Page 9 of Tattle Tail
It was amazing fun. The way her eyes sparkled just before she delivered a scathing comment, but her face remained perfectly calm, as if bored. Still, her tail danced behind her, making him certain that she enjoyed the game as much as him.
He spun in the chair to face the window. Kicking his feet up on the windowsill, he admired the view of the courtyard. The fountain had frozen over in the cold and the trees were bare of leaves. Snow blanketed the flowerbeds. In warmer weather, it had to be a hell of a view. Being the assistant to the big boss obviously had its perks.
He should take the opportunity to rummage through her desk, find some dirt. She had dirt. Everyone did. Some people were just better at hiding it.
Still, searching her desk while she was out wouldn’t be fair. That’s not how he played the game.
Joseph swiveled back to the desk and scrawled a message on a color square of paper.“Organic, free trade. Live a little.”
He placed a shiny piece of foil-wrapped chocolate on the note.
Peaceable
Peaceable kicked off her shoes the moment she arrived home. Nettle, her wuap, demanded a tribute of adoration and treats. She stroked the creature’s fur, scratching behind the ears and tugging gently on the feathery tail.
Returning to work after lunch had been a mistake. She was too wound up from her mother’s deception to focus.
The single piece of chocolate waiting on her desk sent her mind in an entirely different direction. She enjoyed the Earth confection, but the colonies that grew cocoa beans locally often had political turmoil, so she abstained. Somehow, Joseph knew this.
Between her mother’s schemes and Joseph’s unexpected gesture, productivity was a lost cause. She had finally given the afternoon up as a lost cause and left early, finally using some of her comp time.
Once home, she had nothing to distract her from the unpleasant task of speaking to her mother.
She ran a finger over the entryway table, which needed to be dusted. For a moment, she felt the temptation to clean her entire apartment just to delay the inevitable.
No. It had to be done. Her mother would not stop matchmaking unless Peaceable made it clear that her efforts were unwanted. Even then, it might take more convincing, but it had to be done.
Unwilling to draw out the pain, she called her mother.
Tolerance answered immediately, her voice booming over the speakers. “Why is there no visual?”
Because Peaceable was a terrible liar and her mother would be able to see everything.
“Weather is interfering with the connection,” she said. Not true at all. CayneTech had the most stable and reliable comm tech in the system.
Her mother made a disgruntled noise. “I don’t know why I allow you to work out there in the middle of nowhere. You should be in the city where it’s civilized and our comm works all the time.”
“This is not nowhere.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“There hasn’t been a mornclaw sighting in over a year.”
More disgruntled noises. Peaceable could hear her mother’s tail twitch in irritation. “It was tolerable when you might have married your boss.”
“Mr. Cayne has always had a mate,” she said. She admired her boss, and she liked his mate. Winter never hurried Peaceable as she tried to untangle her thoughts and explain her ideas. Marigold treated her as a friend, always welcoming.
“Not that one. The other one.”
“Chase Cayne? He was a murderer!”
“Well, we know thatnow, but he was very charming.”
In an oily sort of way.
Peaceable did not understand her mother.
Toying with the ends of her hair, she twisted the locks in her hands. This was a distraction. She said, “Mother, I do not appreciate the trick you pulled today.”
