Read Online Full Scoop by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes - Free Book Online Page B

school.”
    “What about my friends?” Mel asked. “Will I be allowed to visit them?”
    “We’ll have to discuss it with Zack.” Mel didn’t look happy. “It’s not forever,” Maggie reminded. “The police are doing everything they can to find Carl Lee.” Maggie clasped her hands together in front of her. “We should talk.”
    Mel gave a pained expression. “Mom, I don’t want to talk any more right now, okay? If you want to talk to somebody why don’t you talk to Aunt Queenie about how she’s stinking up the whole house?”
    “She’s boiling basil to, um, protect the house.”
    “Can’t you make her stop?”
    “What do you think?”
    Mel made a sound of exasperation. “None of my friends have all this voodoo crap in their houses. It’s dumb. Everything that’s going on here is dumb. My whole life is dumb.” Mel turned on her back and stared at the ceiling.
    Maggie prayed her daughter would get through puberty quickly. “Yeah, life can be like that sometimes,” she said, heading for the door. “Just one dumb thing after another.”
    Maggie finished her grocery list and pulled a large container of spaghetti sauce from the freezer to thaw in the microwave. She had decided if the house was going to smell Italian she should cook something Italian for dinner to go with it. Mel had left her room in search of a snack and was in the process of spreading peanut butter, cream cheese, and strawberry jam on a warm bagel as Everest watched. The girl cut the bagel down the center and handed him half. “Try it.”
    Everest took a bite. “Hey, that’s good.”
    “Told you.” Mel took a big bite.
    Maggie listened in amusement as Mel went through the list of ingredients carefully so Everest could commit it to memory. “Don’t tell him how fattening it is, Mel,” she said.
    “Oh, right, Mom,” Mel said with a grunt of a laugh. “This coming from a woman who eats her weight in chocolate.”
    “Okay, so I have one teeny-tiny vice,” Maggie said.
    Mel looked at Everest. “The only reason my mom isn’t fat is because she has good genes. My grandmother is thin and so was my great-grandmother.”
    “Did they eat a lot of chocolate too?” Everest asked.
    Mel nodded. “Tons of it.”
    Maggie opened the pantry and searched through it for spaghetti. All she could find was a box of macaroni and cheese. “If I don’t buy groceries soon we’re going to be in trouble.”
    “I want pizza,” Mel said. “We always order pizza delivery on the weekend.”
    “When you’re home,” Maggie answered, “which you seldom are.”
    “You could go out on weekends too if you wanted,” Mel said, “instead of sitting home reading your dumb medical journals. You’re long-suffering.”
    “Excuse me?” Maggie arched one brow.
    “You haven’t come to terms with Dad’s death. You compare every man you meet to him, and they always fall short. You need closure, Mom.”
    “That’s deep,” Everest said.
    “She probably heard that on Oprah ,” Queenie said, reading the newspaper at the table. “They’re always saying stuff like that on Oprah.”
    “Nope,” Mel said. “Caitlin told me. She heard it from her mom who heard it from—”
    “Abby Bradley,” Maggie and Queenie said in unison.
    “Uh-huh.” Mel finished her bagel and licked her fingers.
    “I’ll bet Abby heard it on Oprah ,” Queenie said. “Abby isn’t smart enough to come up with something like that on her own. She’s not even smart enough to know when to keep her mouth shut. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, somebody needs to teach that woman a good lesson.”
    “That somebody better not be you,” Maggie told her.
    “Bottom line, Mom,” Mel continued. “You need to start dating. People are going to think you’re weird. I know you can find somebody in this town you’re attracted to.”
    “I could help you with that,” Queenie said, giving Maggie a big smile.
    “Yes, you’ve told me. A trillion times,” Maggie