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understand.
    “Hi, Rhonda,” I said to Kaitlynn’s mom.
    “Oh, hello, Brooke. You sure are looking lovely today,” Rhonda said. She put down some small boxes and gave me a hug and squeeze to the shoulders.
    “Thanks. Are we still going shopping?” She looked really busy, and I didn’t know if she still had time carved out for shopping.
    “Yes. I have to get this stupid dress, so I can stop fretting about it. One less thing to fret about is good, right?” She picked up her boxes and set them on top of the credenza in the office across the hall.
    Both of Kaitlynn’s parents worked, so they had a nice house. It wasn’t very large, but the interior was high end, the floors either dark mahogany wood or Italian travertine, depending on the area in the house.
    “Ladies,” Rhonda said, “we’ll take my car, if you don’t mind?” We followed Rhonda down the porch steps and into her Durango.
    Buena Vista touted a quaint dress shop called Mary’s Boutique. The store was small, but Mary was able to fit a good selection of dresses between her store’s tight walls.
    Rhonda began by walking around with Kaitlynn and me to search the racks of dresses, but eventually we got to the point of bringing her what we liked. We thought we would be limited because we were looking for a pink dress, but Mary assured us that she could dye any white dress to match any color of pink we wanted. She also mentioned that if the style didn’t come in pink or white, then she would order it in for Rhonda. Great for Rhonda, but that meant we’d be here all night; Rhonda could be particular about clothing.
    “Girls,” Rhonda hollered from her dressing room, “no more banana Popsicle colors. I don’t care how much you like the style. They all look terrible on me.”
    Kaitlynn and I chuckled. She put aside her newly started pile of dresses and set out to collect everything “banana Popsicle” colored. I had to walk to the other side of the boutique for fear of snickering too loud.
    When Kaitlynn felt satisfied with her putrid pile, she scurried off to deliver it to Rhonda.
    “Kaitlynn!” Rhonda squealed. “I said not to bring me anymore of these.” Rhonda handed back the pile of dresses and turned Kaitlynn around by her shoulders to send them back.
    We must have gone through one thousand dresses or more because we were there until Mary had to close. Kaitlynn and I were ecstatic when we finally found the perfect dress for Rhonda. The length would have to be adjusted because Rhonda was short, and she didn’t fuss with heels, either.
    I wanted to pass out from exhaustion by the time Rhonda finished paying for the dress and ordering the alterations. Jaren had been right about me suffering today for last night’s late chat. I stumbled out of the dress shop, triggering the bell on the door when I pushed it open. Mary waited behind us to turn the lock and close the shop for the night.
    The air was crisp and had some bite. It jerked me out of my tired fog. I became alert enough that when I looked up and peered across the street, I recognized a figure silhouetted in the shadows. I blinked a couple of times to clear my eyes of any lingering daze, and found the figure to be a man standing in a crevice between two buildings. He wore the same trench coat as the man who sent the mountain lion after us, and his face was shadowed in the dark, but I was sure it was the same man.
    “Kaitlynn!” I shrieked, tugging on her arm and pointing. “It’s the man who sicced the mountain lion on us!”
    By the time Kaitlynn looked up and over at the buildings, the man had disappeared into the shadows. His creepy setup was almost perfect. The only thing missing was the fog and the eerie music. “He was just right there. I swear it—on us.”
    “You’re tired. Let’s get you home so you can go to bed.”
    “He was there.”
    “Huh, ladies?” Rhonda asked, huddling close to our shoulders to get in on the secret. “What’s going on?” she asked as if