12. Treasure
TREASURE
The first thing I do when I get to the shopping center is check the diner roof, and it gives me nothing but shingles and gutter.
The spot by the front door where he spent all day yesterday sits empty too.
I scan the rest of the strip on my way across the lot, from the rooflines down to the shadowed gaps between the buildings.
I stand in the middle of the parking lot with my apron over my arm, frowning at nothing, and then I shake it off. He said he’d find me tonight, and the sun is still up. He’s stone somewhere until it goes down, and no amount of searching this lot will wake him early.
I barely slept, and I’m not even mad about it. Every time I closed my eyes, my brain got to planning, so I gave in, dug my old Singer out of a bedroom box, and set the machine up on my kitchen table where a normal woman would keep a fruit bowl.
There’s a measuring tape riding in my apron pocket right now. If my mate shows up tonight the way he promised, I’m getting his measurements, and that loincloth situation is getting handled. Tonight I’ll be running on excitement and whatever that outdated coffee pot at work can squeeze out for me.
I head for Lena Crafts with my whole jelly-jar fund in my pocket. I saved that money to make my apartment look like someone lives there, and now it’s buying fabric for a gargoyle instead. I’m not sorry about it.
The bell over the door chimes, and that paper-and-glue smell meets me at the threshold. A few faces I recognize from my last visit nod my way, and I wave back, grab a basket, and head for the fabric section.
“Hey, Treasure.”
Lena comes around the counter in her work apron, tall and brown-skinned, her curls gathered up in a puff and reading glasses swinging on a beaded chain she probably made herself.
I smile up at her. I had a feeling all I needed to do was roam this town a little, and sure enough, here comes a friend.
“Yesterday it was picture frames,” she says. “Today it’s fabric?”
“I’m a true crafter. I broke out my old Singer last night.”
She pulls a small square of paper from her apron pocket and holds it out. “Here’s a coupon, twenty percent off. How much do you think you need?”
“Thank you, Lena.” I take it and get to hunting through the rolls for anything with stretch. “How are you liking Shadow Wolf Creek?”
“It’s really good for business, I’ll say that.” She straightens a bolt I knocked crooked. “But the people here keep to themselves. It gets kind of lonely.”
I nod at her. “Not much to do around here besides the festivals.”
“Yep. But I’m not denying the business. It’s good. Like, really good.”
I set down the roll I’m holding and sigh at the shelf. “You know, I bet this town could use a seamstress. All these big shifters walking around.”
Lena giggles. “And the gargoyles too.”
My head snaps over to her. She shrugs, easy about it. “I haven’t seen one personally, but that Shadow podcast last night said there was one parked outside Stanley’s.”
That’s my gargoyle she’s talking about. I keep my face friendly and my ears sharp. “And how do you feel about them being in town?”
“I don’t see any problem with it.” She tips her head at me. “What about you?”
“I think it’s awesome,” I tell her.
Lena huffs a little laugh. “Well, I hope they’re nice. And not as standoffish as every other shifter around here.”
Mine isn’t standoffish in the least, and Lena doesn’t need to know how I came by that information. “Want to hang out sometime? The bar across the street works, and I’m off weekends. Andy says those are his slow days.”
“That’s cool with me.” She reaches past me and pulls a roll off the bottom shelf. “Start with this one. It’s good for a loose pair of pants, right? Little bit of stretch in it.”
I check the tag and beam at her. “Are you sure about this price? Three dollars a yard, plus a coupon? That’s less than wholesale.”
“Fabric is my worst seller. I need to move the inventory so I can set up for winter.”
I pull my cash out of my pocket. “I’ll take the whole roll.”
“Okay, miss lady.” She laughs and starts me toward the register. “What are you making with all this fabric?”
“A pair of pants for someone special, to start.” I heft the roll up under my arm. “Oh, and I need some good thread.”
“This way.” She turns us down the notions aisle, and I trail behind her with my roll and my big secret.
Back at my car, I load the fabric and thread into the hatch and count what’s left of my jar money, which doesn’t take long, because I’m broke again.
