Lost Bird (9 page)

“Anything new happen since we left?”

“No, I didn’t see any lights yesterday, and I haven’t seen any tonight, either, but I suspect with the rain I might not be able to.” She had a thought. “Come to think of it, I usually don’t see the lights for a couple of days after a good hard rain. But then again, maybe I simply missed seeing them.”

“Okay. Would you mind calling your nephew and letting him know?”

“I’ll do that. Let me know when you want to reschedule.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m going to have to juggle a few things on my schedule, as well as my dad’s move here from Idaho. It might be a couple of weeks before we can reschedule, but please call us immediately if the activity increases.”

“I will, thanks.”

With more than a little relief, Sachi said good-bye and ended the call.

“
Bok-bok
,” Mandaline clucked from the doorway.

Sachi stuck her tongue out at her. “Hey, don’t blame me, witchypoo. Blame the Goddess.”

“Did you do a rain dance?”

She grinned. “No, but thanks for the idea.”

“You want to stay for dinner tonight?”

Sachi was about to say no and remembered that she’d be going home to an empty house for the first time in a couple of weeks. Her dad had arrived the day after she got shot, and had been there ever since.

It would be weird going home and not having him there, not smelling him cooking their dinner, and not having his comforting presence around.

“Okay,” Sachi said. “Sounds good.” She stood to leave the room and stopped in front of Mandaline. “You sort of owe me anyway for putting me through this.”

“I am but a tool of the Universe,” she said, an evil grin on her face.

“You’re a tool all right, witchypoo.” She pushed past Mandaline to take the phone receiver back to its cradle at the front counter, her friend’s bright laughter following her down the hallway.

* * * *

Brad’s cooking experiment that evening was homemade fried chicken. The aroma drifted from the apartment and filled the downstairs where Sachi and Mandaline were going through the candle display in the closed store and putting together a replenishment order.

“I have to admit,” Sachi said, “you lucked out with those two.” Ellis would return home shortly from his law office just a couple of blocks down the street. For now, they were still living in the apartment over the store until the renovations were complete enough on the old house Brad and Ellis had purchased and started rehabbing for them to move there.

The same house that had brought Brad and Ellis together with Mandaline, and where Sachi nearly lost her life.

“You, too, could know the joys of a poly triad,” Mandaline teased. “Or, at the very least, a relationship with one guy.”

“Can we make a deal to can it tonight? My stomach’s finally declared a truce with itself. I haven’t needed the bathroom for a whole twenty minutes. I’d rather keep it that way.”

“Sorry.”

Her father had also called her upon his safe return to Idaho. While they didn’t have a firm date set yet, it looked like Sachi, Ellis, and Brad would be flying out sometime the following week.

“This messes up your July 4th plans, you know,” Sachi said. “Are you sure you don’t want them here with you? I can drive the truck. Might take me longer by myself, but I can do it.”

Mandaline jammed her hands on her hips. “You know damn well your dad won’t let you do that, and he shouldn’t be riding in a vehicle that long with his arthritis. Makenzie and Anna already volunteered to help out here in exchange for paid days off elsewhere. So did Mina and Paige. I’ll have more than enough help around here.”

“All right.” She swallowed hard, touched that her friends had jumped in like that to help cover the day. “Thank you.”

“Second thoughts about having him here?”

“No. Not that. Just…it feels weird in a
good
way, this big change.”

“Not all changes are bad, sweetie. I know you’ve had more than your fair share of bad changes, but take it from me, good things are coming your way.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am right.”

Ellis let himself in the front door with his key, carrying his suit jacket and his laptop bag slung over his shoulder. “Ooh, what smells yummy?”

“Tarzan’s stirring up a batch of fried chicken,” Sachi said.

He walked over. “I take it you’re joining us tonight?”

“For dinner. Nothing else, lucky you.”

She liked Ellis. He and Mandaline had a little bit of a rocky start at first due to his inability to believe in the supernatural, but he was the first person outside of Sachi’s immediate Many Blessings family she’d ever confided in about what had happened to her years ago. She’d taken him skeet shooting that first time more as a way to better evaluate him for Mandaline’s sake, and had ended up becoming friends with him in the process.

He smiled. “Your dad get to Idaho all right?”

“Yep.”

“I’m actually looking forward to taking the time off for this. I haven’t been through that part of the country before.”

“You haven’t missed much,” she groused, then gentled her tone. “Sorry. Old habit. It is pretty. My memories are…tainted.”

He gave her a one-armed hug. “Understandable. I’ll see you guys upstairs.”

Sachi watched him disappear through the doorway leading to the stairs after he kissed Mandaline. “You’re one lucky witch, lady,” she muttered.

“Don’t I know it.” Mandaline poked her in the back, between the shoulder blades. “And so, too, shall you be.”

“Don’t count my lovers before they’re laid.”

Mandaline grinned. “There’s the Queen of Snark I know and love so much.”

* * * *

John tried to hide his disappointment after getting off the phone with his aunt. Yes, with the weather he’d suspected a cancellation, but had hoped he still might get a chance to spend time with Sachi anyway.

I could call her and ask her out to dinner.

Once again his mind rattled off all the reasons why that was a bad idea, including the fact that he didn’t want to exclude Oscar.

He called Oscar. “Bad news.”

“What?”

“The rain cancelled tonight.”

Oscar was silent for a moment. “Oh.”

He felt his friend’s disappointment mirroring his own. “Yeah. Aunt Tammy just got off the phone with Sachi.”

