Page 74 of Pulled By the Tail
“I am no such thing,” he protested.
“All sweet on the inside. I can’t believe they didn’t make fun of you in the Navy.”
He opened the door, visibly uneasy.
“They did!” Georgia bounced out of the car. “Was it Charl? He doesn’t say much but when he does, I bet it’s biting.”
Talen’s ears went back. “Enough. That trinket is all I have of my parents. I smuggled it off Talmar when I was a kit. I will not be mocked.”
“Oh.” She hurried forward and placed a hand on his arm. He did not speak often, or ever, about his parents. She knew they were murdered, and he had to leave his home planet as a child. All this had to be dragging up unpleasant memories. “I’m sorry. That was a shitty thing for me to say.”
“Yes, it was,” he grumbled, and then he ran a hand through his hair. Somehow, he looked better for the mess. “Fiona needs quick cash, so she’d try to sell the items she took.”
“She won’t get a fraction of the music box’s value if she pawned it.”
“Hopefully, neither she nor the pawnbroker will recognize what she has.”
Georgia saw no value in adding that they needed a lot of luck for that to happen, so she kept her mouth shut.
Fiona hadn’t visited the first pawn shop, or the second, nor had they heard of a human female trying to sell a gaudy music box. At the fourth shop, they found some of the silver serving pieces that Fiona took, but no music box. At some point, Fiona must have realized what she had, or at least thought she could get a better price elsewhere.
Georgia called jewelers, thinking maybe Fiona tried to sell the music box in parts. No human female with chestnut hair wandered in with flawless sapphires and diamonds that day.
By mid-afternoon, all they had to show for their efforts were sore feet, a cranky disposition, and zero leads.
“You take me to all the best places,” she grumbled, sliding back into the vehicle.
“We’ll stay the night. I’m too tired to drive back,” Talen said.
“We can try again in the morning.”
“No. She didn’t pawn the music box. Perhaps she did have a private collector lined up.”
His shoulders slumped with a look of defeat. She wanted to squeeze his hand, stroke behind his ear, the way he would never admit to enjoying but made his tail curl and comfort him. The wordsonly a material possessionwere on her lips but she knew how crass that would sound. In the grand scheme of the universe, one music box wasn’t as important as a loved one, but that same music box represented all his lost family.
Fuck it. She could offer comfort and keep her mouth shut at the same time. Stranger things had happened.
“It’s a stupid thing to be upset about, isn’t it?” He leaned into her hand, eyes closing as her fingers worked behind his ear. “Did I tell you it was a courting gift from my father to my mother?”
“You said he had it made for her.” The jeweledobjet d’artseemed a bit much to her, but she kept her snarky comment to herself.
“She hated it. Said it was a waste of good money.”
Georgia tried to swallow her laugh. “I think I would have liked your mother.”
“I believe she would adore you.” He pulled away, the light catching fire in his honey-amber gaze. “Enough chasing ghosts. Fiona can keep the blasted thing. Food first, I think, then there’s somewhere I want to take you.”
“Sounds good.”
Dinner was a simple meal at a riverside diner. They ambled down the boardwalk, past boutiques and specialty shops, eventually stopping at a narrow brick building painted blue.
“Here we are, my favorite shop,” he said, which turned out to be a rare bookshop.
“You really do take me to all the best places,” she said, genuinely meaning her words this time.
The clerk at the counter recognized Talen when they walked in.
The shop smelled of aged leather, dusty pages, and beeswax. With bookshelves crowding the floor, creating a maze, and the odd chair tucked into unexpected nooks, this was exactly the sort of place she expected Talen to love.
