Apple of My Eye (Tiger's Eye Mystery #7) - Alyssa Day Page 0,40

think yoga pants will be okay? They're a deep purple, which will look black in the dark.

By the third text, I was seriously questioning my judgment. What had I gotten myself into? Or, more to the point, what had I let Eleanor get me into?

At five, I started the closing-up process and realized I hadn't heard from Jack, so I shot him a text.

Any news?

A minute or so later, he responded.

Believe it or not, my day is actually getting stranger. Be careful at goat yoga.

Then he texted me a goat emoji, and I didn't know what to do with a tiger texting me tiny cartoon goats, so I just put my phone in my pocket, locked up, and went home.

When I got to my house, I was delighted to see that there were absolutely no gifts or packages of any kind on either of my porches. I fed Lou, looked at my mail, which was all catalogs for things I didn't need, and made myself a grilled cheese sandwich, which my cat and I ate sitting on the front porch in the swing. Then I called Shelley, so she could tell me all about her weekend in St. Augustine, because Eleanor had been too depressed to even mention it.

"And we collected lots of shells! And I saw dolphins! It was great!"

Shelley was nine and spoke mainly in exclamation points these days, which made us all happy because she'd had a lot of tragedy in her short life. Living with Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike had been great for her, and I spent as much time as I could with her, but I had to work around her packed schedule of school and activities and my job.

"That sounds amazing. Do you want to come over for pizza tomorrow?"

"How about tonight?"

I sighed. I'd much rather spend the evening having pizza with my new sister than staking out Mr. Oliver's house to catch the hussy.

"I have plans with Mrs. Wolf tonight, honey, but tomorrow for sure, okay?"

"Okay! I hear Jack is back! Be sure he comes too! I missed him!"

"I will," I promised.

Five or so minutes later, when Shelley had finally finished catching me up on her life, we hung up. It was astonishing how much I loved that little girl. She'd walked her way right into our hearts, and I was glad. She loved Jack too, and he'd played a big part in helping her begin to heal from the deaths she'd suffered.

I cleaned up my grilled cheese pan and plate and then, unable to avoid it any longer, texted Eleanor:

What time? Who's driving?

I saw the little dots that meant she was replying and held my breath. Maybe she'd come to her senses and would call it off! Maybe…

8. Just after dark. I'll pick you up in the station wagon.

Oh, goody. Because station wagons were made for stealth.

It was only just after seven, so Lou convinced me that we should have a nap—cats were great at napping. I set the alarm on my phone for seven forty-five and stretched out on my couch. Before I knew I'd even fallen asleep, the timer went off. I sat up blearily and looked at my cat, who was giving me a slitted-eye glare. Lou did not like to be woken up from naps before she was ready.

We had this in common, in fact.

"Okay, here we go." I changed into a pair of black jeans, black sneakers, and a black T-shirt, which made me look ridiculous, so I decided to go all the way and added a ball cap and a pair of sunglasses, the better to sneak around with. I was threading my pony tail through the back of the cap when Eleanor drove up. I stepped out onto my front porch and prayed for divine intervention.

Or at least a good excuse not to go.

Lorraine climbed out of the car first, and she was a sight to behold. She wore black yoga pants, a black long-sleeved sweatshirt, and—yep—black orthopedic shoes. She even had a black scarf covering her hair. Eleanor, on the other hand, wore dark purple yoga pants, as promised, with a dark green shirt and black sneakers.

She looked like the Hulk's grandmother.

"Hulk smash," I muttered.

"Are you ready?" Lorraine grinned at me. "Girls' night!"

I think I moaned, just a little, but my mind was fresh out of ways to get out of this, so I trudged down the steps and over to the station wagon. I climbed in the back, pulled the brim of