“Oh?”

He didn’t understand the new tone in his friend’s voice and decided to let it go. Oscar was probably still at work and couldn’t freely talk. They hadn’t been openly discussing Aunt Tammy’s claims around others for fear of her becoming the victim of a scammer. “We can still go over there for dinner tonight, if you want. She offered.”

He let out a sigh. “Sure. Why not? No reason for us not to.”

“Okay.”

* * * *

Oscar bit back the bitter disappointment welling up inside him.

Maybe I need to call Sachi and tell her she can call me to talk about stuff with the case, if she wants to.

“I’ll see you at the apartment then,” he said before ending the call with John. He set his cell phone on his desk and stared at the project on his monitor.

He didn’t understand what was wrong with him. He’d spent the entire day thinking about Sachi and not focused on his damn work. Which was why he was still working on this stupid project right now. He didn’t have to have it finished until Friday, but he wanted it done and off his plate.

Unfortunately, thoughts of Sachi had sapped his usually unflappable focus.

He sat back and closed his eyes.
A man can fantasize, right?
As long as he didn’t make the trip from Fantasyland into Uber-Creepyville, all was cool.

He didn’t have to tell anyone else about the dreams he’d been having about Sachi, right?

Or that she’d been on his mind that morning when he rubbed one out in the shower before work.

Or that there was something about her that had gotten its hooks into him and wouldn’t let go. Something he couldn’t explain or define.

Feeling a way he hadn’t felt in…ever. About anyone.

* * * *

On his way home, John stopped by his parents’ house. After his divorce they’d offered to let him move in with them. While he’d appreciated the offer, it felt even more wrong than the option of moving in with Aunt Tammy had felt at the time. Although, in Aunt Tammy’s case, she probably genuinely needed someone else under her roof, if current developments were any indication.

His dad was in the kitchen, cooking. “Hey, son. You staying for dinner? Your mom stopped at the grocery store on her way home from work.”

“We’re going over to Aunt Tammy’s. I’m on my way home to get Oscar, but thanks for the offer.”

His face clouded. “How is she?”

Aunt Tammy was a touchy subject around his mom, which was why John was glad she’d gotten delayed on her way home from work. She still taught English at a high school in Spring Hill. “She’s okay. Lonely, I think. She has me and Oscar over at least once a week.”

His dad nodded as he stirred a pot full of what looked like a cheesy sauce of some sort. “That’s nice.”

“Don’t worry, I haven’t told Mom.”

His mom felt his father’s aunt should sell her property and move into an assisted living facility. She’d dealt with being a caretaker to her own mother, who’d had Alzheimer’s, and refused to do it again for another elderly relative, considering the stress she’d been under after her husband’s heart attack. She had limited herself to taking care of her husband, and that was it.

“You know she loves Aunt Tammy,” his dad said, “but you can see her point of view.”

“I can see it, but I don’t agree with it. Aunt Tammy is still capable of living alone. Her tax prep was better than mine.”

“I know that, and you know that. But I can’t blame her, either. It was hard enough on her getting me through my cardiac rehab. She still panics if I so much as cough. I don’t want her stressed out any more than need be.”

Every time John mentioned his aunt around his mom, his mom went off on a more than energetic tirade of how the woman belonged somewhere that could take care of her, and how she didn’t want to be responsible for having to deal with the fallout should the elderly woman fall or otherwise become incapacitated before that time.

It did no good to tell his mom that his aunt had already revealed her will and her wishes, and that he himself had volunteered to help her out if and when that day arrived.

It would only make his mom rail even harder against it, not wanting him saddled with caring for his elderly grandaunt.

John leaned against the counter. “No one’s going to stress her out except herself,” John said. “She does a dang good job of that.”

“She was talking about wanting to look at condos again.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I did put my foot down, believe it or not.” He smiled. “I’m not a complete wuss when it comes to your mother. I’m not nearly ready to give up my home or my privacy just yet. I can still afford a lawn guy to come in and take care of the yard. She’s just a worrywart.”

True, but he saw his mom’s side of that argument. His father had coded twice on the ambulance ride to the hospital after his heart attack. Fortunately, it’d happened at the shop, in the office, with plenty of people to see it happen and jump into action to get him help.

Had it happened five minutes later, when he would have been behind the wheel of a work truck and on his way to a job, it could have been fatal. Not only for him, but for anyone he might have accidentally injured.

“So nothing interesting happening, huh?” his dad asked.

John thought about the postponed investigation, and the way his thoughts kept turning to Sachi Wolowitz. “Nope. Not really.”

“I heard Karen was seen out and about.”

John groaned. “I know. Oscar already heard.”

“How’s he doing?”

“Better than he was.” He glanced out the window, where he saw his mom’s car pull into the driveway. “Hanging in there. Just like me.”

“You boys are young. You’ll find the right women and be fine. It just takes time.”

“Yeah, I know.”

He managed to get out of there after helping his mom unload her groceries. As he headed back to their dinky duplex apartment, John once again thought about accepting Aunt Tammy’s offer of living at her house. It would mean catching a ration of shit from his mom about it.

Then again, he was thirty-two.

Maybe it’s time to make a few decisions on my own instead of simply reacting to the punches life throws at me.

Oscar had just returned home when John arrived. John grabbed a quick shower before they made the turnaround to go to his aunt’s house. When he emerged from the bathroom, he walked out to the living room.

“We only have a couple of months left on the lease before we’re due for renewal,” John said.