Page 21 of The Alien Reindeer's Bounty
“And you can’t even tell me why.” Her voice sounded fragile and vulnerable and she hated it, every moment of whateverthisshitshow was. “You should leave.”
He lowered his head and ran a hand up the back of his head, mussing his hair, and glanced up through those thick, dark lashes. She knew that look, his wheedling-to-get-his-way look.
Not today. She had zero interest in his excuses. So maybe his dad finally shipped him off to military school like he had always threatened. Email was a thing. They still had phones in military school. Ghosting is what the kids called it nowadays. Somehow that knowledge ramped up her frustration. A simple “I’m alive” would have done so much to soothe her heartache, but all she had was years worth of silence.
“Leave before I call the cops,” she said.
He nodded. “As you wish.”
“Don’t you quotePrincess Brideat me,” she snapped, her good behavior and patience at an end. How dare he drag in their favorite movie, like a shared memory could repair the distance between them. “That’s my movie now. When you left, you left it behind, and I’m not sharing. Now leave. I won’t ask again.” She reached into her pocket for her phone.
“Everything okay here?” a male voice asked. Odessa’s shoulders slumped in relief as Rocco, the local sheriff’s deputy, approached. With his buzz-cut hair and starched uniform, he stopped in every day for a piece of fruit—apple or grapes, usually—and a granola bar. She’d never been more pleased to see a regular customer.
Rocco quickly assessed the situation. “This guy bothering you?”
“I’m going. I apologize.” Mads held up his hands in surrender as he left the market.
“You okay, boss?” Bonnie asked, appearing with the mop and bucket. Efficiently, she placed a wet floor sign and tossed the ruined package in a trash bag.
Fantastic. Odessa had an audience.
She watched the doors, half-hoping that Mads would storm back, explain himself and beg for her forgiveness. “Fine,” she eventually muttered.
“That’s the guy, huh?” Bonnie worked the mop across the floor.
Odessa grabbed a cloth and a spray bottle of cleaner and wiped down the shelving. Splatter got everywhere. She should have denied knowing anything abouta guybut Bonnie would call her out on her baloney. “That’s him.”
“I didn’t think he’d look like he walked off a movie set. Like an action movie and he uses a magic hammer to smite the bad guys.” Appreciation dripped in every word.
Not thinking about Mads’ magic hammer.
“Looks aren’t everything,” Odessa said. “You know how you can crush on someone and you’re all about them. They’re perfect. Then one day the spell breaks and you can’t stand the sight of them?” The spell never broke for her. She had hoped that time would ease how she felt, or at least let it fade from slavish devotion to mediocre affection, but no such luck.
Her heart still raced when he spoke to her. The sight of him made her smile and a warm, honey-sweet sentiment filled her and it wasn’t fair.
“I don’t know,” Bonnie said. “He seems legit perfect. Everyone said he was good looking, but I figured all you old-timers’ memories were getting fuzzy.”
“Bonnie,” she said but Bonnie ignored her and kept on talking.
“Things get talked up, you know, like how when you catch a fish, that fish keeps getting bigger every time you tell the story.”
“Bonnie, enough.” Odessa wiped down the last of the splatter. Her headache was back in full force.
“All right, all right. Did you hear about Selena?” Bonnie barely paused for breath, waiting for Odessa to answer. “Well, she ran off. Skipped out on her rent and left Tina high and dry. How is she going to afford that two-bedroom apartment on her own? She’d been seeing some guy over in Spokane, which is a stupid long way to go but the dating pool is a little shallow here, if you know what I mean—”
“Bonnie.”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Sometimes it’s okay not to say anything.”
Chapter 7
Odessa
Odessa dashed across the street, lured by the siren call of hot coffee with flavored syrup and maybe a chicken salad sandwich, or one of those turkey-stuffing-cranberry wraps.
Her stomach rumbled.
