“You’re searching Hot Blooded on a Sunday? In the daytime?”
“Element of surprise strategy, my dear. We blow by Ike and deal with the human day manager.”
“Well, spill already. What’s Ike done this time?”
“Let’s just say summer tourists have reported memory losses and missing jewelry.”
“He’s enthralling and robbing people?”
“Or drugging them.”
“But no bite marks?”
“None that the complainants are admitting to. An emerald ring and a classic Swatch watch turned up at a pawnshop, and the owner recognized one of Ike’s human employees as the person who brought the items in.”
“Does he have a record?”
“It’s a she. Donita Ward. No record, but supposedly she’s Ike’s new squeeze.”
“Whoa. Isn’t Laurel still Ike’s second-in-command?”
“Yes, and before you ask, Donita is a slender, short-haired brunette, but that’s all I can tell from the grainy videos.”
“Bet Laurel’s seething mad about the girlfriend.”
“You know it, and Laurel’s even scarier than Ike is.”
He leaned back to glance out the kitchen window that faced the back of Maggie’s house. “If you want to catch Maggie, she just came outside.”
“That’s okay.” I studied my nails. “I’ll go see her later.”
His brows shot up. “Since when do you procrastinate? Go. You have an hour before you crash, and you’ll sleep better if you’ve talked to Maggie.”
He leaned over his cereal bowl to kiss me. “Believe me, you’ll need your rest for what I have in mind later.”
“How much later? I work a ghost tour tonight, and then Jo-Jo will be here.”
“Does the term ‘afternoon delight’ ring a bell?”
A bell, no. A gong, yes.
I dashed outside but stopped short. The yard was spotless. Trash was bagged and set at the corner of the house, and the tables and chairs we’d rented were folded and leaning against the front fence. No litter on the ground, and the teak furniture was tastefully arranged on Maggie’s cobbled patio. Cobbled just like my patio, except hers is three times bigger and covered by an arbor. And, yes, we’d gotten a bulk deal on the cobblestones.
Maggie stood in the yard, hands on her hips, her engagement ring flashing in the sun.
“Did you clean up last night?”
“Not me. Jo-Jo must’ve done it.”
“Helpful and quiet, too. Not bad. Come on, Cesca,” she added with her usual briskness. “We need to talk about the five-year sponsorship rule.”
We sat under the wooden arbor in the still morning heat, me in a teak chair with a striped cushion, Maggie on the matching love seat.
“How come you never told me about the five-year thing, Maggie?”
“Bottom line? Because I didn’t want to lose you as soon as I found you. I figured I’d let things fall into place in their own time.”
“Did Neil know about the rule?”
Maggie smiled. “He does now.”
“And? How does he feel about it? Would he care if we kept living near each other past the five-year mark?”
“Hard to say at this point. He is not happy this Jo-Jo guy showed up.”
“I’m not wild about it either, but apparently he can live wherever he wants to.”
Maggie tipped her head. “And you don’t want that to be here. Why not?”
I leaned back and watched the play of sunlight through the wood slats of the arbor.
“I don’t know how to be around other vampires. I hated the ones I had to live with in the old days, and the thought of being buds with Jo-Jo isn’t giving me a warm glow.”
“Plus you’re used to being the only vampire in town. The only fish in the pond gets all the attention.”
“I don’t want the attention. Not from the newspaper and not from Jo-Jo. He sees me as the head fish. He looks up to me.”
“And he’s depending on you to help him?”
“Yes, and it scares me. I don’t want to be his comedy coach, his princess pal, or anything else.”
“It is a lot of responsibility,” Maggie allowed as she shifted positions. “Looking out for someone else, guiding someone else, encouraging someone else.”
I met her dancing Irish green eyes. “I get it. You took me in, and now it’s payback.”
“They do say payback is a bitch.”
“And no good deed goes unpunished.” I sighed. “The thing is, I don’t know how to help Jo-Jo. I don’t have the means to protect him, even if I were batty enough to let him move in with me. I sure can’t wave a wand and make him funny.”
“You can be his friend.”
“Neil will go ballistic if Jo-Jo hangs around here.”
“I’ll take care of Neil.” She paused. “Look, Cesca, we’re going through a lot of changes with the move and my engagement.”
“And now Jo-Jo shows up.”
“Helping him is a personal decision, and staying in your cottage will be, too. If you live there forever, I’ll love it. If you ever want to move, I’ll support you.”
I took her hand for a quick squeeze. “Thanks. You have any advice for handling this whole Jo-Jo the would-be comic thing?”