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“Not really.”
She grins. “Brain? Liver? Anything?”
“I tried all of that. Really good.”
“Wanna be adventurous?”
With food or…?
She giggles. Lu’s giggle is like an unsolicited smutty image from her spicy stories.
“Okay, okay. It’s a layered Russian salad.” She pulls a carry-out container with Cyrillic letters on it out of the fridge. “It’s from a Ukrainian deli in Brighton.”
“It’s suspiciously pink,” I say when she pops the lid and carefully cuts off a chunk of a cake-looking mass.
“Open your mouth,” she orders, bringing a forkful to my lips.
I like her in charge but give her an exaggerated side-eye as I take a forkful of the salad and try to discern the flavors.
“Not bad.” I try really hard to figure out the components. “Vegetables. Mayo…”
“Uh-huh.” Her smile grows bigger.
“Something salty mixed in.”
“Yes! It’s marinated herring! Wow, you like it, Jace! It’s called Herring Under Fur.”
The last word is not a good visual. I clear my throat. “The wordfurshould never be used for a dish.”
She produces a trill of laughter. “Want another bite?”
Marinated herring, boiled vegetables, boiled egg, and sweet mayo—my chest suppresses the bile, because our likes and dislikes are often psychological, andfurjust ruined it.
“I’m good.” I smile, then excuse myself, and spend a minute in the bathroom gagging.
15
JACE
Another monthin Goldsling Towers is coming up, so I give Lu rent money, and she lights up like a Christmas tree.
“Thank you, Jace!”
There’s so much gratitude in her voice that I feel bad. I’ve noticed she tries to save money. But all the clothes she has!
“It’s mostly from thrift stores,” she explains with a blush when I ask. Is she embarrassed? “B gives me some of her outfits. She has tons. She doesn’t care. I have to keep up appearances at galleries and on my social media. If it were up to me, I’d walk around the city in jeans, sneakers, and oversized shirts. I used to, back in Virginia.”
I want to kiss that rosy color of her cheeks.
Fuck, I’m obsessing. The night I met her, I knew, I just knew I’d fall head over heels.
Yep, it’s happening.
When I came back from the service, I lived day by day, traveling the world for several months, trying to feel normal and blend in, all the while mentally struggling to adjust.
Then Roey pulled me out of the claws of depression and brought me into his bounty business.
It got easier to breathe. The California sun and ocean took my mind off the desert memories. Roey became like a big brother, always around, always there for me despite his own issues. To say that Roey feels like an entire family in one person is not an exaggeration.
