We say goodbye and end the call. I open my laptop, determined to get a bit of work done before Ella arrives, but I end up staring at the Lightroom icon, thinking about my neighbor instead.
I think about the dark circles beneath her eyes when I saw her yesterday and the paleness of her cheeks. The fact that she fell asleep sitting at the register.
Jade is the only one working at that store. I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to put in such long hours without help, and keeping a place like that going doesn’t end when the sign on the door says “Closed.”
As hurt as I was about her leaving the other night, I still had to make sure she was all right and that she wasn’t heading for another panic attack. And if that’s not telling, I don’t know what is. Normally, I’d be relieved to not have to deal with a woman being clingy, but I would’ve happily let Jade cling to me like a fucking leech if she wanted.
A heavy knock reverberates from downstairs. I close my laptop and bound down the stairs only to find no one waiting outside.
My smile falters as I search the ground for suspicious brown paper bags. Nothing. I’m about to close the door when Ella and Iris leap out from behind the large blue mailbox on the sidewalk.
“Surprise!” my niece shouts. The blood-red lipstick smeared around her mouth has smudged onto her teeth, making her look like a tiny, deranged vampire. “Did we scare you, Uncle Pickle?” she asks.
I deadpan, “So much. I think I peed my pants.”
That makes her giggle and check to see if I’m lying or not.
Iris throws her eyes to the heavens before heaving a bedazzled wheelie bag of god-knows-what from the car. Ella snaps open the handle and drags it along the sidewalk, away from my apartment.
“Where are you headed, Joker? My place is this way.”
“I wanna go scare Jade.”
My gaze flits to the “Open” sign hanging in the Quinn Brother’s front door. Strange. They aren’t supposed to open for another twenty-five minutes.
Ignoring the way Iris’s brows lift, I open my door wider and motion Ella inside. “Not today, kiddo.”
I still need to figure out what I’m going to say to Jade the next time we meet. I haven’t seen her since Ella interrupted our hug and demanded to be let into it. And since my niece’s bladder is the size of a penny, she’d announced that she had to pee, so we left without getting to finish stocking the shelves.
Should I play it cool and pretend like nothing happened? That doesn’t feel right, but maybe it’s for the best. If Jade already regrets being with me, the worst thing I can do is bring it up again. Unlessshewants to bring it up. Then that’s another story.
Although Ella doesn’t look happy about my plans, she steers her bag over to me and leaves it on the stoop. I nearly throw my back out when I lift the damn thing. What’s she got in here? A bunch of rocks? Wouldn’t put it past her. That kid has a thing for gravel.
Up in my apartment, Iris drops onto one of the kitchen chairs with a heavy sigh while Ella flops on the floor right in front of the couch and unzips her bag. Holy shit, that’s a lot of makeup. I have a feeling I’m going to look like a painted lady by noon.
“Coffee?” I ask my sister.
Her ponytail swings when she shakes her head. “Just water, thanks.”
I grab a glass from the cupboard and fill it from the fridge. When I set the glass down, she immediately brings it to her face and presses it to her cheek. “You okay, sis?”
Her eyes sink shut. “I’m fine. Just a little queasy.”
Ella lines up lipsticks and nail polishes in a rainbow of colors along the edge of the coffee table. “What are we gonna do today?” she asks.
“You tell me.”
The doll she withdraws from her bag looks like something out of a horror movie. Jade loves horror movies. Halloween is this coming weekend. I wonder if she’ll dress as something sexy or scary? Does she have any plans for Halloween night?
I shove those thoughts aside. We aren’t a thing, and we never can be.
Seriously, though. Ella’s doll is only a head and shoulders and…hands? What the fuck? The blonde hair is half chopped, there’s only one eye, and someone—or something—has chewed on the fingers of its right hand. It’s the stuff of nightmares that makes me think of that island Jade told me about. The one with the possessed dolls. This thing belongs there.
Ella’s face lights up. “Let’s help Jade at the store again!”
Iris chokes on her water. Probably should’ve mentioned that I helped a competitor yesterday.Whoops.
“Uncle Pickle?” Ella grabs a tube of lipstick and begins smearing it in circles over the doll’s cheeks. “Is Jade your girlfriend?”
