Page 24 of Comfort Read

FRANKIE:

Hi Kit, couple things:

FRANKIE:

First, as per prev convo, few appearances coming up. Need u Fri/Sat this week. Will email deets but can u clear sched?

FRANKIE:

Second, got my hands on cute pic of u 2 from the other night. I think leak it to tabs to soft-launch before weekend?

FRANKIE:

But Sage says have to ask u first so this is me doing that where my lord and master can see me

SAGE:

what I said was “i think kit should maybe have the opportunity to give input here” but sure. i’m a cruel despot. why not

FRANKIE:

Admitting it is the first step! Proud of u

SAGE:

Frankie Mallory loved “”

Frankie Mallory sent an image file.

Kit looks at the photograph for less than a second before he has to stop. It’s having an Ark of the Covenant effect, its punishing brilliance shining up off the screen, and if he stares at it any longer his face will melt off.

He scrolls up instead and rereads the messages several times, trying to decide how he feels about them. On the one hand, at least Sage is alive, and seems to remember that Kit exists. On the other hand, if Sage is alive and remembers that Kit exists, why hasn’t Kit heard a peep from him in days? He can’t be that busy; he’s answering Frankie’s texts quickly enough.

A reasonable voice in Kit’s head points out that he hasn’t exactly been texting Sage, either, too uncertain of the ground and what to say. He ignores it, and the twist of impending doom in his gut, as he scrolls back to the photo.

In the shot it’s just before sunset, light glinting gold through the trees, and he and Sage are at the far edge of the rescue’s outdoor paddock, where the fenceline meets the woods. A small flock of chickens count among the rescue’s permanent residents, and Mitch lets them wander freely during the day; a few of them are visible in the photo, and Kit knows that what he and Sage are doing is trying to coax them back inside the fence. It had been riotously funny, watching the birds evade and escape Sage even as they slipped, clucking furiously, from between Kit’s own fingers. Eventually they’d been laughing so hard they could barely stand, and that’s the moment their mysterious photographer captured: Sage’s hand on Kit’s shoulder, his whole face lit with amusement, and Kit grinning up at him, starry-eyed.

He was wrong, Kit decides grimly as he looks at it, about the image melting his face off. Based on the force of the kick it has instead delivered to his chest, it was never the Ark of the Covenant at all. Clearly the damn thing is a horse. An enraged, enormous horse.

KIT:

First of all: who took this???

FRANKIE:

I have my sources

SAGE:

she won’t tell me either fyi

FRANKIE:

I’m a powerful woman and I won’t apologize

FRANKIE:

I have eyes everywhere