Page 17 of Stone Deep
“I take it you were outbid.” I opened up the brown bag. I’d still been living in a crummy weekly rate motel just a few miles from work. Most of my meals came from the local mini-mart.
Nina stared with disapproval at my lunch, a bag of trail mix that looked well past its prime, a banana that had more black spots than yellow and an energy drink.
“It’s like going to lunch with three frat brothers on a road trip. Seriously, Brit, why don’t you come and live with me while you get stuff cleared up with Ryan. It’ll be fun. We could have slumber parties and talk about cute boys and practice putting on makeup.” She laughed.
I opened the drink and sipped it. “You were talking about your epic purse fail.”
“Right. I nabbed the darn thing for seventy bucks and,boy, was I thrilled. Then it comes in the mail, and it’s a damn fake. The brown stain was even coming off the faux leather.”
“I think your first mistake was thinking you could get a real Gucci for seventy dollars.” I put a handful of trail mix in my mouth. It was stale. Like my entire life. I was in such limbo, and I desperately needed to straighten myself out. But I wasn’t completely sure what I wanted or how to untangle things.
“How was your friend?” Nina asked over a spoonful of yogurt. “The one you visited in the hospital.”
“Oh, he’s fine.” Her question caught me off-guard. I’d used my visit to the hospital to get out of a shopping trip with Nina.
“Who is he?”
Another unexpected question. I waved my hand. “No one you know. Someone I knew in high school.”
“But I thought you went to high school in Iowa?”
“Yep, yep, I did—and he, the guy in the hospital, just happened to have moved west too.” Nina seemed to accept my poorly crafted response. I’d taken up the new hobby of lying and I hated it.
A group of pigeons landed in front of the bench. I tossed them a handful of the trail mix, and a dozen more fluttered down from the telephone wire above.
Nina gasped and closed up her lunch bag as if the birds might waddle right up and take it from her. With the way we were suddenly outnumbered and the way they were eyeing us as if we were made of breadcrumbs, they just might have made a grab for it.
“Oops, I guess tossing them food was a mistake.” I closed up my bag as well.
We stood up and walked back toward work. My phone rang, and my heart did a little skip. It had been three days since I’d visited Slade and had, on a whim, decided to punch my number into his phone. Like a teenage girl with a crush, my pulse had sped up every time my phone rang. I pulled it out. The number wasn’t familiar. Probably just a wrong number, I assured myself to avoid too much disappointment.
“I’m right behind you, Nina.”
She walked on ahead.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Tink, it’s Slade.”
Another round of fluttery heartbeats. His deep voice did not disappoint on the phone. “Hey, are you out of the hospital? Shit, just sayinghospitalhas churned up all the guilt again. I’m so sorry that happened, Slade.”
“I’m out and no worries. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a cool scar from it. I did get a remote control car out of the deal. Not to mention, the phone number of the very sexy elf who delivered it.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve got your fantasy creatures mixed up. Fairy and elf are two different species.” His smooth laugh rolled through the speaker as I stepped under the shade of a tree. Passing traffic made it a little hard to hear. “I’m just walking in from my lunch break, so I can’t talk long. I’m glad you’re up and about, Slade.”
“Me too. I’m off work for two weeks. I work on a fishing boat.”
I paused. “Shit. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”
“Actually, there is something. You can keep me from being bored out of my mind. Britton, the real reason I called was to let you know that I found out where Damon is. He’s working for a pool contractor in California.”
“What? How did you find that out?”
“Fairies aren’t the only ones with magical powers. Plus, I waited outside the county jail and asked the guy who stabbed me. I dropped the charges. My brother and I met him as he walked out.”
“And he told you?”
“Turns out that without a knife in his hand, he’s pretty fucking easy to intimidate.”
