Page 44 of Soft Flannel Hank

“Are they gone?” Hank asked.

The vampire glared balefully at Esther.

“Nat,” Hank replied, his voice laced with impatience.

Nat flicked his gaze to Hank. He nodded tightly.

“Are they coming back?”

Nat sighed heavily, dragging a veiny hand down his face. “They said they’re going back to Seattle to regroup after they didn’t find her in the woods. I told them I’d call them if I saw her.You,” he replied, shifting his glaring eyes back to her.

“But you haven’t seen her,” Hank said gruffly.

Nat didn’t reply.

“You haven’t seen her, Nat. Have you?” he asked again, standing impossibly taller.

Nat narrowed his eyes at Esther. “I suppose that all depends on how good this story is that I’m about to hear.”

Hank came and stood next to her, so close that their arms pressed together.

“Are you done with that?”

“What?” she replied, confused.

“Your spoon.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure,” she said, passing it to him, her heart pounding.

He doctored his coffee, stirring it, and put the spoon in his own mouth, closing his lips around it before he took it out and dropped it in the sink.

Esther watched the whole thing with wide eyes. It was so mundane. So stupidly normal. And yet sointimatethe way he had done it, the way he’d licked the spoon after her.

“No sense dirtying another spoon,” he said. She must have looked like a trout because the corner of his lip twitched, as if he were fighting a smile.

Esther’s mouth dropped open further, words completely eluding her, but Hank turned and walked to the table where Nat was already sitting. Esther picked up her mug and followed, debating whether it was best to sit next to Nat and across from Hank or across from Nat and next to Hank. It felt a bit like deciding whether to sit next to a grizzly bear or a tiger shark. At least the grizzly bear was relaxed.

In the end, she took the chair next to Hank, which brought her directly into Nat’s focused line of sight.Wrong choice, Esther.

“Like I said, this had better be good. I don’t like lying, and I’ve told a whole bunch of them on your behalf tonight,” Nat said, his voice frosty.

Esther took a deep sip of her coffee.

“Is it okay?” Hank asked.

“Hardly,” Esther replied, blinking back tears.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “I like it strong. I should have asked.”

Her head whipped toward him. “What?”

“The coffee. Sorry it’s not okay.”

A hysterical laugh bubbled out of her, catching on the sob lodged in her throat, forcing them both out of her mouth at the same time.

“Hank, the coffee is about the only thing thatisokay right now.”

“Start talking,” Nat said.