Chapter 11
Tess
Sheriff Susan Gonzalez was taking a rare day off. She wore jeans and a long-sleeved black T-shirt that proclaimed tofu was the other white meat, and her gorgeous dark hair was up under a red ball cap.
When she saw us walk into the shop, she held up both hands. “Don’t know anything, don’t want to hear anything, don’t care. I’m just here to get a gift for my granny.”
“Okay.” Eleanor was talking to some people over by the gardening equipment, so I walked to the counter. “What are you thinking? Jewelry? A nice flower vase, maybe?”
Susan looked at me and then at Jack, who’d followed me. “Uh, huh? Just like that? Our team captain almost goes to jail, and you don’t want to talk about it?”
Susan was deadly at second base.
“You said you didn’t want to hear about it, and you’re clearly not on duty.” I shrugged. “I’m just doing what you asked.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. What happened?”
“How about we find your gift, and then we’ll walk out with you and tell you where there aren’t so many people around?” I tilted my head toward the customers.
She agreed. We spent a few minutes with the jewelry, and I pointed her to a slightly gaudy—okay, horribly gaudy—peacock brooch with red rhinestone feathers and blue rhinestone eyes.
“Are you sure?” Susan looked at it the way I looked at one of Lou’s infrequently coughed-up hairballs. “That’s … awful.”
“For you, yes. But your granny loves sparkles. The bolder, the better. You can buy her this tasteful topaz ring or those lovely jade earrings, and she’ll be happy because she loves you. Or you can get her this for less than half the price, and she’ll be ecstatic, because she loves the peacock, and she loves you.”
Susan sighed but pulled out her wallet. Moments later, the peacock was in her purse, and she and Jack walked out the door. I told Eleanor I was on my way—I’d scheduled her to work alone the rest of the afternoon, since I had softball practice.
“Are you good?”
“Oh, sure. I’ve worked Saturday afternoons alone before. If we get busy, I just ask people kindly to be patient.”
“Soon, we’ll have Tina to help.”
“I hope so,” she said. “I really hope she works out, for her sake, as much as for ours.”
By the time I reached Jack and Susan at her car, he’d told her most of it.
“That sheriff is a piece of work,” she said, frowning. “He’s just as dirty as his cousin was. Reynolds called me, though. He’s a good guy. He’ll keep me up to speed.”
She looked at Jack. “He’s a wolf shifter.”
“I know.”
“You guys can … what? Sniff each other out?”
“Yeah,” he said dryly. “Makes it tough when I catch a cold.”
“So, no?”
He shrugged. “Maybe wolves can scent other shapeshifters. For me, it’s more of a vibration. I don’t know how to explain it.”
“And Brenda knows more than she’s saying?”
“That’s my take on it.”
I threw my hands in the air. “I’m tired of talking about it. We can’t do anything from here, anyway. I’m going to go home and get ready for practice. See you there?”
Susan nodded. “Six?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll follow you home, Tess,” Jack said. “I have a surprise for you.”
“Yay,” I said faintly, not being a huge fan of surprises.
“Trust me, you’ll like this one.”
On the drive to my house, I turned the radio up high and sang along with Rihanna and Taylor Swift, since I was alone in my car. I only sang in front of people at church. God loves everybody, even those of us who can’t carry a tune in a bucket.
I beeped my horn when I passed my neighbor Carlos’s house, though I thought he was still doing something important with the vampire council in Europe. He’d have interesting stories when he got back.
Just as I pulled in and parked in front of my house, my phone rang. I was delighted to see it was my best friend, Molly.
“Molly!”
“Hey, Tess! I can’t wait to see you next weekend!”
“Oh. You can’t make it this weekend, after all?” I was disappointed. Molly had been my best friend since kindergarten, and I’d seen far too little of her recently. Her indie rock band, Scarlett’s Letters, was blowing up. They’d had multiple videos go viral, and now she was weighing offers from several record labels. Meanwhile, she was touring constantly.
“No, we got our gig extended here in Atlanta, and I’m talking to the big muckety-mucks at the labels, so I’m going to hang out a few more days. But I’ll be home by Friday, for sure. We can have a Bad Movie Night!”
One of our most cherished traditions. It involved awful movies, ice cream and pizza, and gales of laughter. I’d really missed those Fridays—and my best friend.
She caught me up on her wild life and experiences, and I told her about everything going on, while I fed Lou and poured myself a glass of lemonade.
“How can so many bizarre things keep happening in Dead End? We waited our entire childhood for life to get exciting!”
I laughed. “Yeah, but there’s such a thing as too much excitement. How are you and Lucky, by the way?”
She sighed. “I don’t think it’s going to work out. My life is going global, and Lucky just wants to stay in Dead End and run his business.”
Her boyfriend, Lucky, was one of the owners of Swamp Commando Airboat Rides, a newish business that took tourists out to see alligators. He and his co-owners were all former special forces guys who’d come to Dead End for some peace and relaxation and wound up staying. Most of them lived out by the swamp, and I considered them to be friends. Jack got along great with all of them, naturally, and they’d helped us out in more than one dangerous spot during the past year.
Lucky and Molly, though. He was crazy about her, but she’d been more hesitant about it. I’d thought it was her natural caution with relationships, but this ran deeper than that.
“I need to run, we have soundcheck. Love you, Tess. Stay out of trouble.”
“Love you, too.”
I threw a load of laundry in the washer, shaking my head at the memory of the live turkey that my sister Shelley had hidden in that very washing machine on Thanksgiving. Leroy—the turkey—was alive and well, living with the Fae now.
Jack opened the front door and called my name.
“Back here!”
I turned on the washer and walked out to the front to meet him. “I thought you were following me? Took you a while.”
“I had to stop at home and get that.” He pointed to a large box on my couch. “A little gift for you.”
“This is the surprise?”
“Yep. Well, not really. It’s the new softball uniforms we ordered.”
“Oh, great!” The team’s uniforms were pretty ragged, having not been replaced in years. I’d asked everyone to pitch in by leaving a jar at Beau’s Diner, and we’d raised enough for new uniforms, although they were pretty basic. Jack had pitched in enough to make up the difference, and so Tiger’s Eye Investigations was the team sponsor.
The jerseys should look pretty cool with the tiger logo on them.
I ripped into the box, pulled out the top jersey, and gasped.
That wasn’t a tiger on the jersey—it was Fluffy!
And Dead End Pawn was written in bright blue on the red and white jersey.
“What did you do?” I kept pulling jerseys out and then got to a second layer. “Pants, too!”
And socks. And ball caps. And even brand new cleats for everyone in shiny red.
“Jack! What is this?” I dropped a pair of shoes on the top of the pile and jumped into his arms. “You did this for me? You’re wonderful!”
I kissed him.
“Nah. I’d just feel weird wearing a tiger on my shirt. Like, the tiger wears a tiger. Bit much, don’t you think?” He grinned at me and then kissed me back.
I felt guilty for being so delighted when Ace was missing but pushed the feeling away. Sometimes, even when horrible things are happening, you have to find time to appreciate life’s wonderful moments. Jack had learned that lesson in his soldier days and made me see the truth in it during the tougher moments of the past year.
“You’re amazing.” I sent a quick text to the team chat group and loaded everything back into the box to carry to the ball field.
Jack dropped into a chair and put his hands behind his head. “So. If I’m amazing, does that mean you’re going to let me pitch?”
“Not a chance, kitten. Want something to eat before we go?”
“You even have to ask? And you can tell me all about this robbery.”
Crap. I’d hoped he’d forgotten about that.