Fate Actually (Moonstone Cove #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,21
care of everyone, Toni. Don’t minimize those skills just because they’re not what commercials make mothering look like. You’re gonna do great.”
“I’m not like you though.” She took deep breaths and tried not to leak her rioting emotions all over Megan just because she was in emotional striking distance. “I don’t have the planner and the superclean house. I don’t decorate for holidays. I don’t… bake.”
“You don’t have to mom like me!” Megan laughed. “There’s a million ways to be a mom. You’re gonna find your own way of doing things that works for you. Remember, it’s your own little family. You get to set the rules.”
Toni nodded and blinked back tears. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good. Go pee before you explode. I remember those first few months.” Megan patted her shoulder and sent her off into the bushes. “I can’t lie. If I’m being honest, I’m a little jealous.”
Toni walked behind a bush and squatted. “Why?”
Ahhhhhhh, relief. Like, relief so profound she nearly cried from it.
You nearly cry from everything these days.
“Those early years are work,” Megan said, “but they’re a lot of fun too. And little kids are hilarious. Teenagers…” She sighed. “It’s a whole other level of drama.”
“But they can feed themselves.”
“I can’t lie, that’s a bonus.”
She cleaned up, used the hand sanitizer, and walked back to the trail. “Okay, I’m thinking more clearly now.”
“Good. Let’s go find Katherine before she gets lost.”
“The trail is pretty clearly marked.”
“This is Katherine we’re talking about. She could end up seeing an interesting bug or bird and if it flew off, we’ll never see her again.”
“Good point.”
The sharp, antiseptic smell of Megan’s hand sanitizer was Toni’s only saving grace when they found what was left of Whit Fairfield along the edge of Ferraro Creek.
Megan and Toni stood at a distance while Katherine got far too close to the body for either of their comfort.
“Katherine, we need to get back to the house and call the police.” Megan waved at her to come back. “Step back, honey. You know what they show on TV. They’re not going to want anyone contaminating the crime scene.”
“I’m fairly sure he was shot.” Katherine held a handkerchief over her face and leaned over the body. “There’s a lot of blood.”
Okay, that was it. Toni walked back to the trail, across a small clearing, and puked her guts out under a tree. She stood up straight after losing her lunch and took several deep breaths.
“Toni?”
“Here.” She spit and reached for her water bottle to wash out her mouth. “I’m okay.”
Megan waved from the trail. “We’re here.” She had Katherine in tow. “Let’s head back to your house and call Drew.”
They were deep in the hills above Moonstone Cove, in the folds of the coast range mountains, and mobile phone service was a joke. They’d be in range once they got back to her place. “Should we mark where we went off trail?”
“I already did,” Megan said. “Tied a handkerchief on a branch right on the trail.”
“Okay.” Toni walked back toward them.
Katherine rubbed her back. “Feeling better?”
“How on earth can you just look at… that and not be affected?” Toni asked.
Katherine shrugged. “I guess because it’s interesting. I never studied gross human anatomy, but the human body is fascinating to me even in stages of decomposition.”
“Well, I am grateful we have scientists like you who can examine things like that,” Megan said. “Because I’m with Toni on this one. I nearly lost my lunch at the smell. The scavenger thing certainly explains the finger, doesn’t it?”
Whit Fairfield had been killed about halfway between Toni’s house and Nico’s. A coyote or a cat must have taken the finger from the body and dropped it at the ranch. According to Katherine, there was more than one finger missing.
“Drew will likely have problems finding all the pieces of Mr. Fairfield,” Katherine said. “Ecologically, of course, it’s for the best. Human preservation practices for the dead are very unnatural.” She smiled. “Baxter and I have already arranged to be cremated and planted in a memorial forest in Big Sur. With the proper soil amendments, of course. Human ashes are harmful to plants on their own.”
“I did not know that,” Megan said. “I will keep that in mind.”
Toni felt her nausea coming back. “Can we change the subject please?”
“Sure.” Megan held out a tube of saltines. “Here.”