I looked at her over my shoulder with a smirk. “It’s because you have the hots for me, darlin’. Rose-colored glasses.”
Luce rolled her eyes and dropped her plate beside mine.
Then she left the room.
I did notice that she didn’t deny it, though.
CHAPTER 9
Mike. Who. Cheese. Harry.
Say it aloud.
-Text from Matilda to Luce
LUCE
Shawna was there with a grin on her face as I arrived the next day after my third of eight finals was finished. I was back at work at the diner.
“Back to reality,” Shawna said as she watched me shove all of my shit into my locker.
“There goes gravity,” I continued the lyrics. “What’s up? How’s work today?”
“Work is slow,” she admitted. “I was counting down the hours until you got here. By the way, your man came in at lunchtime. Looked around for you. Found out that you weren’t in yet and you went over on your classes. Then left. I could tell he’d be back, though.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have a man.”
Even though I desperately wanted one. Well, one man in particular.
But that would never happen.
After meeting at Bain’s mom’s house for breakfast, Bain had taken me to my car at his place. And from there, we’d gone our separate ways. That was two days ago.
“Did you ever talk to him?” she asked. “Because if I said I didn’t have a man and that man came in acting like he did today, being all put out that you were later than he thought you’d be, then I’d quickly realize that I did, in fact, have a man.”
I snorted. “No, Shawna… there’s nothing to talk about. I promise. If there were, I’d jump all over it. But I can guarantee you… there isn’t.”
She sniffed. “I don’t believe you.”
“Well, prepare to be disappointed.” I slammed my locker closed. “You ready?”
As in, are you ready to go back to work?
She looked like she was exhausted and I could see dark circles underneath her eyes.
“Sure.” She paused. “You never told me about Bart, either. You hussy. That was three days ago. How could you not share that info?”
I snorted. “I would’ve, but I didn’t really have anything to share other than his death. Which, honestly, I assumed the sheriff would share with you. I figured he’d be here bright and early to look at the camera footage.”
“Well, about that.” She winced. “There was something that happened to that footage. He came, apparently, that night, according to the owner. Then tried to come back this morning while I was first on shift. The tapes were destroyed.”
My mouth fell open. “How were they destroyed? They were all in that office. The system is brand new!”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “But the sheriff and the owner were in there for a couple of hours with a guy that looked like he was from IT. They came out looking really frustrated.”
“Oh,” I sighed. “Were you able to corroborate my story?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course I was. Even the cook did. Remember, the camera feed is also displayed in the corridor. But they weren’t able to get the actual files.”
“Bummer,” I grumbled. “I wonder what happened?”
She started walking out when we heard the bells above the door start to jingle, announcing a customer arriving.
“Well, speak of the devil,” I heard her say.
I came out to see Bain and Sunny walking in together.
Bain’s eyes immediately came to me, but Sunny’s went to Shawna.
His eyes studied her intently and I wondered if he knew that Shawna was a married woman.
Happy or not, she was married until she wasn’t anymore. And Sunny hadn’t struck me that way.
But… the way he was watching her was curious.
“Hey,” I said as I made my way toward them. “Everything okay?”
“We’re grabbing lunch,” Bain admitted, his need to reassure me comforting me instantly. “And we knew you were working. Well, I knew. He only knew because I said something.”
“Y’all are friends now?” I whispered, hoping that Sunny wouldn’t hear me.
He had.
But he chose not to say anything.
“Well, we are not not friends,” Sunny said. “Just because he’s an ex-con doesn’t mean that I can’t like him. Or respect him for what he did to protect you.”
I scrunched up my nose. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way… I just found it odd seeing as two days ago you were at his house telling us about a murder that you thought we might be involved in.”
He winked. “Today is a little about that murder after all. Three other people have been killed in the area over the last few days. And I wanted to pick his mind over a few more things, seeing as I’m thinking they’re all interconnected.”
“O-oh,” I stuttered. “All right then. Have a seat anywhere.”
“The bar okay?” he asked. “That way we can talk to you directly?”
“It’s okay,” I confirmed. “Unless it gets busy. Then I’ll have to treat you like any other customer.”