Cupid's Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page A

very angry about the spilled food and Blue sort of picked up on that.”
    “Let’s play it safe. I’m locking the cats in the guest bedroom. Mom can let them out when they get back from breakfast. And if they tear up Mom’s clothes, then so be it.”
    I thought about the drapes. I didn’t like the ones in the guest bedroom either so I just nodded.
    “I’ll come by the locker after I see Mrs. Graves. The chief doesn’t expect me until ten so I have some leeway.”
    “So he’s taking this seriously?”
    “Yes. I don’t know if this is good or bad. What if it’s all nothing? I’ll feel like an idiot.”

*  *  *

    Mrs. Graves had zero to add to the chief’s report, though she held off washing her door until I arrived and could see things for myself. The handwriting was kind of high up for a child and was neat enough to be calligraphy. I took a picture with my phone and then helped her wash off the door.
    Alex didn’t report disaster but I went by the storage facility anyway. As I suspected, Alex had been pressed into work, making carnations and stuffing them into the high places. I rescued him by suggesting he make a donut run and he accepted gratefully. My motives weren’t all altruistic. I hadn’t gotten to eat my breakfast and I was starved. Blue stayed with me at the locker since I needed moral support and she wouldn’t be allowed in Big Daddy’s Donuts anyway.
    “Mrs. Graves will be here soon,” I told Mom and Aunt Dorothy. “She had a bit of trouble at her place last night. Graffiti. Probably kids just messing around, but maybe it was our saboteur again.”
    I thought this sufficiently interesting to divert Mom and my aunt from wedding talk, but Althea and Dale were back from their honeymoon and settled into Dale’s house. Aunt Dot, short a daughter and still in wedding mode, was only too happy to help Mom worry about me and my lack of plans.
    They tried to talk gowns and reception sites while we worked on the gazebo ceiling but I was politely unresponsive and making only one observation, which was that men didn’t like to be fussed at and Alex and I could always just elope to Las Vegas if things became too much of a bother.
    Mom took the hint and hushed her sister, but I knew a private mother-daughter talk was coming. I wasn’t acting like a happy bride-to-be. What I would say to Mom was a mystery because I wasn’t entirely sure why I didn’t want to just rush right in and let Mom plan everything so we could be married by March.
    Partly it was that I wanted a little time to adjust to being engaged. Alex and I had gone from long-distance lovers to live-ins to engaged couple very quickly. For sure I wanted Alex in my life. But I just needed a little breathing room before I said ‘I do’.
    And then there were his parents. I decided to risk an indiscretion and quickly filled Mom and Aunt Dot in on the fact that we hadn’t told Bob and Rosemary the happy news. I said that it wasn’t that they didn’t like me exactly, but that they had just had their son move away and they weren’t ready to deal with anything else. It was craven of me to shift the blame to his parents, but it got Mom and Aunt Dot on my side. Then I told them about the cats and both women were appalled at the destruction of the drapes.
    “And Alex just got his office fixed up!” I said, pouring it on. “What he doesn’t need is another headache. But they are his parents so what’s he going to do? Certainly I can’t say anything.”
    “You know, dear. It sounds like Alex might have a better time of it if Bob and Rosemary were occupied with something meaningful.”
    “Definitely.” Preferably far from Alex and me.
    “I think perhaps they should come down and help us decorate for the dance. And they could come to the ball too.”
    For the price of two tickets, she meant. Mom wasn’t so far gone as to miss a chance to make money for her favorite charity. Still, it was a good idea.
    “I’ll ask them. Maybe they would be