Page 19 of The Fall Back Plan
I hand him my phone. “Put in your number, and I’ll let you know when she gets there. Send her down in about ten minutes, so it feels more organic. It’ll give me time to fill Tina in.”
He taps some keys and hands it back. “I really appreciate this, Jolie.”
I look past him to the station, like I can see Brooklyn hunched inside. “Like I said, I get it.” I give him a nod and head back toward the Mockingbird. I don’t look at my phone until I’m sure he’s gone back into the station. He texted himself with the message “Jolie’s number” and saved himself as “Lucas Who’s Still Sorry About High School.”
I admit it: it’s kind of sweet.
Chapter Ten
Jolie
Thelouddroneofthe power washer reaches me before the bar comes into view. Great. The neighboring businesses are going to loooove that sound.
Tina is gunning the water at the section where Ry got the worst of the paint off already. He’s farther down, where the overspray of the water won’t get him. I walk up beside Tina and she grins at me. “It’s fun, boss. You want a go?”
As I watch the faint traces of paint disappear beneath the blast of the water, I grin. It does look fun. “Yes, please.”
She releases the trigger and hands it to me, speaking loudly to be heard over the motor. “Nothing to it. Just aim and pull. Careful because it has a kick.”
The spray gun vibrates in my hand, barely coiled energy as it waits impatiently to be loosed to do its job. I brace my feet, aim, and pull the trigger. The force knocks me off-balance and the water pounds uselessly against the shallow eave over the spot I mean to get.
“You blind, cuz?” Ry calls. He’s grinning. “No paint up there.”
Tina grins too. “Warned you.”
I have to laugh. I release the trigger and brace my feet before I let the water rip again, and it’s extremely satisfying to watch more traces of paint disappear.
“Good job, Jo,” Ry yells over the noise. “You pick up quick. I’m looking for someone to do some custodial work around here. Interested?”
I answer by turning the water on him, knowing he’s too far away for it to do any damage beyond soaking him. His outraged yelp makes Tina laugh, and I keep the water flowing while I yell, “Dance, monkey, dance!”
“What’s going on here?”
I release the trigger and turn to find a vaguely familiar-looking woman about my age standing there, looking confused.
“I’m the owner. Sorry about the noise. Doing a little cleanup.”
She glances at the spray paint still remaining. Currently, my bar is named “ivans” because Apple Hat isn’t a fan of apostrophes. “Heard about that. Thought I’d come over and see if I could help.” She nods at the maroon awning across the street with “Domenico’s” spelled out in gold cursive. “My family owns the jewelry store over there. I’ll check our cameras and see if they caught anything.”
“That would be great,” I say. “I think the sheriff was going to send someone by to ask about it.”
She nods. “He’s on top of things. I actually came in a half hour early to open because he had Becky call me. That’s his assistant.”
“We met,” I tell her. “I’m Jolie, by the way. I’d shake hands, but mine are damp at the moment.”
“Jolie.” She squints like she’s trying to place me. “Wait, were you on the Harvest quiz bowl team in high school?”
“Yeah,” I say slowly, studying her back, and then my memory clears. “You were on the Stony Peak team, right?”
“Sophie Keller,” she says. “Or I am now. It was Domenico back then. Man, you smoked me in the district finals. I only felt better about losing to you when you won state. It’s good to see you again.”
“You too.” I’m surprised to find I mean it, but while Sophie had been a fierce competitor, she’d never been mean. “I plan to get a trivia night going as soon as we get our feet under us. You’ll have to come by.”
“For a rematch?” she asks, arching her eyebrows.
I laugh. “Definitely. But I should warn you, I haven’t lost a step.”
Her eyes glint. “When I was in labor with my second kid, I had my husband test me with Trivial Pursuit cards to distract me from my contractions until they got my epidural in.”
