PAPER STARS: An Ordinary Magic Story(20)

Dinner was delicious and perfect because Myra had inherited almost all the cooking genes in our family.

I leaned back into Ryder. He grunted softly in contentment.

I scrolled through my photos to the pictures I’d taken of the concrete gathering, held it up for Ryder. He chuckled.

“They went all out,” he agreed.

“Lemme see.” Jean made grabby hands, and I relinquished my phone.

She made big fake wide eyes in big fake surprise. “Look at that Hogan. All those statues doing all those holiday things. How cute is that? They even remembered Kwanza.”

“Mmm-hmmm.” He planted a kiss somewhere below the boughs of her hat and then grinned at her over her shoulder. “Kwanza doesn’t get nearly enough representation here in Ordinary.”

Okay, they were being totally suspicious.

“Here, Myra. Look at what those awful vandals did.” Jean waggled my phone toward Myra who was giving Jean and Hogan a narrow-eyed glare.

“Was the lock broken?” Myra asked me even though she wasn’t looking away from Jean.

I wasn’t looking away from Jean either.

“No. Whoever did it had a key to the gate.”Jean had a key to the gate. We all kept keys to the businesses the no-longer-vacationing gods had left behind.

“Probably just some high school kids finding some other way into the place.” Jean waved, then dropped back against Hogan.

She threaded her fingers between his hands where they were clasped on her waist.

I studied their fingers. Dark against creamy white. Their knuckles looked a little abraded. Like maybe they’d been moving heavy concrete statues around in the middle of the night.

“Oh, for real?” I groaned. “Jean, tell me you were not involved in theft, breaking and entering, and trespassing last night.”

“I plead the Fifth.”

“Why?” I moaned. “I spent hours looking for that penguin. In the rain. In the cold. On Christmas Eve!”

She shrugged. “They were already there doing their thing. And, no, I’m not going to rat them out. So we just helped them get it all set up.”

“We, babe?” Hogan asked. “I guess it’s the Fifth for me too, Reed ladies.”

I shook my head in disappointment.

“They were supposed to take pictures and get the penguin home before dark,” Jean said. “Probably the storm got in the way.”

“I can not believe this. Haven’t you had enough with yard statues? Remember the gnome debacle? Two month ago. Involving zombies?”

Jean wrinkled her nose at me. “Do not mention the gnome-zombie debacle. Hogan still has Abner’s head on the dash of his car.”

“Ew,” Myra said.

Hogan ran his fingers through Jean’s red and green hair. “He won’t be alive again until next October. Why not let him see things around town until then?”

“Nice,” Ryder said.

I opened my mouth to get us back on the subject of Jean and Hogan being any part of the penguin kidnapping, but Jean talked right over whatever I was about to say.

“You know Mrs. Yates loves that penguin being a star, no matter what she says. It makes her feel young and special. All that attention. All those tourists coming by to catch a glimpse of the famous penguin in her yard with the flower beds she likes to fuss over. If someone hadn’t stolen it for a big Christmas photo-op, she would have been disappointed.”

“Rule breaker,” Ryder noted with a yawn.

“Settle down, Mr. Warden. I didn’t break any actual contracts.”

“Theft is illegal,” Myra pointed out.

“One, I didn’t steal it, I just found the people who did. Two, Are you going to arrest your sister on Christmas Eve for being a part of a community building exercise?”

From the look on Myra’s face, she was thinking pretty seriously about it.

“You’ll tell me who did it,” I said. “All the people involved in this little ‘community building exercise’.”

Jean sighed noisily. “Fine. Yes, boss.”

“We’re going to talk to them and their parents, if necessary. Make them apologize to Mrs. Yates and pay any damages she asks for. We can’t let something like this slide. That was private property, Jean.”

She made a rude noise. “I was very stern with them as we were arranging the photo shoot. Told them I disapproved of their shenanigans, but that I’d let it pass this once, because it was Christmas and it was going to make an awesome picture. They really did promise to get the penguin home safely.”

Ryder’s fingers had shifted so that he could brush the side of my shoulder. I didn’t know if he realized he was petting me, but it felt so good, I didn’t tell him to stop.

“Please tell me you’re not going to make me call them on Christmas Eve,” Jean said. “Can’t we just put it off a bit?”

“I think we can address it after the holidays,” I said.

Jean lit up like a string of lights.

“Is the picture on the blog yet?” Ryder asked.

I nudged him. My sister did not need any encouragement.

Jean grinned. “Wanna see?” She bounded out of Hogan’s arms to find her tablet before any of us could answer.

“I thought you’d be a better influence on her,” I groused at Hogan.