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“Scared shitless of your scarecrow, which works in your favor.” She stops outside her office door, a small building off the main path that I hadn’t noticed until now. “It can be temporary if you want. Try it for a month, and if you hate me, you can quit. I’ll write you a glowing reference full of lies about my own character.”
I should ask about the hours and the pay, because that is what a responsible adult would do.
“Why me?” I ask instead.
Nixie smiles. “Because I watched you make Cave apologize. In all the years I have known him, no one has ever made that man do anything. If you can handle him, sweetheart, you can handle me.” She pulls her office door open. “So?”
“Yes, I’m in.”
“Good, you’ll start Monday, eight sharp, and my coffee order has four components. You’ll want to write it down when I tell you because I won’t repeat myself.”
“You mentioned that,” I reply with a smirk.
“You’re learning already.” She disappears inside and then leans back out. “Oh, and Valli? Welcome home.”
The door slams shut before I can say anything, so I turn and wander toward the residential area. Before I can process what has just happened, I cross paths with Khodi, and my smile must be a dead giveaway.
“So, you took the job,” he says. Is nothing a secret here?
“Start Monday,” I say, my grin still in place.
He pats my shoulder. “Good luck.”
“Can’t be any worse than my last boss.”
He laughs as he continues walking. Surely she can’t be that bad.
I continue toward Cipher’s shed, but when I cut through the cemetery, I hear Noa talking to himself. As he comes around the corner, his shovel hits the ground.
“Valli!” he yells in surprise as he races toward me. I get about two steps closer before he is upon me, lifting me clean off my feet and spinning us both in a circle while I laugh into his neck.
“You’re here! But you didn’t tell us you had left yet. I was going to clean the shed and make Cipher and Cave move a bigger bed in, and you’ve ruined it by being amazing.”
“I missed you too,” I murmur, my voice muffled against him.
He sets me down but doesn’t let me go; instead, he holds me at arm’s length and looks me over. His makeup is smudged, and there’s dirt on his jaw.
“You’re really here to stay?”
“I am, for as long as you’ll have me. My bag is in the car, and I also got a job.”
His face drops, but he forces a smile. “That’s awesome, but isn’t it a long commute?”
“Nixie gave me a job. Meet her newest assistant.”
Noa’s mouth opens and closes again. “Good luck,” he says in the same skeptical tone Khodi used.
“Okay, seriously, what is it with Nixie?”
“Nothing. She’s great, but she is also terrifying. Hopefully she is just great to you, as I’m not sure Cave will handle the alternative.”
“That’s why she hired me. She said if I can handle him, apparently I can handle her.”
Noa grabs my hand. “Everything will work out. Let’s go find the others—they will be so excited to see you.”
Noa talks the whole way to the shed, filling me in on everything I have missed the last two days. Telling me how he tried not to text me a million times and how he gave himself a limit, which explained why his texts had stopped so abruptly. I walk and listen to the sound of his voice, which I missed more than I realized.
When we walk through the shed doors, Cipher is at his workbench. He glances up from whatever he was holding, then sets it down without looking, which is huge for Cipher when he is fixated on something.
