Tiny Glitches: A Magical Contemporary Romance (17 page)

Neither of us were possessive, so Antonio’s tough-guy posturing while he watched Hudson made me roll my eyes.

“I’m Ari.” Ari shook Hudson’s hand while Chatter head-butted her leg. “This is my brother, Antonio.”

Hudson shook hands with Antonio, and Ari and I shared a laughing glance at the seriousness between the two men.

“Do you pretend to be the boyfriend of every beautiful woman you meet?” Antonio asked.

“Only the redheads,” I said, answering for Hudson and giving Antonio a firm look. “What’s for dinner?”

“Lasagna,” Ari said. “How’d the consultation go?”

“Not bad. I’ve never seen so many guns in one place before.”

“What?” Hudson asked.

“This is why you need a chaperone,” Antonio said. It was an old argument. Antonio lived firmly in the women-should-be-treated-like-fragile-flowers camp. He believed women should be independent, but only so long as he could keep them cocooned in bubble wrap, and he didn’t see a conflict between the two beliefs, either. His forceful coddling was one of the many reasons we hadn’t lasted as a couple.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?” Hudson asked. “I could have gone with you.”

“Don’t you start,” I warned.

“The man’s got a point,” Antonio said. He looked at Hudson with approval. I groaned.

“I’m not listening to either of you. It’s been a long day. I don’t want to argue.” I pushed past Antonio into the kitchen. Ari followed, with Chatter on her heels. The cat sat beside the fridge and batted the handle.

“Let me get Auntie Eva something first,” Ari told Chatter. “Then I’ll get you some food.”

Ari opened the microwave and pulled out a single piece of coffee cake on a napkin. My eyes latched on to the treat. “Homemade?”

“Would I give you anything less?”

I snatched the cake from her hand and broke off a piece. Warm brown sugar and cinnamon melted on my tongue. I relaxed my hips against the counter and closed my eyes to savor the delicious flavors. Taking another bite without opening my eyes, I could feel the day’s stresses floating away on a sugar haze.

I opened my eyes when I realized the kitchen was silent. Hudson eyed me like
I
was a piece of coffee cake, Antonio watched me with fond amusement, and Ari watched Hudson, a smirk on her face.

“Coffee cake turns her into putty,” she said. Hudson started and glanced at Ari. She winked at him. “That’s a secret a lot don’t know. You’re welcome.”

Hudson and I both blushed and avoided eye contact while I finished the last bite and carried my napkin to the trash. Memory of the hot kiss Hudson and I hadn’t discussed set my lips tingling again.

I checked the microwave. It was empty.

“No more until after dinner, Eva.” A red hen perched on Ari’s shoulder. It had been only a matter of time. She was in the kitchen, at home, with family who allowed her to boss them around. The hen always appeared at times like this. Ari was content. And about to get nosy.

“I’ll set the table,” I volunteered. “Are we eating outside?”

“Yep,” Antonio said. He grabbed plates and place mats and I selected flatware and napkins, and we both retreated to the outdoor patio.

“Hudson, could you help me with the salad?” Ari asked, effectively culling him from the herd.

Located in the back right of the house, the small outdoor patio spanned most of Ari and Antonio’s love and marriage and fame sections. A one-car garage filled out their wealth section. Because their house was long and narrow, some of the back three baguas spilled over into the house, but most of the feng shui for those sections had been done outside. Which is why Ari and I had selected warm earth-toned flagstones, pink and red flowering vines to climb the stucco walls, and a variety of healthy plants to line the patio. A long pergola covered a wooden table large enough to seat six. To the side, a grouping of cushy chairs circled a movable fire pit. Looking at the area as a whole, it was no surprise Ari had a reputation as a great host and better friend, and Antonio was well liked and trusted as a contractor.

