Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
I ran down the hall like a streak of lightning.
When I burst out into the lobby, I nearly collided with Bodie.
“Hey, where’s the fire?” he asked, putting a hand on my arm to steady me. He held a paper bag in his other hand, and delicious aromas wafted up from it.
I glanced over my shoulder. Leona and Bitty hadn’t followed me, much to my relief.
“No fire,” I said. “Just some very unwanted advice from Leona and Bitty.”
He grinned. “That definitely requires a high-speed escape.” He punched the button for the elevator. “Better get on quick in case they decide they want to share some more pearls of wisdom.”
The doors parted, and he gestured for me to go ahead of him. When he joined me, I got a stronger whiff of the delicious food smells.
“How was the fancy shindig?” I asked as I pressed the buttons for the third and fifth floors.
“The pay was good, and the people were bearable. Plus, the tips were better than expected.” He held up the paper bag. “That’s why I’m treating myself to pizza rolls from Massimo’s.”
I nearly groaned with longing. “Massimo’s. No wonder it smells so good.”
Massimo’s was a tiny pizza joint located a short walk away from the Mirage. Massimo and his son Luca made the best pizza rolls.
“Are you hungry?” Bodie asked. “Because I’ve got plenty.”
Even though I’d had some of Wyatt’s fries and a few crackers with peanut butter, my stomach still rumbled.
Bodie chuckled at the sound, and my cheeks warmed.
“I’m happy to share.” He met my eyes with his gorgeous blue ones. “Even happier to have your company.”
The doors opened to the third floor.
I hit the button to close them again. “Thank you.”
A few seconds later, the elevator deposited us on the fifth floor.
“Oh, hey.” With his free hand, Bodie fished something out of his pocket as we walked down the hallway. “I got this coupon for a free ice cream cone. I thought you might like it for Livy.”
Touched, I accepted the coupon. Bodie’s fingers brushed against mine, setting off a flutter in my stomach.
“She’ll love that,” I said, hoping I didn’t sound breathless. “Thank you.” I tucked it into my pocket. “You’re always so considerate.”
He smiled. “I like helping out my neighbors.” He held my gaze. “Especially my favorite ones.”
A heady warmth glowed in me as we stopped outside his door.
Once we were inside Bodie’s apartment, he set the pizza rolls out on the coffee table along with two different dipping sauces.
“How are you recovering from your Ultimate Beast workout?” he asked, fetching two plates from a cupboard and two glass bottles of soda from the fridge.
“I’m surviving, and my ankle is better.” I sank down onto the couch, not bothering to mention that it hadn’t been much of a workout.
“Gentle stretching might help if you’re stiff.” Bodie sat next to me and handed me one of the plates and a drink. “Or maybe book a massage.”
“A massage isn’t really in my budget these days.” Nothing much was.
“I hear you.” He nudged the box of pizza rolls along the coffee table until they were within my reach. Then he popped the top off his bottle of cola. “My car is pretty much my one luxury. Any other extra money goes into my savings.”
I bit into a roll and gasped as hot cheese and sauce seared my tongue. “Ow, ow, ow!” I fanned my mouth. I swallowed quickly, hoping to save my tongue but scorching my throat in the process.
“Too hot?” Bodie pressed his opened drink into my hand. “Quick. Take a sip.”
I chugged half the bottle, sighing as the pain receded.
As I handed the drink back, our fingers overlapped. We went still, neither of us releasing the drink. Bodie’s gaze drifted down to my lips.
My breath caught as he used the thumb of his free hand to gently nudge a spot just below my lip.
“Missed a drop,” he whispered.
My tongue darted out, touching a hint of sweetness as well as the roughness of the pad of Bodie’s thumb. My heart thumped, and my blood warmed.
I released my hold on the bottle and grabbed the unopened one. I swapped the two, careful not to brush my skin against his again.
“We should trade now that I drank half of yours.” Avoiding his eyes, I took a quick sip of soda before biting carefully into my cooled pizza roll.
I savored the delicious flavors as the tension in the air slowly dissipated.
“Are you saving up for something particular?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t sound unnatural as I tried to get back to our conversation.
Bodie shrugged, suddenly looking a tad bashful. It was both cute and sexy on him.
“I’m thinking of going back to college.” He said it like a confession. “I dropped out last time, halfway through my sophomore year. I thought I had better things to do with my life. Like backpacking across Europe.”
“That does sound amazing.” I’d never been to Europe. The only time I’d ever left the country was on a road trip to Canada when I was twelve.
“I was so broke that some nights I slept under the stars,” he continued. “But, yeah, it was amazing.”
“I’d love to go to Europe one day,” I said with a sigh, knowing any sort of travel was out of my reach for the foreseeable future.
“You’ll get there.” Bodie nudged a dipping sauce closer to me. “You’ve got to try the ranch.”
