Page 67 of Statler

“I’m starving.”

Blue, coming out through her front door with her beer and a couple bags of chips, snorted. “What else is new?”

She didn’t wait for him to answer.

“Listen, bottomless pit. There’s store-bought potato salad in the fridge that I’ll bring out when the fish is cooked, along with some brownies Eliza left that are from that Granny Edith if I’m not mistaken. But I’m not giving you a head start on any of that shit, or there’ll be nothing left for the rest of us. You’ll have to make do with these until we get to the main event.”

She tossed Tonka a bag.

“Thanks,” he grunted, opening it up. “What are you having while we wait?”

Clearly, he was not planning on sharing his newfound largess.

“Asshole,” Hazard replied with a snort, withdrawing the hand that had already been snaking toward the bag.

Sherbert chuckled. “Actually, the rest of us don’t mind waiting, Tonk. So have at it. We’re not Neanderthals like you.”

Tonka grunted with an already full mouth, but didn’t stop shoveling the chips in, one after another.

He never let any of the teams’ razzing derail his huge appetite.

* * *

It wasn’t long before they heard a car approaching from somewhere down the dirt road.

Pipes spoke first, even though Statler could see everyone shifting around in their seats.

“You want us to leave you alone with Eliza, so you can get answers to all your questions?”

Stat pondered it for a second, then shook his head.

“Nope. I think you should all hear what she has to say, and try to judge her level of sincerity. I’ll admit to you that I’m a little biased, and will probably believe whatever she tells me. Which means the more opinions I can get, the better.”

“If you’re a little biased, I am too,” Blue told him. “I like her, and I can’t see anything about her that strikes me as being disingenuous.”

“We’ll see,” Statler replied, taking a long pull of his beer just as the ancient Toyota appeared. “We’ll see.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

To say that Eliza was nervous, was an understatement.

She hadn’t lied to Statler and his crew, but she hadn’t told them who she was, either, which really amounted to the same thing.

Before getting out of the car, she wiped her damp hands on her jeans.

She’d gone with casual dress because she needed all the comfort she could get, and the worn denim fit her like a glove while also reminding her of better times. These jeans had been a favorite of Holden’s before he’d…become different.

Eliza’s hair was also down.

It felt strange to be out in public with her mane flying free, but Eliza wanted these new people in her life to see her as a completely separate individual from the one who she was at work.

Right.

Truth? She was trying to physically mitigate the fallout she knew she’d get when she told them of her true affiliation to the factory.

Getting out of Bertha, Eliza squared her shoulders. It was now or never.

The noise of approaching footsteps had her looking up.