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Carine stopped, too. Really, she had to, or else she would have been forced to relent and release the painfully tight snare she had on Heidi’s arm.
“Have you been following me?” Heidi asked.
“No. I don’t have to follow you. And I have no idea why I should tell you any more of my secrets since you’ve been so cruel with the ones you already know.”
“You used to stammer when you insulted me. I see that’s changed.”
“I’m sure I’ll stammer plenty the next time my clothes are off, and I feel the urge to tell you about yourself, but I actually wasn’t trying to insult you. I was simply making a point. And besides, our phones are best friends. Didn’t you know that? My phone knows where your phone is and vice versa. You shouldn’t have let me hold it at dinner that night. I might have broken some settings. Like I said, I’m not that tech-savvy.”
“So, you’ve been tracking me on your phone for weeks. Is that what you’re saying?”
Carine shrugged, but there was nothing indecisive about her petulant glower. “Maybe I needed to make sure you weren’t picking up any new projects at Clay’s.”
Heidi huffed and got moving again. There was a couple scanning the lot from the opposite edge, and they looked like the short-legged sorts who’d drive sporty SUVs. “The only thing I’ve picked up at Clay’s recently have been cases of wine and a runny nose.”
“Who gave you the runny nose?”
“Maybe I got it from Clay.”
“Or maybe you got it from that smarmy bitch who was breathing in your face.”
Heidi stopped once more.
Carine walked around her and folded her arms over her chest. Her eyebrows inched slowly toward her hairline and fell as soon as they met their apexes. “Don’t worry. I took care of her. She can’t pretend she doesn’t know better anymore.”
Her tone was so matter-of-fact that Heidi couldn’t decide if she should be concerned or proud of Carine’s ruthlessness.
“You were there?” Heidi asked.
“Oh, see, I had to go pick up my share of questionable wine, too. I entered through the side door as you were about to go out the front. Nothing that happened should have surprised me. The moment you make yourself scarce, the ghouls come out of the woodwork trying to get a piece of you, and they don’t care anymore who knows about it, hmm? But that was just tacky, that ‘Heidi, why won’t you come play with me?’ Even tackier than that barely-there negligee she had on. So,soeighties, and it wasn’t even a theme night.”
“I honestly don’t recall what she was wearing. My intention wasn’t to linger.” Heidi had thought she’d deflected the young woman efficiently and hadn’t given the interaction more than five seconds of thought. Her mind had been on auction boats, house construction details, and Kalimah’s transportation issues. She’d kept all those plates twirling in her mind at once because that stressful muddle was still less sapping than having constant thoughts of a certain redhead who had angry freckles and unlined sundresses.
“By now, every regular at Clay’s knows I will claw their eyes out if they try anything with you,” Carine said levelly. “Trust me. I’ll do it. And I won’t tell them to meet me outside, either. Don’t look at me like I’m losing my mind. I’ve learned a lot of things from the job that I never wanted, and one of them is that sometimes you have to use different kinds of words so that people understand you. I used all kinds of words, Heidi. That way, they’d know.”
“So they’d know what, Carine?”
“That you and I have an exclusive arrangement and that you have a fucking toothbrush at my place.”
“Carine, I—” Heidi throttled the thought because she was going to have to pull a Carine on that couple if they got any closer to the SUV. “Hey,” she called over to them. “I’m paying cash for that today. Donotget nearer. This is me being nice.”
Whether it was her sharp tone that stopped them or the suggestion they would get outbid, she didn’t know, but the warning worked. They set their sights elsewhere.
“‘Carine, I’what?”Carine asked.
Heidi held her tongue.
There were so many words she could give to Carine. She could tell her that there were other things she could leave at her place for convenience. Or that she woke every damned day at kettlebell o’clock thinking about the way Carine looked when her burning sunset hair was fanned across a crisp white pillowcase.
And how, above all other things Heidi needed—wanted—to do, her starkest desire was to capture Carine’s lips and get insurance the woman understood who possessed her.
You selfish bitch.
Heidi made it all the way to the SUV and had the driver’s door open before Carine had anything else to say.
“I could run an announcement in the weekly paper if I thought that’d do any good. I’d tell the whole damned area all at once that I’ve partnered with Heidi Dowd on a brand-new venture and that there’s nothing platonic about it. You see, I’m a little different than those other women you knew before. Maybe it’s because I’ve worked on commission for so long, and I’ve had to find a way to survive on taking risks. And the way I see things, you want to turn me into a Eunice. You want me to mosey away to do some other thing and to spend the next God-knows-how-many years wondering how things could have been different. Or I’ll turn into an acid-tongued doom merchant like your grandmother was, because I’ll have had to spend a lifetime watching you love someone else.”
Heidi wasn’t going to love anyone else.
