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“I’m fine. Just a little …”
“You’re all worked up over hotty McHot Stuff being with your sister out there. I remember when you watched that movie of his every day for three weeks.”
I had been just slightly obsessed withMeet me in Manhattan. But that was a few years ago. I was far more mature now, and Ryan never did romantic movies anymore.
“Gran …” I started, but she reached forward and shut off the monitor, giving me a sweet smile.
“Thank you.” I leaned down next to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Maybe you could go sit outside a bit? Get some fresh air?” I worried that the smell of smoke had already wrapped itself through every fiber of her tracksuit, her hair. I didn’t know what the magazine people would make of a pot-smoking, Warcraft-raiding granny in Juliet’s life, but I had to assume those things wouldn’t help paint the picture of her idyllic childhood here in Maryland. We needed to try to help Juliet. She’d been through enough.
Gran finally stood and we went together to the back porch, where I settled her with a muffin, a cup of coffee, and her Kindle. Besides gaming, she had a penchant for erotic literature.
“I’m going back in to watch the interview,” I said.
She ignored me, already reading, and I turned quickly, my attention drawn by the sound of a screeching chicken. Oh God. Chessy.
Back inside, Juliet and Ryan sat holding hands casually and smiling as if they did this every day, but Juliet’s eyes were huge as she tracked the half-flight, half-sprint of an enraged chicken streaking through the room at Alison.
“Chessy!” I shrieked before I thought better of it. I dashed into the room, pulling the chicken away from where she was trying to peck at the interviewer’s legs. Alison had pulled herself up to balance on the top of the stool, her mouth in an exaggerated open gape and her eyes enormous as she stared at me like her last salvation.
“What is that thing?” Alison asked in a whisper-hiss full of the kind of shock that someone who’s never been pecked by a house-chicken before will use.
I’d finally caught Chessy and held her against my chest where she quit struggling once she had craned her neck around so she could gaze lovingly at Jack. “This is Chessy,” I said, realizing that an insane indoor chicken probably wasn’t going to help Juliet. But it was too late to fix this. Better to just be truthful.
“Why is it inside?” Alison asked, horrified.
“She’s an indoor chicken,” I said, figuring that explaining how Chessy had been targeted by the mean girl chickens out in the coop and bullied within an inch of her little chicken life probably wouldn’t be good fodder for the article. “It’s very trendy here in Maryland,” I said, trying to fix this but realizing I’d already gone too far.
“Really?” Alison asked, finally letting her legs down from where she’d balanced atop the stool.
“Oh yes,” I said. “You should see all the fancy ladies out at lunch with their hens in designer bags. I’m surprised they’re not doing it in California yet. It’s a nod to environmentalism and humane treatment of animals, and antibiotics…” I trailed off, my mind wanting to link fashionable chicken husbandry to global warming somehow, but not quite getting there. I was distracted by the amused smile spreading across Ryan McDonnell’s face as he listened to me talk.
His eyes danced and he shook his head lightly, grinning at me.
For a split second, I met his eye and little shocks went through me all the way to my lady bits and back.
“Interesting,” Alison was saying as she jotted something in her notebook.
“I’m sorry, I thought Chessy was out of the way,” I said, turning to put the chicken back in the kitchen.
“My fault,” Jack said, leaning in as I passed him.
Chessy struggled in my arms, every little chicken cell she possessed trying to get closer to Jack.
“I went in the kitchen to put away my coffee cup and she saw me. I thought I got that door closed…”
“A chicken’s adoration can unlock any door, I guess,” I told him. “Not your fault.” I smiled at the big guard who was observing the chicken with wary eyes. He shocked me by reaching out to take her from me.
“I’ll just hang on to her.” Chessy beamed up at him, nestling her head into his big chest.
“If you’re sure,” I said. When he didn’t protest, but stroked the chicken’s head instead, I went back out into the parlor.
Juliet and Ryan were leaning into one another, smiling like a couple that knew every secret the other kept. My stomach twisted as I took up a spot in a corner, out of the way.
“It wasn’t love at first sight really,” Juliet was saying. “I mean, I’d seen Ryan of course—who hadn’t? He was in every amazing action movie I saw.” I schooled my face into a mask. I could handle listening to my sister gush about Ryan. Of course I could. He was her boyfriend. To me, he was just … a man I needed to stop thinking about. One who made my whole body feel like it was getting ready to erupt.
Ryan beamed at Juliet. “It was more like complete adoration at first sight,” he said, pulling her hand up to kiss.
I stifled a groan. This might be harder to watch than I’d anticipated.
