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The diner isn’t busy when we show up, since it’s between lunch and dinner time. One thing Calli and I always share is an unconventional schedule. I don’t think either of us has ever gone to bed, woken up, or eaten meals at the normal time. It’s a freedom few get—due to their jobs—and I’m grateful for it. How much different would people be without clock hands urging them to go or stay, sleep or eat?
Silver points at me when we enter and calls out, “I don’t have any apple fritters so don’t you start with me, Arlow!”
“You’d better get back there and get to work then!” I retort, and she flips me off. I think I won her over at some point.
She comes out to talk to us in our corner booth after the waitress has taken our order. “How’s your mom?” Calli asks.
“Sitting in her wheelchair in the office right now. She was getting cabin fever, and it was either bring her to work with me or push her into the road.”
Calli nearly chokes on her drink as they laugh together. “I’ll go back to say hi before we go.”
“I’m sure she’ll sniff you out before then.”
She isn’t wrong. About halfway through our meal, Mona rolls out of the kitchen and down to join us. With one leg and one arm in a cast, she looks pitiful, but there’s not an ounce of weakness in her voice.
“Silver said you were out here. How dare you not come back to the office to visit me!” she says to Calli.
“Sorry, I was going to after we eat,” I reply instead, beating Calli to it and making her laugh.
Mona looks me up and down. “Where were you when we needed something off the high shelf? I wouldn’t have trippedover that stepstool!” She raises her voice on the last words as a man wipes one of the tables near us.
“For hell’s sake, Mona, I said I was sorry. What do you want? Blood?” he grumbles.
“It’d be a start,” she replies, then turns back to Calli. “Silver told you about the cabin?”
Calli’s gaze flits to mine for a split second before she regards Mona again. “She did. I need some time to consider what I’m going to do.”
“Of course. I know we sprung it on you.”
“I appreciate you giving me first dibs though. It’s a beautiful place.”
Calli told me that she wasn’t going to inform Silver of the burglary, and clearly she hasn’t told her about anything that’s happened since, but it sounds like they plan to sell the property.
They talk for a while. I wait until Mona returns to the kitchen and we’ve finished eating before asking, “Are you buying the cabin?”
Her tongue peeks out between her lips as she hesitates. “How would you feel about it if I did?”
Is she serious? “I’d love that. Are you seriously considering it?”
“I don’t know. It depends on how things turn out, I guess. It doesn’t seem like the wisest choice right now.”
Of course it doesn’t. I have to put an end to this bullshit or she’s going to leave. I’m going to lose her. “Do you have to give them a decision soon?”
“They aren’t pushing me for one. I have some time to think and see what happens over the next few weeks, at least. My lease isn’t up until summer but I’m sure both of us are willing to break it at this point.”
Silver appears with a box full of donuts and sets it on our table. “On the house,” she announces, then adds, “Donuts, not dinner.”
Chuckling, I pull my card out and lay it on the check for the waitress, shaking my head at Calli when she tries to do the same. “I’ve got it.”
Silver interrupts her when she opens her mouth. “Let him be a gentleman about it, girl. Besides, he got his apple fritters.”
I pop open the box to find that’s true and look up at her. “They’re warm. You made them just for me.”
“I told Charlotte to make some because we were out. Don’t be so conceited.”
“I don’t know. I think I’m growing on you.”
“Like a fungus, maybe,” she scoffs, leaning to give Calli a hug. “I have to get back to work, but don’t be a stranger. I’ll call you when I have a night free to hang out soon.”
