“I can’t really pay you, though. If you want to plan this thing. I can’t ask you to do it for free.”
“You’re not asking, I’m insisting. I’m doing it for free because I believe in you.”
“Take the help, Sawyer,” Jamie says. “He loves to plan shit. You’re doing him a favor. And me, honestly. I’ve forgotten what silence is like.” Noah glares at him.
I think it over. “Okay, well, fine. But I’ll make you any desserts you want. I don’t want you to do it for nothing.”
“If we can get this place packed, it won’t be for nothing.” Noah smiles at me kindly. “You’re great, we just need to get the word out.”
My door chimes and I watch Jane glide into the shop. She’s holding a box of things. I wish she hadn’t brought it now. I thought she was coming with it tomorrow. “Really?”
“I’m sorry. The realtor called right after I talked to you. They’re showing the house today and I just want to make sure these things aren’t accidentally broken or stolen.” She sets the box down on the counter, her long, pin-straight black hair swishing with her movements. She’s a few inches taller than me without heels.
Noah peeks inside it. “Uh, no offense, but I don’t think anyone is going to steal this.” He pulls the ceramic sculpture out of the box. He’s not wrong. It’s nearly ten inches tall and the ugliest fucking thing known to man. It was also one of my mother’s prized possessions.
The entire elephant is cobalt blue with unnerving red eyes. It looks like parts of it have been glued together once or twice. Gold filigree is threaded in intricate designs, it’s missing half an ear, its face is twisted and deformed on one side... Honestly, it looks like it survived a nuclear blast. Melted. Then whoever got the remains decided to resculpt an elephant from memory.
And now it’s mine.
Yay.
While I don’t exactly want it, but my mother loved this thing. Jane didn’t want it. Throwing it away felt wrong. She loved this ugly fucking thing. The upside I guess is that every time I look at it I’ll be reminded of her.
I take it from Noah and walk to the back, quickly putting it on the prep counter next to the door leading to my apartment upstairs. One of the perks of this place is that I’m never far from home.
I’m on Main Street in downtown Pulglass. It’s nice enough. I thought when I leased it after selling my mother’s restaurant that the location would bring in lots of traffic.
I was wrong.
The stress is starting to bottleneck.
I’m going to drop tonight.
I come back out to the counter. “Oh, Sawyer. Game night two weeks from Friday. Don’t forget! Third Friday of the month.” Noah looks at my sister. “You’re welcome to come too.”
“What do you usually play at game night?” my sister asks.
“Strip poker.” Noah beams.
“Will Sawyer be there?” she asks.
“No,” I say.
At the same time Noah says, “Yes.”
Jane laughs. “I’ll pass. I’d rather soak my eyeballs in bleach.” She smiles, then switches to Thai to tell me again how sorry she is about earlier. She wraps me in a tight hug that I return instantly, and my anger deflates.
What’s done is done, and being angry at Jane won’t help me.
“Love you,” I say back, just as my doorbell chimes and two men walk in. I’ve never seen them before. I would definitely know if I had. One man has silver hair, and walks in front of the other, his eyes darting around the room before they land on my sister with a slow, predatory gaze. He looks young, barely twenty maybe.
Then he moves, and my eyes connect with the other man.
Whoa.
He’s . . . stunning.
That’s the only way to describe him. He’s wearing a black silk dress shirt rolled up to expose the veins in his forearms. His rich tawny skin is smooth save for tiny white scars on his arms and one trailing down next to his right eye.
