Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #3) (10 page)

“What smells so good?” She peeked over
my shoulder. “Bacon? My favorite!”

Larry joined us a few minutes later,
her long dark hair still damp from her shower. “I’ve got to get a
mattress like that. Wow, it’s like sleeping on a cloud!”

“Glad you liked it,” I grinned. “Will
pancakes put a smile on your face?”

“That, and an extra five pounds on my
butt,” she laughed. “But I’ve learned to eat while the eating is
good. Sometimes I don’t even have a chance to sit down for
lunch.”

“Well, grab a cup of coffee from the
butler’s pantry and pull up a chair at the dining room
table.”

“Do I smell bacon?” Max hobbled into
the kitchen. “The aroma is heavenly.”

“I thought you were kosher,” Larry
remarked.

“I am,” he sighed, his shoulders
slumping.

“Will kosher turkey bacon work for you?
I took the liberty of making you some, Max, just in
case.”

“Aren’t you a doll,” he grinned. He
followed Larry to the dining room, with Mickey in tow.

Bur and my mother arrived at quarter to
seven, joining the others at the table. Lacey showed up soon after.
She was dressed in a green plaid fleece top that had a snowman on
the front, a pair of black leggings, and a necklace made of jingle
bells.

“Good morning all,” she declared,
helping herself to bacon from the platter and a blueberry muffin.
“What’s on the schedule today? Do I have a volunteer elf to help
me? Say, young lady, you look like you have
potential....”

“What’s in it for me?” the teen shot
back.

“Are all your gifts wrapped yet?” my
mother inquired. “Do you have bows on all your
packages?”

“No.”

“Then that’s what’s in it for you. Wait
till you see Lacey bought for this year’s wrapping paper. You won’t
want to miss it.”

“What’s so special about your wrapping
paper?” the teenager asked. I could see Mickey was
intrigued.

“Are you kidding?” my brother laughed.
“When was the last time you saw a Chihuahua in a Santa hat? Or a
fat squirrel with a candy cane? Or zombies chasing
Santa?”

“That sounds awesome. I can’t wait to
see Grandpa’s face when I give him his present.”

“Speaking of which....” Bur promised
Mickey that she could ride with him to the airport later in the
afternoon to retrieve her grandfather. They’d leave for Bradley
International right after lunch.

Michaela spent much of the morning
behind closed doors in the living room with the Googins girls. I
could hear lots of giggling and guffawing every time I walked
by.

Once I cleaned up after the
breakfast crowd, I filled a Crockpot with the ingredients for
minestrone soup, and set it on low to simmer for several hours, and
then I got busy making beds and scrubbing toilets. When the rooms
were all ready for their occupants, I vacuumed the hall carpet and
stairs. I never heard my phone ring. It was only when I was winding
the power cord around the machine that I heard that familiar ping.
Kenny sent me a text message that made my heart sink.
Sorry, babe. The closing for the house has been
delayed until Saturday morning. I’ll call you later tonight. Love
you.
Darn it anyway, I groused to myself,
so much for our plans to spend time together. With my luck, we’d
have a blizzard on Saturday. I called Larry to let her know Kenny
wasn’t available as back-up.

“Ask Max if he can stay another night,”
was the short reply. “Tell him I really need this.”

“Right.” Hanging up, I went in search
of her former partner. Knocking on the door of the Red Oak Room, I
took a step back and waited. It swung open a moment later and I
found myself facing a man who was tying his blue-and-gray striped
tie.

“What’s up?”

“Can you stay one more night, Max?” I
explained Kenny’s dilemma in New Jersey. He flipped the long end of
the tie through the loop, adjusted it, and tightened it.

“How do I look?” he wanted to know, not
answering my question.

“Handsome. Larry really needs you
here,” I continued, wondering if he was ignoring me because he was
trying to figure out a way to refuse. It turned out that I was
hasty in my expectation of a rejection. Max was still Max, loyal to
his former partner.

