“Jealous?”
I looked down at my hands, tried to find the best words to hit home my point, and then met my grandfather’s gaze, head on. “Before Rapple—I mean, Ms. Rapple—you came to see me. Yes, you and Carter go off and do whatever it is you two do together when I’m staring down a deadline…and you toss a ball around with Sam in the backyard on occasion…and you help Mary Fran carry her groceries inside when Sam is manning the pet shop… But I always knew you came to see me. But since this thing between you and Ms. Rapple started up, that’s not the case anymore. Sure, you’re happy to see me when you arrive, but you’re just as excited to see her now, too.”
“Tobi…”
“No. Please. Let me finish.” I reached behind me for a sip of my milk but refrained from taking a bite of the toast lest I lose my courage to say everything I needed to say. “And that’s where the immature brat part comes in. I know I matter to you. I know nothing and no one in the world will ever change that. I also know I’m a better Tobi Tobias because of your input in my life. So if I can be a better me because of you, why can’t I accept the fact that you make Ms. Rapple a better person, too?”
He captured my hands in his and brought them to his chin. “The fact?”
“Grandpa, she’s been every bit as lost without you these past few days, as you’ve been without her. And you know what? I want you to be happy. I need you to be happy.”
“I am happy, Sugar Lump. I have you.”
“You’re right. You do. Forever and always. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have Ms. Rapple, too.”
A smile the likes of which threatened to melt my heart right there, in the middle of my kitchen, spread its way across my grandfather’s face. “You’re really okay with this?”
I started to nod but stopped myself before I lost my golden opportunity. “I am…under three conditions.”
“And those are?”
“One, you rip up that ticket and stay through the weekend as originally planned.”
“Deal.” He stood, retrieved his ticket from the living room, and carried it back to me. “You can do the honors, if you’d like.”
I ripped that sucker to smithereens and tossed it into the trash beneath my sink. “One down, two more to go.”
My grandfather laughed. “Okay, let ’em rip.”
“Two, I need you to get Gertie and her high octane pee out of my shrubs.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you.” I stopped, took a deep breath, and tried to hold my instinctual shudder at bay as I shared my final demand. “And third, you know that whole matching clothes thing with Rapple and Gertie?”
His eyebrows shot up. “Yes…”
“No. Just…no.”
~THE END~
About the Author
As a child, Laura Bradford fell in love with writing over a stack of blank paper, a box of crayons, and a freshly sharpened number two pencil. From that moment forward, she never wanted to do or be anything else. Today, Laura is the national bestselling author of several mystery series, including the Tobi Tobias Mystery Series, the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries, and the Amish Mysteries. She is a former Agatha Award nominee, and the recipient of an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award in romance. A graduate of Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, Laura enjoys making memories with her family, baking, and being an advocate for those living with Multiple Sclerosis.
Can’t get enough of Tobi’s adventures?
Don’t miss
DEATH IN ADVERTISING
And
30 SECOND DEATH
Available now from
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DEATH IN ADVERTISING
When Tobi Tobias decided to open her own ad agency, having to moonlight in a pet shop wasn’t part of her vision . . . of course, neither was murder.
Sometimes when opportunity knocks, the door you open leads to a closet. That’s certainly the case for Tobi, whose weekends spent cleaning cages in her best friend’s pet shop may soon be over. She’s just landed her first big break—Zander Closet Company needs a catchy campaign slogan ASAP, and Tobi thinks she’s got the right hook to knock ’em dead: “When we’re done, even your skeletons will have a place.”
But when a real dead body topples out of a showcase closet, she’s about to discover there is such a thing as bad publicity. To save her fledgling business and not get killed by the competition, Tobi takes on a new pet project: solving the murder. But with a stressed-out parrot as the only witness to the crime, Tobi will really have to wing it to put the cagey killer behind bars.
30 SECOND DEATH
To help an old friend, Tobi Tobias gets a third-rate thespian a part in a commercial, and learns that in the advertising business, bad acting can lead to murder . . .
When Tobi Tobias opened her own advertising agency, Carter McDade was there for her every step of the way. A brilliant hairdresser, Carter has just landed his dream project: doing hair and makeup for a theatrical production of Rapunzel. But the dream turns into a nightmare when he runs into Fiona Renoir, a cruel, talentless starlet who won’t let Carter touch a hair on her head.
To get Fiona out of Carter’s hair, Tobi hires the difficult actress for a bit part in her latest commercial. But true to character, Fiona is a terror on set, and Tobi is starting to think she’s made the biggest mistake of her life. But things get even worse when Fiona drops dead in the hairdresser’s chair, and the only suspect is the man left holding the tainted hair dye, Carter McDade. And unless Tobi can prove his innocence, he’ll never do hair in this town again.
And Death Goes to . . . Page 25