I was twitchy to rework their relationship area, but after Ari had a bad breakup a few months earlier, she had forbidden me from taking more than minimal action. She needed time to recover and had little interest in using feng shui to attract another man into her life. Antonio had been happy with the mosaic of dancing women I’d found to adorn the large gap where Ari had torn up a pear tree. He’d had no problem finding fun, unattached women to share his bed, and Ari’s female relationships flourished.

I studied Antonio as he laid down the place mats. He’d dressed in faded jeans and a white V-neck undershirt that made his tanned skin glow. The shirt emphasized his wide shoulders, lean hips, and biceps that required gym work on top of his day job.

Normally I would have appreciated the view, but today I was suspicious. Antonio knew my weakness for a man in jeans and a white T-shirt, and he was playing it up.

“Why are you here?” I asked. The windows to the house were open, but the dining room separated us from the kitchen, where I could hear Ari talking with Hudson.

“I live here.”

“And you didn’t bother to get fully dressed when you knew company was coming over because . . . ?”

He glanced up, giving me a smoldering look through thick lashes, his grin knowing. “Just keeping an eye on Ari and you. She told me you’d gotten into some trouble.” When he straightened, he flexed, and his pectoral muscles bounced.

I rolled my eyes. I wouldn’t admit to enjoying the show. Hieroglyphics spiraled up both of Antonio’s arms, all divinations. Carmela, Antonio and Ari’s mother, would never let him hear the end of it if he got a real tattoo, and Antonio was enough of a mama’s boy to care.

Ari breezed through the screen door before I could respond. She wore oven mitts and carried a lasagna large enough to feed ten. Hudson followed with a pot holder, a bowl of garlic bread, and a salad. Ari made a second trip to retrieve a bottle of wine and a pitcher of ice water, and Chatter followed her back out. After rubbing against each person, the cat flopped in the last slice of sun to groom.

While we served ourselves and ate, Ari entertained, drawing information out of Hudson with skill an interrogator would envy. We learned Hudson had dreamed of being a long-haul trucker as a child, his longest relationship had been a two-year romance in college, and he eventually wanted kids.

“You ever think about going back home?” Ari asked when he mentioned he was from Texas. I saw through her casual questions to the root of her inquiries: She was doing a background and flight-risk check on what she perceived to be a future Mr. Eva Parker. Hudson appeared oblivious.

“This is home. I’m a native Californian born in the wrong state.”

When he confessed his parents were still married and he had one younger brother, I admitted to being an only child, and a bastard at that.

“That’s better than having a nosy older sister and three domineering older brothers, including this one,” Ari said, pointing at Antonio.

“I don’t know which is worse,” Hudson said. “Only children, who are always selfish and spoiled, or the babies of the family, who are always selfish and spoiled.”

“Hey!” Ari and I protested.

“Being an older brother is hard work,” Antonio said. “You’ve always got to put up with your sibling’s shit, bail them out of trouble, set a good example—”

“You wouldn’t know a good example if it slapped you,” Ari bantered.

“The youngest have it so easy,” Hudson said. “We broke in the parents, wore them down. And then they skate through on all our hard work and never appreciate it.”

“Exactly,” Antonio agreed. He raised his wineglass and Hudson tapped it with his own.

I forked a stray zucchini and kept my mouth shut. I’d always wanted a sibling. Even better would have been a normal family, one with two parents who stuck together and stuck around. I knew my father’s identity, and I knew what he looked like in high school, because I’d seen my mom’s yearbook. James Parker. My mother had given me his last name, but that hadn’t been enough to make him a father. I didn’t remember meeting him, though my mother said I had.

“He came to visit you a few times when you were really young,” she’d said the last time I had asked about him. I’d been thirteen.

“If I was too young to remember it, it doesn’t count.”

“It should count for something, dear. He came to see you as much as he could. He tried. He was very young—”

“I thought that was your excuse, Annabella. You visit as much as you can, right? You’re trying, right? I’m surprised I remember
you
.” I’d stormed out of the room.

“Eva’s not an only child,” Ari said, snapping me back to the present. “She’s been adopted into the da Via
famiglia
.”

