Anywhere.
Sadly, he walked around the car and opened my door instead.
I stared straight ahead, not moving.
"Sorry about my crazy family," I finally muttered.
Jack took my hand and gently tugged. When I climbed out of the car, he pulled me into a tight hug. I leaned my forehead on the hardness of his chest and caught myself smiling.
Ithadbeen funny.
A little.
And I loved the way he smelled. Like spice and forest and… mine.
I let that realization wash over for me for a moment. Mine?
Mine.
Oh, boy.
"I love your crazy family," he murmured, touching my face until I looked up and into his sparkling green eyes.
"We're a lot," I admitted, wondering why I wasn't nearly as freaked out as I should be. We'd only just had our first date, but we'd spent most of the year together. Facing murderers, sure, but also having family dinners and watching movies and hanging out with Shelley and just being together.
Mine? Maybe.
I put my arms around him and hugged him back, smiling up at him, but suddenly a bewildered expression crossed his face—so quickly I wasn't sure I'd seen it—and then he dropped his arms and took a quick step back. "Um… I should go… do something," he muttered.
What in the world?
But just then Aunt Ruby opened the screen door. In the porch light, she looked pale and drawn. I told myself it was just the odd yellow-white glow from the lightbulb and not whatever had caused her strange reaction to Lorraine's arrest.
Because there was no way my aunt was involved in a fifty-year-old murder.
Was there?
Jack, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans, studied Aunt Ruby and then glanced at me.
"Maybe this is a family thing…" he murmured, and I felt a quick stab of hurt.
"Since when has that stopped you? Anyway, you're family. Any nephew of Jeremiah and all that," Uncle Mike said, walking toward us. "Come in. You may as well both hear this at once, especially since Lorraine asked for your help."
"Hear what?" I stared at him and then back at Aunt Ruby, feeling sick to my stomach. Whatever had killed a man half a century ago, my family and friends seemed to know too much about it.
Aunt Ruby just shook her head and went back in the house. I glanced at Jack, who was still avoiding my gaze, and then sighed and climbed the porch steps. When we all got inside, Aunt Ruby called us back to the kitchen.
"Shelley, honey, maybe you should go take a bath," Aunt Ruby told my sister. "And first brush your teeth since—"
"Since I threw up one and a half times! Yay! A bubble bath!" Shelley bounced over to hug first Jack and then me and then raced up the stairs singing to herself.
Aunt Ruby held up her ancient metal coffeepot. "Anyone?"
Jack nodded, but I shook my head. "No. Please, will someone just tell me what is going on? What do you know about Lorraine's husband? I thought he left her a long time ago. If that's really his skeleton, what is it doing here?"
Jack took the mug Aunt Ruby held out to him, pulled out my chair, and sat down next to me. He directed a steady gaze toward my aunt and uncle. "I think this may be a long story."
Uncle Mike took the other mug out of Aunt Ruby's hand and then hugged her and drew her to the table when she looked like she might flee the room. "Yes. But first, you need to understand some things about Earl Packard, that son of a bitch."
