Digging Up Trouble by Kitt Crowe

Author:Kitt Crowe [Crowe, Kitt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Chapter Fifteen

I waited outside the shelter, sitting at a picnic table with Cookie. She’d left Mr. Leggy behind, fortunately, because she had a habit of dropping him when something interested her, then became obsessed with finding her lost toy.

Lunch had been fun. I’d missed my friends, which made little sense because I saw them all the time. Heck, I worked with Cat. But with them branching into boy country, I felt lonely. Lunch had made up for that. Teri, that little goof, felt intimidated by Randy because, for once, she didn’t know if she outprettied him.

Teri was used to being the gorgeous one in all her relationships. Like Dash, she was seriously good-looking. She was also actually a low-maintenance friend and deserved to be neurotic about something in her life. With Cat, it’s her self-esteem due to her height. With Teri, it’s about her looks.

I’d told her she was being an idiot, which caused a small fight I’d enjoyed. Then Cat and I had reminded her that she was so much more than her looks and she needed to realize her worth or no one else would.

Lessons I kept taking to heart. I’m a good writer, and people will love my work. Meh. No wonder Teri had looked so irritated with me. Even my own pep talks were annoying.

As I waited to talk to Abe, I watched Cookie sniffing at the small green area outside the shelter. The large parking lot looked more than half-empty, only a few cars littering the space. Yet Juanita had told me the shelter was nearing full capacity. Curious. Typically, the folks needing a place to bed down in the summer camped out, leaving plenty of space for newcomers. It was the winter months that saw no room at the inn.

Abe exited the side door, saw me, and smiled as he approached. I stood to greet him.

A nice enough guy, pale from spending much of his time indoors, Abe stood a few inches taller than me. Thin but not emaciated, he’d put on some healthy weight. His blue eyes, the same color as Gil’s, seemed clear. Not a bad-looking man if you could discount the jittery tension in his frame.

“Hey, Lexi. You’re lookin’ good.”

“I have to say the same, Abe.” A pause. “I’m so sorry about your dad.”

He didn’t cry, but I saw him tense. “Yeah. He was an ass, but I loved him.”

“I think we all say that about our families,” I joked. “You have met Sam, right?”

His grin returned. “Your brother’s a trip. When’s he coming back to town?”

“Oh, Mr. Popular is living it up in Seattle. His work in cybersecurity isn’t getting less busy.”

“The cybercop of the century.” Abe snorted. “I knew I should have taken those coding classes more seriously.”

“No kidding.” I sat at the picnic table, and Abe sat with me. “Can I ask, does this look familiar to you?” I pulled out the scrap of fabric Cookie had found.

His eyes lit up. “Hey, that’s mine.”

“Yeah?”

He pulled out a bandanna from his back pocket and matched it to the yellow swatch of fabric.

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