Free A Tale of Two Biddies by Kylie Logan

Dino,” I commented.
    “Probably swamped by worshiping women inside,” Kate suggested.
    And I found myself shivering.
    Luckily, the thought was banished by the first
pop
from the park, and automatically we all looked up. A sparkling fizz lit the night sky above the trees. It exploded with a muffled
poof
, and crystal sparks the color of Margaret’s cotton candy rained down.
    “Come on. I want to see this up close.” Jayce Martin zoomed by and grabbed Kate’s hand, and together they hurried toward the park.
    “Interesting,” Chandra commented, watching them go.
    “Fascinating,” Luella agreed.
    “And I’m staying out of this conversation,” Levi said.
    I turned his way to tell him I agreed, and I was just in time to see Dino slip out of the bar and walk over to the table for the autograph session.
    Seeing an opportunity, I excused myself and headed that way, too.
    “You’re going to need to wait your turn,” a woman in a
We Love Boyz ’n Funk
T-shirt told me when I approached the table from the front instead of the back of the line.
    Really, I didn’t think so. I mumbled something about being the band’s landlady (technically true even if it wasn’t relevant), and went around to the other side of the table to stand at Dino’s shoulder.
    “Hey, babe!” I might have tricked myself into believing the greeting was for the so-excited-she-was-ready-to-self-combust woman at the front of the line if Dino didn’t glance over his shoulder at me and give me a wink. “I figured you’d be here. Couldn’t stay away, huh?”
    “Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to support a chamber of commerce event,” I said as pleasantly as I could. My comment was punctuated by an explosion of golden stars above the trees in the park, and around us everyone made the appropriate oohing and aahing sounds.
    I propped one hand on the table and leaned closer to Dino so I could whisper, “You told me that guillotine trick was one hundred percent safe.”
    His hand stilled over the picture he was about to autograph. It showed a smiling group of five teenagers, and automatically I went down the list. Aside from the fact that they were thirty years older and thirty pounds heavier, Scotty, Jesse, and Nick didn’t look all that different. Paul had lost his crop of bushy hair completely. And Dino . . . I took another moment to study the dark and handsome kid in the photo, then looked at the man who was looking up at me. Hard living showed in every line of Dino’s face, and his eyes had the hungry look of a man who’d tasted fame but had never gotten a big enough gulp to satisfy himself.
    He dashed off the signature and handed the photo to the waiting fan. “It wasn’t funny. Somebody’s going to pay for that guillotine trick,” he growled. The next woman moved to the front of the line. Excited, she danced from foot to foot. She never took her eyes off Dino once, not even when a shower of fireworks lit the street with streaks of green, orange, and purple.
    I went for subtle. After all, nobody but me, Dino, and the people we’d shared the secret with knew that for tonight, the guillotine was supposed to be nothing but a prop designed to tease folks into going to Saturday’s concert. “Somebody?”
    Dino’s gaze slid toward the front door of the bar, then back to me. “Don’t you worry about me, babe.” He patted my hand. “I know who it was, and there’s no way the son-of-a—”
    “Picture, Dino? Please!” The next woman in line jumped up and down and waved her smartphone. “Come over here and take a picture with me. Puh-leez!”
    He did, and I took the opportunity to return to where Levi, Luella, and Chandra waited. My timing was perfect. The mini fireworks show ended with a mini grand finale. A dozen or so rockets all hit the sky at the same time, and along with the pops and the whirrs, the night sky lit up with flashes of white, puffs of gold, and twinkling yellow stars.
    In the light, I saw Mike Lawrence hurry