Teased to Death (Misty Newman 1) (10 page)

"Lasagna is served. Feet off the table, Alec." Donna's singsong voice drew everyone's attention, and six little pairs of legs rushed toward the heaping pile of meat, sauce, and noodles that smelled
out of this world
.

"Nathan's working tonight?" I ruffled Harmony's hair and gave her a gentle push in the direction of Donna's stampede of kids. It didn't take much convincing, and soon she was shrieking with the rest of them over who could blow their homemade straw wrappers the furthest.

"Yeah, he'll be back sometime around two a.m.—I think." Donna scooped huge slices onto everyone's plate, ending with her own. "Sit down, eat. You're withering away."

"The sugar and espresso diet," I muttered quietly enough so that the kids couldn't hear. "I should write a book about it."

Donna was already chewing her food, slapping a kid's wrist, and catching a water glass from tipping over. I'd never felt like more of an underachiever in my life. All I was doing was eating and talking, which I considered a pretty good feat as long as food wasn't falling from my mouth.

"Eat up," Donna said, tilting her head in my direction.

And
she could carry on a conversation? This woman was a superhero.

I'd walked in with Harmony in hand minutes before, the break-in to my home fresh on my brain. I wanted to vent to Donna, get a little angry, maybe a little scared, and then have her calm my frazzled nerves. All thoughts had flown out of my head in the minutes since arrival. The chaos here was enough to make anyone's thoughts disappear.

A small part of me felt a bit sad that Donna now had kids of her own. I'd always been the one she soothed, the one whose hair she held as I puked, and the one who she told to stop studying and get to bed. Now, she had her own family to attend to, and I had…well, I had myself. Growing up was tough.

"What's on your mind, chickie?" Donna asked. Through the hustle and bustle that was her dining room, she still managed to sense when I was off.

My eyes smarted as I set my fork down.
Dang emotions!
They were cropping up everywhere now that I was back. When I'd been in LA, I'd cried once during my ten years there, and only then…due to the ACL incident that'd put an end to my dancing career.

"Spill it." Donna leaned over and lightly whacked my hand with her spoon. "And I don't mean those tears. Spill the beans."

"Someone broke into my grandmother's house." I scooted my chair closer and spoke in low tones.

Donna's eyes widened. "First of all, it's
your
house. Get used to it, because I'm not letting you sneak away again. Second of all, what the
what
? Did you call the cops?"

I opened my mouth to speak, but Donna bulldozed right ahead. "What did they take? How do you know? Are you
okay
?"

One of Donna's kids—Alec, or one who looked just like Alec—stared up at me with wide eyes. Maybe he could tell I was upsetting his mother.

"Eat up, Drew," Donna said. "Dinner's gonna get cold, and Alec just stole your bun."

Squeals and a small scrabble broke out over the pilfered bun, and Donna turned back to me. "So? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. They must have hid when I walked in. Then I took a shower, and that's when they escaped. They ran through my front door, and from what I can tell, they didn't take anything of importance."

"Did they take anything at all?"

I shrugged.

"What does that mean?"

"It means…" I glanced at the table. Harmony looked up at me for a second but dived right back into her lasagna with a huge grin on her face. "I have a bad feeling that it was the same person that killed Anthony Jenkins. My stocking drawer was open, and I have a million pairs of fishnets in there not bundled up. It's impossible to tell if anything is missing, but the drawer was ajar, and I'm sure I shut it."

"You do always keep your drawers shut…drove me nuts in high school." Donna chewed thoughtfully. "But how do you know it wasn't random? Maybe it was just someone looking for some extra dough lying around, and they thought to check your sock drawer. Maybe they just didn't expect…sexy socks."

"I considered that. But, it doesn't feel random." I shook my head. "Maybe I'm being paranoid, but this whole Anthony thing hasn't been resolved yet, so I'm still not off the hook."

"And you can't afford to
not
be paranoid."

"Exactly. I feel like they were looking for something. What exactly, I don't know. But my gut tells me it's not random."

"That's a lie. You don't have a gut—you've been getting skinnier. Eat up."

"I didn't—"

"You didn't call the police," Donna finished. "I assumed, what with no phone and no car. It's no matter. Jax will be here in a few minutes. He's swinging by after his shift."

My eyes went big. "Did you tell him I'd be here?"

"No." Donna looked down at her plate. "He's over all the time. He lives next door and doesn't have a wife to cook, so he stops by often."

"You're lying. Donna, you knew it would be awkward between us."

"Why should it be awkward between you? Alec—eat it. If you butter that bun one more time, you yourself will turn into a stick of butter, and you won't be able to go to your swimming lessons tomorrow because you'll be too slimy."

Alec giggled, and Donna turned her gaze back to me. "Why, Misty? It's been
ten years
. I love you. I love my brother. Is it too much to ask that you can be in the same room at the same time?"

"No." I paused, hanging my head a bit. "It's just…"

"What did you do?"

"I had a run-in with him at Al's after the whole thing at Sweets earlier today. I was kind of a snot about him dating Sarah."

Donna raised one eyebrow, a smile quirking at the corner of her mouth. "Really."

"Shut it."

"You still have feelings for him."

"Do not."

"Do too. What did Sarah ever do to you?"

"She stole my tooth!"

"As an adult, Misty. What did Sarah do to you except go out with Jax? You were just talking about how much you liked her."

I let out a long exhale. I knew what the right answer was, but I wanted to pretend the answer was something entirely different. "Fine. I'll apologize."

