“Melanie invited me.”
“Ask me if I give a fuck. I’ll bet if I ask her husband, he’ll tell me to kick your ass out to the curb.” Wes sounded quite confident, and Renny had a feeling Andrew wouldn’t side with Caleb. One too many swirlies in high school.
“Andrew always was a whiny dick who couldn’t do shit for himself.”
Renny winced at Caleb’s insult, yet couldn’t quite disagree. Personally, she’d always thought Melanie could do better. But then again, her friend technically had, seeing as how she was the one married and living in a real house.
But speaking of Andrew drew Renny’s attention to something. “Melanie’s not back yet with Andrew’s change of clothes.”
Surely she’d had enough time to get to the parking lot and back. A vague sense of wrongness made Renny gnaw her lower lip.
“She probably got stopped for a chat.”
“Maybe. I’m still going to go find her. It’s time I grabbed Luke and headed out anyhow.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Caleb offered.
Before she could say, “No, thank you,” a murmur rose in the crowd. Even before someone held aloft a familiar pair of heels—only Melanie would wear black stilettos to a picnic—Wes was moving, his hand dropping to his side to grab at a two-way radio.
He pressed the button. “Teams A and B, missing female, five-foot-nothing, in a bright red gown…”
The detail Wes conveyed proved quite elaborate. The man had an eye for detail? Or had he just noticed Melanie?
There was a time in high school when Renny wondered if her friend would date him. The bad boy every mother hated. But Melanie had chosen to be more mature about her choice. Andrew was going places. Andrew was a gentleman.
Andrew also bored the heck out of Melanie. But she still chose him.
From the strand of trees yards away to their left, the twins burst forth, wailing. Standing with his mouth gaping, Andrew did nothing to calm them, leaving Renny to run and gather them into her arms in an attempt to calm them.
“Shh. Calm down and tell me what’s wrong.”
Rory sobbed. “A dinosaur got mama.”
“It’s probably gonna eat her.” Tatum sniffled.
“What is? Did you see something?”
Matching tousled heads nodded. “A monster,” they announced in chorus, but that was all they would say. That and a small voice saying, “It was scary.”
“You’re safe now,” Renny murmured, tucking them close. “I promise there are no monsters or dinosaurs roaming around. I’ll bet your mom is just fine, you’ll see.”
Despite her reassurance, the twins’ fear proved contagious, and Renny peeked for her son, cursing herself for not having grabbed him, too. What if something did roam in the bayou?
Something stalked all right, but it was on two legs and had a hand on her son’s shoulder.
The look that trusting Luke turned on Caleb wrenched something in her, and she couldn’t help but shiver, unable to ignore the ominous portent.
For the first time she understood why Wanda liked to say, “Someone’s plotting against us. Get the gun.”
Chapter Seven
The moment someone held aloft those shoes, Caleb came to life.
Danger. Stand on guard.
Given the way Caleb suffered from anxiety, you’d think that a whiff of danger would send him into a fit.
Yet, this was the odd thing about Caleb’s psyche issues. Danger always seemed to energize him. It drew his scaly beast. The one he fought to keep hidden, except in times like these when alarm bells went off. He needed the predator to assess the situation.
First thing, where were Renny and Luke? She was easy to spot, her arms slipping around Melanie’s wailing twins, but Luke wasn’t with her. Pivoting around, Caleb didn’t have to turn far to find his son.
The small lad, less than half his size, stood right beside him. A little hand slipped into his, and for once, Caleb didn’t flinch at the unexpected contact.
His son might not know yet who he was, but he trusted Caleb to protect him.
He trusts me. Even if he had no reason to. Something in Luke recognized Caleb. Understood Caleb provided safety.
“Will you help find Aunt Melanie?” The murmured request took Caleb by surprise.
“There’s already people looking for her.”
“But not in the right place. They’re looking in the building.”
“Of course they’re checking there first because Melanie probably went to the ladies room or something.” Except why drop her shoes on the edge of the pavement, coincidentally just around the curve of the building where no one from the party could see anything? And why would the twins have come running from the woods screaming?
“The thing in the swamp took her.”
“Thing? What thing?” Caleb turned a sharp gaze down at his son, who stared off at the vegetation bordering the cleared field.
“A dinosaur.”
For a moment, his first impulse was to scoff, and yet for some reason, Caleb instead asked, “What makes you think it was a dinosaur?”