“That sounds amazing. Need me to bring anything?” This was good. This was a way back to the neutral zone, toward solid non-yelling ground. I was breathing a little fast, my pulse thrumming in my ears.
“Beer. Any kind you choose is fine. It doesn’t have to be…special.”
“Right. Yeah. Yes.”
Ryder swung up into the truck. My heart hammered away in my chest, still running through the routine, bruised, aching, but stretching for that final flip. I raised my hand in a wave.
Ryder didn’t look back.
Chapter Thirteen
Than waited on the sidewalk,his hands crossed in front of himself. The eye-watering short-sleeved, button-down shirt he wore was smothered in fluorescent flamingos bent into alphabet shapes. He had on a pair of knee-length chino shorts, white tube socks, and sandals.
I’d never seen his knees before. Or his shins. All together it was a little shocking to see him looking so vacation-y.
“You’re really getting the hang of it here, aren’t you?” I said.
“Why do you say so?”
I waved at the shirt, the shorts, the sandals. “You look like a proper tourist. I thought you were taking a walk for a couple days to clear your mind.”
His eyes widened, and he glanced over my shoulder. “Well, I was? But you can see I am not?”
“I can see that. Did you need something?”
He pressed his thin lips together and gave me a conspiratorial nod. “Will you give me directions?”
“To where?”
“I believe it is a residence?”
“Uh-huh.”
He leaned in slightly and lowered his voice even more. “Do you know where the demon lives?”
“Three choices in town. But I thought you knew where they live.”
“I am…uh…unfamiliar with their current whereabouts?”
My phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket and checked the screen. Myra. “Hold on. What’s up?” I said to the phone.
“I just thought I should call you. Are you all right?”
“Other than sticking my foot in my mouth and almost cancelling my own wedding? I don’t even own a pair of hip waders. What was I thinking? Yeah, I’m doing really great.”
“Oh-kay,” she said, dragging the word out. “Do we need to talk?”
I scowled. I knew what ‘talk’ would involve. Myra lecturing me on being my most honest self, and not sabotaging a good thing before I’d even gotten a chance to enjoy it, and to face my own crap and deal with it so I could be happy instead of grumpy and therefore more apt not to make everyone work overtime at the station.
“No, we don’t need to talk. Ryder and I need to talk—hold on.” I lowered the phone. “Where are you going?”
Than was several yards down the sidewalk, wandering off like he had forgotten we were in mid-conversation. At my shout, he peered back over his shoulder. He looked a little guilty.
“Didn’t you want an address?”
“Yes, but I have suddenly remembered I have…another…appointment?”
“Okay?” I said. He was acting a little strange—well, stranger—so I told Myra to hold on a second longer and jogged down to him.
