Page 73
“I’m on it,” I bit out. “She doesn’t need to talk to anyone else today. She’s over at the vet, making sure her dog is okay.”
“Understood.” Simon stood up and leaned across his desk to shake my hand. Roan held out his hand as well.
“Expect to hear from us no later than tomorrow,” Simon called out as I was leaving his office.
“I’ll hold you to it.”
20
When I left Onyx, I texted Marlowe to see if she was ready for me to pick her up. She said she wasn’t, which really didn’t come as that big of a surprise. She and the vet were probably exchanging recipes. Since I had a little bit of time on my hands I decided to track down Java Jolt. It was easy enough when I got to the town square, since there was a sign on the side of the hardware store pointing back a block to the coffee shop.
Bells jingled when I opened the door and the scent of coffee came at me like a heavenly wind. There were three women in line before me. I realized they were all together and one woman was paying. Good, I would get to the counter faster. When I did, I asked for a black cup of coffee, and any pastry she would recommend. She had smiled at me when I first walked up, but when I suggested she choose the pastry, she gave me a full-watt smile, and she was dazzling. Not as gorgeous as Marlowe, but close.
“Are you Ruby Garner?” I asked.
“Yep.” She looked me up and down, then asked. “Are you Kai Davies?”
“How’d you know that?”
“Word gets around.” She grinned. “But from what I hear from Pearl, you like all kinds of desserts, so I’m thinking it’s going to be hard to go wrong.”
“I do have my favorites.”
“Would they know how to do algebra?” Her eyes gleamed as she asked that question. She put down the large coffee on the counter, then bent toward the bakery items.
I chuckled. “I think Marlowe even knows calculus,” I bragged.
Ruby laughed too as she brought out a cherry turnover and put it on a plate. She pointed to my backpack. “Are you planning on working this morning?”
“I want to make a couple of phone calls and do a little research.”
“It’s hot out, so go over near the fireplace. There’s no fire, but still, in the summer people tend to avoid it. Also, there’s a plug if you need it.”
I swiped my card to pay for my items and took her advice and headed toward the fireplace. As soon as I was settled, I pulled my laptop out of my backpack. Marlowe had teased me about it. She said I needed to venture into the new decade and get myself a tablet, but I refused to trade-up on anything that wasn’t broken. Unless, of course, it was a bigger screen TV.
I took a sip of Ruby’s coffee and wondered if she sold bags of it that I could buy as I booted up my laptop. Granted, Simon and Roan looked like they had a handle on shit, especially when it came to Marlowe’s old boyfriend and principal, but I really didn’t want to sit around with my thumb up my ass and wait for their phone call. Especially when it came to my fucking father.
As usual, my laptop made its normal grinding sounds as it started up, another thing that told Marlowe that I needed to upgrade, or at least back it up. I pretended not to know what backing it up meant just to fuck with her. That had been fun. I took a bite of my cherry turnover and dialed Lucky’s number. He was going to be out on a boat, but he was a good guy; he’d take my call if he could.
“Where have you been, you asshole? You almost die and then don’t keep us up to date, what the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry, did you send some flowers that I should have thanked you for?”
God, I loved this guy.
“We sent a stripper telegram, didn’t she show up?”
“You’re too cheap to have sent that. Now if Shil had told me that lie, I might have believed it.”
“Answer the goddamned question. Where have you been?”
“Calm your ass down. I called you when I was in Walter Reed. I told you they had me up and walking.”
“What you told me, and I’ll give you an exact quote, was; I can now drag my legs from one end of the parallel bars to the other without falling, end quote. Jesus, Kai, all of us texted you and left you messages. Did it ever occur to you to call or text us back?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I wasn’t in good head space,” I reluctantly admitted.
Lucky didn’t speak for so long, I had to look down at my screen to make sure he hadn’t hung up on me.
