Read Online Bad Hair Day by Carrie Harris - Free Book Online Page A

she went so overboard with the hair tossing and back arching that I would have said she had Tourette’s if I didn’t know better. After she threw a fit about the to-go box, she kept trying to feed Aaron bits from it despite the fact that cottage cheese made him break out in hives. And she let out this hyena laugh every time he said something, even if it wasn’t remotely funny.
    The check couldn’t come quickly enough. I stood up about a half second after the waitress took our money. I couldn’t wait to get rid of Elle so I could tell Rocky and Aaron all about the murder. In all the relationship-related excitement, I was embarrassed to admit that I’d totally forgotten.
    But Elle wasn’t as eager to go home as I was. “Hey, handsome?” she cooed to Aaron. “Can you give me a ride home?”

E lle yapped all the way out to the Legs and Eggs parking lot, and my earmuffs did nothing to stifle the noise. The walk outside only took two minutes, but it felt like an eternity.
    “My parents will flip if I don’t get home soon,” she said, sticking her lower lip out so far that I wanted to get a stapler and fasten that puppy back in place. “And my car is in the shop. I mean, how hard is it to fix a tire rim? So annoying.”
    “No prob,” Aaron said. “Friends don’t abandon each other in parking lots. I’ll take you home. Kate, do you want to come?”
    “Where do you live?” I asked Elle.
    She looked down her nose at me. “Ottawa Pointe.”
    Crap. Ottawa Pointe was almost a half hour away. I couldn’t handle thirty minutes more of Elle. Not without earplugs. Or tranquilizers. And I was determined not to let her get to me. Shewasn’t going to make me into the jealous girlfriend, no matter how hard she tried.
    “Nah. I think I’ll go with Rocky.”
    “Are you sure?” he asked. “I was hoping we could hang out later.”
    “You could drop her off and come over afterward. If you want?”
    “I’d like that,” he said.
    He cupped my cheek in one hand and kissed me. It was a relatively chaste, public kind of kiss, but my knees still went a little shaky. Aaron had that effect on me, even after all this time.
    And as an added bonus, it made Elle all red-faced and furious.
    They left. It took two steps before Elle plastered herself to Aaron’s side. He tried to dodge her, but she was persistent. By the time they’d made it to his car, they were practically sharing his jeans. If this kept up much longer, she would have to start paying rent. If I didn’t kill her first.
    Rocky elbowed me in the side. “You should have gone with them.”
    I watched them drive off, Elle babbling like an idiot while Aaron stared stone-faced at the road.
    “Believe me, it was tempting. But if I can’t trust my boyfriend, we shouldn’t be dating, right?”
    “You’re a much better person than me,” she said. “I spent most of that meal trying to figure out where to kick Bryan first. I was going to go with the testicles, but that’s so cliché, don’t you think?”
    I was about to reply when a long, drawn-out howl split the air. My head turned to follow the sound; it had come from somewhere behind the building.
    “What was that?” Rocky huddled close to me like I might offer some protection.
    “A dog or a wolf, maybe?” I rubbed my arms; they’d erupted into gooseflesh. “The only way I can tell for sure is if I get close enough to start sneezing. Unless it’s one of those hypoallergenic dogs like Armstrong, in which case I’m no help whatsoever.”
    “Funny. So you want to get going?”
    “Sure.”
    But I found myself dragging my feet on the way to her car. Something seemed off, a niggling feeling that I couldn’t shake. The parking lot was overflowing with minivans and sedans. Somebody had parked an SUV illegally in the handicapped spot, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t what was bothering me. I couldn’t see anybody, and when I smelled the air, all I got was the cold tang of impending snow.
    “What’s up?”