Page 23 of Unexpected Heroine

“Spoil sport.”

We remain relatively silent while we eat. He keeps studying me from across the table, as if he’s ensuring I’m okay.

Funny thing is, I’m unclear about that too.

Despite a decent night’s sleep and a full belly, I’m still drained.

Once I finish eating, I wad up my napkin and toss it onto my plate. “Can I text Stella from your phone?”

He unlocks his cell, taps the screen, and slides it across the table to me. I glance down, seeing a blank text message with Stella’s name populated as the recipient. Beside her name is Sugar Bear’s Best Friend in parentheses.

He finishes his coffee while I type out a message to my bestie.

“What are you telling her?” he asks, compassion thickening his tone.

“Not the truth,” I quip.

“You don’t want to tell her?”

I meet his eyes. “Not by text, babe.”

“But you will tell her the truth when you speak to her, right?”

“Yes. In a few days when I can talk about it without breaking down. I can’t have her worrying about me in the meantime. I’ll tell her I broke my phone so she knows why I’m texting from yours. Not like it’s hard to believe I’d break something.”

As soon as I’ve texted Stella, I slide the phone back to him. “There. Now she has no reason to be bouncing off the walls or organizing the Climax Search and Rescue Brigade.”

The corners of his mouth quirk. “That’s a real thing, isn’t it?”

My chest throbs with my suppressed chuckle. “Of course it is.”

“Not surprised.” He looks at me expectantly. “Go on. I know you want to tell me the story.”

I grin sheepishly. “I really do.” This will be a nice mood lifter, which we both need.

He waves his open palm at me.

“Disclaimer. Stella tells it better than I do.”

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine, sweetness.”

He winks, and my heart swells.

“Okay, the Brigade was formed about seven years ago after Jill Marshall posted an SOS to the Town Crier website, begging for volunteers to help her look for her dear little Crouton.”

He furrows his brow. Fair reaction.

“Naturally, people thought she was off her meds. Amanda Van Sickle, the town smart-ass, immediately posted a video of her popping a salad crouton into her mouth and chewing it violently. This devolved into other townies one-upping her. Sarah Valentine replied with a video of her holding a head of lettuce and a bottle of ranch dressing with a maniacal look on her face. She was yelling, ‘You can’t hide from me. I will find you, crouton!’ Then Jessica Robitaille posted a picture of herself in the grocery store in the crouton aisle and captioned it They always hide in plain sight. While that’s funny, it’s also quite offensive to poor Jill, who was plumb beside herself.”

James’s smile grows more animated as my story continues.

I hold up my finger when he starts to speak. “I’m not done, James.”

He rolls his finger around, encouraging me to continue, then flops his hand onto the table face up. Drawn to touch him, I reach forward and slip my hand into his.

“The last straw was when Kris Wojtko posted a photoshopped Where’s Waldo page with about a half dozen croutons hidden in it. Side note: her ability to pull that off so quickly got her a job offer from the Climax Gazette, which is like the town’s version of The Onion. Anyway, the next thing you know, Jill posts a video of herself in tears. We’re talking ugly crying, snot running down her face, and everything.”

He can’t hold in his question any longer. “Wait, wait, wait. Why is she looking for a crouton?”

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