Page 33 of The Love Shack

She nodded. “He said he wouldn’t mind letting her dry off at his place. Kathleen is a regular there, you know.”

See, that was the creepy part. Everyone talked about the dummy as if she were a real person. Feeling as stiff-armed as Kathleen, he carried the mannequin to his truck and put her in the back.

“Um, Lawson?”

“Let me lock up and I’ll meet you at the restaurant. I’ll get her inside for you, then you and Saul and everyone else can figure out what to do with her.”

A smile teased her mouth. “Aren’t you the gallant one? Why, the stories will spread far and wide across Cemetery of how you saved Kathleen—”

He jerked around to face her, and realized she was teasing him. Suppressing a grin, he pointed at her. “Not a word about it.”

Playfully, she pretended to zip her lips.

Knowing women as he did, he distracted her by saying, “Makeup is running down your cheeks.”

Her eyes widened. “Mascara!” Quickly, still standing in the rain, she ran her fingers under her eyes.

“Making it worse,” he informed her, then he went to the door to hold it open. “Come on in. You can clean up while I shut things down and get my keys. We can leave together.”

“So very gallant,” she teased again as she sashayed past him with raccoon eyes and rain dripping off her nose.

“I’ll grab you a towel first. Be right back.”

In less than five minutes, Lark had removed her ruined makeup, he’d closed down the shop, and they were each in their own separate vehicles, headed to the restaurant. He was starkly aware of Kathleen tucked into the bed of his truck. It almost felt like he’d stowed a body there or something.Made of fiberglass, he reminded himself.

Fortunately, he had a cover over the bed so the worsening rain didn’t damage her—it—more than it already had.

At the restaurant, Lark quickly parked, hopped out of her car and darted for the restaurant, meaning he was supposed to bring in Kathleen? Apparently, given how she smiled at him while holding open the door.

He liked Lark. She was light and funny, in contrast to Berkley’s intensity. She freely teased while Berkley usually sent out off-limits vibes. Lark chatted up everyone, and Berkley largely kept to herself.

Yet it was Berkley he couldn’t get off his mind. It wasn’t just the pull of a shared past, or the knowledge of a painful memory. It was more than that, something he’d felt nearly a decade ago. It had never really faded away, and now that she was close again, the sense of fate had intensified.

As he pulled up the hood of his slicker and left his truck, he wondered what Berkley was doing right now. Probably curled up in a chair with Hero and Cheese, reading or watching TV, not thinking about him, so he needed to stop thinking about her.

The second he stepped into the restaurant, Kathleen’s rigid body in his arms, applause broke out. It startled him enough that he damn near dropped the dummy.

One woman said “Oops!” and darted forward to adjust Kathleen’s bikini top.

Good God, both plastic breasts had been exposed!

With heat creeping up his neck, he stuck Kathleen in the corner and scowled at everyone. Which only made them clap louder.

Lark leaned into him, using his shoulder for leverage as she went on tiptoes to say near his ear, “You’re egging them on. Smile, take a bow, present Kathleen safe and sound, and I promise they’ll let up.”

He didn’t want to, but he also didn’t want to remain the center of attention, so he pointed at Lark, saying loudly, “The real hero,” and then raised her arm like the winner of a prize fight.

The cheers doubled, especially when he grinned, and together he and Lark bowed. When he came up, that was when he saw Berkley, and he immediately lost focus on everything else.

6

Berkley sipped hercola while watching Lawson and the woman from her small table at the back of the busy restaurant. What a cute couple they’d make.

The woman was all bubbly, laughing and teasing, and Lawson kept glancing at Kathleen in disgust. The poor mannequin was half-naked. Good thing her body parts weren’t in any detail.

If Betty was here, she’d be having a fit. Thinking that made Berkley smile, but the smile didn’t last, not when Lawson raised the woman’s hand and then took a dramatic bow with her.

Maybe they were already a couple and she just hadn’t heard the news yet.

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