“This place is great,” I said as my eyes wandered and took everything in.
Wannabe sat at the small kitchen table by the window with his boots propped on the chair opposite and his hands folded behind his head like he was in a dentist’s waiting room instead of on babysitting duty.
“Hey,” he said with a little chin lift.“I’ll be your protector for the next few hours.”
Pearl laughed, and somehow that helped.
Pearl pulled out a chair for me.“Sit.I’ve got tea.Or coffee.Or water.Or leftover cookies I shouldn’t keep eating unless I want my hips to be the size of a recliner.”
“Coffee is good,” I said quietly.
She bustled around the tiny kitchen, starting the coffee pot, pulled out a mismatched mug with a sunflower on it, and fussed over me like we were just friends catching up, not like we were all in the middle of a murder mystery.
It was… normal.
She set the steaming cup of coffee in front of me, and then I folded my hands around the ceramic mug to let the warmth settle into my palms.
Pearl took her own seat across from me with her elbows on the table and studied me like I was a puzzle she wanted to understand.
“How’re you?”she asked gently.
I should have been the one asking her how she was.“I should be the one asking you that.”
Pearl waved me off.“I’m fine.I’d rather not think about, well, me right now.”
“Uh, well, I’m okay.I mean, of course, I’m worried about everything, but I’m okay.Prime is… well, he’s…”
Pearl laughed.“Is he driving you crazy?”
I glanced at Wannabe.Not that I was going to bash or say anything bad about Prime, but it felt weird talking about him in front of one of his biker buddies or whatever they called each other.
Pearl waved her hand at Wannabe.“Forget everything you hear for the next couple of hours, Wanna.”
Wannabe nodded.“Makes shit easier for me that way.”
Pearl turned back to me expectantly.
“Um, Prime is fine.He’s really protective and… nice?But then he’s also…” I wasn’t sure of the right word.
“Grumpy but also caring?”she suggested.
I mean, that was spot on.“Yeah, like he’s grumpy and firm, but it’s not like in a mean way.It’s really hard to describe.”
Pearl laughed.“Honey, I am living it with Anchor.I love that man, but sometimes he can give me whiplash from being bossy and protective, then sweet as can be.”
It was nice to know that Pearl was dealing with the same thing, but it was still different because she was with Anchor while I was a burden to Prime.
“Uh, so what have you been doing the past couple of days?”I asked.I didn’t want to talk about Prime anymore.I didn’t know what to think about him, and I wasn’t ready to figure the man out.
Pearl sighed.“Uh, you know.Trying to wrap my head around Bernice being gone.She was a crazy old lady, but she was my crazy old lady, ya know?”She laughed sadly.“It’s just been hard.”
My chest tightened.“I’m sorry.I didn’t really know her, but—”
“You would have loved her,” she cut in.“And she would have loved you, too.”
Wannabe scoffed.
Pearl glared at him.“She would have loved Shay in the way that Bernice loved people.”
