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“Yeah. If I can get it into the shop, I might be able to get it to run for longer periods at a time, but I think you should look into getting a new car.”
Charlie sighed, and mumbled, “Now you sound like—”
“At least someone agrees with me,” Jagger said as he came into the main room from the back halls.
I hadn’t even realized his music had turned off.
“Deacon,” he said in a low tone. His gaze went from me to his sister, then back again.
“Jag.” I dipped my head in his direction, and tried not to follow Charlie’s movements as she left the room.
“Deaton, Deaton! Guess who I am!”
I pulled my attention away from the entrance to the halls, and watched Keith as he raced toward me with a piece of a cinnamon roll in his hand.
“Uh,” I sucked in a quick breath as I glanced as his forehead. The A had been wiped away, leaving only black smudges. “Definitely not Captain America. Let’s see . . . Loki!”
“No! I’m Darf Vaber!”
My head jerked back. “What? Darth Vader isn’t a superhero. He isn’t even with Marvel, kid!”
Keith sighed like he was getting annoyed that I wasn’t keeping up with him. “Supaheroes can’t defeat the ladybugs ’cause they take away the supapowers, memember?”
“So you need to be Darth Vader in order to get rid of ladybugs?”
Another long, drawn-out sigh. “Yes, Deaton,” he said as he went to go sit at the table. “One day you’ll undastand.”
“You’re right, kid. Maybe one day.” I caught Graham smiling impishly at me, and my smile abruptly faded. “What?” I demanded.
He gestured from Keith to me. “Thousand bucks, man.”
I flipped him off, but held back any verbal retort as I slipped quietly from the room while Jagger’s eyes were off of me.
I set off toward the hallway to try to find Charlie, but as soon as I turned the corner, I nearly knocked her over.
“What—” Charlie began as she danced out of my way, and hurried to finish pulling her hair on top of her head. “Deacon, what are you doing back here?”
“Looking for you.”
She bit down on her full bottom lip, and her cheeks turned pink. “Uh . . . I have to get to the café.”
“Right, about that. I was wondering if I could take you.”
Her steps abruptly halted, and she turned slowly to look up at me. “Why would you want to?”
If only she knew it was the least of the things I wanted to do with her at that moment. Pushing her up against the wall and tasting that lip she kept biting on came close to the top. “I can take you, and then I’ll take your car into the shop—try to figure out something else to do with it.”
Surprise settled over her features. “You’re really going to do that?”
“Charlie Girl,” I said with a laugh. “Yeah. But I was serious; it’s really temporary. It’s just something that will have to continue being fixed. You need to look for a new car.”
Her surprise faded into defeat. “I know, I just . . . I know.” With a sad sigh, she began walking again, her voice trailing behind her. “I will.”
I followed her back out to the main room, and tried to ignore Jagger’s warning glare when he found out I was taking Charlie to work. Graham’s assessing gaze that kept bouncing back and forth between Charlie and me was harder to miss. Each time he made the pass back to her, the mixture of confusion and worry in his eyes grew.
I was already struggling with trying to understand why I couldn’t stop thinking about the girl standing just a handful of feet from me. I didn’t want to spend time trying to understand the way Graham was looking at her, or why it was bothering me.
But I thought about that damn look the entire drive to Mama’s.