“No problem. That goes without saying.
Any chance I could get a cup of coffee for the road? I’ve got a
meeting in an hour.”

“Of course. Thanks.”

“My pleasure, Miz Scarlet.” With a
wink, he turned, grabbed his suit jacket and briefcase, and
followed me down the hall to the elevator. As we rode the car down
to the first floor, it dawned on me that Max, like Bur, had a crush
on Larry. Maybe he hoped this stint as bodyguard would put him in
her good graces and give him the opportunity to romance her. They
weren’t partners now, so there was no longer a taboo on dating. Did
Larry even have an inkling of how much Max adored her? For an
attractive woman, my good friend was sometimes clueless on matters
of the heart. Maybe she had been through too much in her lifetime
to ever let her guard down again. Or maybe it was just that the job
was so tough, she had lost her faith in humanity.

By nine, Max was ready to head out the
door on his way to New Haven for a shortened work day, carrying a
thermal mug of hot black coffee for the hour-long ride. He paused
by the door, promising to return by five, and then he asked what I
was serving for dinner.

“Roasted chicken with the works and
grasshopper pie.”

“Excellent. I’m looking forward to it.
Do you want my credit card?”

“Credit card?”

Chapter Nine --

“So you can charge me for the room and
the meals, Scarlet.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re here to keep
Larry and Mickey safe.”

“I can’t accept your hospitality
without reciprocating in some fashion.”

“I’ve closed the inn for the week, Max.
This is all about family.”

“In that case, how about some wine to
go with dinner?”

“Wine would be nice, Max. I’d like
that.”

“Great. I’ll pick up a couple bottles,
and maybe some after-dinner liqueurs. What do the Googins girls
like?” he wanted to know.

“Amaretto, Bailey’s Irish Cream....” I
gave him a grin. “And Lacey knocks back the occasional eggnog or
peppermint schnapps.”

“I’ll find something appropriate. What
can I get for you?”

“Oh, Max!”

“I insist. I slept like a log last
night. And that breakfast? The best....” Apparently, the bachelor
was enjoying the inn experience. “I could really get to like this,
Scarlet.”

“I’m glad. Drive safely. We’re supposed
to get four inches of snow today.”

“Tell me about it. I’m not looking
forward to I-91 on the trip back. It’s likely to be
bumper-to-bumper if the snow starts to pile up. See you later,
alligator.”

“In a while, crocodile,” I replied
automatically, remembering the hokey old phrase from my youth. It
was so like Max to say something like that. He was just your
ordinary good guy, I thought, with a big dose of decency coursing
through his veins. As I shut the door on the cold wind blowing in
from the north, I thought about Larry and Max. He would be good for
her. He was probably the only guy around who could make her feel
safe.

Half an hour later, Mickey and I took
the dogs for a walk in the neighborhood. The snow was already
falling; the heavy flakes accumulated quickly, leaving the
sidewalks slushy. The teenager took Mozzie’s leash tentatively,
nervously. Dogs were still foreign to her, but I could tell she had
an affinity for the canine members of the inn.

“Why is he walking funny?” she asked
me, as the King Charles Cavalier spaniel reluctantly trotted along,
shaking a limb every few steps.

“The ice from the sidewalk is getting
stuck in the pads of his feet. That’s our cue to turn around and go
back home.”

“Poor thing. Should I pick him
up?”

“No. He needs to relieve himself.
Heaven knows how bad things will get before the snow ends. We’ll
just have to warm him up when we get back.”

“How come January isn’t walking
funny?”

“Her coat is very short, so the ice
doesn’t cling to her fur the same way. Huck, on the other hand, is
less than thrilled,” I pointed out. It was true. The Yorkshire
terrier was tearing up the sidewalk, desperate to get back to the
house.

Bur was waiting for us when we stepped
into the foyer. “It’s about time!”

“It’s about time for what?” I
asked.

“We’ve got to go pick up Leaping Larry
the Lawnmower. He missed his connecting flight and now he’s stuck
in Newark.”

