Read Online Ashes and Bones by Dana Cameron - Free Book Online Page B

decisive, so sure of herself, that I decided I ought to give her the best advice I could.
    “Look,” I said, after I had the dress safely removed. I hoped that the Sponge Bob underpants and jog bra were not going to be a part of the regalia on the big day. “As I see it, you’ve got three choices. You could tell everyone to back off and do precisely what you want. You stand a tolerable chance of bruising a few feelings, but you remain true to what you and Neal imagined.”
    Meg nodded grimly. Unless she was made of even sterner stuff than I knew she had, that wasn’t a possibility.
    “You could keep your mouth shut, and let your relatives and his ‘help’ when they offer. Things might not be the way you planned, but everyone else may be tolerably happy. Emphasis on the word may. You’re never going to get consensus from a gang of relatives.”
    She carefully folded the dress back into its box with a small frown of concentration.
    “Or you could run away and avoid all the hassle now, and pay for it later. In all of these three scenarios, you get married and no one dies; in at least two, you get presents. Pick one, stick with it, and accept the consequences.”
    “It’s only one day,” the young woman said, pulling up her jeans. She smiled with relief. “You’re right, Emma.”
    Meg is probably the best student I ever had, but even she couldn’t have guessed that I was only about two-thirds right.
    When I got back from campus, Artie was gone but had left a pile of tools in front of the basement door, perhaps suggesting he would be back again sometime soon. The light on the answering machine was strobing, fit to beat the band. At first I thought it was only because the electricity had been off—the counter was flashing in that odd hieroglyph that indicates a failure of some sort—but then realized the lights in the kitchen were on. There might actually be messages for me. I listened to them all, frowned, and then took them one by one. Something strange was going on.
    The first call I made was to Brian’s mother Betty. “Emma, I can’t tell you how beautiful the leis are!” she said, after she recognized my voice.
    When I’d listened to her message, it had taken me a minute to figure out that she was not talking about epic poetry, but Hawaiian flower chains. “Um, that’s great. What leis?”
    “Silly! The one you sent me and Stan, thanking us for your visit! Completely unnecessary—you’re our family, you’re always welcome—and after such a lovely dinner out! That was more than enough thanks.”
    I thought the dinner was the thank-you, too: I’d never sent flowers.
    Betty was still talking, with all the bubbling enthusiasm that came with her love of plants. “—really too much, but thank you, they’re just stunning. I’m going to take pictures of them so I can figure out whether I can grow the same plants. Maybe I’ll take up lei-making myself.”
    She sounded so excited that I was mentally kicking myself for not having thought of doing that in the first place. Considering what I’d received in the hotel, alarm bells began ringing in my head.
    “Betty, I didn’t send you any flowers. I don’t think Brian did either, though I’m going to check with him.”
    “But…Emma. They have your name on them. Even on the card, it says ‘Thank you for a wonderful visit and hope to see you again soon, Emma.’”
    I shook my head. “I didn’t send the flowers. I’m a little worried about this. I—I have been having some problems with…identity theft lately. Someone may be using my credit cards since we were on vacation. Would you do me a favor? Get me the name and number of the florist or maker who sent them? I should check this out.”
    “Oh, no, Emma! I read about that kind of thing in the news all the time. I’ll get the label right away. Hang on.”
    As my mother-in-law put the phone down, I prayed she’d be so distracted by the thought of identity theft, that shewouldn’t ask why any