Crow reached over, plucked up a cup and took a sip. “You were such a quiet child. How did you grow up so…”
I raised an eyebrow.
He laughed. “All right, fine. This wasn’t my fault.”
Ryder snorted and took the last cup in the holder.
I made the hurry-up signal, rolling my finger. “Get to the point.”
“Well, there’s good and bad news.”
“Talk, or I’ll tell Bertie you’re going to be her new right-hand man for anything she needs to keep the festivals running.”
“Yowza. You’re leading with the big guns this morning, aren’t you?” he asked.
“Talk, Crow.”
He took another deep swallow of coffee, held up his finger, then put the coffee on the counter and stepped back.
That was not a good sign.
“So, good news, the storm broke.” He smiled. “Bad news, some of the roads are flooded and a driftwood log slammed into The Whistling Sails, busting out a wall, some windows, and knocking down the balcony.”
“Shit.” I jogged to the bedroom for my phone.
“No one was hurt,” he called after me. “The motel rooms weren’t rented out. So that’s good news too, isn’t it? See how I’m a bringer of good news?”
I pushed the comforter, which had fallen off the bed, to one side. “Where’s my phone?” I said. “Ryder?”
He was there, on the other side of the bed, checking in the sheets. “Nightstand?
“No.”
“Dresser?”
“No.”
He dropped to his knees and reached under the bed. “Got it. Oh.”
“Oh?”
Ryder stood. “I’m gonna blame the dragon pig.” He held the phone out to me. Or rather he held half the phone out to me, the bottom half having been neatly bitten off.
“It ate my phone?” I took the destroyed electronic, having to actually touch the broken and melted edges to believe it. “It atehalfmy phone. Why? Why would it do this?”
“Did you feed it yesterday?”
“It had some forks and lug nuts at the diner.”
“That’s barely a snack for that thing. I thought you were getting some old guard rails for it to eat.”
“Fencing. Metal fencing.” And because it was morning and because I had been distracted by Crow, it all fell into place. I groaned. “Which I forgot to pick up from Aaron.”
Ryder cleared his throat. It sounded like he was covering a laugh.
I glanced up at him. “Don’t.” I scowled.
He curved his fingers over his mouth and chin.
