Spooky Business (The Spectral Files #3) - S.E. Harmon Page 0,20

for signs of life.”

He chuckled tiredly. “Good. I’m going to have enough trouble facing your parents at breakfast as it is.”

“Breakfast? That’s cute.” It was my turn to be amused. “You think we’re going to be allowed to shirk early morning yoga now that we’ve let them inside the house?”

I rolled off him with a groan. I flopped on my back, and a suspicious hiss began as our mattress gave up the ghost. I pretended not to hear the gentle whine of air, sending us closer and closer to the floor, and so did Danny.

After a few seconds, he let out an exasperated sigh. “Are we pretending this isn’t happening?”

“Yes.”

“One of us should probably get up and patch it with tape.”

“One of us certainly should,” I said pointedly.

“You know, we’re going to wind up on the floor.”

“Growing up, my parents thought mattresses were an environmental waste. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve slept on. The floor is my happy place.”

“They seem to be getting along just fine on our Serta.”

“Arthritis has a way of making you abandon your principles.”

He levered himself off the mattress with a groan. “Where’d I put the Scotch tape anyway?”

“Kitchen junk drawer,” I said helpfully. “Don’t forget the lantern.”

“Fine. Could you at least start blowing the mattress back up?”

“The pump runs on electricity.”

“I’m pretty sure hot air will work too.” His tone was rife with amusement. “And we both know you’ve got plenty of that.”

I liked to think that despite the darkness, he saw me flip him the double bird.

Chapter 5

Two days later, Hurricane Alberto blew out of town with much less fanfare than he’d arrived. That was a damned good thing because I’d plowed through most of our hurricane snacks on day one. The complaining of my fellow storm companions fell on deaf ears. As I stuffed the last of the Chex Mix in my mouth, I informed them that hurricane snacks must be consumed during the hurricane.

Any idiot knows that.

The destruction to the city and surrounding areas was substantial but not catastrophic. As usual, the Keys had taken the brunt of the hit. The damage to Danny’s—our—place was very little. We trooped over to my parents’ house and found them to be much in the same situation.

Our power was still off, along with the cable, and anything else I might need to make life bearable. Because he was a kind, caring human being, Danny called Tate and offered up our unit to help with community cleanup. Because he was also a kiss-ass, suck up, mama’s boy, I knew that we’d probably end the day at Paula McKenna’s house.

Before we left, we bravely launched Operation Save All the Food, which involved creating odd breakfast combinations out of leftovers. I sat down to a breakfast of fettuccine alfredo, while Danny had pizza. My parents unearthed some macaroni and cheese that I didn’t remember making or buying. Despite my worried objections about food poisoning, they began wolfing it down like a pair of starved rottweilers.

It would’ve been a pleasant time if my mother hadn’t kept winking at me. The first time, I winked back because why the hell not? But the second time, I just stared at her, the gears in my mind working a little slowly. Then, I got it.

I deserved this. The risks of squeaky air mattress sex had kept us chaste for a single day, but last night, Danny had started rubbing my back in a purely therapeutic way and… well, nontherapeutic things had happened. Dirty things. Loud things.

Now she knew. And she knew that I knew. And I knew that she knew that I knew. But if she mentioned any of what we both knew aloud, I was going to attach her tiny-ass house to a trailer hitch and drop it into the Atlantic.

I scowled at the next wink she sent my way. “Mother.”

“What?”

“Just… Mother.”

Danny’s brow furrowed. “What’d I miss?”

“Nothing,” I said.

“Nothing at all,” she agreed.

He eyed us suspiciously, but his precious pizza took precedence over our odd behavior. He stuffed an entire crust in his mouth and went all billy goat on it. I thought my father was similarly engrossed in his mac and cheese, but then I saw the small smirk on his mouth. A blush spread over my cheeks. Christ, just how loud had we gotten last night?

“So did you boys sleep well on the air mattress?” my mother asked solicitously.

“Just fine, thank you, Robyn,” Danny said, busy demolishing another slice of pizza. He clearly wasn’t a master of extracting