Page 114 of The Woman in the Hollow
“You knew?” she asked, looking at me.
“Only after the fact.” Which, now that I said it, wasn’t a great excuse. “I told him not to break in.”
“Why did he break in?”
“He didn’t trust you,” I admitted. “He wanted to make sure you weren’t in bed with the guys who were fucking with the garden center.”
“Why didn’t you tell me he went in?”
Well, if we were doing the whole truth thing, I had to steel myself for her reaction to the next thing I was about to say.
“Because of what he found when he went in,” I admitted.
Dom looked like he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him.
Hazel glared at the top of his head for a second before turning to look at me. “What did he find?” she asked, teeth clenched so tight her jaw must have hurt.
“Something very personal.”
“Personal? What, like my tamp—” Her eyes went huge as the realization dawned on her.
“Are youserious?” she seethed. “That was hidden in an old purse in the closet.”
“It’s no big deal,” Dom said, trying to do some damage control. “What chick doesn’t have one?”
Clearly, Hazel. Before she bought the one he found.
“I am going to find a really horrible, truly diabolical way to punish you for this,” Hazel warned.
“Don’t talk dirty to me. Your man is right here,” Dom teased, making Hazel roll her eyes.
“How was everything at your place?” I asked, getting up to pull the chair out for her.
“Weird.”
“Weird how?”
“I don’t know. It felt oddly… foreign. Like all my stuff is there, but it didn’t feel like it was mine.”
“Because it’s not,” Dom said, shrugging. “You live with Dante now.”
She did.
But that wasn’t an actual conversation we’d had yet. She just hadn’t left yet. She actually bought some new clothes to keep at my place so she didn’t have an excuse to go home.
The only reason she’d decided to go back today was because of the shrimp and concerns about her bills.
“Well, I, uh, have been staying with—” Hazel started, voice tight.
“She’s not living with me,” I said, hating the way her face fell instantly. “She can’t be until she moves her shit over.”
“About that… is it okay that I brought the shrimp? I know their ecosystem is supposed to support itself, but I’m paranoid about it.”
“How about we rent a truck and move everything over?”
“A truck?” she asked, shaking her head. “I don’t have that much.”
“You have furniture.”
