Page 53 of Hold Your Breath
A change came over Smelly Jim’s expression, and he stared at her suspiciously. “Why are you asking me all these questions?”
Thrown off guard, she hesitated, then said tentatively, “So I can figure out who’s watching me.”
The hardness in his face didn’t ease. “Are you working forthem?”
“No!” She scrambled to get back to their normal odd, but fairly easygoing, footing. “They’re following me, too, remember?”
Obviously, he didn’t, since he stomped out of the post office, sending mistrustful glares over his shoulder. Lou sighed and then pulled out her phone, intending to call Callum and fill him in on her conversation with Smelly Jim. However, when she saw the time on her phone’s screen, she yelped. She had only five minutes to grab her package and get to work, or she’d be late. Repocketing her cell phone, she bolted for the package locker.
Of course the lock was sticky, but she finally managed to wrestle it open and grab the box containing a couple of months’ worth of toilet paper she’d ordered. She sprinted for her truck while muttering a prayer under her breath that all four tires would be intact. When she saw that everything was fully inflated, she let out a huff of relief and climbed into the driver’s seat.
She flew into The Coffee Spot with thirty seconds to spare, but Ivy still gave her a sour look.
“Sorry!” Lou apologized, despite the fact that she wasn’t really late. If she was going to bring up the whole not-being-alone thing with her boss, she wanted to start the conversation off on a good note. However, judging by Ivy’s expression, it wasn’t going to go well. “I ran into Smelly Jim at the post office, and we started talking…”
“Talking? With Smelly Jim? That’s why you’re late?”
Lou debated giving Ivy the entire rundown of Jim’s possible sighting of her stalker, but she looked at her boss’s closed expression and went with just a silent nod instead.
Ivy let out a gusty sigh as she reached beneath the counter, pulling her purse out of the cubby. “I have to pick Briana up at the sitter’s, since there’s no preschool today. There’s a lunch order for the guys at the hardware store. I left the ticket in the back, and you’ll need to put that together before Deedee picks everything up in a half hour. See you tomorrow.”
The last sentence was thrown over her shoulder as Ivy rushed out the door, leaving Lou with an open mouth and still no company at closing time. She closed her mouth and sighed.
“Callum is going to be pissed,” she said in a singsong under her breath.
As she headed to the back, she called Callum and put the phone on speaker so she could make sandwiches for the guys at the hardware store and talk at the same time. Normally she didn’t miss her Bluetooth, but this was a rare exception. It was one of many things she’d abandoned in a back-to-basics purge when she’d moved to Colorado.
“Sparks,” he answered, his voice pulling her out of her nostalgic moment.
“Callum,” she responded as she spread chipotle mayo. “Do you want the good news—well, odd and sort of interesting news—or the bad news first?”
“Bad.”
She made a face. She’d rather have told him the odd and interesting news, while hoping that he’d forget all about the bad news by the end of the conversation. “You sure?”
“Lou…”
“Fine.” She sighed. “Ivy had to bolt out of here as soon as I arrived for my shift, so I still haven’t talked to her about adding another person to be here at closing.”
“Okay.” Surprisingly, he didn’t sound too upset. “I’ll come by after work.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “You have to be getting sick of this place.”And of me, she added silently.
“I’m not sick of that place.”
She hoped that also meant he wasn’t sick of her either. Shaking her head to rid herself of her uncharacteristic insecurity, Lou said briskly, “Good. See you later, then. Want to hear about the odd and interesting part now, or do you need to go?”
“Let’s hear it.”
As she layered lettuce and sliced tomatoes on the sandwiches, Lou gave him the truncated version of her talk with Smelly Jim. “So,” she concluded, “I don’t know if this is all a figment of his imagination, or if he really was describing my stalker.”
“Hmm.” There was a pause, which Lou used to start filling the take-out boxes with the completed sandwiches, chips, and cookies. “If he did see your stalker, then that rules out anyone local.”
“I was thinking that, too,” she said excitedly. “His description was pretty sketchy, but I thought I’d call Rob—” The jangle of bells cut her off mid-sentence. “I think Deedee just came in for her sandwiches. Can I call you later?”
“If you have time. Otherwise, I’ll see you after five.”
“Five?” She blinked in surprise. “But that means you’ll have to be here over two hours…hello?” She looked at the phone and saw the call had been ended. “Grrr. That man and his lack of good-byes.” Raising her voice, she called, “I’ll be right out!”
