Read Miz Scarlet and the Holiday Houseguests (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery #3) for Free Online Page B

are?”
    “Absolutely. We have to finish
decorating the inn for the holidays. Do you mind?”
    “Depends. How much work are we talking
about?” The teenager didn’t want to commit until she knew the full
extent of her duties.
    “Well, I baked gingerbread cookies to
hang on the tree and I have to ice them.”
    “Oh, that I can do,” she laughed. Her
smile was contagious. “I thought you were going to ask me to scrub
the kitchen floor or something.”
    “It’s Christmas, kiddo. You’re here to
have fun, and fun you shall have.”
    “Mickey, why don’t you go see if Bur’s
home?” Larry told her daughter. “I want to ask him
something.”
    “What do you want to ask him?” Mickey
wanted to know.
    “Can you please go see if he’s around?”
Larry put on her “mama” voice, adding that warning tone, which
Michaela seemed to ignore completely, in typical teenage
fashion.
    “He’s going to ask me what you want to
talk to him about, so what should I say?” She was pushing that
envelope; it wasn’t the smartest move for the daughter of a state
trooper. Larry was, after all, used to dealing with some pretty
unsavory suspects.
    “You can say that your mother wants to
speak with him and you don’t know what the subject matter is. Now,
do you have any other questions for me, or can I have a
conversation with Scarlet?”
    “Geez, what a grouch!” Mickey headed
toward the front door, but not before I saw a sly glance aimed at
her mother. Was she just testing the limits or was Michaela aware
that her mother wasn’t her usual self? “What if he doesn’t hear me
knock?”
    “Ring the doorbell,” I broke in, hoping
to prevent Larry from going ballistic. “Trust me, he’ll hear
that.”
    When he’s not at the inn, my brother
can usually be found working in his office in the carriage house
behind the inn, where he has his own quarters. As an expert on the
forest industry, Bur is a consultant for big companies looking to
engage in sensible reforestation projects and conservation
practices. Today, he had plans to work on a new project for a
company out in Colorado to find new uses for pulp waste. I thought
he might welcome the interruption.
    As soon as the teenager was out the
door, Larry grasped my elbow with fierce fingers that dug into my
flesh. “That child tests my patience, Miz Scarlet. I swear she does
it deliberately.”
    “It’s a tough age, Larry. She’s trying
to figure out how to be an adult.” As a tutor to teenagers looking
to get into good colleges, I’d had some experience with the
soon-to-be-out-of-the-nest crowd.
    “She’s constantly in my business,
wanting to know what I’m doing. I don’t have to justify my actions
to her,” she scowled. “She’s fourteen!”
    “Maybe she’s worried about you,” was
the only thing I could say. Frankly, I understood the feeling. I
was starting to worry myself. I’d never seen her so
frazzled.
    “Horse hooey!”
    “I saw her watching you. She knows
you’re tense. She knows something’s not right. Maybe she’s worried
something’s going on in your life that affects her.”
    “She’s a kid! It’s my job to handle the
adult stuff! I’m supposed to protect her from all that,” Larry
insisted. “Lord, ever since her father remarried and decided to
have another kid....”
    “How’s that working out?”
    “What?”
    “Her father’s new marriage, the new
baby...does Michaela feel left out? Is she worried that you’ll get
remarried, too, and then she’ll be cut loose from the last vestiges
of home, sweet home?”
    Those dark brown eyes narrowed as she
studied me with suspicion. A moment later, her right hand tapped
her forehead and Larry let out a long, slow groan.
    “Oh, damn! How did I miss that?” Larry
cringed. “I should have seen the warning signs. It’s just that I’m
so overworked ever since Max retired. We still don’t have a
replacement for him. Do you believe it, Miz Scarlet? I’m actually
the most seasoned