"I didn't say that." Donna flicked her gaze sideways. "I don't care if you pour your pretty little broken heart out to him, so long as I can have dinner with my best friend and my brother in the same night. At the same time. At the same place."

"My heart is not
broken—
"

"Look who's here! Uncle Jax." Donna could've winked at me, or maybe she blinked or twitched or anything else unintentional, but I didn't buy it. She had ulterior motives, and I just had to figure out exactly what they were.

Donna stood, wiping her hands on her trendy jeans as she walked toward the front door amid the herd of children trying to break it down.

"She's very stylish," Harmony pointed out, still sitting at the dinner table next to me. She eyed my clothes judgmentally.

"Yeah, yeah…" I eyed Donna once more. I hadn't envied my friend, only wished the best for her. Our life goals, visions, and dreams had been so entirely different from one another's that there was virtually no competition between us. I wanted to be wild and free. She wanted to have a large family and stay in a small town. It was part of the reason we made such a good pair.

But now as I looked at her busy life, a part of me was jealous of how content she seemed. Of course I was happy for my friend, but part of me wanted to figure out how to discover what I wanted. What my life was missing. Donna filled the role of mother and wife and store owner so easily, it was as if she was made for the job. But me, I had a struggling dance studio and practically a warrant out for my arrest.

"It's okay." Harmony reached over and squeezed my hand. "I love you even if you decide to never wear jeans again."

I had a retort at the ready, but it slid from my lips as Donna flung the door open and Jax stepped into the warm, crazy household. He didn't notice me, occupied with the kids climbing up his legs and hanging from his taut arms.

I savored the moment of anonymous creeping before he realized I was watching him. He was a natural with the kids. Tickling one, fluffing another's hair…when Alec kicked him in the shin, Jax picked up the kid by both arms and looked him in the eye. "I'm bigger than you, buddy, so don't you go kicking me, or I might just have to sit on you."

A giggle slipped from my lips as Alec nodded very seriously, his eyes bugging out of his head. It was obvious Jax was the main attraction in this household.

I took another bite of pasta, trying to ignore the painful tugs on my heart. Had I really left all of this in search of something better?

Jax's eyes slid over to meet mine, and I gave a half smile while trying to chew, which didn't work out particularly well. On the contrary, I lost a noodle down the wrong pipe and ended up hacking half a lung into my water glass, or just about.

"Someone's excited to see me," Jax said. He gave Donna a stern look. "What are you doing here, Misty?"

I pounded myself on the chest,
not
a sexy way of greeting someone. When I inhaled enough air to breathe, I choked out my answer. "I"…
cough
…"I was invited"…
dying
…"invited for dinner."

"Strange. As was I." He turned toward Donna. "In fact, my sister
insisted
I be here tonight. She even made my favorite dish for the occasion…"

Both of us looked at Donna. Jax's arms were crossed, and I had a hand on my hip.

"Let's eat!" she said faux cheerfully. "Jax, you can have my seat next to Misty. I am all done eating, and in fact, I gotta go get the twins ready for bed. Alec, Drew—come on."

I didn't think steam was coming out of Jax's nose, but it might've been close. There was a ninety percent chance he was only upset that Donna had conned him into coming over. The other ten percent could've been that he was plain old mad at me.

"We'll eat. Right after I have a word with your brother." I smiled at Donna, slipped one hand on Jax's wrist, and pulled him into a tiny closet off to the side of the hallway. When I initially opened the door, I hoped it would be a study or a lounge or the den, but I was out of luck. It was her vacuum closet. Luckily, there was a single light bulb above us that had a thread dangling from it.

I reached up between our noses and gave a single yank. The light flicked on, and Jax and I were face to face, chest to chest, toe to toe in the cramped space.

"Seven minutes in heaven?" Jax crooked an eyebrow. "That's all I got."

"Good thing it won't take you that long," I shot back, knowing it was a lie. "I'm sorry." I kept my fists balled at my sides. I didn't know whether to touch him, look away, or meet his gaze. "I'm sorry I acted like an immature brat at the store today."

"Why?"

"Why am I sorry?" I paused. "Because I shouldn't be acting like a tween."

"Why do you care who I date?"

"Sarah was my archenemy from kindergarten." I brushed a strand of hair away from my lips, where it'd stuck. I couldn't get the hair to move, so I ignored it. "It wasn't about you. It was about her."

"Really." Jax reached up and moved the hair, taking his long, slow time. "Kindergarten grudges. That's something else."

"Do you hold grudges?" I asked, my eyes peering into his, trying to read his expression.

"Depends."

"Hmm."

"Not usually."

I smiled. "Can we be friends for Donna's sake?"

"I didn't say that I let my grudges against you go."

"Hrmph. I'm trying to be an adult here. You're not helping."

"Did you really come back to visit?"

I nodded, staring at my toes. I suddenly wished the light bulb would flick off of its own accord, shedding us in darkness. There was something about the cover of blackness that made difficult subject matters easier to talk about.

"Then I have no grudge against you." Jax tipped my chin upward and looked into my eyes. "But if I find out you have anything to do with this Jenkins business…"

I shook my head
no
, but I knew what I was about to say would contradict that entirely. "Speaking of…"

Jax groaned. "What now?"

"I caught someone breaking into my house today."

"Did you file a report?"

"Yes."

"Good. What did the cop on the clock have to say? It's weird I didn't hear a call come in."

"It's not
actually
that weird…not since I didn't actually call it in," I said, wincing.

"Didn't you say you filed a report?"

"Yeah…well, I guess technically I'm filing one right now."

Jax's eye roll was impressive.