I did, and it was heavenly.
“I think it’s really great what you’re doing, by the way,” Bodie said as he grabbed a third roll for himself.
I dipped my second pizza roll in the ranch sauce and sent him a sidelong glance laced with incredulity. “Pretending to be a detective while I’m unemployed?”
He shook his head, taking a moment to swallow before clarifying. “Raising your niece. It can’t be easy, suddenly becoming a single parent when you’ve never had kids before.”
“It’s not easy,” I admitted as I wiped my fingers on a paper napkin. “Well, Livy makes it as easy as it possibly could be. It’s just…”
“A major adjustment?”
I offered him a ghost of a smile. “You could say that. But, honestly, looking after Livy has actually helped me.”
“With the loss of your brother?”
I looked at him with surprise. I’d never mentioned Ethan to him before.
He gave me a sheepish smile tinged with sadness. “Our neighbors like to talk.”
I didn’t really mind. Not this time, anyway.
“Yes, with losing my brother.” A lump rose in my throat. I swallowed hard to suppress it.
Bodie looked down at his hands, empty now that he’d finished eating. “I think I can see how it would.” He let out a breath before continuing. “My kid sister died when she was twenty-one. Hit by a drunk driver.”
My heart plummeted. “Oh my God. Bodie, I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks. She wasn’t married, or even thinking about having kids at that age, but sometimes I wonder if she’d had a few more years, if she’d left behind a son or daughter, maybe it would be like…” He shrugged and looked away from me.
“Like there was a little piece of her still here with you?” I asked, my voice soft and a little shaky.
He met my gaze and swallowed hard, like he too had a lump of emotion rising up in his throat. “Yeah.”
I rested a hand on his arm. He covered it with one of his own.
As we shared a long look of understanding, I sensed a gossamer thread spilling out from me and winding around his fingers, his wrist, his arm.
Tears filled my eyes, but I didn’t want to cry, so I gave Bodie’s arm a gentle squeeze and released it, averting my gaze and gathering up the remains of our meal.
“Don’t worry about that,” Bodie said. “I’ll get it.”
I stacked our plates but left the rest and stood up.
“What’s next for you today?” Bodie asked as he got to his feet.
I appreciated the return to normal conversation. As much as I valued that moment of connection we’d shared, I wanted the chance to wrestle my emotions back under control.
“I want to talk to Bitty’s godson, Vincent,” I said. “He knew Freddie, at least to some degree.”
“You mean Vinny? That guy who hangs around here sometimes?”
“That’s him. Apparently, he runs a shop on East Fordham Road. I’m hoping to find him there.”
Bodie’s forehead creased, and his eyes filled with concern. “Yeah, I know his shop. You’re not planning on going there alone, are you?”
“Why?”
“He runs a pawnshop. A sketchy one.”
Bitty hadn’t mentioned that part.
“Aren’t all pawnshops sketchy?” I asked as a shiver of unease ran along my spine.
“Maybe. Vinny’s definitely is.” Bodie carried the plates and leftover pizza rolls into the kitchen. “I’d go with you, but I’ve got to be at work soon.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Promise me you won’t go there on your own?”
I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’m sure I can get someone to go with me.”
He stashed the leftover food in the fridge. “I don’t know Vinny well, but he might not take kindly to being questioned about the murder.”
“I’ll be discreet,” I said. “Other than asking a few innocent-sounding, casual questions, I’ll blend in with the crowd. Or the merchandise, if there isn’t a crowd.”
Bodie came out of the kitchen and stopped in front of me. “You, blend in? I doubt it. I bet you turn heads every time you enter a room.”
“I’m pretty sure I don’t.”
“Then the world is full of fools.” He lifted a lock of my hair and let it fall back to my shoulder. His blue eyes met mine. “Emersyn?”
“Mmm?” I couldn’t seem to breathe well enough to get an actual word out.
“I’d like to see you again really soon.”
I couldn’t look away from his entrancing blue eyes. “You will.”
He took hold of the fingers of my left hand, his skin warm against mine. “Of course, I’d like it even better if you didn’t leave.”
“I thought you had to go to work,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper, even though I hadn’t intended to speak so quietly.
A hint of a grin touched his lips, drawing my attention to them.
“Not quite yet,” he whispered as he leaned in.
My breath hitched, and my eyes closed.
A burst of jarring music jolted us apart.
Chagrined, Bodie released my hand and grabbed his phone off the kitchen counter.
“Shit,” he said when he saw the screen. “Sorry. It’s my boss. It could be about my shift.”
“It’s okay,” I assured him, already opening the door. “Take it. I’ll see you around.”
“Emersyn?” When I stopped, he said, “Really soon, I hope.”
We shared the briefest of smiles. Then I closed the door as he answered his call.