Элизабет Чандлер - Legacy of Lies

When I turned to a woman waiting to buy a lace collar, I saw the two echoes watching me, but the blond quickly got their attention with a comment about the shop’s ugly old jewelry. I focused on finding my customer the right-size box, pulling out a flat piece of cardboard, then fitting the tabs into their slots.

“Matt! Hey, Matt!” the blond called out, and I glanced up.

My cousin and three other guys strode toward her and her friends.

So that’s what you look like when you smile, I thought. It was a terrific smile, I noted grudgingly, then lined my customer’s box with tissue.

“Hi, Kristy,” he greeted the blond. “Amanda, Kate.”

“We missed you,” Kristy said to him. “We didn’t see you at the game.”

“Oh, I think you did,” he replied lightly. “I was sitting with Charles, remember?”

“Your sports buddy.” I heard the sneer in her voice; raising my head, I saw it on her face.

“He’s my teammate,” Matt said, still smiling. “You’re always sitting with your teammates,” he added, nodding at the echoes.

Boy, did he know how to flirt with those eyes! The girls on either side of her giggled.

“They’re friends,” she told him, in a fake, quarreling voice.

“We don’t play a sport.”

“Partying,” he said. “Isn’t that one?”

They all laughed.

I stamped my customer’s check with an irritated thump.

Why was he so flirty and charming to some people and such a jerk to me? I handed the package to my customer.

“Thanks very much. Come again,” I said quietly.

Apparently, not quietly enough. I was turning my George Washingtons face up, counting the singles, when I realized that Matt’s group of friends had stopped talking. I looked up to see him staring at me.

“What are you doing here?” he asked. He sounded as if he’d caught me trespassing.

“Working. You got a problem with that?”

The blond-haired guy next to Matt glanced sideways at him and smiled.

“You’re supposed to be visiting Grandmother,” he told me.

“I don’t remember clearing my schedule with you.”

His friend laughed out loud, which annoyed Matt.

“In fact,” I added, “I don’t remember you showing an interest in anything I was doing.”

Everyone but the grinning guy looked uncomfortable.

Kristy moved closer to my cousin. “Who is she?”

I prickled at her tone.

“Megan, my cousin, sort of,” Matt replied.

“What do you mean by sort of?” asked the smiling guy.

“Matt’s father is my uncle, sort of,” I said.

The guy looked from Matt to me. There was a brightness in his blue eyes, a spark of laughter. I liked him immediately.

“So, who are you?” I asked bluntly.

“Alex Rodowsky.” He held out his right hand.

“Your sort-of cousin’s friend. I hope he’s not grumpy like this at home.”

“He is.”

Matt scowled.

“When he starts it with me,” Alex said, “I just ignore him.”

“Is he like this a lot?” I asked. “How long does he stay this way?” What a scowl!

“Don’t you know? You’re his cousin,” Alex pointed out.

“We met for the first time yesterday. Though Matt has disliked me long before that.” Alex looked puzzled.

I heard Matt suck in his breath and let it out slowly.

“Maybe we should talk at home, Megan.”

“Why, that would be a nice change!”

He didn’t reply.

“Megan?” Ginny called through the door. “Can you give me twenty singles?”

“Be right in,” I said, banding the stack of bills I had just counted.

Matt’s friends drifted off. The way the girls bent their heads together, I figured they were discussing me. I picked up the cash box to carry inside, but Ginny met me at the door. “Thanks, honey. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

I returned to my post in time to see Alex pull Matt back from the departing group.

“What’s this sort-of cousin stuff?” he asked, not bothering to keep his voice down, perhaps thinking I was inside. “Is she or isn’t she?”

“Legally she is, but not really,” Matt replied. “She’s adopted.”

“Which means you can date her,” Alex said. “Are you interested?”

“No,” Matt answered quickly.

“Good. I am.”

“She’s got a mouth,” my cousin warned.

His friend shrugged. “Makes it easier to kiss.”

Matt must have made a strange face because Alex laughed at him, then walked off to join the others. Matt glanced back over his shoulder. His jaw dropped a little when he realized I was standing there.

I turned away just as the redhead was coming from inside the shop.

“Want to see how it looks?” she asked, smiling shyly.

“Miss Ginny told me to try these earrings with it. The stone is aquamarine.”

“I knew it would look great on you!”

She touched the stone lightly, then reluctantly reached back for the clasp.

“Too much?”

“Yes,” she said, handing it to me. I glanced at the tag.

“Whoa! That’s a lot of Big Macs.”

I put it back in the velvet case and she set the earrings next to it.

“I’m Sophie. Sophie Quinn.”

“Megan Tilby,” I told her.

“Nice to meet you. I, uh, was standing at the door when Matt was talking to Alex,” Sophie said. “Matt’s your cousin?”

“Legally.” Darn, I thought; now I’m making that distinction.

“I’m visiting for two weeks.”

“I hope you have a real good time. I probably shouldn’t ask this, but has Matt told you anything about the girls at school and, well, who he likes?”

I started to laugh at the thought of him confiding in me, then stifled it, realizing Sophie might have a crush on him.

“Why? Are you interested in him?”

She blushed a little. “Every girl in the senior class is interested in him,” she told me. “And Matt never lets on who he really likes, which makes all the girls crazy.”

I shook my head. “Sorry, I don’t have a clue. I don’t really know him.”

Sophie nodded. “I guess he’s just one of those people who gets along with everyone.”

Nearly everyone, I thought.

At four o’clock Ginny told me to take a break and sent me to Tea Leaves with some money. Figuring that tonight’s dinner would be leftovers from last night’s, I splurged and got a piece of chocolate cheesecake.

The café was a comfortable place with a worn tile floor and painted tables and chairs, none of the sets matching. At the back was a long glass case filled with bakery items, as well as a refrigerator case with yogurt and salads. A lady with fuzzy hair and a man who looked like a fifty-year-old Pillsbury Doughboy waited on customers. The man had a round, pleasant face that creased easily into a smile. He called many of the customers by name.

I carried my dessert to a table by the bay window, glad for a chance to sit down. There was a sign in the window, its letters faded but readable: Fortunes Told Here. Well, I didn’t need a psychic to tell me I was headed for two tough weeks.

Why did Matt dislike me so much? I wondered. I had never had trouble making friends. It was as if he’d made up his mind about me before we’d met.

I took a forkful of cheesecake, then another. Stop trying to figure Matt out, I told myself. He’s a jerk.

“Everything okay?”

The round-faced man had come from behind the counter to wipe down tables. “If you don’t like your selection, help yourself to something else.”

I realized I must have been frowning.

“Whatever you want. On the house,” he added.

“Oh, no!” I said quickly. “It’s the best cheesecake I’ve ever had.”

He smiled. “And you know, it doesn’t have a single calorie-as long as you just look at it.” He laughed at his own joke and I laughed with him. “You’re not one of my regulars,” he observed. “Just visiting for the day?”