media.”
“What’s it say?” he pressed.
“Umm...”
“Dad, is that a cow?” Harper pointed out the window as if a cow grazing in a pasture, surrounded by at least ten others, was a rare sighting.
He gave her a suspicious glance in the rearview mirror. “Moo. It is. An’ that’s excitin’?”
“I-I guess it’s just been a while since I’ve seen cows,” Harper fumbled.
Norah kept staring out the window.
Silence.
“Why do I get the feelin’ you both are hidin’ somethin’? Should I be frettin’?”
“No!” Both Norah and Harper responded simultaneously.
Sebastian pressed his lips together as he steered the vehicle into the Opperman driveway. “You both think I’m doolally, but I’m not. I’ll get it out of you.”
“Dad, we aren’t hiding anything that you need to worry about.”
“Why don’t I believe you?” He shifted the SUV into park and killed the engine. “Never mind now. We’re here an’ we need to get inside.”
“How did you connect up with these people?” Norah asked, already regretting agreeing to come along. It wasn’t just the awkward interlude she and Harper had barely escaped, but it was the fact that she was outside of her comfort zone. Way outside.
“A bit of research goes a long way, lass.” Sebastian shut his door with the toe of his shoe. “The town records from back in 1901 might’ve been destroyed, but there’s still the locals. And these people are often willin’ to help.”
“Just say you called the county land office,” Harper said with a toss of her hair over her shoulder. “Dad, you make it sound loftier than it is. People don’t realize how much of your info you get online and from a few simple phone calls. They just subscribe to your podcast ’cause you have an accent and it sounds sexy.”
“Oof! Right in the heart!” Sebastian melodramatically clutched at his shirt as they hiked up the sidewalk to the front wrap-around porch. “Not to mention smarmy. Callin’ mesexywith me bein’ your father.”
“Hey, I’m just quoting your reviewers.”
Norah smiled to herself. The playful banter was refreshing after the scare of two nights ago and the tension she’d felt yesterday at the grave of Isabelle Addington.
Sebastian knocked on the door, and it swung open. A middle-aged couple greeted them with smiles. The man was shorter than Sebastian, balding, with glasses, sporting a green polo shirt and khakis. The woman had permed hair with speckles of gray through it, her dress very 1950s in style. She even wore a ruffled apron at her waist.
“Come in, come in!” she cried, beaming. “You must be Sebastian Blaine!”
“Yes, ma’am. An’ this is my daughter, Harper, an’ my ... friend Norah.”
