Page 171 of Love Bites

CHAPTER3

Iskidded to a stop in front of the old Ponderosa pine tree that shaded my Aunt Zoe’s 1870s Victorian house, the place the kids and I currently called home. After worrying I’d find a police car or ambulance in the drive, I scratched my head at the sight of my daughter sitting near the sidewalk behind a table with aPet Teeth Brushing—$2banner taped to it.

“Hi, Mom.” Addy waved at me as I climbed out of my Bronco. Apparently, her brother had not informed her of his so-called emergency. “How was your day at the office?”

“Okay.”

As I shut the car door, the scent of warmed pine cocooned me—a bonus with living in the tree-covered hills rather than on the dusty prairie. I hesitated, listening for screams, cries, or shouts of pain; something other than the scratchycaw cawfrom the lone crow on the power line overhead.

“Did you meet any nice men?” my daughter asked, unwrapping a pink sucker.

Addy had two goals in life these days—to become a veterinarian and find me a husband. While I could live with the occasional broken-winged jay and road-kill squirrel, I drew the line at her creating a profile for me on a website that specialized in helping ex-cons find their true loves.

“Nope, not a single one,” I lied, pushing aside the image of the sandy-haired, potential knight in shining armor who had chosen me to sell his mother’s house.

“That’s too bad. But don’t worry, I have a plan.” She popped the sucker in her mouth.

Thatmade me worry, but not as much as Layne’s call. I stooped to drop a kiss on her upturned forehead. Her soft skin tasted like Coppertone sunscreen. Smart girl. “Have you seen your brother lately?”

“Sure.” She said around the sucker. “He’s in back. Why?”

“No reason.” I took a step toward the front porch and stopped, then reversed to take a closer look at the items on Addy’s table. “Is that my toothbrush next to the phone?”

“Ummm no. It’s … uh … one from the cupboard.” Addy’s pink face matched her sucker.

“Adelynn Renee, I told you after I found that cat whisker on my mascara brush to stop using my stuff on your patients.”

“It was an eyebrow, not a whisk—”

“Mom!” Layne burst through the wrought-iron side gate so fast it didn’t have time to squeak. His favorite fedora hat and black bow-tie were dusted with dirt crumbs. “You have to come in the backyard now! Hurry!”

Back through the gate he zipped, disappearing behind the house.

I pointed at Addy. “We’re not done here, child.”

“But Mom—”

I held up the hand of silence and jogged after Layne.

When I rounded the house, the smell of fresh earth and a blast of heat hit me at the same time. Aunt Zoe’s backyard had no shade by late afternoon, except for the thin slice angling off the side of her glass-studio workshop. In the far corner, Layne was elbow-deep in a bathtub-sized hole in the ground.

I slowed to a walk, dropping my purse on the grass next to the swing set that had moved with us to Deadwood a few months ago. “Layne, we need to get something straight.”

He didn’t even look up as I approached.

“An ‘emergency’ means blood, broken bones, and an immediate trip to the hospit—”

“Look what I found, Mom!” Layne sat back on his heels, one of Aunt Zoe’s paint brushes in his hand. His eyes shined so bright they practically glowed.

I did as he commanded, then dropped to my knees next to him on the crispy grass. Or maybe my knees gave out, I wasn’t certain. It wasn’t every day that I came across a huge, elongated skull in my backyard.

“Isn’t it cool?” Layne’s voice was higher than usual.

“Yeah.” I leaned close, shifting slightly to take weight off my scraped knee. A small hole pierced the frontal lobe of the skull. “Very … uh … cool.”

A shadow fell across the skull. “You’re home early.”

I shielded my eyes. Aunt Zoe, backlit by the sun, had her long, silver-streaked hair tied back with a strip of leather.

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