Unfinished Business An Angela Panther Novel (A Chick-lit Paranormal book) (The Angela Panther Series) by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson Read Free Book Online Page A

Seriously, just when I was about to pass out from sheer boredom, I noticed Ma hovering right smack in the middle of my brother Paul’s high school buddies, listening to their conversation. Of course they were talking about her. What a stinker. She was in her element, saying what she wanted, loudly, without the consequence of anyone but me, hearing. And Josh, too, who walked around with a big old smirk on his face, like he had a secret, which no one but me realized that he, of course, did. John’s friend Scott said something, and Ma laughed as she floated up to the ceiling. That must be her ghost thing. I shook my head at her, she. She gave me the stink eye and then something at the door grabbed her attention.
    “Naomi, it’s so good to see you,” Ma yelled. She quickly floated over to her childhood friend, a tiny woman, no more than four feet nine, and asked her how she’d been. And then it must have sunk in, because she frowned. “Well crap, she can’t hear me. Angela, get over here. It’s Naomi. You remember Naomi, don’t you? Come talk to her. I wanna know how she is.”
    I excused myself from cousin Ray and his never-ending boil story and headed over to the little woman. “Are you Naomi?” I asked, knowing full well she was since Ma about broke my eardrums screaming her name.
    “Yes, and you must be Angela, Fran’s daughter. So nice to see you, dear.” She took my hand in hers. “You look so much like your mother.”
    Ma snorted. “You do have my butt and my teeth, of course, but your boobs, I don’t know where you got those little things. Maybe someone on your dad’s side, but certainly not from me. Mine got girth to them; yours are like fried eggs with the yoke broke.”
    I rolled my eyes at her again, and completely understood why Emily did it to me. Moms were annoying. I redirected myself to Naomi. “It was so nice to see you, Naomi. Thank you for coming.”
    Ma grinned at Naomi. “She looks so good. Tell her she looks good.”
    I shot my mother a glare. “Naomi, my mother always talked about how beautiful you are, and she was right, you look fantastic.”
    “Oh, yes,” Ma said. “That’s good, real good.”
    I ignored her and walked Naomi over to the video.
    “Oh, isn’t this lovely,” Naomi said, and then pulled out an envelope from her purse, and handed it to me. “I made you copies of some pictures of your mom from the old days.”
    I took the envelope and thanked her.
    “Lemme see those pictures, Ang.” Ma was nervous.
    Naomi watched the rest of the video as Ma and I glanced through the pictures. Naomi told me again how much I resembled my mother – minus the enormous breasts , I thought to myself – and then she pulled out another envelope.
    “Ah, Madone. She brought those pictures. That woman, always trying to stir up trouble.”
    Oh yeah, potential blackmail photos . This was good.
    “Merda,” Ma swore in Italian.
    I held back a giggle.
    “Your mother was a wild one back in the day, she was. So fun and full of life, and always getting herself in trouble.” She handed me the envelope.
    Ma swore again. “I liked to have fun, so sue me.”
    I made a big deal out of opening the envelope slowly, just to torture Ma a little. The first picture made me laugh out loud, and most of the room turned and stared at me. Whoops. Probably that wasn't appropriate at a memorial service.
    Naomi giggled. “The first one is from a day we went to the Brookfield Zoo, before your parents were engaged.”
    “She made me pose for that picture. It was her fault.” She stuck her tongue out at Naomi, even though the woman couldn’t see her.
    “Is she um, cupping that lion’s private parts?”
    “Yes, and she said she’d only marry your father if his uh...area, was bigger than that statue.”
    I mentally filed that little tidbit in the TMI file.
    Naomi giggled again. “And she told me it was, too.”
    I so did not need to know that.
    “Jesus. Mary and Joseph,” my mother vented. “I did not