Starlight Web (Moonshadow Bay #1) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,6
grinned. “I had to leave the bastard some parting gift. After all, he stole my magazine, blacklisted me, and had the nerve to get engaged to his bimbo before we were even divorced.”
Ari let out a snort. “You didn’t disappoint me, lady. All right, go get your ass in the shower. I’ll poke around in the kitchen and see if there’s any coffee.”
“Instead of that, can we just go out for breakfast? After I shower, of course.” Even I couldn’t stand my own stench at that point.
“Sure.” She plunked herself down in the rocking chair. “Go wash up and change.”
I hurried to the bathroom, carrying my suitcase with me. I had plenty of other clothes but I had packed a suitcase specifically for the first few days until I had unpacked and gotten myself situated.
I showered, basking in the warmth of the water, then dried off and changed into a pair of jeans and a V-neck hunter green cashmere sweater. Sitting at my mother’s vanity, I brushed my hair—it was naturally wavy and down to my lower back. I kept it a deep mahogany—sometimes veering into burgundy—thanks to a dye bottle. I applied my makeup. I always went for the old glamour girl pinup look with cat-wings and burgundy lipstick. Finally, I gathered the mass of waves back into a ponytail and tied my hair back using a green scarf.
Standing back, I took a long look at myself. I washed up pretty good, even though Ellison had been bitching about my weight for years. I was curvy, an hourglass shape. At five-nine, I was a firm size 14. He had wanted me to get down to a size 2 maximum, preferably a size zero. That was never going to happen.
I slid on a pair of black boots and zipped them up. They were platform, but with a nonskid sole. Ellison had hated them because he said they looked goth, and that I was “too old for that shit.” Ellison had said a lot of nasty things to me, come to think of it.
I hurried downstairs. “Ready?” I asked, entering the living room.
Ari was standing in the center of the room, frowning. “You have a ghost?”
“What?”
“I asked, do you have a ghost? I heard somebody talking a moment ago.”
I frowned. “I’m not sure. I thought I heard a woman talking when I was standing out in the front yard last night, so maybe? What did they say?”
Ari scrunched up her face. “I’m not actually sure, to be honest. I couldn’t make it out. It was just like…murmuring, you know?”
“Well, I’m not going to sweat it right now. Let’s go get breakfast, then will you help me unpack? Aunt Teran’s coming over this afternoon to help.”
Ari loved my aunt. Teran had kept us stocked in weed, and me in birth control, when we were teenagers, because as liberal and magical as my mother had been, those weren’t easy things to ask for. Now, of course, pot was legal, and I could get my own birth control. But it was still a good memory to have.
“She is? Good, I haven’t seen her since the funeral. Well, we’ve run into each other in the grocery store but…” Ari paused, then said, “Are you going to be all right living here? Now that your parents are…”
“I believe the word you’re searching for is ‘dead,’ ” I said.
She grimaced. “Yeah, but I wasn’t sure how blunt to be.”
“It’s all right. You don’t have to tiptoe around the subject. I miss them, but I’ll be okay. And yes, I’ll be fine. I’ve always loved this house, and while it’s going to be tough going through their things, I have to do it sometime. I might as well start when I’m unpacking my own things.”
We headed out to Ari’s car. She had a big old SUV that had seen better days, but the vehicle was as sturdy as a tank, and it would probably run until she drove it into the ground. As we headed toward the town center, I thought again about the voice. If I had a ghost, maybe it was my mother, come back to watch over me.
We decided to eat at Lucky’s. The joint looked a lot like it had when I last visited, though it was a far cry from the basic diner it had been when I was little and my father brought me here for milkshakes. The décor now sported a shamrock theme, which almost tipped on the side of kitschy,