This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

Audry nodded.

He then peeked to Daniel who had been gesturing behind her back something that looked like ‘she doesn’t know’.

“I don’t know what?” Audry asked, getting irritated.

Silvia slung an arm around her shoulder, “Audry is a natural skeptic. She and Jessica get along really well. And you and she might get along like oil and water.” She then said to Audry, “Peter is our foremost expert in all things mystic—as he has always been an aficionado of voodoo and conspiracy theories.”

Audry rolled her eyes.

Peter grinned wide. He laughed even, propping his hands on his hips. “Ah… the skeptic versus the believer, I see. Got it. The problem is, Jessica and I get along really well too. If Andy hadn’t gotten to her first or if he had screwed it up—I certainly would have taken his place.”

“You would have had to have gotten in line behind Howie,” Eddie laughed out.

“Nuh, uh, uh,” Peter said, waggling a finger at him. “Howie never would have actually honed in on his best friend’s girlfriend. He was just teasing Andy because was dragging his feet—and we all knew Andy gets a little tunnel vision sometimes when he get obsessed with study.”

“Or basketball,” his sister chimed in.

James pointed to her. “So true.”

Jessica’s mother chuckled as did his parents, though awkwardly. 

“Is he coming?” Andy’s sister asked. Her name was Bethany, and Audry had not had much time to talk with her. She seemed the most at home with the others in the room, except for the grandfather who appeared to be enjoying himself immensely. Manning the door like a trooper, he was the perfect help to Audry in herding people in.

“Uh, Howie?” Daniel asked. He shook his head. “He’s at the hospital making sure they have full security while Jessica is there.”

“He’d probably buy the hospital to make sure of that,” Eddie murmured.

“And why wouldn’t he?” Daniel replied in a lower voice, not to be overheard by those family members in the living room. “After what had happened to him Paris, I don’t think he’d trust a hospital ever again.”

Semour nodded. Then he rose. “Which reminds me, I need to get back to Paris soon. Sir Longshanks will be here shortly, and we both can’t stay long.”

Sir Longshanks? Audry found herself overhearing the weirdest conversations between them. And what had happened in Paris? She thought the trouble had been in Germany.

But before she could overhear more, Silvia hooked her in the arm and dragged Audry to the kitchen. “Let’s make some dinner. I hope you don’t mind, but we’ll do assemble-yourself tacos. I’ll brown the meat. You don’t have to get near it.”

Neighbors stopped by to ask questions. Some spoke with the parents, expressing their concerns and praise for the couple. A few coworkers of Jessica’s checked in, all in their police uniforms. But the human traffic died down in the late afternoon.

That evening, the families found a hotel while Jessica and Audry crashed in the living room together. The men went off to their own hotel for the night. Jessica and Andrew had only a one bedroom apartment after all, though it wasn’t that far from the hospital where Andrew worked. He returned home late that night, just to check in with them, and then he went off to the hotel to meet up with his family. Audry and Silvia were allowed reign of the house, given one simple instruction—please make a non-garlicky breakfast as ‘Howie’ was coming over also and Jessica would be returning in the afternoon if they were lucky. But under no circumstance should they open the door for anybody. Only people with real keys would be allowed in the next morning until the family arrived. Audry wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but she did not argue either.

So in the morning they made a heap of scrambled eggs (not quite vegan but at the same time necessary), pancakes and waffles, and tons of fruit—nearly emptying the refrigerator.

“We’ll need to go shopping,” Silvia murmured, staring at the emptied space.

“Do you want me to do that?” Audry whispered to her as the crowd from before and then some devoured the meal. Michael Toms had arrived that morning along with a tall Navajo man whom Audry had seen only once before but who had recognized and remembered her on sight. He even shook her hand and asked her about her Master’s project.

“Maybe later,” Silvia said, nodding. “I’m not sure we can trust those men with an important errand like that.”

And Rick Deacon also showed up with Bobo, Matthew, and Randon.

“Who is that?” Silvia said, pointing to Randon Spade.

Seeing him, as the two women had remained in a quiet corner of the kitchen with Bethany (who had joined them just to be with the ladies as there were too any weird men there), Audry replied, “I think his name is Randon. He’s Rick’s friend from Gulinger Private Academy. He is, I think, a veterinarian now.”

“When did you meet him?” Silvia asked, amazed.

Bethany nodded.

Shrugging, Audry said, “Back at my last environmental conference before my Africa trip. He was with Rick when that Daisy was at my booth.”

“Daisy?” Silvia and Bethany chimed together. “Who is Daisy?”

Audry colored. She had not told a soul who hadn’t already known about her. She didn’t think it was her business to spread rumors. But now it was too late. With a glance to Rick, Audry said, “Just an ex-girlfriend.”

“Man… Howie is just like his dad after all,” Silvia murmured. “A man for secrets. I thought he hated that.”

“Why does he hate that?” Bethany asked, confused.

Now Silvia was blushing, peeking at both Bethany and Audry. She leaned near Bethany’s ear, whispering too quiet for Audry to pick up.

“Oh…” Bethany nodded. “That’s right.”

“What’s right?” Audry asked, narrowing her eyes

Bethany colored. She glanced in panic to Silvia.

