Chasing Tinsel (Miranda Vaughn Mysteries) Read Free Page B

eyelashes on.  
    “Breanna, do you know what you’re doing?”  
    Her eyes were watering, leaving trails of purple eye makeup on her cheeks.  
    “Sure. I’ve done this before,” she said, blinking rapidly. She stood back from the mirror and looked at me, smiling. “See?”  
    The lashes clumped together, damp from her teary application attempts. It looked like two spiders were attacking her eyes.  
    “No. Breanna, no. I can’t let you wear those,” I said. “You’re going to cry all night and make yourself miserable.”
    “Oh, I’ll be fine. My eyes just water a little at first.”  
    She blinked and one of the lashes was flushed off her face in the torrent of tears.  
    I shook my head and handed her a box of tissues and the eye makeup remover. “No, really, sweetie. Those are not for you.”  
    The problem was that they were cheap false eyelashes, probably held on with tile adhesive or something equally as irritating.  
    “But—”  
    I cut off Breanna’s protest with a stern look and pointed to the restrooms. “No.”  
    “Okay.”  
    I cleaned up the counter while Breanna was gone, then tidied up the displays again. They were already stocked, but it gave me a chance to stare out the window at the shoppers again. The families walking around with their kids, the groups of teenagers shopping for each other. The young couple mooning over engagement rings was back, eyeing the sparkling display in the jewelry store window again. The woman was dressed simply in a dark parka and jeans. The young man led his girlfriend to a bench where they sat, his arm around her shoulder, quietly talking to each other. Were they trying to figure out how to pay for their wedding rings? Maybe they worked in the mall, trying to make ends meet on their minimum wage retail income.  
    “Well, that’s just pathetic.”
    I turned to find Sarah Girard, my best friend and coworker at the law office, standing between me and the cosmetics counter.  
    “What are you doing here? I thought you had a date.”  
    “I’m here to get my brother his annual Christmas gift card from the sporting goods store. Want to come along? Or are you not done wallowing in your lonely misery?”  
    “How could I be miserable with such supportive friends?” I asked.  
    She smiled. “Yeah, you are pretty damn lucky.”  
    I laughed, and she grinned.  
    “I can’t go,” I said. “I just took a break.”  
    She shrugged. “Suit yourself,” she said. “Oh, hey. Guess who I just saw?”
    My heart skipped a beat. Was it Jake? “Who?”  
    Sarah narrowed her eyes. “Your Aunt Marie. Who were you hoping I saw?”  
    I shook my head.  
    “A certain FBI agent, perhaps?”  
    “I just thought I saw him the other night. But I guess it wasn’t him.” Or he ran like hell when he saw me .  
    Sarah gave me a steady look, all joking gone from her pretty green eyes.  
    “Miranda, it’s been almost five months since you were in Belize with him.”  
    I nodded.  
    “And it’s been more than a month since you saw him up at Lake Tahoe.”  
    I nodded again. “I know what you’re going to say, Sarah. And I agree. I just need to let it go.”  
    She shook her head. “That’s not what I was going to say.”
    “You weren’t?”  
    “I think you should call him.”  
    Of course Sarah would think that. She was the bravest, ballsiest person I’d ever met. Plus, there was no man on the planet who would turn her down.  
    I was in a different situation. Not shy, but not aggressive. Not ugly, but not Sarah. And then there was the fact that I’d kind of been rejected by Jake already and wasn’t anxious to experience that again.  
    “I appreciate your advice, but I’m going to ignore it.”  
    She nodded. “As usual,” she said, appearing to take no offense. “Well, I guess I’ll see you in the morning. Bring me a danish?”  
    “Of course,” I said. Living over Aunt Marie’s garage had a few perks—low rent, good