Coffin of Hope

Chapter Forty Nine

Marcy groaned. "Stop taking pictures of me!"

Mercedes lowered her phone and pouted. "But you look so cute!"

"You do." Marc was totally confused by that fact.

"Take another picture and I'll be taking one down at the police station." Marcy threatened.

Mercedes wrinkled her nose. "Mean!"

"Mercy..." Laura chided.

Mercedes stuck her bottom lip out. "I'm sorry, Marcy."

Marcy rolled her eyes. "I'm leaving."

"What?!" Everyone reacted terribly to that sentence.

"To visit some people! Relax!"

"What people?" Mal demanded.

"Don't do that." She warned.

"What. people?"

"You don't-" She was going to pretend she was going to see a man but she remembered their laundry list of rules from the day before. "Karen."

He was surprised at the mild answer. "Oh."

She raised a brow.

He gulped. "Is Vic in town?"

"Yes."

"Maybe the four of us can go out? Do something fun."

"Like what?"

He didn't expect her to challenge him. "Uh..."

"We can go out to dinner." She put him out of his misery.

"Tomorrow." He smiled gratefully.

She just looked at him until she remembered she was supposed to be affectionate with him. She bit her lip before reaching out to pat his chest.

He didn't know how to take that but she'd touched him- and in front of people! A bright smile overtook his features and he went back to eating.

She watched him for a second, wondering why he seemed so chipper, unaware that she was smiling, unaware that everyone else was looking at them.

OF

"Mommy, who's Karen?" Mally asked.

Marcy looked down as she put her hat on. "My best friend."

Mickey's mouth fell open. "Is she pretty?"

"She's so pretty." Marcy put on her scarf and wound it around her neck and shoulders.

"What does she look like?" Mally wanted to know.

"Kinda like me, kinda like Tia Mercy. She's mixed."

"Mixed?" Both twins echoed.

"Yes. I'm mixed and since Daddy and I aren't the same race, that makes you two mixed."

The twins were bowled over.

She put her coat on and buttoned it up.

"How long will you be gone?" Mally went on.

"I don't know. But I'll be back before the party tonight."

"When is that?" Mickey pressed.

"It starts at six but we have to bathe and get ready. I'll be back before five."

"It's nine o'clock in the morning." Mally frowned.

"I have a clock on my phone."

His little face wrinkled.