Page 37 of Fish out of Water
And back behind lines I’d drawn years ago.
I flattened my palm, spreading my fingers wide against the curved plane of her stomach.
It rumbled loud enough to hear and strong enough to feel.
Even her stomach had an attitude.
“Come on, Banana Pants. Time to go eat.” I pulled my hand from the heat of her body before taking one of hers, lacing our fingers together as I did another visual sweep of the outside. Once I knew the coast was clear I opened the door and dragged Julia out with me, keeping her close as we went down the steps.
Sally was standing on the sidewalk in front of her building, talking to Sharon Sherling. She gave me a wide smile that faltered when her eyes dropped to Julia’s hand in mine. “I have the new key to your uncle’s apartment.”
“Excellent.” I snagged it from her outstretched hand.
“I just wanted to be sure you didn’t have to wait.” Her eyes stayed on me as I kept walking.
That was the only way to handle this place. Don’t stop moving. Once you stopped they had you.
“Thank you so much. I’m sure Vito will appreciate it.” I shot Sally a quick smile as I headed for my car, dragging Julia along with me.
“Why are you all the way out here?” She turned to look back toward the building. “There’s plenty of closer spaces.”
“I park out here when I stay so Vito doesn’t notice I’m here.” I’d made that mistake the first time, parking right up front, making my presence obvious enough he managed to avoid me for almost a week.
“Why don’t you want him to know you’re here?” Julia kept up with my long strides, the sneakers on her feet doing a much better job than the flip flops she murdered earlier.
“If he knows I’m here he won’t come back.” I held out the key fob and unlocked my car.
Julia’s sneakers skidded to a stop. “That’s your car?”
I smothered a smile. “It is.”
I hadn’t realized I wanted to impress her. Not until it happened.
I opened her door and waited while she climbed in. She carefully sat in the seat, her feet flat on the floor, arms tucked in at her sides, back stick straight.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She gave me a weird smile.
Which made sense. She was weird incarnate.
I closed her door and went to mine, getting in and cranking up the air. “Where to?”
“There’s this little place downtown that I love.”
“Then that’s where we’ll go.” I was interested to see what Julia considered someplace nice.
Ten minutes later I was staring at it.
The building was small and brightly painted in every color of the rainbow. The seating consisted of weathered picnic tables lining the edge of the parking lot. None of that really surprised me. I figured I was on my way somewhere interesting if it was Julia’s favorite place.
Whatwassurprising was the name of the place.
Dave’s Tots and Wienerswas hand painted across a wide wooden sign hanging over the service window.
“You didn’t think I’d seen enough wieners for the day?”
Julia’s lips twisted in a saucy little smirk. “You’ll get to do more than look at them here.”
