Page 328 of Safe With You

One customer left.

I glanced toward the clock.

7:53 p.m.

Seven minutes until close.

Mr. Martin finally made his way toward the counter with a paperback in his hand.

Knew it.

“Hold on again.”

“You’re supposed to be working.”

“I am working.”

I set the phone beside the register and checked him out.

By the time he left, the clock read 7:58.

I locked the door behind him, flipped the sign to CLOSED, and picked my phone back up.

“All right. I’m yours.”

“Finally.”

“You called me at work.”

“And you answered.”

“Because I love you.”

“As you should.”

I laughed and walked from behind the counter.

I started the usual closing routine with the phone tucked between my shoulder and ear. Straightened the display near the entrance. Picked up a coffee cup somebody left on one of the tables. Pushed in two chairs.

Mama had moved on from Sunday dinner to telling me about somebody from church whose name I vaguely recognized.

I made the appropriate sounds in the appropriate places.

Then she said, “Oh, before I forget.”

“Hmm?”

“Lucas reached out to me.”

My hand stopped on the back of a chair.

For a second, I thought I heard her wrong.

“What?”

“Lucas.”

I straightened slowly.