“We only need the paperwork to go through,” I said, smiling at my best friend.

“Nope, not going to happen,” Antonio said. A copyright symbol in red, white, and blue appeared over his heart. “Eva and I dated. That would be weird. And illegal. And disgusting. She can be your honorary sister.”

“Eh. We all knew that was going nowhere,” Ari said as if she hadn’t pushed our relationship every step of the way. Antonio watched for Hudson’s reaction. So did I. Hudson’s eyes shot to Antonio’s; then he leaned back, laid his arm across the back of my chair, and smiled at me. I stifled a giggle. Antonio had met his match for male posturing.

“So you’re not a spoiled only child?”

“Of course I’m spoiled. I just know how to appear humble.”

Ari snorted. Antonio barked a laugh.

“Anyway,” I said, seeing Ari gearing up to regale Hudson with embarrassing tales. “Any word on the Suburban?”

Hudson glanced to Antonio and Ari. “They’re up to speed? On everything?”

“Ari knows everything. Antonio?”

“Baby elephant at Aunt Fi’s, Suburban trashed, crazy high school woman disappeared,” Antonio recapped. “I know everything.”

Hudson nodded, eyes troubled. “I got the Suburban back today and returned it. The detailers more than earned their exorbitant fee. It almost looked better than when we got it. There’s no sign an elephant took a bath inside.” The Scottish terrier stood by his chair, still as stone.

“Let me know how much I owe you,” I said, hiding my wince. Jenny was racking up quite a bill.

“What’d you find out about Jenny?” he asked.

“Not much. We think she was in the science club in high school, and she might have transferred after junior year, since she’s not in my senior yearbook.”

“We
know
she was in the science club,” Ari said. “I did some e-mailing and Facebook research and got ahold of a few of the other members. They didn’t have much to say about Jenny. She was quiet, kept to herself—”

“Clear signs of a psycho in the making,” I said.

“—and was obviously only in the club to put it on college applications. They all agreed she was super smart, though. Every one of them made a point of mentioning it. She went to Duke. Finished undergrad and grad in four years. I chatted with one of her college classmates, and he confirmed Jenny was like a savant. Claimed she made everyone else look bad. He didn’t seem sorry that she’d graduated early. Maybe she’s so smart, she snapped. You know,
A
Beautiful Mind
and all that.”

“She snapped and kidnapped a baby elephant?” I asked.

“Seems unlikely,” Ari agreed. “I checked the news feeds again. No one’s reported a missing baby elephant from any zoo or traveling show worldwide.”

“What did she study at Duke?” I asked.

“Genetic biology.”

“Huh,” I said. It was a sentiment everyone agreed with.

“I found out where Jenny’s parents lived when she was in high school,” Ari said.

“Encino? Rosita Street?” Hudson asked.

“One and the same. Are they still there?”

“According to the information I found. Jenny isn’t, though. She moved to Japan and works for a company called Adorable Creations.”

“What’s she doing here, then?” I asked. “And with an elephant? What does she do at Adorable Creations?”

“They do experiments with animals. Lab stuff,” Hudson said. “They created a dog that looks like it’s a puppy forever—big feet, floppy ears, stunted growth. They’re right up there with the people who grow ears on the backs of mice.”

We all shuddered.

“Wait. What if the elephant is part of some experiment? What do we know about Jenny?” I ticked off the points on my fingers. “She’s brilliant. She studied genetic biology. She works for a company that does genetic manipulation.”

“I guess Kyoko could be part of an experiment, but going from dogs to elephants is a big jump,” Ari said.

When none of us had more information to share, and our speculations about Jenny’s possible motives had wound down, Ari pushed back from the table. “I saw you brought some cupcakes. Let me grab them and the coffee cake. I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll help,” Antonio said, carrying the half-eaten lasagna with him.

I grabbed Hudson’s arm the moment they were both inside. “We can’t let them eat the cupcakes!” I hissed.