Lost Bird (2 page)

Finally, she nodded, struggling and praying the tears wouldn’t come this time, the way they had so many times since her dad had flown to Florida from Idaho after the attack on her and Mandaline two weeks ago.

She was sick of crying. She’d cried for Julie when she’d died, because she’d loved her as more than a friend and employer, but as a mentor and, in a way, a sister.

She hadn’t cried that hard since the attack that had killed her mom and nearly killed her, too, when she was a teenager.

She’d cried her fair share in her life already. More than, it felt like. She was sick and tired of it.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

She nodded, a little harder and faster that time.

He reached over and gently patted her thigh. Before he could pull his hand away, she slipped her fingers around his and briefly squeezed before letting go.

“Thanks, Daddy,” she whispered.

* * * *

Predictably, Sachi’s dad ordered her inside when they returned to the house. He wouldn’t let her help unload at all. Knowing it was useless to argue with him, Sachi went and unlocked the front door and got the alarm turned off.

The place smelled delicious, the brisket her father had put in the slow cooker earlier that day spreading its delicious aroma throughout the house.

Yeah, definitely could get used to having Dad around all the time.

She rarely cooked for herself. If she ate good cooking, it was from eating with Libbie, or with Mandaline and her guys, or going out to eat.

Or, in the past, with Julie.

Upon his arrival, Sachi’s dad had been shocked to find out her practically empty fridge, except for bagels, yogurt, fruit, and cheese sticks, was the norm, not the exception.

Over the years, she’d kind of gotten used to being the fifth wheel. She tried not to impose on her friends, but when they insisted she join them, it was easier to accept than to keep fending off invites.

Not like she wasn’t used to being alone. It wasn’t like she had any kind of a social life other than working and doing readings and teaching classes at Many Blessings, or teaching skeet.

And she certainly wasn’t looking to change that status quo, either. She didn’t envy Mandaline’s luck in finding not one, but
two
men to help heal and uplift her, but a relationship wasn’t in her cards or her desires. She felt nothing but gratitude to the Universe and the Goddess that her friend had love and light in her personal life. Brad and Ellis were both good men with good hearts.

The fact that she herself owed them her life notwithstanding, she considered them adopted family, the way she considered Mandaline adopted family as well.

But that kind of blessing, of a relationship, wasn’t what she asked the Goddess for. All she wanted now was peace, freedom from the renewed nightmares the recent attack had dredged up…and for her dad to really move to Florida and live with her. Or at least live close enough she could spend time with him.

With the last remnant of her past ordeals now dead and in his grave, she could focus on finally healing for good and rebuilding a relationship with her father without worrying about putting him in danger.

I guess I’m not too old to admit I want my daddy.

* * * *

John Evans stood at the kitchen sink Wednesday morning and stared out the window at the courtyard. The sun had risen high enough that the two security lights had already shut off despite it not being seven o’clock yet. Six duplexes shared the small swath of raggedy grass struggling to win a losing battle against patches of Spanish needles and fire ant hills.

This sucks.

It was a far cry from the house his ex-wife now lived in with her boyfriend, the house he’d built with and for her before she turned out to be the bane of his existence.

I should have listened to Aunt Tammy.

His grandaunt had hated Sabrina on first sight, and had made sure to tell him exactly that when he’d introduced her a few years earlier. It had actually shocked him that his normally gentle and genteel aunt had so vocally and forcefully expressed a negative opinion about anyone. At the time, he’d attributed it to her grief over losing her husband a few weeks before that.

He’d also wondered if it wasn’t a little bit of Alzheimer’s or dementia starting. Yet, in every other way, Tammy Evans had seemed all right. Now seventy-eight, her opinion had been vindicated, although she’d never once said
see, I told you so
to him.

Although he wouldn’t have blamed her if she had.

He heard Oscar’s bedroom door open and his friend head to the bathroom they shared. The two-one duplex had been all John could afford at the time when Sabrina had filed for divorce and kicked him out of their house. Now with Oscar as his roommate, and the divorce settled, he finally had some breathing space financially and could start rebuilding his savings.

Sabrina had been willing to nuke her own credit rating to take his down with her by not making payments on any of their joint credit cards, or on the house. So he’d had to maintain all of that, in addition to his own living expenses, until he finally got the judge to rule in his favor. She’d had to pony up some money of her own to pay John back for his chunk of the house.

Still, it left a bad taste in his mouth.

Oscar hadn’t fared much better with his ex, but at least his friend hadn’t been married to the woman. She’d simply drained their joint bank account and changed the locks on their rental house while he was at work one day.

And there hadn’t been a damn thing he could do about it since it was her name on the lease.

So here they were, two emotionally scorched bachelors rebuilding their lives from the ground up.

There’d been plenty of nights they sat in front of the TV and toasted with beers to never getting involved with a woman ever again.

Oscar made his way into the kitchen and headed for the coffeemaker. “Morning,” he mumbled as he reached for his mug.

“Morning.” John took a sip of his own coffee. He’d already showered and dressed and would be leaving for work in a few minutes. Fortunately, he only had a five-minute drive to the warehouse complex housing his plumbing business.

At least Sabrina couldn’t take that away from me.
He’d been running the corporation before he met her, taking over after his father, who’d founded it, had a heart attack and retired early.

“Want me to make dinner tonight?” Oscar asked.

John considered it, as he did every time Oscar asked him that. And yet, his answer was still the same. “Sure, if you feel like it.”

