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“Excuse me,” I say scooting off my chair. “I’ve gotta make a phone call.”
I go outside, cross the parking lot and dial back to Texas, to the Apricot Inn. Layla picks up on the second ring. “Just checking in,” I say.
“No news is good news,” she replies and we both know what that means. It means no new jobs have come in. Also, there’s nothing to worry about. All is clear.
“When you coming home, Cowboy?” she purrs in my ear. “I miss you.”
“Soon,” I say. “A couple of days.”
“It’s lonely here without you.”
Somehow I doubt that, but that’s not what I say. “Listen, I gotta go.”
“Toodaloo.”
I jog back to the diner and take my seat beside the man. “You didn’t happen to travel here on account of an ad, did you? Like a perfect wife sorta thing?”
His eyes widen. “How’d you know?”
Because you look like just the type to be scammed with such nonsense.“Just a hunch.”
He leans in, his voice low and urgent. “Is that what brought you to town?”
“Me?” I shake my head. His question and our meeting seem a little too coincidental, like this is a set up. Like he’s scoping me out. “No. I'm here on business.”
He flops his cigarette into the ashtray and then straightens his back. “Maybe there isn't anything to worry about,” he says.
But he is wrong. Dead wrong.
