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Tab shook her head. “Leave it to my wild sister to shake things up.” She leaned forward to tightly hug her twin. “I love you.”
“Same goes.” Van squeezed her back before she slid me a glance. “Afraid my wild crown is slipping, but we can pretend for now.”
At Tab’s puzzled expression, Van grabbed my hand and pulled me across the apartment to the door. She waved goodbye and then released a long breath as she stepped into the hall.
“God, family can literally be the biggest drag ever.”
I laughed, long and low. “Ain’t that the truth.”
“Wanna run away together? Like just blow this pop stand. I even have the perfect vehicle. We can live in on the road.”
Because I was almost sure she was kidding, I indulged her for a moment. And myself. “You expect me to live in that thing?”
“It gets surprisingly good gas mileage,” she said soberly.
“Well, then, what the hell. Let’s go.” I drew my thumb over the center of her palm. “You cool with living with my dog in tight quarters?”
“We all have to make sacrifices. Depends on how you intend to make it worth my while.” Before I could reply, she lowered her lashes. “How are you with car repairs?”
“The best. I have AAA on speed dial.”
Her laughter somehow managed to erase the last few minutes as if they’d never happened. I knew I’d go over them plenty when I was alone in my bed, probably not sleeping yet again. But right now, I was feeling no pain.
Other than my growling stomach.
“You hungry?”
“I could eat.” She kept pace with me down the hall to the stairs. “Oh, wait!” She gasped and covered her mouth as I looked at her in concern. “Should we wait until the cover of darkness and put on disguises? You know, find some faraway place to get a meal so people don’t get ideas about us and get all in their feelings?”
“Absolutely not. I think we should go to the busiest place in town.”
“The Rusty Spoon?”
“Sounds great to me.” I nudged her down the stairs ahead of me. “Lead the way.”
NINE
The Rusty Spoon was packed.The vintage red booths were crammed with couples and families along with the occasional singleton. Most of them were more interested in watching us rather than perusing their menus or drinking their coffees or checking out the framed black and white photos of old time stars from years gone by.
The Zombies were playing low on the juke, and small town gossip always took precedence over just about anything else.
I ordered an omelet while sitting with my thigh pressed against Mav’s in a booth right up front. Mav ordered his own omelet special with his arm wrapped around my shoulders and his nose nuzzled in my neck.
The Chief’s fiancée, Gina aka Bee, so named because she never stayed still for a moment, tried to carry on a conversation with us. The entire time, she noticeably attempted to act natural in the face of this brand new coupling.
She was not succeeding.
“So, yeah, Mitch was desperate for servers, and I had a free afternoon, so I said I’d help.” Bee dropped her pad and immediately tried to reach for it, but before she could, Mav bent to grab it.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.” Bee let out a breath, red-faced just from bending. “I forgot I’m not in the same shape as I used to be when I did this job.” She patted her big belly under her apron. “Time flies.”
As she walked away, I shuddered. “Maybe we really should run away. This town is worthy of being inStranger Thingswith all the babies. It’s not natural.”
His chuckle rolled over me. “I’m not driving that thing.”
“It has a V-8.”
