The Coming Home Series Boxed Set by Meli Raine

Author:Meli Raine [Raine, Meli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meli Raine

She lives about ten minutes away, in a tiny ranch house. It is neat as a pin, with lace curtains, lace doilies on every seat, on the armrests of the chairs and couch, and on the backs of all the furniture where heads might rest.

It looks like a lace monster vomited in her house.

“My mother was Belgian,” she explains as she ushers me in. There’s a tea set and a bunch of cookies, cheese, and crackers on a tray on the coffee table. At the sight of the food, my stomach growls.

She gives me a quick hug, then sniffs the air. “You weren’t kidding. You smell like a muddy barn animal.”

I playfully sniff the air, too. “And you smell like a distillery.”

That makes her howl with laughter. The joke isn’t that good. She’s been drinking. A lot.

Ten minutes later my stomach is full, I’m drinking spiked coffee, and the world feels like someone’s turned it just enough that I get to feel some relief. My chest relaxes. I’m filthy from Mark’s tackle this morning. I smell like wet dog. I am shaking on the inside from my weird encounters with Eric, Claudia and Dean Landau.

And yet this short time with Effie and I feel restored.

“Carrie, I didn’t invite you over to feed you cheese and talk about doggies,” she says, reaching down in the crack between her chair and an end table. She pulls out a small folder and hands it to me.

Blueprints.

“What are these blueprints for?”

“The campus. Look at how it’s all structured.”

Why is she giving me blueprints? I’m not an architect. I couldn’t read a blueprint to save my life. It’s just straight lines and scribbles.

Bzzzzz.

“Your ass is ringing,” she says dryly.

I giggle and grab my phone.

Where are you? Mark’s text reads.

At Effie’s house, I type back.

Effie Cummings? The police chief’s mom? he writes back.

Yes, I type.

K is his entire reply.

“Was that Mark?” Effie asks, a coy tone in her voice.

“Yes.”

“Elaine says you two are together.”

“Elaine just found out...” I look at the clock. “She found out about ten hours ago!”

“Ten hours is a week in Elaine Gossip Time, honey,” Effie replies, pouring more gin in my coffee.

“Effie, why are you showing me blueprints?”

“Your dad knew these like the back of his hand, Carrie. It’s what he did for a living at the university. He managed power systems, ordered large shipments, coordinated logistics, handled repairs—you name it. All the staff loved him because if you had a mouse in your air conditioner, you could call Joe directly and he’d send a guy to get it right away.”

“A mouse in your what?”

She laughs. “You think all we do is file paperwork and shuffle students around? Try managing broken pipes that burst all over a professor’s research lab. Or when an animal chews through an Internet cable. The Facilities department was one of the most important on campus, Carrie. It’s not just professors who keep this place running.”

She makes me feel proud of my dad. I’d forgotten that feeling. I’m so used to feeling shame and embarrassment for the mess from three years ago.

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