“What’s this about important things?” Granny asked while perusing her letter from Damien. She smiled as she read. He always had such sweet things to say, the louse.
“An anonymous client has asked us to pick up a package for her and deliver it to a home at this address.” I put a finger to my lips before handing her a folded piece of paper with an address. “We’ll need to make sure we’re not followed,” I whispered.
Bless Natalya and her willingness to go along with anything I asked, no matter how bizarre. She had prepped the package and left it for us, and if all went as planned, she’d be the mysterious sedan following us from two cars back while we made the delivery.
I’d learned the hard, embarrassing way that it was better to plan out an adventure rather than let Granny interrogate people about unsolved crimes she’d read about in the newspaper. Okay, so I’d almost been arrestedtwice. At least life was never boring with Granny involved. Her grandson, and her son, for that matter, were way missing out.
“I loved your latest romance novel, Granny,” I said. “You sure you’re not ready to publish?”
“Don’t push me on this. I want them published anonymously after I die, and the money goes to charity. That’s the deal.”
“Of course. It’s just, you might have a new fan.” I wasn’t sure why I wanted to bring up Connor so badly. Maybe it was because he was a mystery I couldn’t solve, especially if I was banned from discussing him with the one person qualified to give me information. All Natalya would say was that he deserved to be alone, and I should avoid the man like the plague. I was avoiding him, at least physically. Now if I could just get him out of my thoughts…
“You let people see my manuscript?” Granny frowned at me before going back to checking the mirrors for tails. I probably shouldn’t encourage her suspicious nature, but she just enjoyed these adventures so much.
“My new neighbor picked it up and read some. He thought I wrote it.”
“The neighbor who doesn’t take care of his yard and peered at you through his windows while you moved in? You let that loser into your house?”
I laughed. Okay, maybe I had talked about Connor before. “My mother let him in. Don’t worry, I kicked him right back out.”
“After he read my book.” Granny’s eyes narrowed. “And he said he liked it?”
“He did.” I hid a smile. “Although he didn’t get to read all of it. I could send it over to him, I guess.”
“Don’t bother.” Granny glanced around. “Are we here? Where’s this package we need to pick up?”
I pulled into the parking lot of the public library and parked in the northwest corner as Natalya had instructed. Granny didn’t know, but inside the package were comic books, new underwear and socks, and several DVDs of Marvel movies. We were delivering it anonymously to a group home about ten miles from here. If Granny thought we were part of a rogue offshoot of the CIA, even better.
I got out and helped Granny get her walker before we slowly approached the art wall on the north side of the library. Symmetrical lines made up cement squares of all sizes in a pattern that jutted out like a 3D image. Natalya had tucked our cardboard box in one of the squares.
“Hold on,” Granny barked out as I went to reach for it. She pulled an old Kodak camera out of her big leather purse and began taking pictures of a confused mother walking with her kids nearby, their arms laden with books.
“That’s right, lady. Keep on walkin’.” Granny moved a shuffle closer to them and took more pictures. “There’s no sneaking up on this woman.”
“Sorry,” I mouthed really big, earning me an irritated and bewildered look from the mom. Thankfully, Granny looked like the least threatening spy ever, and they moved along.
After that, everything went according to plan. Natalya followed behind us, I used some evasive maneuvers to “ditch” our tail, and the package was successfully delivered to the group home’s doorstep. Crisis averted. We’d saved the world again.
“I could use a ladies room to freshen up,” Granny declared. She was too much of a lady to ever admit to actually needing a bathroom for its true purpose. So, I drove us back toward my house to kill the last hour before Granny needed to be back for her meds and bedtime. That way, I could cook us dinner, rather than stopping off for the fast food garbage Granny preferred.
“Is that your good-for-nothing neighbor?” Granny asked, holding up her trusty Kodak when we pulled up and I turned into carport.
Sure enough, Connor was taking his garbage can back to his side of the duplex. He stopped and stared right back at us. Click. Click. Click. I wondered how many confused faces Granny had captured with that thing. Probably a lot.
4
________
Connor
Nothing was going to ruin my good mood today. One quarter of my finals were over. Everyone from my study group had shown up last night, and we’d hit the books until nobody could focus on the page and I sent them all home.
Dental school had been a long, grueling slog of exams that came in never-ending waves. I’d been memorizing and cramming so many facts into my brain for so long, I couldn’t remember life before it. Not to mention the lab work and clinicals. Year four had been as brutal as everyone said it would be, but it was almost over, and I was not about to fail my final exams.
I did well today, and I’d do well tomorrow, and by this weekend, all I’d have to worry about was picking which dental practice to join up with so I could start paying off my student loans.
That was why I smiled at the wrinkled prune who stared me down while snapping pictures of me from the passenger seat of Melissa’s car.
