Chapter 4
FOUR
Liora
A week later
One less night at the range became a few days, and before I knew it, I had a sleep routine.
One I’d had no intention of creating, but he intrigued me.
The whole “dead men had feelings” thing had me enthralled.
Even though I should have been keeping all my space, I couldn’t.
I craved his warm, thick, broody demeanor—the comfortable silences I didn’t realize I valued until lying next to him.
I didn’t meet people as dark as myself, let alone as complicated.
His whole existence hit in this deep beneath the soil type of way.
I was sure he had been this way before the whole tortured dead man theme, probably just quieter.
Iso was intriguing with a being that both warned folks to steer clear and come on in.
I entered without even meaning to, took my shoes off and got comfortable too. That should’ve been my first sign.
Keeping it a buck, when I’d called us friends, I was being fresh. It didn’t land that way. His silence and the deep hum of his tone grounded me without even trying. I knew I shouldn’t have settled into this, but I wasn’t versed on how not to.
“Earth to Liora! Where the hell did you just go, sister?” Lauryn asked, her voice interrupting my thoughts.
I blinked several times. “Shoot, my bad. I don’t know, what are you saying?”
“That maybe you should give Sergeant a chance. Maybe under all that pompous shit he’s really a good man.”
I laughed at her. “Um, no. I’m one, not interested in him, and two, not interested in that.”
“That what, Liora?” she asked, her voice having a natural nag similar to our mother’s.
“That lifestyle. It’s not me. Being the wife of somebody.”
“Then what do you want? What are you?”
I shrugged, hating when she started asking about my decisions. She was known as the mother of us for a reason. Shit like this.
“Right now, to exit this conversation, but situation wise, I’m fine right now. I’m in no rush to change anything about my life. Then again, I could definitely do without the shifts at the pawn shop. But I can tell that shit makes your father happy.”
She nodded and continued to push roses into the almost finished bouquet. “It does. He’s so happy you’re home, so is Sissy. Well, we all are, but we know it isn’t for long. You can’t really blame me for trying to find something to get you to stay.”
I laughed hard. “A man, Lauryn?”
“Well shit, yeah. Sometimes good dick will make you rethink your whole existence.”
“Maybe, but I’m not looking to get that from Sergeant. He isn’t even my type,” I shrieked.
She shrugged, then pointed her wet hands toward the shears across the table. “Hand me those, please.”
I grabbed them for her and extended the shears.
“I just want you to be happy, Li. I know my happiness is not your happiness and nor is Sissy’s or Pops’. You gotta find that on your own. I also know that when you first got home you were missing something, something I’d like to think being here with us for so long helped you find.”
“Okay,” I responded, waiting for her question. She always had one.
“And with that, I also saw that look in your eyes the other night. You don’t stay still long, like at all, and you’ve been still for what? About six months?”
I sighed, understanding her point. Nine times out of ten, she had been put up to this by Sissy or our father. They wanted to know what my next move was, if I’d drop off the face of the earth again. My conversation with Sissy some time back hadn’t given her any confidence.
“You clocking me, Lauryn?” I asked.
“Always, big sis. You can’t be the only super spy in the family. P.S., I hope you know that’s what your niece told her class you were. They don’t want me or her father coming for career day either.”
I laughed because that sounded like my niece too. I should have known when she asked if I had ever jumped out of a plane. Like a dummy, I said yes.
She paused.
“But on another note…” Lauryn’s voice went up a pitch.
“What?” I rolled my eyes.
“Where have you been disappearing to? You left dinner last weekend, haven’t been at the shop much, and damn sure not at Dela’s.”
I grinned, cheeks warming at the thought. “Oh, you’re watching me close and minding mine.”
“Trying to. I didn’t miss the change in your expression when I mentioned dick. Seems like you’re already getting that, huh?”
I pursed my lips, stifling the smile threatening to break through, eyes living on her while she pruned the bouquet to perfection.
She looked like our mother when she used to work with the flowers in here.
When she realized I had no intention of responding, she pushed her glasses up and looked right at me.
Something my mother definitely would have done.
