“Maybe it’s not too late. Maybe talk to your boss about it. Tell him you were smitten and you didn’t think it through.”
That’s not going to work.
“Oh, I know.” Kat reaches out and takes hold of my arm. I slow down to a walk. “Just tell him you’ll wait. That your job is your priority right now. I mean, if it’s meant to be with this girl, it will be.”
Stopping again, I look at Kat. “Do you really feel that way?” It sounds like a rather fanciful notion, if you ask me.
“Of course.” She shrugs. “I believe in fate. Why wouldn’t I?”
“Fate?”
“Yeah. Like us running into each other.” She slaps my arm and giggles. “Get it. Run into each other?”
I smile at her. She’s always been so quiet whenever I’ve been around the ladies from Beedle Drive, but I guess I’m usually investigating something when I see them. I’d be quiet too. “I get it.”
“Hey, let’s grab a beer.” I look up and see we’ve stopped on the corner of Welch and Lincolnway.
I glance to my right and wonder if Daisy’s home yet. Even if she is, do I want to see her?
That’s not the right question. No, the question is will she want to see me?
“Sure,” I reply after a moment.
“We could eat too,” Kat says, starting up the hill toward the bar. “Fried pickles, here I come.”
“Do you think that’s the way to go if you’re training for a 5k?”
“Sure. Why not?” She smirks at me. “I’ll burn off about five pickles on the way back.”
“Sounds about right.” I laugh as I catch up and walk next to her. “What about a burger and fries? Think I can burn those off in a few miles?”
“Sure.” Kat grasps the handle to Cy’s and opens the door. “My guess, you’d burn off eight fries and one bite of cheeseburger in three miles.”
Reaching up, I grasp the edge of the door and hold it open for her to enter. “Bet you’re right.”
“Of course I’m always right.” Kat releases a little snort, and it makes me smile again. “As long as you remember that, we’ll be fine.”
I chuckle. “Have you had issues with this in the past? You know, people not knowing you’re right all the time?”
Finding a table in the back, Kat slides into a booth and nods. “It’s why my two-year relationship ended.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
She shrugs. “Well, that and he cheated on me.”
“Shit.”
Waving it away, she smiles. “It’s fine.” She shakes her head. “Not really, but that was a couple of months ago. I’m really fine. Now that I’m on the other side of it, I’m glad it happened. He… well, he wasn’t the man I thought he was, and I learned he wasn’t the kind of man I want to end up with. I want an honest, stand-up guy.”
I’m tempted to ask her what she means by that, but a waitress approaches to ask us what we’d like to order. We both select a beer on tap along with fried pickles, a cheeseburger each, and a basket of fries. Once the waitress leaves, it’s quiet for the first time since we ran into each other.
“So, you’re okay now?” I ask softly.
“Single and ready to mingle,” Kat says with a smile. Then she adds, “Just kidding. No, I feel good. It was difficult, sure, but for the best. I really mean that.”
“That’s good.”
She reaches out and taps the top of my hand with one of her fingers. “I know there’s more, Gage, so spill. Tell me everything that’s going on with you.”
My eyes find hers, and I know for certain she’s sincere. She cares. The question is, can I trust her?
She must be a mind reader, because she holds up three fingers and says, “I won’t tell a soul. Scout’s honor.”
“You were a scout?”
“Sure. I was a Girl Scout, a Brownie, and a Bluebird.”
“Wow. Okay. Consider yourself vetted.”
“Awesome.”
So I talk. I tell her everything—well, not anything related to the case, but everything from the moment I saw Daisy’s eye in the small opening in her door to today and the events that landed her in jail. I think I’ve shocked her with the last part.
“She’s in jail? Right now?” She points down at the table.
“I believe so, yes.”
“And you can’t help her?”
Our food arrives, and we go quiet as we open our utensils and prepare to eat.
“Not right now, no,” I finally reply. “One of the guys I was working with, Lance Finch, said he’d do what he could.” And for some fucking reason, I believe him. “She’s going to be upset.” I don’t think Daisy is going to understand that I was in no position to barter for her release. As angry as the captain was, anything I tried would have probably made things worse for her. I shrug. “Maybe it’s a sign.”
“Oh, so now you’re all about fate?” Kat smirks as she bites into a fried pickle dipped in ranch dressing. “You want to know what I think?”
“Sure.” Why not?
“I think she’d be crazy not to understand the situation you’re in.”
I’m listening. “You think?”
“I do.”
“Why?”
“Because, Gage, you’re what we single women call a unicorn.”
I put my hand on the top of my head.
Nope. No horn.
“A what?” Then I laugh. “What the hell does that mean?”
Taking a drink from her beer, Kat explains. “A unicorn is a guy who’s the whole package. A unicorn is kind, sexy, smart, and loyal. They love their woman with everything they’ve got. They’re protective, but not in a bad way. They’re rare. Like the unicorn.”
“Unicorns don’t exist.” And neither do guys like Kat’s describing.
“They do, but like I said, they’re very rare. And you’re one of them.”
“I’m not.” Really, I’m not. I left Daisy alone in a damn cell, for shit’s sake.
“Just take a compliment, will ya?” She laughs.
“I can take a compliment, but that’s putting a lot