Silvia said, “The big family secret that caused his mother to divorce his father. Rick hates secrets because of that—or at least says he does.”

“I hate them,” Rick said.

All three ladies turned, blushing. He was standing a foot away and they had not even heard him. Rick looked to Audry, gesturing to the meal. “Are those real eggs or tofu?”

Audry rolled her eyes.

“They’re real,” Silvia said, smirking at him and folding her arms.

He looked to Audry again, his eyes shifting a little as for some reason he could not totally meet her gaze—at least not like before. “Uh, there’s no garlic in it or—”

“Can you smell any garlic?” Audry snapped, folding her arms next.

He shook his head, blushing. “Sorry. I’m just getting paranoid.”

He then walked away. All three women watched him, frowning.

The doorbell started to really ring after about ten in the morning. This time people Audry and the others did not know showed up—people from Jessica’s and Andy’s church. In their arms were containers of food—freezer meals for the couple.

“…so they are still in the hospital?” one perky lady in neat slacks wearing a decorative scarf and pearls around her neck asked Ms. Mason whom she had assumed was holding down the fort.

“Yes,” Jessica’s mother replied. “They should be home this afternoon if all is well with the baby.”

“Are you a vaxxer or a non-vaxxer?” another woman asked, carrying a casserole full of cheese-and-potatoes. She had two children behind her, peering in at all the strangers in the tiny apartment.

There were other discussions they overheard while they were cleaning up the breakfast dishes and throwing away all the paper plates. Audry made sure they washed the plastic dining ware and put it in the rack to dry, despite everyone else’s stares.

“She’s an environmentalist, dude,” James said to them, and joined her, grinning. He later explained he was a forest ranger out west, intending to come back east as soon as an opening was available.

“Have you looked at Watkins Glen?” Audry suggested, as she sized him up again. He really did look fit for that kind of work.

He smiled. “I was thinking more in the Berkshires, where I grew up.”

There were more little conversations here and there. Audry noticed that Rick’s friend Randon was talking it up with Silvia on one side of the room, both of them intrigued with one another. She couldn’t overhear what they were saying, but they seemed oddly cozy together.

Then Andrew returned, leading in Jessica who was carrying her new baby.

The entire crowd nearly swallowed them up upon their arrival with cheers, until Semour called out for everyone to back off and let a knight and his lady come through. The last time Audry had really seen Andrew, she had been incredibly impressed. And even after one probably sleepless night, he still was impressive. Not counting the shadow of him in the doorway the night before when they were all too tired, the last time she had really spoken to him was during summer when Rick was in Germany. But today, she felt like she was staring at the god Thor—if only for a moment… though he was a red haired and freckled Thor. All he needed was a huge hammer.

Rick rushed to his side, standing tall next to him, anxious to help out. Jessica said something to him, and Rick gestured across the room toward Audry. Jessica peered over the heads and waved at her. She was beaming, though she looked wiped out.

They took Jessica to the couch where she could sit and show off her baby. Show, but no passing around. She was a newborn after all. Only the family was allowed to hold baby Ivy.

“What’s her name?”

“Ivy Chandra Cartwright,” Jessica said.

Rick quickly glanced to Audry, a little surprised. But he nodded in approval.

Baby Ivy had red hair. Someone joked that she might get called ‘Poison Ivy’ if they didn’t watch it. But Andrew and Jessica shrugged. They both had liked the name, regardless of the possible schoolyard teasing and the comic book reference.

They brought Jessica a sandwich, and Semour set up the computer for a pre-arranged skype call. Once the connection was made, Audry maneuvered through the crowd to see who was calling.

Three people showed up on the screen. Two of them were blondes—a Nordic kind of man with a clean cut look, and a girl who looked like an Amanda Seyfried clone dressed for a rave. But in between them was this pale, almost vampiric woman with orange eyes and straight black hair.

<< Hi! >> They waved. And they cooed over the baby when Jessica held her up. Audry stared. This was the fourth orange-eyed person she had seen in her lifetime. Tom Brown had been he first. Then came Roddy and she was sure Piranha had the same condition. Now this one. She started to wonder what kind of condition they had and if they were related in some way.

<< She’s so cute! >> The blonde Amanda clone cooed.

<< What’s her name? >> The orange-eyed vampire gal asked. She had a nice voice, but there was a quality to it that was also like Tom’s voice—something that itched the back of her brain.

“Ivy Chandra Cartwright,” Jessica said.

<< Oh, that is beautiful, >> the vampiric woman praised. And it was all genuine.

<< She’s got red hair like her daddy, >> the blonde said, almost cheerleader like for a Goth girl.

<< Are you going to get her a godmother? >> the vampiric woman asked.

Audry wondered if they were catholic. Both gals were wearing crosses, but that guy with them gave Audry the impression of a Mormon missionary. He just didn’t have a tag on.

<< Do they do that? >> the blonde asked her friend.

<< I don’t think so, >> their Nordic man cut in. His voice was soothing and deep. He just sounded solid and good—kind of like superman.

Jessica and Andrew laughed. “We haven’t really thought about it.”

“The Seven will take care of her,” Daniel cut in.

The vampiric woman laughed. Her voice was entrancingly musical. Not like Selena’s, but different. Light. But possibly dangerous. Audry could feel it. This woman was unique