He sighed. “We don’t ask questions, remember?”
“Whydon’t we ask questions?” Calisa gingerly nudged the heavy lizard off her squashed toes. If Auntie Zee was watching, wouldn’t she be concerned? She cared about the guests’ well-being, didn’t she? “I feel like weshouldask questions.”
“And risk losing the few guests we have?” Gently, sympathetically, Jack said, “Look, if you aren’t comfortable here, you don’t have to stay. You can go home to Brooklyn and your moms and your friends and your life and not have to worry about weeds and dust and out-of-place lizards and a perpetually grumpy innkeeper and quirky guests. I’ll understand. Everyone will. It’s okay.”
Calisa rocked backward. She felt as if the oxygen had been knocked out of her lungs. Jack wanted her to leave?No, that’snot what he’d said.He’d said, nicely, that if she couldn’t take the heat, she should get out of the kitchen. A sudden thought popped into her head:
He’s scared.
Of what?
She took a breath.
She wasn’t certain why she knew he was scared—it didn’t make any sense; what did he have to be scared of?—but she was certain of it all the way to her bones.
Steve wrapped his tail around her ankle, and she bent down to pet his jowls.
Jack returned to clipping brambles. The clippers snapped shut like the jaws of an angry dog, over and over again. Still petting the winged lizard, Calisa faced the tangle of front yard, with the statue in the center and the pine forest behind it.
I could leave.
She stared at the statue. It was facing her, and its blank eyes seemed to be looking directly at her.I can’t leave. Not until I know what’s going on here.
Chapter Ten
After clearing the vines from the bushes in front of the porch, Calisa felt coated in dirt and sweat. Jack had located a wheelbarrow and was hauling the displaced plants to the edge of the forest. Melidor hadn’t returned. And the statue was still staring at her.
I need to talk to Auntie Zee.The innkeeper was the one with all the answers. Not that she was likely to want to share them, but Calisa could try.
“I’m going to shower and then start baking a cake,” Calisa said when Jack returned with the empty wheelbarrow. She directed her words to both him and Steve. She made herself sound casual, as if she didn’t plan to corner Auntie Zee. Also, she did need a shower.
“Sure,” Jack said, with zero of his earlier enthusiasm for cake. “Just going to do a little more out here.”
He didn’t glance at her again, and she wondered what she’dsee in his eyes if he did. Instead, he just piled another armful of greenery into the wheelbarrow. Still, she hesitated—did he really think she should go back to Brooklyn? Or was he afraid she would? Or afraid she wouldn’t? She didn’t ask any of that out loud, though. Instead, Calisa asked, “You think Melidor is okay?”
“She’s in the woods,” he said. “She’ll be fine.”
Calisa didn’t think those two sentences really went together. “What if she gets lost? Or hurt?” She’d gone racing off in between the trees. She could have tripped on a root, fallen off a cliff, or been eaten by a bear. “Do you know if she at least has a phone with her?”
Jack pointed behind her. “She’s fine. See?”
Turning, Calisa saw Melidor just at the edge of the forest, halfway up a pine tree. She was seated on a branch, which bowed beneath her, and her mouth was moving as if she was in the middle of a conversation. She was too far away for Calisa to hear what she was saying. Her green hair was caught in the pine needles, halolike.
Calisa wasn’t certain she’d call that “fine.” But she guessed so long as Melidor didn’t fall…“All right, I’m going inside.”It’s time for answers.
After one final pat for Steve, she headed in.
As she passed through the lobby, she glanced into the sitting room. The sheets were still absent from the furniture, despite Auntie Zee’s protests. The teapot sat quietly in the corner, as if waiting for its time to shine. The elderly white cat, Portia, was curled on the same faded red chair. As Calisa walked by the doorway, Portia hissed half-heartedly.
The guest bathroom on the first floor was thankfully empty of both guests and lizards. She showered, rinsing leaves and twigs out of her hair and scrubbing dirt off her palms. She dug her nails into the soap to try to clean them and then stared at the little crescent moons she’d left in the bar as all the questions that she wasn’t supposed to ask tumbled through her head.
Wrapped in a towel, she retreated to her room to put fresh clothes over her fresh skin. Her wet hair smelled like lilac. She was surprised to see a fire had been lit in the fireplace. It was low, a few flames that danced over the logs.
Yet another question: Who had lit the fire (again)?
As she dressed, she stared absently at the flames and wondered if it was a peace offering from either Jack or Auntie Zee, wanting to make her feel more welcome. It did make the room feel cozy, though it seemed odd that anyone would light a fire in summer.Maybe it’s a Vermont thing.Or maybe Auntie Zee could explain it all.
All the little mysteries kept piling up, and Jack’s smile, as nice as it was, wasn’t enough to keep her from noticing them. She understood she was new here, but that didn’t mean she had to be completely clueless. Dressed, Calisa headed out, determined to find Auntie Zee. Despite her commitment to grumpiness, she had to tell Calisasomething,didn’t she, if directly asked?
