Page 62 of No Saint
Her expression blanked. Jade had always had a soft spot for animals. Back in high school, she nearly wrecked her Jeep to avoid hitting a possum. When she asked if it was okay, I’d checked the rearview. The tire must have skimmed its hind legs, because it was dragging itself across the road. When I paused before answering, she pulled over and tried to catch the damn thing to take it to an animal shelter. If she were willing to save one of God’s ugliest creations, she’d want to save a rat.
I swerved into a spot. “Don’t worry. There aren’t any rats,” I said, and threw open my door. “It’s just to make Rogue calm his eccentric ass down.”
Jade got out and rounded the back of my truck. “Seems like a waste of money then.”
“Trust me. Five bucks is worth my sanity.”
We headed across the lot toward the automatic doors. They slid open to ice-cold air and the scent of fish displayed at the front of the store.
Mrs. Seaton stood at the entrance in her blue greeter’s vest, placing a sticker on a kid’s shirt. When she noticed me walk in, she smiled and shuffled over to give me a hug. “Well, ain’t this a pleasant surprise?” She stepped back, her attention drifting to Jade. That weathered smile deepened. “And who’s this you’ve got with you, Mr. Wolf?”
“Jade.”
“Well, it’s mighty nice to meet you. I’m Bernice. I watch Mr. Dog for Wolf from time to time.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Mrs. Seaton’s attention was back on me. “Speaking of. When do I get to see that rascal again?”
“Maybe next week?”
“All right. I’ll make sure to have all the treats for him.” She glanced at the entrance, already fishing in her vest pocket for more stickers. “Gotta get back to work.”
“She seems nice,” Jade said as we headed toward the buggy corral.
“She is.” And, with my dad and mom gone, the closest thing I had to something that felt like family.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and snapped a picture of the blue-and-white logo behind the shopping carts, then sent it to Hendrix in a text with a middle finger emoji. He responded immediately.
Take a shit on the condom aisle in my honor.
Like a stamp, Hendrix was here in spirit.
“Hendrix still banned?” Jade asked over my shoulder.
“Yep.” Laughing, I crammed the device back into my pocket and wrangled one of the beat-up shopping carts free.
“You know, there are levels, and getting banned from Wal-E-Mart really is rock bottom,” she said.
He’d had a good streak, though. Ten straight years of shoplifting random shit from his favorite store, and he didn’t get caught until he got cocky. “You know, when it happened, he cried for a week.”
“Well, that’s what he gets for stealing a yard flamingo he didn’t even need.” She headed into the store.
“It was his pride and joy.” That idiot had it on display in the living room for half a year before Zepp decapitated it during a party. “He even buried it in the backyard after its untimely death.”
“You really need to start surrounding yourself with sane people.”
I maneuvered the buggy around a display of diapers. “Sane is boring.”
“So, I’m boring?”
“Hendrix didn’t call you Weirdo in high school for no reason…”
“We both know he thought I wasweirdfor not wanting to screw him. Apparently, that’s all you have to do to qualify.”
Thank God she had never given in to that crap. I would have hated to castrate one of my best friends.
The wheel on the buggy squeaked as I pushed it past the produce section. “Where do they keep rat traps?”
