She returned the smile. “You have no idea how much I love you.”
Waving her off, I walked past her through the stainless-steel door. No one waited in line at the checkout. In one of the booths, a man sat with his laptop on the table and a cup of coffee in hand. At another in the center of the room, a woman was at the edge of her seat, scrolling social media. A couple teenagers were around one of the other booths, a woman with a toddler in another.
I had a moment to catch my breath and get something to eat.
I grabbed a pepperoni roll from the pastry case, then a cold brew coffee from the fridge. I topped it off with some cream and cold foam.
I doubted it would cure my exhaustion, but hopefully it would get me through the remaining nine cakes. After a big gulp, I chomped into the pepperoni roll. Then winced as it went down my throat. Not the best flavor combination.
My phone buzzed in my pocket.
Fishing it out, a dozen notifications bombarded me. A voicemail, a few texts, judging by the message emblem in the top left corner, but flashing across the screen now was Simone.
I answered it with, “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she said. “I’m gonna try to talk carefully, because I’m pretty sure you’re at work.”
“I am indeed.” Another bite of pepperoni roll. “What’s up? Did Margaret get Junie from school?”
“She did, yeah. She’s gonna watch her for the next few days,” Simone said. “Do you think you could pick me up when your shift’s over? I thought about renting a hotel somewhere, but then I thought maybe it was best if I just stay at your place until myface heals up. Going to a hotel might look suspicious if anything comes out later.”
While she wasn’t wrong, if anything did come back to us and someone looked into the lash extension class Simone claimed she was taking right now, that wouldn’t look good either. But I couldn’t say that at the moment. That, we could discuss later.
“Sounds like a good call,” I told her. “What did Rhiannon say?”
“That it was probably best for me to get away for a couple days if I was having a hard time. Apparently, it seemed like I was last night.”
“I can’t disagree with that.”
“It sucks.” A long sigh echoed through the speaker. “Staying away from Junie these next couple of days sucks. Everything that happened last night, that sucks a lot more. Everything just…”
“Sucks?” I washed down the bread and pepperoni with a gulp of coffee. “Yeah. Tell me about it.”
I could practically hear her frown. “I’m sure it sucks a lot more for you. I’m sorry you got wrapped up in all this, Gwen. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go, you know? I was just?—”
“I know.”
As unfortunate as it all was, I didn’t blame Simone for any of it. Except for maybe my sore back. If she’d woken her ass up, she could have helped me lift his body. But everything else?
“Shit happens,” I said. “We’re dealing with it. When I get to you though, I need you to drive, because I’ll probably fall asleep at the wheel.”
“Yeah, of course,” she said. “Least I can do.”
“I’d say so,” I said, tone teasing.
She laughed. “We’re going to hell, aren’t we?”
A gust of cold wind blew in from the double glass doors. Through them walked two familiar faces. Sebastian, in his usual jeans and T-shirt, and Lizzie at his side.
Just the sight of him brought those flapping wings back to my belly.
Why the hell did my mind even travel there right now? There were bigger fish that needed frying.
Lizzie stood just around five feet tall, long blonde hair wound into a high pony at the back of her head. Her facial features were soft, delicate. A tiny ski slope nose, two big innocent blue eyes, and the widest, most joyful smile.
“Hey, I think I’d like the heat better than the knee-high snow,” I told Simone. “But I’ve got customers. I gotta let you go. We’ll talk later.”
“Sure. Let me know when you’re on your way.”
