my heel, I shot out the back door of Merlotte’s. Sam’s truck wasn’t at his trailer. In the middle of the employee parking lot I clapped my cel phone to my ear after punching my speed dial.
After two rings, Sam answered.
“Where are you?” I snarled. If I was here being unhappy, Sam should be here, too. Weren’t we sort-of partners?
“I took another day off,” he said, now clued in about my mood. He was only pretending to be casual.
“Seriously, Sam, where are you?”
“Yeah, you sound pretty damn serious,” he said, now borderline angry himself.
“Did you get married?” The thought of Sam being on his honeymoon with Jannalynn—having fun while Eric made me miserable—was simply intolerable. I’ve had moments when I recognized that my reactions to current events were out of the stratosphere (most often when I was in the grip of my monthly woes), and usual y that realization was enough for me to rein in the inappropriateness.
But not today.
“Sookie, why would you think that?” Sam sounded genuinely bewildered.
“She told Alcide she was going to ask you. She told him she wanted me to help her surprise you … but I wouldn’t do it.”
Sam was silent for a moment, perhaps struggling through al those pronouns.
“I’m standing outside her house,” he said final y. “Jannalynn volunteered us to help Brenda get Splendide back in order after the break-in. I did think I’d get back to Bon Temps sooner than I am. But I’m not married. And I don’t have any plans to get that way.”
I started crying. I put my hand over the phone so he couldn’t hear me.
“Sookie, what’s real y wrong?” Sam’s voice said.
“I can’t tel you standing out here in the parking lot, and anyway, it makes me sound like the most pitiful person.” I couldn’t manage to get myself under control. When I thought of Freyda’s cool surface, I was disgusted with my own irrational display. “I’m sorry, Sam. Sorry I cal ed you. I’l see you when you get home. Forget this whole conversation, okay?”
“Sookie? Listen, just shut up for a minute.”
I did.
“Look, my friend, we’re gonna be al right,” he said. “We’l talk, and everything wil look better.”
“Maybe not,” I said. But even to my own ears, I sounded reasonable and much more like my better self.
“Then we’l deal with that,” he said.
“Okay.”
“Sookie, is there any reason you can think of that someone might want to tear apart the pieces of furniture you sold to Brenda? I mean, her partner, Donald, said he’d found a secret drawer, but al that was in it was an old pattern and he’d handed that to you. Did you know anything about that furniture that might give any kind of hint why anyone would break it up?”
“No,” I lied. “It was just an old Butterick pattern, I think. I bet Jason or I stuck it in there when we were little ’cause we thought that would be funny. I don’t even remember Gran showing it to us. You’l have to tel me al about the break-in when you come back. Drive careful.”
We hung up. I shook myself, feeling my personality settling back into place on my shoulders. It was like an emotional tornado had subsided into a dust devil. I wiped my face with my apron before marching back into the bar, my cel phone in my pocket like a talisman. Everyone was eyeing me sideways. I must have startled the customers with my abrupt exit. I did a little courtesy tour around to al my tables, just to let people know I had returned to my right mind. I worked through the rest of my shift without descending to the previous level of Hel I’d inhabited.
Kennedy was singing behind the bar, stil happy since Danny had revealed his big secret job hunt to her. I didn’t feel like talking about vampire stuff at al , so I just rol ed with her good mood.
By the time the delivery truck pul ed up to the back door, I was borderline normal myself. The lockers fit right in the space I’d cleared for them, I’d already bought padlocks for everyone on the staff, and since Sam wasn’t there, I got the pleasure of al otting everyone a locker and explaining that though Sam and I wouldn’t go in the lockers unless there was a crisis, we would be keeping a key to each one. Since the ladies had trusted Sam al these years with their purses, they shouldn’t have any problem trusting him with a change of clothes or a hairbrush. Everyone was pleased and even a little excited, because a change in the workplace can mean a lot.
Sam’s truck was parked in front of his trailer when my shift was over, so I felt free to take off. Sam and I needed to talk, but not this evening.
I stopped by the grocery store on the way home to buy the ingredients for Tara’s homecoming meal. I’d left a message on JB’s cel phone to tel him I was bringing something over, and just as insurance I’d left a message on their landline, too.
I started cooking in my cool and empty house. I was doing my level best not to think about anything but food preparation. I’d decided to keep it simple and basic. I made a hamburger-and-sausage meatloaf, a pasta salad, and a carrot casserole for Tara and JB. The blackberries at the store had been too tempting to resist, and I made a blackberry cobbler. As long as I was cooking, I made duplicates of everything for Dermot and me.
Two birds with one stone, I thought proudly.
At the little house on Magnolia Street, a smiling JB met me at the door to help me carry in the food. While I went into the kitchen to turn on the stove to warm the meatloaf and casserole a little, the proud father returned to the smal , smal nursery. I tiptoed in to find Tara and JB staring down at the two cribs holding these amazing tiny beings. I joined them in the admiration gal ery.
Before I could even ask, Tara said, “Sara Sookie du Rone and Robert Thornton du Rone.”
And I felt the bottom fal out of my heart. “You named her Sookie?”
