“No. There’s nothing there.”
“Oh. Well, I see them. And you’ve got one, too.”
Sure, fine, whatever. “Listen, I hate to do this, but I’ve got to go.”
Duke Phillips was looking around as if searching for him, and if Jim didn’t make an appearance in the next nanosecond or two, the guy was going to be convinced he was losing his mind—not a good thing, considering Jim had been getting fucking nowhere with this soul yet.
“It’s okay, you do you.” Sissy glanced back at Adrian. “I think he and I are going for a drive. I need to clear my head. I feel … really weird … right now.”
Jim ground his teeth. “Okay. Yeah, sure. I get it. I’ll check in later, all right?”
“Sure.”
She was the one who turned away, and she did not look back as she went over to his buddy. On Adrian’s side? As she approached, the angel’s face had a softness to it that Jim had never seen before.
Great. Just fucking wonderful.
Chapter
Fifty-two
“I was going to tell you sooner.”
Cait put the brakes on as she came up to one of the cemetery’s fleet of stop signs. Glancing over, she did not feel good about wherever G.B. was at in his head. He was staring out the side window, chin propped up on the knuckles of his hand, eyes narrowed coldly.
It was a reminder of how she didn’t really know him.
“But honestly,” she continued, unsure whether he was listening, “I didn’t know where things were going.”
Hitting the gas again, she tried to remember how to get out of the cemetery. She wasn’t so hot with directions on a good day, and this had not been a good day. Left?
Why the hell not.
Turning the wheel, she felt the graves press in on her, a chill frisking the back of her neck.
“I’m sorry,” he said abruptly. “I just … I would have liked a chance to see what you and I could be together. That’s all.”
He didn’t look at her. Just kept staring off into space.
“It’s complicated,” he tacked on.
“I haven’t handled this well.” She cursed under her breath. “It was so weird—I met both of you on the same night.”
And it was odd to think they seemed to know each other a little—what were the chances? Then again, Caldwell was a small city—not as close-knit as a town, sure, but it wasn’t a Manhattan or Chicago, either.
He rubbed his eyes. “This has just been a really strange couple of days.”
“I’m so sorry I’ve added to the difficulty.”
He didn’t say much else on the way back to St. Patrick’s, and though she hated to admit it, it was a relief to pull up next to the front door and put the SUV in park so he could get out.
Turning to him, she wondered what to say.
“Cait, I’ve got to tell you something—”
A phone went off, and the ringing was not hers. With a soft curse, G.B. shoved a hand into his suit coat, and as he looked at the number, he seemed annoyed.
“Hold on, I gotta take this.” He put the thing up to his ear. “Hello? Yeah, hey, Detective, how are you? You were? I didn’t see you during the service. Oh, yeah, thanks.” There was a silence. “I have rehearsals today—I’m actually in trouble because I’ve been gone for so long this afternoon. Okay. Fine. Yeah, I’ll come over again. Right now? All right, gimme a minute to get downtown.”
When he hung up, he shook his head. “The police want to talk to me some more.”
Boy, this day kept getting better for him, didn’t it. “That’s awful.”
“Yeah, it is. Listen, I’ve got to go, but can we—”
“Absolutely. Just give me a call whenever you’re free.” The last thing she wanted to do was make him feel like he was an afterthought. “I’m going to be working at home tonight, finishing up the book.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
He got out as if he were distracted, but come on. The police were on his phone about a murder. How could he not be thinking about something other than his dating status?
G.B. walked off in a hurry, crossing the road and getting into an older-model BMW. As he tore off, he didn’t glance at her as he passed by, but she sure as hell got a good look at him—and that chill went up her neck again.
The expression on his face was positively volcanic. He was furious, his profile shockingly ugly.
Shaking her head, Cait got out, walked up to the cathedral’s grand entrance and pulled open the heavy doors. Inside the foyer, Sissy’s art was still on display, and as Cait went over to start packing things up, the sound of her heels on the marble floor echoed loudly.
Funny, the space hadn’t seemed so large with all the people in it. Empty now, the narthex appeared as big as a football stadium.
She’d left the portfolios in the coatroom, and it took her no time at all to load up the artwork carefully and leave it out in the open. Reaching into her bag, she went for her sketchbook, intending to rip free a page and write a quick note—
Damn it, she’d lost the thing, remember?
How was she going to—
“I’ll let her parents know where it is.”
Wheeling around, she found that janitor standing right in front of the double doors that opened to the pews and the altar.
“Oh, thank you. I don’t want Sissy’s things to get lost.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to them.” He nodded to the easels. “May I help you carry these out?”
“I can do it. But thanks.”
The old man helped her anyway, allowing her to make only one trip.
As she closed her SUV’s hatch, she turned to the man and felt the oddest urge to hug him. But that wouldn’t have been appropriate.
“May I give you a piece of advice?” he said, smiling in a way that made his eyes nearly disappear under their burden of wrinkles.
“Please.”
“Talk it out.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You need to talk it out. If you do that, everything will be all right—eventually. If you don’t, you’re going to miss the life you want.”
Poor old guy. Clearly dementia was setting in.
Not wanting to upset him, she patted his arm. “Okay, I promise. I’ll do that.”
Getting into her car, she gave him a last wave and took off, heading for home. She’d gone about three blocks when she figured out where her sketch pad was.
“Son of a gun,” she muttered.
And she might as well go back and get it.
Rerouting didn’t require a huge time suck, and she kept to the surface roads as she went toward downtown. Closing in on the thick of the city, she was relieved to find that the traffic was light; then again, it wasn’t quite the tail end of the workday yet, rush hour still about an hour off.
Her parking space, the one nearly across from the Palace, was open again, and she parked smoothly and
