“Just the two of you ladies today?” The hostess asks us.
“Yep, just us.” Kyra responds with that adorable bubbly tone she has when she interacts with the public.
We get led to a table towards the back of the restaurant. The hostess places the menus on the table and lets us know that our waiter will be with us shortly.
“Guava Marg?” Kyra’s eyebrow lifts.
“What else would we have?” I respond.
Both of us order fajitas, and we get a huge bowl of queso, and chips to go with lunch. The waitress brings out our queso, and margaritas.
“So what the actual hell is going on, Nyx?” Kyra, love her dearly, but she is so damn blunt.
“I wish I knew. This stalker is bound and determined to show us he can, or they can, but doesn’t seem to show his face. Just watching and waiting. It makes my skin crawl.”
“Ya, no fucking shit, beautiful. What is the plan to protect you?” She is something else.
“I’ll take you back to the house when we are done, and we can talk about the plans. I don’t trust a single person out of the house to talk about it out loud.”
We both just laugh and make idle chat while we snack on our chips and queso. Being able to spend this time with my best friend makes everything feel like it’s not so bad after all. There is something to be said for spending time with the one person in the world who just gets you.
“So, enough doom and gloom, what have you been reading?” Leave it to Kyra to want to have a book club “meeting” in the midst of all this chaos.
“I just finished a really good, lumbersnack goalie book by Ariana St. Claire. You know how much we love her.” We read a lot of the same stuff, and it’s so nice to have a book friend.
“Oh my God, yes, Jacob Hale is what dreams are made of!”
“Don’t let Mike hear that. He will get pissed.”
“Fucking whiney, asshole will just have to realize he will never be book boyfriend amazing.” She says with such gusto that you would think she has been thinking about leaving his ass.
“So what do you think about Callum?” She’s met him a few times and every single time she acts like a giant weirdo. There is something more to this, she isn’t telling me. Her face turns so damn red, I’m pretty sure she could win a tomato cosplay.
“Umm, he’s cool, I guess. He’s just Graham's brother.” She starts to fidget in her seat, playing with the straw in her margarita, before taking a few long pulls of the frozen drink.
“Uh huh sure, Sunshine.” I let out a chuckle, knowing she is keeping something from me. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Absofuckinglutely nothing. There is nothing to tell. I’ve seen him like, three whole times. Is he cute? Sure. Would I climb him like a damn koala bear? Who wouldn’t?”
“Babe, you’re rambling. There is more to this, but I’ll let you keep your secrets for now.”
The waitress brings out our meals, and we settle into the comfortable quiet of eating and just talking about anything and everything. I feel some of the weight lifting off my shoulders. The stress of my stalker, trying to keep this hidden from Cap and adjusting to living with my two boyfriends.
There is absolutely nothing going wrong with them. Actually, if anything, it is perfection. The boys have ordered a larger bed to put in Demitri’s bedroom for the three of us. They are working on building me a library and replacing all the damaged books from my apartment. They handled dealing with the breaking of my lease and are the cutest cat dads ever.
Kyra and I finish up our meals, pay our bills, and leave a tip for the waitress. She has dealt with our random laughing fits and just us being weird.
“Want to go walk down by the river?” Kyra asks as we leave the restaurant and head to my SUV. “It’s a gorgeous day for November in Michigan.”
She’s not wrong. The sun is shining, the temperature is fairly mild, and I’m sure the river is so peaceful today. Not a ton of tourists out exploring. We climb in the car, and she hooks her phone up to my radio to be the DJ.
We jam out to our favorite songs, just laughing, and enjoying the drive. I park at the Detroit Riverwalk park, and we climb out of the car. If you look across the river, you can see Windsor, Canada. Down the path, you see the Renaissance Center towering over the river. The one main tower in the middle with four smaller buildings surrounding it glimmering in the sunshine.
Kyra walks with her eyes practically closed, face in the sun that is shining down on us. She is my literal sunshine on a gloomy day. I swear we are like the girls from the show Wednesday. She is the bright and cheery roommate, Enid, and I am Wednesday Addams. I keep her on the other side of me from the river, I don’t need her randomly wandering into the water.
We get lost in our own thoughts. Just enjoying the fresh air when I hear footsteps directly behind us. I’m pretty sure there are two people, and that is the last thought before I feel a prick in my neck and I hear Kyra gasp. My muscles go weak before I am even able to think about drawing my gun, and the world goes black.
CHAPTER 39
