Tattooed to Death by Heather Redmond

Author:Heather Redmond [Redmond, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2020-09-04T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

When Mandy arrived home, she was eager to have a productive night. She found that easy, since no one was interacting with her about Coral. Texting Justin about Amrik not being on the massage business schedule that day brought no response. Not surprising, really, since the police would have known already. A couple of hours later, she tried again after she heard him coming through the backyard. She sent him a text about Tom and Rod, but, again, no response.

Vellum sat on the other end of the dining-room table, stamping the customer envelopes they had filled and passed through the postage meter.

Mandy noticed her head slumping. ‘Is something wrong?’ She leaned across the table and felt her daughter’s forehead.

‘I’m not sick, Mom, just frustrated.’ She slammed the stamp on to the package.

Mandy winced but the Thank you for your business stamp showed clearly, and the stickers inside wouldn’t have been damaged.

Vellum sniffed. A tear ran down her cheek.

‘Oh, sweetie, did something happen at school? Bad test? Boy trouble?’

Vellum shook her head, her thick hair swishing around her eyes. ‘Not my boy trouble. Yours.’

‘What do you mean?’ Mandy thought of the kiss with Justin.

‘Dad won’t make up our weekend. As usual.’

Mandy forced a practical note into her voice. ‘If he had, we wouldn’t be able to spend tomorrow playing with fire.’

‘I guess.’

‘It’s going to be fun,’ Mandy insisted. ‘Get all sweaty, hit things with hammers. Come out with a knife.’

‘You’re not going to make me go camping next, are you?’

Vellum’s tone of suspicion made Mandy laugh. ‘People with two jobs don’t find the time to go camping. No worries there.’

‘What would you do if you started dating someone who liked camping?’

‘I’m not dating,’ Mandy said quickly.

Vellum looked shifty-eyed. ‘You’d never ever get back together with Dad?’

‘No,’ Mandy said firmly. ‘I could never trust him again after what’s happened. You have a good relationship with his parents, and him too, basically. That’s enough for me.’

‘I just can’t expect much,’ Vellum said with downturned lips.

‘At least I am more than happy to have you around,’ Mandy pointed out.

Vellum touched her hand across the table. ‘I know. And you can date. I’m fine with it.’

‘Really?’ Mandy asked.

‘Yeah, I mean, if it’s me that’s holding you back. I’m fifteen. I get it.’ Vellum gave her a lofty look.

‘I don’t want to know what you think you understand,’ Mandy said with a laugh. ‘But I’m glad I have your blessing.’

‘Just not Justin,’ Vellum added.

‘No?’

Vellum shook her head with emphasis. ‘Too close to home. It could get ugly if it didn’t work out.’

‘Smart girl.’ Mandy pushed back from the table. ‘I have dishes to do and you have homework.’

‘Did we get all the orders processed?’

‘Enough. We’ll catch the rest after our livestream on Sunday.’

‘Sounds good. What time do we have to leave tomorrow?’

‘Seven thirty. Not much better than a school day.’

‘No.’ Vellum yawned. ‘I won’t stay up too late.’

Mandy kissed the top of her daughter’s head and swept up the prepared envelopes for mailing.

Saturday dawned bright and early.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.