Page 25 of When The Noise Stops

I didn't ask him to elaborate. He didn't offer.

He didn't try to fix it. Didn't tell me it would be okay. He just sat there on the opposite side of the couch, letting me be tired.

I didn't say thank you. Didn't have the words.

But I think he knew.

Chapter 9

Knox

"How much longer do we have to stay here?"

I cut my eyes at Hawk.

"What do you mean 'have to stay'? You came here on your own."

Hawk shrugged.

"We felt bad because we haven't been helping you recently," he leaned on the lift.

"I've changed my mind. I want to go back to Lila's place. I'm just saying. Her place smells like cookies. This place smells like a dying raccoon."

Tiny didn't look up from his phone.

"And there's women in and out over there too. Smiling. Flirting. Not asking me why the estimate is the estimate."

Sully snorted, speaking for me before I could.

"You came here on your own. You going to work or you going to cry about muffins?"

"I'm going where the food is," Tiny said.

They waited for me to tell them no. Truth was, I'd rather be over there too.

I wasn't admitting that shit.

"Go," I said.

They went. Even Sully.

Their bikes rattled the windows before disappearing down the block.

I shook my head.

Traitors.

By noon, I'd had enough of the shop. I washed the grease from my hands and grabbed the insulated bag that had been sitting on my desk since that morning.

Lila had dropped it off before opening the bakery.

I walked across the street to the park because eating over the workbench felt worse than it should have.

The food was still warm. Cheese pulled. She'd put extra ricotta in it. There was a note: DON'T LET TINY EAT THIS. HE ALREADY HAD TWO BREAKFAST SANDWICHES.

I sat on a bench with my boots in the mulch.

I was halfway through it when I heard a little girl laugh.