UnEnchanted (An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)(39)

Mina jumped back guiltily; Brody regretfully let her go but bent down and scooped up the dropped bags.

“Pardon me, Mrs. Grime.” Brody deposited the bags onto the kitchen table. He turned, scooped the bag Charlie was carrying out of his hands and picked up the cans that had escaped out of the dropped bags, before Sara could recover and close her mouth.

“And who are you?” Sara asked suspiciously.

“Brody Carmichael.” He leaned forward and offered Sara his hand in a shake. “I know Mina from school.”

Sara’s eyes widened when she recognized the name. Brody thought for a minute that it would be because of his family, but what came out of her mouth surprised him.

“Oh, that’s right. He’s the boy who you lent your notes to for class. Seriously, Brody, you should learn to take your own notes and not live off of the sympathy of others,” Sara lectured.

Brody’s eyes widened with shock and confusion. He looked over to a white faced Mina before answering. “You are absolutely right Mrs. Grime, but you see if I didn’t ask to borrow your daughter’s notes, I would have no excuse to talk to her and ask her on a date,” he lied.

Mina could have died right then and been happy. Brody looked over at Mina with a crooked smile and raised eyebrow. He was going to ask her about this conversation later. She knew it.

“And the boy who ran over Mina’s bike.” Sara didn’t let anything get past her and her eyes glinted angrily.

“Yes, unfortunately that as well, I am very embarrassed about running over her bike, but I was so surprised to see her on my front porch I wasn’t watching where I was driving. I have been making up for it by giving Mina rides to and from school.”

“Oh, oh I see.” Sara smiled. “Please call me Sara. Mrs. Grime sounds old.” She began putting away the groceries. “Sorry about the mix-up with the work pamphlets. My boss told me your house and I sent Mina to drop it off. We never did figure out where the mix-up in communication was or who it was supposed to go to, but maybe it was fate?” Sara left it at that and Mina couldn’t make eye contact with Brody.

Brody stayed for supper of spaghetti and meatballs which turned out to be an awkward event. He would direct questions toward Charlie but when Charlie wouldn’t answer Brody would speak louder as if he was deaf.

“He can hear you,” Mina answered giving her brother a sisterly kick under the table. “He just doesn’t talk.” Charlie tried to hide his smile but couldn’t. He had enjoyed tormenting Brody.

Brody would give Mina pointed stares and look around the kitchen in an effort for her to tell her mom what happened. But Mina kept trying to mouth words like "not yet," or "not now."

But Brody wasn’t going to let it slide. “Do you feel safe here, Sara?” Mina could have kicked him if she had long enough legs.

“Why yes Brody, what would make you say that?” Sara asked.

“It’s just that you are here all alone in an older section of town with two kids. I was just wondering if you ever felt like you were endangering them by living down in the international district.”

“What kind of question is that?” Sara asked heatedly.

Brody’s jaw tightened in anger. “I’m trying to protect your daughter but she doesn’t seem to think she is in any danger.” He threw it out. He put it all on the table and looked to Mina in challenge. She knew then that if she didn’t tell her mother, Brody would.

“Mom, you know that family thing that we discovered last week. The one where I would most likely face certain scary obstacles and you agreed to let me try.” Mina tried to hint, she didn’t want to alarm her younger brother.

“Yes?” Sara spoke warily, her eyes darting between Brody suspiciously and Charlie worriedly.

“Well, someone was looking for something that I didn’t have. They confronted me outside of a library last week, and two days ago in an alley and it seems they were here in our house just a few hours ago.”

“WHAT!” Brody and Sara said in unison. Brody didn’t know that Mina had been attacked in an alley.

Sara looked at Brody? “What! You didn’t know?”

“Not about all of it. I knew about the library, because I was there, and today, but not about another attack in the alley. It’s why I was asking about your safety.” Brody had started speaking in the vague way Mina did, in an effort to protect Charlie as well.

“I see.” Sara sat down calmly at the table and tried to compose herself. Charlie watched his mother quietly. Sara leaned over and whispered to Charlie who brightened at her comment, ran to the freezer and took out a gallon of ice cream and went to his room. She was bribing him with ice cream. When Charlie’s door was shut and the sound of cartoons could be heard from behind the door, Sara turned to look at Brody.

He spoke before she could, “Are you two in some kind of trouble? Are there people after you? What can I do to help you?” Brody stood up and paced the kitchen.

Sara continued eating her dinner and wiped her mouth daintily with her napkin. “This really is a family matter Brody. But don’t worry, we haven’t done anything illegal and I won’t let anyone harm my daughter again. I’ve moved across country six times to protect Mina from what is after her, and I’m prepared to move continents if I have to.”