Chapter 29
Nina
Bloodshot eyes stared back at me as I tamed my unruly waves by putting my hair into a tight ponytail. More like a stubby bobtail, but I didn’t care.
Tossing and turning all night, haunted by the empty shelf in my closet, had left me with no energy and less patience for minor inconveniences, like my hair flopping in my face all day.
Today is going to suck.
Nana Sue’s cough, which sounded like she was hacking up a lung, brought me back to the present. She stopped just outside the bathroom door; her short, too-thin body relying on her walker to stand up as the fit shook her body.
“Here, Nana,” I said, handing her a handful of tissues.
“Thank you.” She choked out as she clutched the tissues to her nose and mouth while I steadied her.
After the cough subsided, I offered to help her to the kitchen.
“I’m fine, darling.”
She always said that, but she rarely was. The coughing fits left her weak, and I always worried she’d fall.
Letting go of her arm, I let her walk ahead of me. “I’m craving pancakes this morning. What do you think?”
Nana loved pancakes, so she never said no.
“With chocolate chips?”
“With blueberries.”
“Blueberries are good.”
Nana watched the news while I prepped the pancake batter and scrambled eggs for the spinach and feta omelet we’d share.
“That’s a relief. He deserves to stay in jail,” Nana said.
“Who deserves to stay in jail?”
I’d missed the story because my brain was trying not to think about why my shelf was empty. Which made me think about Austin. He no longer haunted my nightmares, and I tried even harder not to think about the way he kept starring in my dreams like a hero in a romance novel, and failed miserably.
My traitorous body reacted to him in the most inappropriate ways. A part of me couldn’t stop wondering if the tough guy was an act for his job.
What scant knowledge I had about the CIA came from books and TV, so for all I knew they trained their agents to act like jerks.
At SSI, he’d played the nice guy and opened my bottle of water and told me to drink, like he was worried about me staying hydrated as I cried.
Maybe the CIA taught him how to be hot and cold. Mean and nice. It’d make sense; spies would need to have multiple personalities.
I’m sure he wasn’t worried about me. But a girl could dream. After a string of beta boys, a term I’d learned from Ashley’s romance book, who did the bare minimum, Austin’s kind gestures felt like boyfriend material.
Not that he’d see it that way. It was probably something he learned in CIA school to keep a person talking. I chuckled to myself. Austin was definitely the good cop in the duo.
Austin could be intimidating when he wanted to be, but Ryan defined intimidation.
Ryan would’ve let me wipe my runny nose on my arm.
Austin handed me a tissue. Don’t even get me started on how his hand felt on my arm. Strong and steady, like power and passion rolled into one.
If I hadn’t been losing my mind from the flood of information and tsunami of emotions, I might have swooned or melted under his hand.
“Nina, did you hear me?”
“Sorry, Nana, I didn’t. Can you say it again?”
“I said that serial killer didn’t get parole.”
“Which serial killer?”
“The stalker, you remember the one who taunted his victims for weeks before kidnapping and torturing them before killing them?”
I did. Every girl in the greater Dallas area was terrified of finding a feather on her car, or in her mailbox, or wherever else he might put it.
Every state, county, and local cop worked overtime, along with the FBI, to catch the guy.
I shivered at the thought.
“I’m glad he’s staying in jail.” He’d stalked women in different cities so they didn’t know there was a serial killer on the loose until someone finally linked all the murders.
“Me too. Is breakfast almost done?” she asked.
“Almost.”
“Nina, please tell me you’ll come to craft and booze night tonight,” Meg said as she and Jack waited for their morning coffee.
“I don’t know, I have to take my grandmother to her appointment and then make her dinner.”
“What time?” Meg asked.
“Her appointment is at four-thirty and we usually eat around six.”
“We don’t start until seven, so you have plenty of time.” Meg clasped her hands together in front of her heart, her emerald green eyes pleading. “Please?”
Why does she want me there so badly? It wasn’t like we were friends. Friendly acquaintances, but not friends.
Not wanting to disappoint her, I agreed to stop by for a little while.
“Goody,” Meg said, clapping. “You need a night out.”
“What can I bring?”
“Nothing, I’m bringing my bacon mac & cheese, Mary will have plenty of wine, Beth always bakes something tasty, and Emily brings something healthy so we’re covered.”
“Who else will be there?”
“Ashley, Blake, Cate, and Emily’s mom, Anne, and I think Eva’s coming too.”
That’s a lot of people.
“You know everyone there,” Meg reminded me.
I’d met most of them, but barely knew any of them.
“Okay,” I said before I remembered my bodyguard. “Do I have to tell Matt?”
“I’ll tell him,” Jack said. “Come on, Princess, it’s time to go to work.” Jack turned Meg towards the door, put his hand on her lower back, and led her out of the shop. In their reflection in the windows, I could see him smiling down at her as she talked.
They had the kind of love every girl dreamed of.
Jack loved Meg to the ends of the Earth. He took care of her and protected her.
He’d never dump her for a weekend away with the boys.
“Thanks, Nina. I’ll see you later,” Meg called before walking out the door Jack held open for her.