Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(53)

It was a sweet thing to say, but it still hit me squarely in the chest. Aunt Jewel must’ve seen it, because her smile faded. “Oh. Except you can’t have babies, can you? Not if you have to run around protecting David. Doesn’t exactly seem like a child-friendly environment.”

I shook my head, but it wasn’t like I’d thought much about all of that. I’d thought about college, sure, but that was as far as I’d let myself go. Thinking about all the other stuff—marriage, kids, a career—had been too hard. Too scary, too much. I wasn’t proud of the whole head-in-the-sand thing I’d been doing, but I hadn’t known what else to do.

When the buggy stopped this time, it was Aunt Jewel’s fault. She stopped there in front of a row of Chef Boyardee, frowning. “And David is your boyfriend now, but what if you break up? Or find someone else?”

I put a couple of jars of spaghetti sauce into the buggy. “We already broke up,” I told her. “But bringing someone else into this would be a disaster. It was hard enough dealing with Ryan and Mary Beth.” I thought again about Bee locked in Ryan’s arms in the closet, her lip gloss smeared on Ryan’s face. “Not that they’re an issue anymore, I guess.”

I’d told Aunt Jewel about Ryan’s powers, but I’d left out the part with him and Bee. I wasn’t quite ready to get into that just yet.

But now Aunt Jewel was frowning at me, her eyes bright over the tops of her glasses. “How did Ryan even get involved in all this?” she asked. “How did he get . . . powers or magic or whatever you want to call it?”

“Saylor passed them on to him after Brandon stabbed her,” I answered without thinking.

The box of pasta in Aunt Jewel’s hand tumbled to the floor, the container breaking open and penne spilling everywhere. But she didn’t even seem to see it. “Saylor Stark was murdered?”

Oh. Right.

A stock boy rounded the corner and, seeing the mess, jogged off, probably to get a broom. I scooped Aunt Jewel’s purse up out of the buggy and took her gently by the elbow.

“Maybe we should shop later.”

“Yes,” she said faintly, giving a nod. “M-maybe that’s for the best.”

Fifteen minutes later, we were at Miss Annemarie’s Tearoom, huddled in one of the corner tables and drinking chamomile. Aunt Jewel’s pot of tea was half empty by the time she took a shuddery breath and said, “All right, Miss Harper Jane. I take it back. You are not overthinking this. I don’t think anyone could overthink such a thing—goodness.”

Pressing a shaking hand to her lips, Aunt Jewel shook her head. “And you’ve been dealing with this all alone.”

“Not alone,” I told her as I poured us both another cup. “I have David and Ryan. And Bee. Bee knows.” I left it at that, rather than explaining Bee’s new Paladin powers and her kidnapping and sudden reappearance. Aunt Jewel had had enough shocks for one day. We could always get into that later if needed.

“But no adults,” she said, dumping a few sugar cubes into her cup. “And all of you running around, breaking up with each other, getting together, breaking up again, getting together with different people.”

I thought about telling her about Alexander, but since I still hadn’t made up my mind how to feel about that, I decided I could skip it for now. “I know, things are complicated, and the dating stuff probably doesn’t help.”

But Aunt Jewel only shook her head, the cubic zirconias in her ears winking. “You’re children,” she said again. “That’s what children do, make things messier than they have to be.”

I thought of Ryan and Bee in the closet, her lipstick on his face, his eyes daring me to say I didn’t want them to be together.

Yeah, things were messy, all right.

Miss Annemarie stopped by the table, smiling down at the two of us. “Harper! I’ve seen your mama and your aunts in here, but I haven’t seen you in forever!”

“I’ve been busy with school,” I said, not adding that I’d been avoiding her since we’d tried to kill each other at Cotillion. It was still bizarre to look into her face and remember her coming after me with a knife.

After Miss Annemarie had gone back to the kitchen, promising to make some of her crab bisque, Aunt Jewel turned back to me, her eyes rheumy but sharp behind her glasses.

“Sweetheart, if anyone can handle all these responsibilities, it’s you. I’ve never known such a determined little thing in all my life. Did you know, when you were about two, your daddy built you and Leigh-Anne a sandbox. And every day, you’d toddle out there and try to build you a castle, and every day, your sister would knock it down.”

Clucking her tongue, she took her glasses off, letting them dangle down the front of her shirt. “I loved that little girl, but Lord, what a pill she could be. Anyway, all those times she knocked down your castle, you never once cried. Never complained. You jutted that bottom lip out and got back to work. You never quit, even when that would have been the smartest thing to do.”

Somehow, I didn’t think that was supposed to be a compliment. But I was still about to thank her when Aunt Jewel reached across the table and took my hand. “You are trying to be too many things to too many people, Harper Jane.”

Aunt Jewel’s fingers were cold, the skin papery, but she held me tight as she added, “And I think one day, one day soon, you’re gonna have to choose.”