Dead Girl Running (Cape Charade #1)(54)
“And you’re nosy. It’s not an attractive trait. Try to contain yourself.” Kellen pulled the mac and cheese out of the oven and tested it. It was still frozen in the middle, but warm around the edges, and she was desperate. With a serving spoon, she shaved off the warm parts and mounded them into a bowl, then covered the casserole again and put it back in the oven. She took her first bite and sighed with pleasure. “You can keep your crummy lobster mac and cheese,” she told him. “Dungeness crab is the clear winner.”
“I couldn’t begin to say. I’ve never had crab mac and cheese.”
An appeal for a serving, and she ignored it. She pulled a stool into the kitchen and settled across the counter from him. “Adrian and Mitch are on the list as possible assistants to the Librarian. They were good soldiers and I like them, and mostly I trust them, but Adrian got into something bad, I don’t know what, but he’s jumpy and scared. Sometimes Mitch lacks a moral compass. Both have had problems adjusting to civilian life. I don’t know whether they truly could be tempted by the Librarian to be the muscle of the Yearning Sands operation, but I know sometimes money leads them.”
He studied the list intently. “Right. You didn’t include your other two friends as either the Librarian or assistants.”
“No.” She didn’t have to explain herself, or defend Birdie and Temo.
He went on to the last name on her list. “Sheri Jean Hagerty. Why her?”
“Sheri Jean’s father was by all accounts a lovely man. But her mother is the matriarch of her extended family and absolutely the most ruthless human being I’ve ever met.”
He scribbled a note beside Sheri Jean’s name. “So she could have learned heartlessness at her mother’s knee.”
“I guarantee she did. The family has a small truck farm east of here where they grow fruits and vegetables to sell on a stand beside the highway. Everyone in the family works that stand while they’re growing up and everyone, no matter who they are, spends part of their summer working the farm. We’re talking about high-powered people. Business owners, CEOs, president of a prestigious Midwest college. Every autumn, her mother comes to the resort to negotiate the terms for next year’s produce, and on that day, chefs tremble, Annie cries and Sheri Jean hides.”
“You’re saying her mother is forcing Sheri Jean to be the Librarian.” He pulled a long, disbelieving face.
“Not at all. I’m saying Bo Fang crushed her dreams, and a woman without dreams has no hope or joy.”
“The old lady’s name is Bo Fang?”
“Appropriately.” She laughed at his reaction. “Sheri Jean told me that Fang means fragrant, but I wasn’t sure she was serious.” She slid her spoon into the thick cheesy dish, over and over, filling the empty spaces in her belly.
In a goaded tone, he asked, “Do you mind if I try a bite of your mac and cheese?”
“Do you know how to get it out of the oven by yourself?”
His eyes narrowed on her. “I may be a Brooks, but I assure you, I have a Bo Fang in my background. My grandmother Mrs. Judith Irene Brooks does not tolerate idle hands.”
She had rather enjoyed provoking him, and her one-shoulder shrug was the polished epitome of indifference. “Help yourself.”
He came around the counter and into the kitchen.
She scooted until her back was against the wall. Tonight she might feel more at ease, but she didn’t intend to discover she was wrong about him.
Of course, he observed her maneuver, and those glorious brown eyes snapped in irritation. “You don’t like lobster?”
“I don’t like anything from Maine.” TMI. She needed to be careful about that; he’d already proved himself able to dig through her past. When he seated himself with his own bowl and spoon, she continued, “Sheri Jean is the youngest daughter. According to Bo Fang, the youngest daughter’s duty is to stay close to her mother and care for her into her old age. She sent Sheri Jean to a private high school in Massachusetts, where Sheri Jean excelled and was accepted to an Ivy League college. Bo Fang wouldn’t let her go there—or anywhere. She made her come home and learn the truck farm business.”
“Sheri Jean didn’t go to college? Because of her mother?”
“That’s right.”
“She could have defied her mother.”
“She did. She married the most inappropriate man… From all accounts, Dirk Hagerty was a lazy, cheating gigolo, and it cost Bo Fang dearly to get rid of him.”
“Which put Sheri Jean in debt to her mother.” He took his first bite. “You’re right. This is wonderful. The chefs here are gifted.”
“The crabs here are pretty gifted, too.” She watched him eat again and wondered where he stashed all those calories. “My last point—Sheri Jean was born on this coast. She knows every inch of it. Whoever is in charge of this smuggling operation is intelligent, and Sheri Jean is smarter than the rest of us put together.”
“You’re pretty smart yourself. She wasn’t even on my list.”
“That’s why you picked me to help you, isn’t it?”
“Your military records indicate you have a gift for situational analysis.”
“Right.” Had Nils discovered the real reason she was medically discharged? If he had, he didn’t care much, and that gave her some insight into his character. Not a flattering insight, either. And what was with that request for a kiss? “I thought you were involved with Jessica Diaz.”