Page 70 of It Runs in the Family

Considering all the men they’d gone home with, I was relieved to hear it.

“Plus,” Ava added. “Billy probably wouldn’t think to look for you at our place.”

I heaved out a sigh. “Except if he was only paying the slightest bit of attention, he knows I left with you.”

Mary Ellen’s brow furrowed. “Oh. I guess I hadn’t thought of that.”

“No worries,” Ava said. “We have a deadbolt on our door.”

“And it’s reinforced steel,” Mary Ellen said. “Especially after that one guy showed up, claiming he was in love with Ava’s feet.”

“Her feet?”

Mary Ellen gave a nonchalant shrug. “You can’t choose who you love.”

“Or in this case, what you love,” Ava said. “He didn’t love me, just my feet. And he showed up high as a kite with a hatchet, saying he was there to take them home.”

I gasped. “Oh my God. Did the police arrest him?”

“We filed a police report, but they said he was off his meds.” Ava lifted a shoulder. “I think he’s better now.”

“You think?”

“Momma made us get a restraining order, which means we can’t have any contact with him,” Mary Ellen said. “So we have no way of knowing.”

“It’s a shame.” Ava puffed out her bottom lip. “He was really good at pedicures.”

“Y’all need to be more careful,” I said, worried about them. “I thought you claimed to be good judges of character.”

“We’re a lot better than we used to be,” Ava said.

A scowl crossed Mary Ellen’s face. “Except for Boone.”

Ava gave her a pointed look. “True.”

“Okay,” I said, hoping to get this conversation back on track, or more accurately, off Boone. I didn’t want to think about him or why he thought his brother was with Selena. “When you two come here, you plan your week and drink a beer, then that’s it? You head home afterward?”

“Sometimes we get mani-pedis.”

Ava released a sad sigh, obviously mourning her free pedis by the foot-loving psychopath.

They started talking about their week and writing the events in with different colored ink pens while I sipped my beer. It looked remarkably similar to the previous week, meals included. They tried to rope me into a few things like their Wednesday night bowling league.

“You can’t use your job as an excuse not to bowl with us now,” Ava said.

“You’d look great in our hot pink shirts,” Mary Ellen said. “We’re the Pink Ladies.”

I laughed. “Of course you are.”

“It’s a lot of fun.”

“I hate to commit,” I said, bowling was not my thing. “What if I get another evening or night job?”

“If you work with us at Simco,” Ava said. “Then you’d have your nights free.”

“We can put a good word in for you,” Mary Ellen said. “It’d be fun to work together.”

There was no way I was working at a packing plant—I’d lose my mind in two hours—but I didn’t want to insult them, so I said, “How about I keep my options open for now? Just to see what’s out there.”