“What’s going on?” My mother joined us
in the hallway, attracted by the commotion. Bur quickly
explained.

“Can’t he just take the train?” I
asked, as I pulled off my jacket. “By the time you get down there
and then drive back....”

“No, he can’t. It’s Friday, so the
traffic is crazy enough. Add to that the fact that this is the last
weekend before Christmas. Some people are taking next week off as
vacation time. All the planes and trains are fully booked. And now,
on top of that, everyone else is trying to get out ahead of the
storm that’s coming tomorrow.”

“I thought we were only supposed to get
a few inches of snow, Bur.”

“We were...today. But the snow is
changing to ice and there’s another front moving in tomorrow. The
forecasters are saying it’s going to snow through Sunday. When it
turns to ice, it’s going to be chaos. That’s why we’ve got to go
now.” He was clearly impatient to hit the road.

“Seriously?” Michaela seemed worried.
“How’s Grandpa supposed to take me to Boston tomorrow? He
promised.”

“We’ll have to figure that out later,
half-pint. Right now, grab your stuff and let’s get moving. We
don’t want to get stuck in New Jersey for Christmas.”

“Bur, you’ll be careful on the
roads....” Laurel was apprehensive enough to tug on my brother’s
sleeve.

“Not to worry, Mom. I’ve got this.” My
brother leaned over and kissed her cheek, and then he squeezed her
shoulder, hoping to reassure her. She didn’t look all that
convinced. “We’ll be fine.”

“And you’ll take good care of my car?
You’ll return it in one piece?” I demanded, reluctant to hand over
my keys. Was this trip really a good idea? I understood Big Larry’s
urge to get while the getting was good. I just didn’t understand
why Bur and Michaela had to drive all that way in the early hours
of what could turn out to be a dangerous ice storm. How were the
three of them supposed to make it back to Connecticut if the roads
were too slick to drive on? “If he could wait until tomorrow, maybe
Kenny could pick him up on his way here.”

“There’s no guarantee Kenny’s going
anywhere tomorrow, Scarlet, especially if the roads ice up. I’ve
got to go. We’ll call you when we get to the airport.”

“Please do,” said Laurel.

My mother was apprehensive as she
watched the car disappear down the road. I knew she wouldn’t be
able to relax until she heard from them again. It was going to be a
long afternoon.

“Want a cup of tea?” I asked. “I’m
having one.”

“Please.”

I headed off to the kitchen, returning
a short time later with two steaming mugs. My mother sat in her
favorite chair, working on a crossword puzzle. January was squeezed
into the chair beside her, snoozing. Settling on the sofa, I
flicked on the television and started channel surfing. I stayed
away from the local stations, knowing that my mother would fret if
she watched the live weather reports. The Food Network was doing a
holiday special. I put my stocking feet up on the ottoman and
sipped my tea as I watched six different variations of Christmas
cookies made from a single recipe. Huck hopped up and curled into a
ball at my side. Mozzie, the forlorn pooch who missed his mistress,
parked himself in front of me, waiting for an invitation to join
the party.

“Come on, boy. No reason for you to
feel left out.” I patted the sofa. “The more the
merrier.”

Mozzie cautiously climbed up onto the
upholstered seat and sat on his haunches, gazing at his
surroundings and waiting for divine inspiration to tell him what
the most comfortable spot on the sofa would be. At last, after much
thought, he decided that my lap made the perfect pillow, so he
scrunched up next to me and flopped, displacing Huck. I picked up
the smaller dog and placed him on the other side of me. Good thing
the Yorkshire terrier was easygoing.

“Is that a car in the driveway?” Laurel
asked a few moments later. “Did they change their minds and come
back?”

“I’ll check.” I got to my feet,
disturbing my canine companions in the process, and crossed the
room. Peering out the window, I could see the other half of the
Googins girls duo walking toward the inn, bundled up against the
chilly wind. “It’s Lacey. Her exercise class must have been
canceled.”