Double Dating with the Dead by Karen Kelley (best fiction novels to read .txt) 📗

on his mind as his heart skipped a couple of beats. Angela’s car was still here. That wasn’t the worst of it, so was his mother’s.

His very gullible mother.

Oh, hell, they were probably filling her head with all kinds of rubbish.

He came to a quick stop and grabbed the sack off the front seat as he climbed out of his car.

Why was she here? As if he didn’t know the answer to that. His mother liked taking care of him. It didn’t matter that he’d been taking care of the family financially since dropping out of college. She still liked to cook things for him. Not that he normally minded. His mother was a great cook. He just didn’t want her here. Not around Selena and her mother.

He hurried up the sidewalk, taking the stairs leading up to the porch two at a time.

As he went through the foyer, voices drifted in from the back. He hurried through the hotel and into the kitchen, coming to a grinding halt when he saw his mother at the table with Selena and Angela. Angela was waving her hand over a teacup and humming.

“The tea leaves will tell me what your future holds.” Angela stared into the cup. “It looks like you’ll have great success in the near future. More than you have now.”

His mother beamed and leaned in a little closer. “Oh, what else do you see?”

“Mom!”

Winnie jumped. “Oh…Trent, I didn’t hear you come in. We were just having a bit of tea, and Angela was…uh…”

“Reading the leaves,” Angela supplied with a wide smile as if she and his mother were old friends.

This was just fantastic. His mother had bought in to their game. His accusing gaze swung to Selena. She shrugged her shoulders as if to say they hadn’t twisted his mother’s arm, but he knew better. Cons worked like that.

“I don’t see what it hurt,” his mother said, then frowned. “And I’m sorry, but I think there’s more to our world than just our five senses. So do Angela and Selena.”

He slammed his sack down on the counter.

His mother quickly looked at her watch. “Oh, where has the time gone? My customers will wonder why I’m not open yet.” She jumped to her feet.

“It was nice meeting you, Winnie.” Selena stood, as did her mother.

“I need to be going, too,” Angela said, then whispered to Winnie loud enough that Trent heard her. “You have my number. Don’t forget to call me.”

This was great. Just fantastic. His mother had crossed over to the enemies’ camp. Hadn’t she read any of his books? Did she not see through Selena and her mother? Apparently not.

“Bye, dear.” Winnie waved, then seemed to change her mind and hurried across to where Trent stood and placed a kiss on his cheek. “Don’t fret so, dear. You don’t want a lot of wrinkles. And I really like Selena.” Then in a whisper of her own, “You could do worse. It’s not as if you have the women calling you like they do Tye, what with you acting like a hermit most of the time.”

“Mom…”

She was gone before he could reprimand her again. He loved his mother, but sometimes she made him want to stick his head into a sink full of water and drown himself.

A few minutes passed, and Selena returned to the kitchen. “I really liked your mother.”

“She’s gullible.”

“She’s curious. There’s a difference. Besides, my mother doesn’t charge anything for her services.”

“Probably because she doesn’t talk to the dead or read tea leaves.”

“You’re right, she doesn’t.”

That took him back, and he couldn’t think of anything to say. Was Selena tired of staying at the hotel and ready to throw in the towel?

“You’re admitting your mother is a fake.”

She grimaced. “I don’t think I’d put it quite like that. Mom thinks of herself as a psychic, but no, she doesn’t talk to the dead. Her heart’s in the right place, though.”

Finally, she admitted this was all a hoax. That ghosts didn’t exist.

Suddenly, throwing Selena to the wolves didn’t feel quite as good as it had when he’d first come to the hotel.

He drew in a deep breath, knowing what he was about to say would probably cost him his next book deal, but how could he completely destroy her? Maybe she wasn’t one of the actual shysters he’d run up against in the past. She was just…misinformed.

“I think if you walk away quietly, it will cause you the least amount of embarrassment. I’ll tell my agent and publicist not to make a big deal out of you admitting there are no such things as ghosts.”

“How nice of you and to what do I owe this act of kindness?”

Trent had the strangest feeling that she wasn’t the least bit grateful. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what was keying him to that fact.

Maybe it was the way she’d stiffened her spine, crossed her arms in front of her and raised a sardonic eyebrow in his direction. He’d give her the benefit of the doubt. She might just be feeling a little awkward.

“I think we’ve gotten to know each other, and I don’t believe you would deliberately bilk the public. You just don’t know any better.”

Now what had he said? She looked ready to spit fire.

“When I said my mother would like to be a psychic, I spoke the truth. She’s fascinated by the paranormal, but she doesn’t have the gift. Not everyone does.”

He had a feeling he wasn’t going to like what she was about to say.

“I do have that gift.”

Damn, he’d known she was going to say something like that.

She marched over to him, pointing her finger at his chest. “When our two weeks are up, I’ll have made a believer out of you, too.” She narrowed her eyes. “And the next time you eat the last chocolate doughnut, your ass is mine. Got it? You have no idea what a woman without chocolate will do.”

He reached into the grocery sack and brought out a box