She came over and mimicked my position, leaning down and staring into the fridge. “Apples can’t just grow legs and run away…”
“Of course not,” I said, straightening and closing the door. I was still frowning. “I must have eaten it and forgotten.”
“Better than the alternative.” Ramona grimaced.
“Alternative?”
She pointed over her shoulder at the room that held the morgue drawers and made a creeped out face.
I laughed. “I don’t think dead people, or zombies for that matter, develop a taste for fruit.”
No, I must have forgotten, which wasn’t like me. But my mind had been on Pyre so much, it could have happened. At a loss for any other explanation—my usual inspection of the security tapes each morning hadn’t turned up anything—I sat down in my chair and focused on my friend. “What’re you doing here?” I didn’t usually get a lot of visitors at my work. But lately my friends were showing up in droves.
Ramona settled down on the little couch I had in the corner. That was for when families came in to speak to me. I tried to make my office inviting and bright. It was painted a cheerful yellow and had pictures of animals and open sunny fields hanging on the wall. “Well…I came to let you know that Pyre one hundred percent likes you.”
I blinked at her. I’d already come to that conclusion on my own, with Penny’s help, but wanted to see why she thought so. “How do you know that?”
“I told you I was going to investigate,” she said with a small shrug.
“Who told you that?”
She shook her head. “I never reveal a source.”
“So, Warrant,” I teased.
“Believe it or not, no,” she told me with a grin. “And Ainsley has been working on him. The one time the man goes stubbornly mute.”
“If he suspected she was trying to pump him for information, I can actually see him clamming up,” I replied. “He’d think it was a game. To see who could outlast the other.”
Mona shook her head again. “Those two probably both enjoyed that verbal sparring.” She thought about it. “I bet it led to some pretty hot sex.”
I choked on a laugh. “Why don’t you start from the beginning?”
“No beginning. He likes you. That’s the news.”
“I’m sure helikesa lot of things,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“Not a lot of women, according to the source.”
“And is the source reliable?”
“Of course,” she huffed, sounding offended. “I always do my due diligence to make sure I corroborate a story. I already told the others,” she added. “They wanted to come over to be here when I told you, but they were busy.”
“Wanted to see my reaction, you mean,” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.
She laughed. “Pretty much.” She narrowed her eyes. “You don’t seem very…” She motioned at me with her hand. “Anything.”
I laughed. “I don’t know what that means.”
“It’s just…you’re not excited. Or happy. Or even worried.”
Sucking in a breath, I nodded at her. “That’s because I’ve made a decision.”
She crossed her legs, tucking her skirt between them as she leaned forward ever so slightly. She was eager for the information. “What’s that?”
I didn’t mind telling her. Or that she’d be calling up the others and spilling to as many of them as she could before they could all call each other up and blab my news. I knew them all very well and could picture exactly this happening in my mind. “I like Pyre. He likes me. I’m going to give this a chance.”
Her brows shot up. “That’s…a lot different than just a few days ago. I thought you were worried about him wanting someone different?”