“You have to give me something, Li. Something. I already know you’re not gonna tell me who he is. The least you could do is confirm or deny.”
I crossed my arms and looked her over. “You watch too much TV.”
“Yes or no? And is it good?”
I gave in so she’d drop the subject. “Yes, and if it wasn’t good, would it be worth mentioning?”
She snapped her glove covered fingers as a grin indented itself into her features. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
She and I talked for a while longer before I decided to check on my father at the shop. He’d called this morning, but I was a little late getting back to the city.
I was a couple steps from the door when I felt my phone in my pocket.
I pulled it out and once again Forman was calling.
She hadn’t called since the last time I didn’t answer.
This would be call number two, meaning by the third she would be coming to me.
I didn’t answer this time either. Now more than ever I wasn’t sure if I was ready to step back into that version of myself.
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go back, more unsure than I was a few weeks ago. Dela’s words from one of our earlier conversations replayed in my head.
“You gotta figure out what you want, Liora. ’Cause that’s the only thing fit to make you happy.
Moving from place to place isn’t gonna do anything but drain you every time because you keep going places you don’t belong.
If this is where you belong, make what you choose to do here work for you.
” That was when I first came home, when I had to sit down because my body was no match for what had happened.
I closed my eyes and sighed before entering the pawn shop.
“And what’s wrong with you?” Sissy asked, seated on the stool behind the glass counter.
“Nothing. Where is your father?”
“In the back. Where are you just coming from? Bell called in today.”
“Over at the flower shop with Lauryn. This your shift?”
She nodded, then pushed her attention back to the magazine, flipping through.
“Who is he back there with?”
“Fine and mysterious.”
As soon as she said that, the hairs on the back of my neck rose because those were definitely two words I’d use to describe Iso.
I should have played it cool, but of course I didn’t. I walked toward the back without a second thought.
I didn’t move like this.
When I stepped into the doorway of the office, my eyes landed on my father and a man who was not Iso. I was disappointed, even though I shouldn’t have been. It didn’t make sense for me to expect him to be here when my father dealt with all types of people who were fine and mysterious.
When I left the pawn shop, I went to Dela’s. I wasn’t surprised to find her behind the counter chatting it up, but when I walked in, I felt her eyes.
“Aht aht. Don’t you ease your way past me. Come on over here so you can tell me where you been.” She caught me before I fully passed her.
I laughed, backtracking but taking a left and going behind the counter.
She pointed to her office door. “I’ll be right back there.”
I nodded and continued into her office. Knowing how longwinded she was, I took a seat in one of the chairs in front of her desk and pulled my phone out.
I still didn’t have a message from Iso and we were well into the day.
I questioned if maybe I should text him, but that would break routine.
When had I ever cared about routine? Now since I found myself in one with a man who seemed to pedestalize it.
The opening of the office door made me look up. She was wiping her hands on her shirt and giving me that stern look I knew all too well.
“And where the hell have you been?” No hey, hello or nothing.
“Low. Damn, Dela, you miss me or something?” I slouched a little in the chair and dropped my phone into my lap.
“Dearly, because I actually worry about you.”
“Don’t. I haven’t been into anything. Moving with the wind and keeping it low.”
She stared at me for a while, mentally picking apart my statement if I had to guess. “Well, you look like you’re getting sleep, so I won’t worry too much.”
“So, what’s up?” I asked, studying her. Something about her whole demeanor was off right now.
“Um… there is something I need to talk to you about. I need you to—” Then there was a knock at her door and she immediately opened it. “Come in.” A man in a suit stepped in seconds later.
“We’ll talk very soon, Li. I promise.” Her eyes said something her lips didn’t utter.
I left her office seconds later, a little put off, but I assumed she’d talk to me about whatever it was soon.
Me: Are you home?
Iso: ’boutta be onna way. You coming through?
Me: Yeah.
I looked over our text thread overthinking.
I didn’t do any of this, but I was drawn to him.
This was the first time since we’d started this friendship that I’d reached out, asking if he was home.
Usually, it was him who needed a break or some sort of release.
Yet here I was, less than eight hours after leaving his space, on my way back.