Oscar shrugged. “Might as well save the money.”

They looked at each other and chuckled. “We’re like an old married couple,” John joked.

Oscar batted his blue eyes at John. “Not tonight, daaahling. I haz a headache.”

John had been taking another sip of his coffee and had to spit it back into the mug to avoid choking on it as he laughed. “Yeah. Exactly.”

Oscar turned and leaned against the counter, staring down into his mug. “Ed at work? He told me he spotted Karen out at dinner with some guy the other night.”

“Don’t go there,” John warned. “We’ve both been through this. Remember what you kept telling me in the beginning.”

“I know, I know.” He let out a sigh of frustration. “You know, I felt so damn bad for you when you were going through all that shit with Sabrina, and then I turn around and basically get my balls handed to me, too.” He met John’s gaze again. “How pathetic are we?”

John finished his coffee and rinsed the mug in the sink. “We’re not pathetic. We were just too blind to see, that’s all.” Except he did think they were pathetic, both of them.

He dried his hands. “Hey, look at it this way. If we ever take a chance again, we’ll be more careful.”

“Yeah, fuck
that
noise,” Oscar muttered. “Next woman is going to have to be spectacular and sweep me off my goddamned feet. I’m done sticking my heart out there and getting it stomped. I obviously have a seriously defective relationship circuit in my brain. I look back and see the same shit you went through with Sabrina, but at the time I didn’t realize it.”

John headed for the front door. “We could always get a cat,” he said, a playful grin on his face.

“Fuck you,” Oscar good-naturedly called out. “No Ikea crazy-cat-lady starter kits for me, thank you very much. I’m only thirty. I’m not that desperate. Yet.”

John was still laughing as he pulled the front door shut behind him and headed for his work van. Yet another familiar joke between them. That one day in the distant future, someone would find them ancient and dead in their apartment, with fifty-seven cats feasting on their bodies.

Yet as he started the van and pulled out of the complex, he wondered if that might very well be uncomfortably closer to the truth than he’d like to admit.

* * * *

Oscar poured himself a second cup of coffee and headed for the shower. Despite him being two years younger than John, they’d been friends growing up in Brooksville. They’d drifted apart for a little while when Oscar attended USF in Tampa and majored in graphic design, and John ended up taking over his father’s plumbing business.

And now, here they were, inseparable again.

He started the shower and waited for the water to warm up before stepping in. He’d honestly felt a little superior to John while his friend was going through his divorce, although he’d never admitted it to anyone.

Ah, how the mighty have fallen.

No one had liked Sabrina except John, but they’d all kept their mouths shut.

Except for Aunt Tammy, that was.

She’d vocally stated she flat-out hated Sabrina.

Yet here he was, now sharing an apartment with his friend after basically having the same thing happen to him.

At least I wasn’t married to Karen.

All he’d lost in his breakup was money, a few material things like a TV and some furniture…and his pride and self-esteem, not to mention his self-confidence.

And his balls. Metaphorically, but it felt like physically, sometimes, considering the emotional hit he’d taken.

Actually, a cat doesn’t sound like such a bad idea after all.

When Sachi walked into Mandaline’s office at Many Blessings a little before eight Wednesday morning, her friend and boss glanced up from where she sat at her desk.

And did a double-take. “Let me guess,” Mandaline said.

“Please, don’t.” Sachi stepped in and shoved her purse into the cabinet where all the employees stashed their personal items.

“Ouch. Sorry, sweetie.”

“Dad saw me flinch when I took my first shot.”

“It’s only been—”

“Can it, boss. Dad already read me the riot act.” Sachi leaned against the doorway with her left shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest. “He wouldn’t let me take more than two shots at high house one. I missed the first, so he gave me a pity shot and let me take my option.”

“I sense a disturbance in the Force,” Brad teased from behind Sachi.

She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Don’t start with me, Tarzan. Just because I like you doesn’t mean I won’t sock you in the snoot.”

He slipped an arm around her waist and gave her a quick hug. “I know.”

Mandaline picked up a check and handed it to Brad. “Ask Libbie to put us down for an extra flat of pastries for the Fourth of July, please.”

“You decide to stay open?” Sachi asked.

“Still not going to book readings for any of you, and you all can still have the day off, paid, if you want. But Brad and Ellis volunteered to help man the store. Ellis made the valid point that with a lot of people off work for the day, it might not be a bad idea to stay open.”

Sachi grinned. “Aaand…?”

Mandaline rolled her eyes but her smile betrayed her. “And you were right, Snarky Queen. Happy?”

Sachi nodded. “Completely.” She reached out and poked Brad in the arm. “Good work, Tarzan.”

He turned his thousand megawatt smile on her. Sachi wouldn’t deny that, despite knowing he was her best friend’s partner, the man was handsome and could dampen even her frosty panties with that smile. “You ever going to quit calling me Tarzan?”

“I saw your handsome ass in the buff. What do you think?”

He grinned. “You just wait. We’ll manifest a couple of guys for you and—”

Sachi stuck her fingers in her ears. “Lalalalalala! I can’t hear you!” She spun on her heel and hurried out of the office, escaping behind the counter.

Goddess, that’s the
last
thing I need in my life right now!

She fished out a neon-green-and-pink apron with the Many Blessings store name embroidered on it in a curlicue font that matched the sign out front. As she tied it on over her clothes, Brad followed her out of the office, a serious expression on his face.

When he stepped over to her he softly said, “You know I’m just teasing you, right?”