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Hades arched his brow. “I can see that.”
“Oh.” Vada grabbed Grain’s arm, laughing nervously. “Grain was just in the neighborhood.”
He lives hours away, Vada.
“I mean, he was on a ride and landed in our neighborhood.”
Hades folded his arms. “Is that right?”
Shit.
“For Christ’s sake, I can’t visit?” Grain shouted. “Where’s the goddamn hospitability? I go out of my way to come here, and this is how you fucking treat me, brother?”
Hades smiled and arched his brow. “Why did you come outta your way?”
Oh shit.
“Umm…” Vada was racking her brain for an excuse. She looked over at Grain, who slowly turned to her. They were both at a loss.
Grain cleared his throat and scowled. “Had to run something by your old lady.”
“What?”
“None of your goddamn business.” Grain threw his hands in the air. “It’s like I was telling you, Vada. Nobody minds their own goddamn business anymore. I come here, outta my fucking way, which is a long ride, I’ll remind ya, just to have a brother giving me shit?”
This was progressively getting worse. Vada squeezed his arm in hopes of shutting him down. Grain didn’t take the subtle cue.
“I don’t need this, Hades. I got a fucking condition. And you giving me shit is adding to my stress. You want that, brother? You want my old lady coming to see you and raining hell on your ass?” Grain scoffed. “No. You don’t want that.”
Vada flattened her lips, fighting against her smile. It was a bit over the top, but…Well played, Grain.
In a move she hadn’t seen coming, it was Hades who backed down. She had no doubt he saw through Grain’s theatrics, but he wasn’t going to push the issue.
“Alright, brother.” He smirked, eyeing her and Grain one last time, then started across to the back porch. “Allie and I got plans. Be back in a few hours.”
Plans? What plans?
“Where are you two going?” Vada asked.
Hades opened the door and glanced over his shoulder with a smile playing on his lips. “You got your secrets, baby, and I got mine.”
Touche´, Hades.
****
Hades rolled his neck and crossed his arms, watching his daughter. Allie had been staring intently at the jewelry case for the last fifteen minutes. Hades had offered to help her find something, but Allie insisted she’d know what she was looking for when she saw it. Hades backed off.
This was her idea. Allie had come to him weeks ago wanting to get a present for Vada for the wedding. He told her it wasn’t necessary, but Allie presented him with seventy-five dollars she’d saved up from her birthday and allowance, a coupon for a free single-serve ice cream, and a ten percent flyer she’d swiped from the junk mail.
Ghosttown had quite a few businesses but no jewelry stores. The closest one he could find was in Turnersville. It was only a twenty-minute ride from Ghosttown, but they’d arrived a half hour before closing. It was getting down to the wire for Allie to pick something.
He caught sudden movement from the corner of his eye. A girl, probably in her early twenties, walked behind the counter and stopped directly across from Allie.
“Hi there.” She was smiling at Allie and a lot friendlier than the man who stood a few feet away.
“Hi.”
The girl pointed to Allie’s wrist. “I like your bracelets.”