But there’s broke, and then there’s happy broke, and a woman who spent her furniture fund on pants for a gargoyle is the happiest broke woman in Shadow Wolf Creek.
I head into the diner and nearly walk straight into Andy and Lamar, both of them planted a step inside the door. “Hey, what the heck??—”
Then I see it.
Soren. He’s parked right up against the jukebox in all that gray stone, out in the open, with Andy and Lamar staring at him.
All I can think about is what he told me last night, a whole clan resting in stone and the humans who came for them with hammers.
He turned his Settling off on the strength of my promise, and now here he sits at my job, uncovered.
I make my face behave and look from the statue to the two men staring at it. “Ah, this is nice. Y’all decorating early for Halloween or something?”
Andy doesn’t take his eyes off it. Lamar looks down at me. “Well. Guess you weren’t crazy after all.”
I shift my apron higher up my arm. “What do you mean?”
He scratches his head. “It’s starting to come back to me. Like yesterday, I remember a gargoyle sitting right by the door. But I also remember nothing being there. Stuff’s coming back to me in pieces.”
“And Messy Jay said it was up on the roof the other night,” Andy says, still staring. “I never caught it. Then again, I don’t pay attention to shit these days.”
I look at the statue and give up on hiding my smile. So this is what happens with the Settling off. The town remembers him, or maybe the podcast shook everyone loose. I don’t know which, and I tuck the question away for tonight.
I wrap my apron around my waist and put my hands on my hips. “Okay. So there’s a gargoyle in the diner. What else is new in Shadow Wolf Creek?”
“That is what’s new.” Andy points at it. “What the hell does it want with my diner?” He drags a hand across his sweaty forehead and turns the scowl on me. “It better not be you.”
I hold both hands up. “Chill, Andy.”
The wild part is he called it at my interview, looked me dead in my face with mustard on his shirt, and told me I looked fated. That strange little radar of his was right on the money, and he will never hear it from me.
He narrows his eyes at me, and I give him nothing back. “I’m calling in some women for interviews, gotdamnit.” He storms off toward the back, and Lamar snickers into his fist. I roll my eyes at the both of them.
“Not gonna lie,” Lamar says, looking the statue up and down. “A gargoyle in town is cool with me. I just wanna know why it picked the inside of a diner.”
I fake a smile at him. “I’m gonna go clock in.”
The bell rings behind me with the first customers of the evening, and Shelly comes up front pulling off her apron. She aims a frown at the statue on her way past it.
“Okay, that’s a first,” she says. “Gargoyles are fine and all, but who picks a jukebox to sleep on? There’s a whole mountain range out there.”
I smile at him and shrug. “I mean, unless it’s a gothic diner.” I throw in a wink.
Shelly turns the frown on me next, and that’s fine. Being the weird one is working out real well for me lately.
My gargoyle picked a spot inside my workplace. It’s his brother on my mind now. Sable’s out there resting somewhere alone, and that’s going on tonight’s list.
“Everything’s stocked up front,” Shelly says, and heads to the back for her purse.
A couple settles into a booth with menus, and the evening gets going. I smile at him one more time, wishing I could hear what he’s thinking in there the way he gets to hear me.
For once in my life, I’m actually looking forward to a shift.
Lamar comes up front ahead of the evening rush and stops in my space instead. “I really want a date with you, Treasure. Just one, wherever you wanna go. One chance, and if you’re still uninterested after that, I’ll back off.”
I glance at Soren. He can hear every word of this. “My rule still stands, Lamar.”
The truth stays right where it is. I don’t know this man well enough to hand him something that precious.
My mate sleeps defenseless half of every day. Lamar doesn’t need to know one single thing about him.
He grins. “I got a job offer at Shadow Suds. Better pay over there anyway, so I’m putting my two weeks in.” He leans in closer, and his breath brushes my cheek, too warm and too near. I wince away from it. “So that rule won’t work as an excuse much longer, right?”
I don’t give him an answer. He smiles anyway and strolls off behind the counter.