Free Skye Cree 03: The Bones Will Tell by Vickie McKeehan Page B

thought possible.”
    “No question Lena’s provided the stability Zoe needed. Taking in a kid like that, Lena Bowers is my hero.”
    “Yeah. Mine, too.”
     

     
    In her fifty years Lena Bowers had known loss. Ten years earlier her husband of eighteen years had succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Upon high school graduation, her oldest son, Jason, had joined the military and was promptly shipped to Afghanistan to serve his country. He never made it back.
    Her youngest son, Jarod, had his own life in California attending San Jose State—which meant she rarely saw him mostly during holidays—the last time, four days at Christmas. At the time, Jarod hadn’t been overjoyed about his mother taking on a former runaway, a street kid by the name of Zoe Hollister. But Zoe had filled a void in Lena’s life. And now that the courts had let Lena become Zoe’s foster mother, the bond between the two had only gotten stronger.
    She had experience raising boys. Zoe, however, came with a different zeal for life that made Lena grateful she’d offered her home to the young teen.
    For one thing, d espite the girl’s protests about going to school, the fourteen-year-old eighth grader had discovered she actually enjoyed learning. Zoe especially loved English class. Her love for reading rivaled Lena’s. They spent hours discussing the suspense of Hunger Games , all the while dealing with the knowledge District 13 hadn’t been destroyed in the first rebellion—or rehashing Harry Potter plot lines in detail.
    For months now, Zoe had settl ed comfortably into Lena’s life, at home in the Victorian near Capitol Hill. Tonight the two of them looked forward to welcoming the honeymooners, Josh and Skye, back from St. Kitts. Zoe couldn’t wait to hear all about the trip from the source.
    Lena already knew her charge had a major case of hero worship when it came to Skye. The girl had even written a composition for English class about who she most admired. The subject, Skye Cree. Zoe hadn’t even considered calling her Ander yet. When Zoe had mentioned that very topic to Skye, the woman had assured Zoe that she had no intentions of changing her name. That was all right by Zoe.
    Zoe had already decided she wanted to be exactly like Skye , Native American to boot. That’s why she’d dyed her hair to match Skye’s. She’d even taken to using feathered earrings as accessories and wearing faux black leather.
    But lately Lena had been concerned more about Zoe preparing for college than how she accessorized her wardrobe. Getting the girl to keep her grades up had become a priority.
    “It’s never too early to s tart thinking about getting into a good school.”
    “But Skye didn’t,” Zoe tossed back. “She’s done fine.”
    “That’s not the point,” Lena argued.
    “Yeah, well, the newspapers write stories about how she catches the bad guys. I want to do that.”
    “ If you want to catch the bad guys like Skye, then go to college, get an education, to do it.”
    The teen’s response was a big harrumph.
    “If you want your op inion to be taken seriously, lose the attitude,” Lena said.
    “Okay, okay.”
    When the doorbell chimed, Zoe took off to answer it.
    “Look through the peephole, Zo e,” Lena warned, her voice rising to the teenager’s back. “Just in case it might not be Skye.”
    Zoe skidded on the hardwood floor all the way across the entryway. At the last minute she decided to heed Lena’s advice. “It’s them,” Zoe shouted staring through the security slit.
    “Lena an d I baked double fudge brownies for dessert,” Zoe announced, stepping back to let Skye and Josh inside.
    “ Good, I haven’t had my chocolate fix today,” Josh replied, noticing Zoe was all but bouncing on her toes. “As if you needed any more sugar in your system,” he teased.
    “Oh that, I’m just excited to see you guys.”
    “Did you find a house?” Lena asked from the doorway, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
    “Not yet . But we