The music of the garage seemed to fill the room again. It was a slow sad song about somebody doing somebody wrong that I hadn’t heard in awhile.
The employees who had all worked a little slower, a little quieter so they could hear every word of the argument, kicked it back into high gear, suddenly busy and running noisy equipment.
“If he’s not willing to stand up for you to his brother,” I said to Jo, “maybe he’s not worth your trust. Maybe you should just let it go.”
She frowned, standing there for an extra moment or two, as if the thought of that didn’t make her happy at all. Then she turned and strode out of the garage to the office.
Sunshine dropped his hands at his sides and couldn’t help himself. He watched her go.
I groaned. Lu was right. These two had feelings for each other.
“That did not go well for you,” I said. “You could just set down your wounded pride at being misunderstood, and tell her you like her. Tell her your brother is a jerk, but he’s not you. I think she’d listen.”
The door to the office slammed loud enough it echoed like a gunshot through the garage.
“Never mind,” I said. “I think this ship has cut anchor and sailed.”
Sunshine blinked hard, like his eyes hurt, exhaled, and got back to work.
Chapter Twelve
Icaught up with Lu. She was a couple streets over, headed to Dot’s place.
“It didn’t go well,” I said, as I fell into step next to her.
“Day’s not over yet,” she muttered.
I knew she’d heard the argument, or if not that, the door slamming. And there was no mistaking who had slammed that door.
“You romantic, you. You never give up.” I reached over and dragged my fingers gently across the back of her hand. She tipped it open so I could press my palm to hers.
“I’m going to look for the journal,” she said. “Then I’ll talk to Dot about her sister. Unless you have another idea?” She angled her head as if she could hear my voice in the wind, her eyes dropping to Lorde.
Lorde looked up at her, then at me. When I said nothing, Lorde just went back to walking a few steps ahead of Lu, stopping to sniff random weeds growing out of the sidewalk.
“Okay,” Lu said. “Let’s see what we can do.”
She picked up the pace and in short time was rounding the house to the junk pile in the back. She approached it warily, her hands loose at her sides as she walked a slow circle around the edge of the old shed.
I stood to one side of the pile, waiting for her to decide how she was going to do this. It was the middle of the day and sunny. Anyone who happened by would see her digging. But there were no roads back here, just yard and trees that abutted more yard and trees.
“I’m sorry I didn’t warn you,” Stella said.
I turned at the sudden appearance of the ghost.
“Warn me about what?”
“That the journal might knock you out.”
“You knew that was going to happen?”
She shook her head as she watched Lu assess the situation. “I thought it might. It’s very strong magic. The man I stole it from said it could only be owned by a person it chose.”
I didn’t like the sound of that.
“So it chose you?”
She shrugged. “He was selling it. For all I know he just said that so I would want it more. If so, it worked.”
