Roses Are Red; He's Dead (A Mellow Summers Paranormal Mystery Book 9) by Janet McNulty Page A

me?”
    “Oh, so I wasn’t supposed to?” demanded Morgan, placing her pudgy hands on her hips.
    Not wanting to get involved, I stepped away, but just as I moved my foot, a twig snapped; its sound echoed around me as I cringed, wishing I were invisible.
    “Great,” huffed Burt, “so now we have company.”
    “I’m sorry,” I began, “I’ll just go.”
    “No. No. Stay and watch the show,” Burt said. “I’m sure you’ve heard most of it anyway. Morgan’s voice is quite the spectacle.”
    “My voice?” snapped Morgan. “Have you listened to yourself lately? Your voice is so loud that it carries from here to Texas!”
    “Oh, yeah? Well, I bet that the people of California are sick of hearing your nasally tone.”
    I started to walk away.
    “Hey, where you going?” demanded Burt.
    “Away from here,” I said.
    “See?” said Morgan, flipping her permed hair. “You scared her away.”
    “Well, she shouldn’t be nosing around, spying on people.”
    “I wasn’t…”
    “Yeah, because she has nothing better to do than to listen to us.”
    “HEY!” I shouted, surprised by the forcefulness of my own voice. “Will you two shut up? All you do is argue!”
    “Got a set of lungs on her, that one,” commented Burt.
    “I’ll say,” Morgan added in a complementary tone. “She got you to shut up.”
    “Not good enough. You’re still talking.”
    “Stop it!” I shouted at them. “First off, I was not spying on you two; I was on my way to town, but your voices can be heard over a mile away. So, I decided to check it out, make sure nothing happened. You guys can stay here and fight all you want. I’m going to town.”
    “Now, hold on there,” said Burt, “I didn’t mean anything by what I said earlier, about you spying. We seem to attract attention everywhere we go.”
    I wonder why, I thought to myself.
    “Stick around,” said Morgan.
    “Why do you two argue so much?” I asked, allowing my curiosity to lead me, once again.
    “For fun,” replied Morgan.
    “Excuse me?” I said.
    “Well, we’ve been married for a while now and sometimes you got to do something to liven things up,” replied Burt. “About two years ago, Morgan and I were out and were having a real argument, and got kind of loud, but some people dubbed us the ‘fighting couple’ and I guess—”
    “—it stuck,” finished Morgan. “In the end, we couldn’t remember what had started the fight, but we had so much fun arguing that we continue to do it.”
    “Seems like a strange pastime to me,” I said.
    “It does to most people,” replied Morgan.
    “We only argue in public,” said Burt, “but when we’re alone, we hardly fight at all. Besides, all this fake fighting gets off our chest whatever might have been bothering us all day.”
    “And we always make up in the end,” added Morgan.
    I just stared at them, still not believing that they argued on purpose for entertainment.
    “Where were you headed, anyway?” asked Burt.
    “To town,” I said. “I was on my way to the local jeweler.”
    “Oh,” said Morgan, “is that man of yours going to propose?”
    “I…”
    “Oh, we both noticed you two,” Morgan interrupted me. “He’s a keeper, that one.”
    My cheeks grew hot as I blushed, despite my best efforts not to. “He has been a bit secretive lately.”
    Morgan got one of those all-knowing smiles on her face, which made me blush even more.
    “Yeah,” said Burt, “in a few years, you’ll look like us.”
    I must have gotten a panicked look on my face because Morgan swatted him, adding, “Now you’re scaring her!”
    “Going to the jeweler, you said?” asked Burt, checking his wristwatch.
    “Yes, why?” I replied.
    “Better hurry. He closes at five and it’s nearly five now.”
    What! In talking to them, I had forgotten about the ruby in my pocket, which I had found in Billy’s apartment. I said good-bye to Burt and Morgan, still perplexed about their idea of entertainment, and raced