"Almost made it that time, Fred."
Pleased with himself, Fred danced around Amanda's legs as she continued to call for her aunt.
"Coming. Pm coming." Tall and stately, Cordelia Calhoun McPike hurried in from the rear of the house. She wore peach linen slacks under a splattered white apron. "I was in the kitchen. We're going to try my new recipe for cannelloni tonight."
"Is C.C. home?"
"Oh, no, dear." Coco patted the hair she'd tinted the day before to Moonlit Blonde. In an old habit, she peeked into the hall mirror to make certain the shade suited her - for the moment. "She's down at her garage. Something about rocker arms, I think - though what rocking chairs have to do with cars and engines, I can't say."
"Great. Come upstairs, I want to show you what I got."
"Looks like you bought out the shops. Here, let me help you." Coco managed to grab two bags before Amanda dashed up the stairs.
"I had the best time." "But you hate to shop."
"For myself. This was different. Still, everything took longer than I thought it would, so I was afraid I wouldn't get back and be able to stash it all before C.C. got home." She rushed into her room to dump everything onto the big four-poster bed. "Then this stupid man got in my way and knocked everything all over the sidewalk." Amanda stripped off her jacket, folded it, then laid it neatly over the back of a chair. "Then he had the nerve to try to pick me up."
"Really?" Always interested in liaisons, romances and assignations, Coco tilted her head. "Was he attractive?"
"If you go for the Wild Bill Hickok type. Anyway, I made k - no thanks to him."
As Amanda sorted through the bags, Fred tried twice, unsuccessfully, to leap onto the bed. He ended by sitting on the rug to watch.
"I found some wonderful decorations for the bridal shower." She began to pull out white-and-silver bells, crepe paper swans, balloons. "I love this frilly parasol," she went on. "Not CC.'s style maybe, but I thought if we hung it up over...Aunt Coco." With a sigh, Amanda sat on the bed. "Don't start crying again."
"I can't help it." Already sniffling, Coco took an embroidered hankie from her apron pocket and dabbed carefully at her eyes. "She's the baby, after all. The youngest of my four little girts."
"There's not one of the Calhoun women who could be called little," Amanda pointed out.
"You're still my babies, and have been ever since your mother and father died." Coco used the hankie expertly. She didn't want to smear her mascara. "Every time I think of her being married - and in only a matter of days, really - I just fill up. I adore Trenton, you know." Thinking of her future nephew, she blew delicately into the hankie. "He's a wonderful man, and I knew they'd be perfect together right from the start, but it's all so fast"
"You're telling me." Amanda combed a hand through her sleek cap of hair. "I've barely had time to organize. How anyone expects to put on a wedding with barely three weeks notice - or why they'd want to try-. - is beyond me. They'd be better off eloping."
"Don't say that." Scandalized, Coco stuck her hankie back into her pocket. "Why, I'd be furious if they cheated me out of this wedding. And if you think you can when your time comes, think again."
"My time isn't going to come for years, if ever." Meticulously Amanda tidied the decorations again. "Men are as far down on my list of priorities as they can get."
"You and your lists." Coco clucked her tongue. "Let me tell you, Mandy, the one thing you can't plan in this life is falling in love. Your sister certainly didn't plan it, and look at her. Squeezing fittings for a wedding dress in between her carburetors and transmissions. Your time may come sooner than you think. Why just this morning when I was reading my tea leaves - "
"Oh, Aunt Coco, not the tea leaves."
Grandly Coco drew herself up to her considerable height. "I've read some very fascinating things in the tea leaves. After our last seance, I'd think you'd be a bit less cynical."
"Maybe something happened at the seance, but - " "Maybe?"
"All right, something did happen." Letting out a deep breath, Amanda shrugged. "I know C.C. got an image - "
"A vision."
"Whatever - of Great-Grandmama Bianca's emerald necklace." And it had been spooky, she admitted to herself,