Pary Barry & John- Running Away: PB & J, #10

By Kamaryn Kelsey

Pary receives a piece of mail that shakes her already unstable world. Until she can solve the problem, she decides to run away from home because she doesn't want anyone to find her. And who better to hide her than John Smith's ex-father-in-law, Vinnie?

Vinnie stashes Pary at a high-end hotel where Pary soon begins to feel she's not so crazy after all. But she still has a dilemma to handle. A dilemma that will cost her money, so she takes a PI job to pay for her sins.

Jewelry store owner, Bernice Bloom, is convinced her husband, Bertram, is cheating on her and she wants Pary to catch him and his latest flame. His latest flame is the fascinating, and somehow horrifying Peony Purse, one of the cities wealthiest women. As Pary tries to catch a cheating Bertie, she gets more than she bargained for because affairs aren't always what they seem. And this one is not what Pary expects when it lands her in her least favorite place.

Meanwhile, her neighbor, John Smith, is reluctantly concerned about her. After all, whatever was in that letter made her cry... and then run away from home. She didn't even argue when he took away her sleeping pills. She just disappeared. Against his better judgment, John tries to help and in the end he gets more than he bargained for, as well. But that's life when your neighbor is Parody Hope Barry!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kamaryn Kelsey
• Release date: May 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386434214

Book preview

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, and events are products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to real people, places, or events is purely coincidental.

This is not a standalone book.

Chapter 1

How's the job hunt going? John Smith asked his neighbor, Parody Hope Barry, as they met at the mailbox area of their apartment building. They each pulled out the usual round of bills and junk mail. Pary shoved her junk mail into the outgoing slot.

It's not! I think the universe is out to kick me in the head, John, so I'm just going to sit back until it's done. Pary, or PB, wasn't one for giving up easily and John gave her a suspicious look as they headed toward the elevator.

So you struck out again, he suggested.

Do you have to rub it in? she snapped.

John's brows notched up. It was also unlike Pary to be inordinately grouchy. Granted, she'd been through several jobs since they'd met, but she always seemed to come through the storms of life in semi-normal condition.

That would be semi-normal for Pary. For everyone else it would be a complete disaster, but Pary was living proof of a giant cosmic joke, in John's opinion. She looked average, with shoulder length light brown hair, and serious gray eyes, but inside she was about as normal as a ball of rubber bands. Pull one, and another flew off. Try to tuck one in and another one broke, snapping your hand in the process. Set it down, and it rolled awkwardly. Drop it, and it bounced out of control. In other words, Parody Hope Barry was a giant mess most of the time. The part that scared John was she liked things that way. And usually she dressed that way.

But today, Pary was in serious mode because she was job hunting. A recent cooking contest gone awry, plus Pary's overly optimistic hopes of winning equaled her quitting her job at the time. A job she hated, but a job, nonetheless. Now she had no steady income and it was making her grouchy.

She ignored John on the elevator ride to their floor and focused on her mail. Just before the doors opened Pary let out a shriek of anguish that scared John.

What's wrong? he asked as she bounced around the elevator in agony. Bad news?

Pary looked at him, her gray eyes huge and full of tears. The universe just crushed me, John, she whispered.

As soon as the doors opened, she raced down the hall and locked herself inside her apartment, refusing to answer the door when John knocked. She ignored his texts and calls as well.

Under other circumstances, John would rightfully assume it was just Pary being her melodramatic self. But Pary hadn't been her normal self. She'd been dressing like the rest of the business world, which was practically a sin in Pary's mind. She loved colors, shapes, and patterns... all of them. When it came to dressing or decorating, she followed her heart... except when she had a serious job, or in this case, job hunt. That meant her overly active mind and imagination were under extreme stress.

John went to his apartment, changed, ate supper, and tried Pary again. Still no response, so John took a desperate measure. He used the emergency key Pary had foisted on him as her key buddy and unlocked her apartment. It was dark and quiet.

All right, Pary, where are you? I know you're in here, he yelled as he turned on a lamp and shuddered at Pary's crazy apartment. From John's viewpoint, if one took every bad color and psychedelic pattern from the hippie era, chewed them up, and puked them out, that would describe Pary's apartment. No matter how many times he saw it, he was always stunned.

He started in the kitchen, checking spots where Pary might hide. He would check the oven because she'd use it for a hiding spot if she thought she could fit. But they both knew she couldn't. At least Pary told John she couldn't fit in her oven, and he didn't question how she knew that or why she tried. Shaking his head, John cracked the oven door, anyway. No Pary.

Then he looked in every cabinet, above and below the counters. He checked under her table to see if she was laying across the chairs. She wasn't under her bed... at least as far as he could tell. But everything else seemed to be there. Finally, he opened her closet door and started pulling out mounds of Pary's collectibles. At last there was movement. He saw the top of her head, then her arm reached out to pull another pile over her.

Go away, John! I'm hiding.

What happened to your box of yarn? he asked. I looked for it because that's where you hid last time.

She kept piling more items on her head and soon, all he could see was her hand. Then she pulled