She ignored me. “If he’s not going to ask you, ask him. He likes you.”
“I know he likes me. I like him too. We’re friends. Friendly.”
“Be more than friends,” she said. “Take a chance. I know he’s been gone awhile, but he’s great. It will be great.”
“How about you stay out of my personal business?”
“Oh, like that will ever happen.” She leaned on the edge of my desk and polished off the rest of her donut. “You know he’s not dating,” she said around a mouthful.
“Not talking about this.” I put down my coffee and logged in to the computer.
She snagged my cup, took a gulp. “Ow. Hot.” She pressed her lips together and her eyes watered.
I just shook my head. Officer of the law couldn’t figure out that hot coffee wasn’t a good idea with spicy food. Brilliant.
“He’s not dating,” she continued, “ever since he’s gotten back. He’s had a few ex-girlfriends try. Remember Char?”
Char had been a gymnast in high school. Tiny, bendy. Popular and rich. She’d just missed out on qualifying for the Olympic team. She and I hadn’t ever been in the same circles. I was more of a softball, swim team, and volleyball girl.
She was more the kind of girl all the boys wanted to date. Including Ryder.
Jean kept talking as if I’d answered her. “Well, she tried to get back with him. He wouldn’t even give her the time of day. And you haven’t dated since Mr. Find-Myself—what an ass—bailed town.”
“So?”
“So why not go out with Ryder?”
“Because I’m the one deciding what to do with my life, not my little sister. And that…” I pulled my coffee out of her hand before she finished it. She was such a glutton for punishment. “…is the end of the conversation.”
Jean opened her mouth.
Just as the old black phone rang.
We both stared at it.
She shook her head. “I’m clocking out in fifteen minutes. This is all you.”
I sighed. “Where’s Myra?”
“Responding to a call. Someone stole Mrs. Yates’ penguin and tied it up a tree.”
Mrs. Yates’ penguin was a concrete yard ornament that someone in town couldn’t get enough pleasure harassing.
The black phone kept ringing like a windup alarm clock. That phone only rang for one reason. There was a god on the line.
I squared my shoulders and picked up the heavy receiver. “This is Police Chief Delaney Reed of Ordinary speaking.”
“Reed Daughter,” the cool voice said from the other side. It was always a little disconcerting talking to a deity under full power. But I had had plenty of practice with it growing up. The Reed family were basically immune to such things.
Yet another reason why we made such good lawmen in this town.
“Yes,” I said. “May I ask to whom I am speaking?”
“I am the god Thanatos. And I wish to recreate in your small mortal town.”
Thanatos. God of death. I couldn’t remember Thanatos ever vacationing in Ordinary, Oregon. It wasn’t like every god in the universe had spent time here. Plenty of deities had given Ordinary a try and decided they didn’t like living a powerless mortal life—not even for a short vacation. Other gods just never seemed drawn to the place.
I had a good memory. I could recite all of the deities who had ever stopped by for as long as a Reed had been in town—and a Reed had always been in town, if not this one, then in some other town in the world.
