Flick widened her eyes at him and he finally caught a clue. “Oh, okay, the diner. At six?” he asked Tally.
Tally hunched her shoulders. “‘Spose so. Though I’m not sure what we’re going to discuss.”
“Six. Don’t make me look for you,” Kai said in a biting voice before striding to the door and walking through it.
After a few seconds ‘silence Tally turned to Flick and shook her head. “Holy crap. He's huge. And scary!”
“He’s all bark and no bite.” Well, that was a lie. She had no doubt that Kai could bite when he needed to.
“Have a cookie,” Flick added when she saw Tally eyeing the platters on the table.
“I’d prefer one of those baguettes,” Tally grabbed a napkin before picking one up and pulling the roll apart. “What’s the filling?”
“Hummus, roasted peppers, black olives, mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, arugula, and a Greek salad dressing.”
“Very Mediterranean.” Tally took a bite, chewed slowly, and swallowed. “The hummus needs more garlic, and the dressing needs more seasoning.”
Flick frowned. Not many people criticized her cooking and when they did, they definitely weren’t teenagers who needed their attitude adjusted. “Are you a gourmet?”
Tally shrugged and took another bite. “I cook. My mother taught me. She was amazing...instinctual, you know.” Tally put down her roll and cut a piece off the uneaten end of the roll and offered the plate to Flick. “Taste, and you’ll see that I’m right.”
Flick did what she was told and popped the piece of roll into her mouth. The kid, dammit, was spot on. The hummus did need more garlic—not a lot but a smidgeon more would take it from nice to yum—and the dressing needed salt. “You’re right. I’ll adjust the recipe.”
Tally made short work of the rest of the roll before picking up a cookie. She nibbled at the edge. “But these are amazing.”
“Thanks. I just need to unpack these glasses and I’ll walk out with you. The clients will be coming in to eat any minute, so I have to be quick.”
Tally chewed and swallowed. “Do you want some help?”
“Sure,” Flick replied. She looked a bit more closely at Tally and saw the desolation within the green depths of her eyes, the fear and the fury. She recognized those emotions; hadn’t she experienced all of them in the months after the deaths of Andy and then her mom? She couldn’t help her next question—it was who she was, what she did. “Do you want or need some help? If you do, I’m your girl.”
One corner of Tally’s mouth kicked up. “I think that was what my mom was trying to do by sending me to Manning. But I don’t need him, or you, or any help. No offense, but I’m fine.” She banged a glass down on the table with force, and Flick was thankful that it didn’t shatter.
No, you really aren’t. But she knew better than to argue with a teenager. “Okay, but if you ever decided that you do, my name is Flick.”
Flick needed another stray in her life like she needed a hole in her head, but she couldn’t help wanting to help this lost and lonely child.
I’m a nurture-holic, Flick admitted.I need a twelve-step program.On the plus side, at least she wasn’t trying to rescue another loser of a man.
Chapter Eight
AbbyM:One Caswallawn partner leaves and another arrives. The new one is scary. Super sexy but super scary. Why is he in town?
WaynesBikes:Don’t care about that but I’d cut off my left nut for that Ducati he rides. Wicked sweet.
BoredWife:Then you would have no nuts left. Mary Kellman destroyed at least one when you tried to cop a feel at senior prom.
He hated autumn, Kai decided as he banged through the side door at Caswallawn and ran up the back stairs to his office. He shrugged out of his jacket and glared at the rapidly descending darkness outside his window. In the last hour the splatters of rain had turned to a hard, cold drizzle, and his clients had looked at him like he was batshit insane when he suggested that they continue with the program, and demanded to know why.
Because, he’d explained, war doesn’t stop for the weather.
They weren’t at war, they’d whined, and would far prefer to “bond” in a warm bar. Kai couldn’t argue with that, so he’d let them go.
Thank God this stupid day was over. Except that it wasn’t, he suddenly remembered. In an hour or so he had to meet with Jane’s daughter.Jane Pike.God, it had been forever since he’d thought about her, mostly because he rarely looked back. In many ways his life had started when he’d joined the Navy, and the rough thug he’d been before had little in common with the man he was today. He liked it that way.
Kai rubbed the back of his neck, clearly remembering Jane’s words from the letter. They’d practically been branded into his brain.
It’s pancreatic cancer, Kai, and it’s not good. I probably have a couple of weeks, a few months. My fault for all the crap I shoved into my body when I was a kid.