It was the weirdest and best thing that’d ever happened to me.
Weeks of craziness dealing with them had led to a wave of relief overtaking me.
A billow of smoke flowed out of Odin’s mouth the closer I got to him, and I frowned. “You smoke?”
“Every once in a while.” He showed me the cigar. “It keeps my mind from walking.”
“Huh,” I said. “Does it really? Or is it a psychological crutch that you use because you think it helps and it doesn’t?”
“It’s clinically proven.” He shrugged. “Anyway, I had a bad night.”
I frowned.
Then I remembered waking up today to the news that another teen had gone missing. This one close to graduating high school.
That must mean that Odin had a long night as the medical examiner for the county.
“Well,” I said. “Luckily this is almost over.”
“Today.” He stubbed the cigar out on the concrete wall he’d been leaning on and stuffed it into the metal tray by the door for just that.
“I thought there were rules on how close you could smoke to building entrances?”
“There are,” he said. “But usually that means that someone would have to enforce it. And no one did.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course you would take advantage of the law.”
He held the door open for me and eyed me as I walked past. “Do you ever do anything wrong?”
I shrugged. “Not intentionally.”
“Was that you I saw not returning your cart yesterday at the supermarket?”
I scowled. “There are no cart returns in the back of the lot. Only at the front. And I’m not leaving my five-year-old in the car by herself.”
His lips twitched. “What about speeding in a residential neighborhood?”
I clenched my teeth.
I’d sped through that residential neighborhood because I’d seen Odin shirtless in his front yard with a chainsaw last weekend. Had I been driving the speed limit, I might’ve done something inappropriate. Like attack the poor man. And not in a mean way. In a sexual, he’s too hard to resist, kind of way.
Hell, my perfectly working SUV had nearly taken out a curb as I’d watched him as I passed.
The only thing that saved me from taking out his new mailbox was Wendy crying out in surprise.
I’d corrected and kept driving, but not before catching the attention of the half-naked man.
He’d looked up just in time for me to veer wildly back away from the curb.
I’d watched him laugh in my rearview mirror, too.
“That was an accident,” I lied. “I sneezed.”
That was a legit thing, though.
I’d always wondered what would happen if I had one of my sneezing fits while driving.
They were embarrassing at the best of times. But sneezing while in the car time after time after time seemed like an accident waiting to happen.
