“My goodness. Working with a smell like that on a day-to-day basis must be heavenly,” Ness said, placing the sandwiches on the counter.
“Unfortunately, your nose becomes rather accustomed to it after a while. You’ll notice that you barely smell the flowers any longer after about half an hour or so,” Lindsay walked to the door and flipped the “Open” sign to its “Closed” side and locked the door.
“We better eat those in the back because customers can become rather irate when they see you inside with the door locked.”
“Alrighty then,” Ness smiled and packed up the sandwiches and moved into the back room. She placed them on the table and sat down.
“Would you like a cup of coffee?” Lindsay asked walking into the room.
“Does a possum have 13 nipples?” Ness asked with an expressionless face. Lindsay stood frozen with confusion, “Um . . . I’ve never really thought about it.” Ness smiled, “Yes, they do. So, yes please, that would be lovely.” Lindsay smiled and started brewing the coffee.
“You know you’re pretty weird. I can see that you and Wyatt are related,” she turned and winked at Ness. “I will take that as a compliment,” Ness smiled in return. “You should.”
Lindsay sat down, handing Ness’ coffee to her. “So, how was your time on campus? And which friend did you bump into? Did you have fun?” Lindsay started bombarding Ness with questions.
“It was all fine. Campus was very much the same. Spent some time in the library but then drove around for a while. I bumped into an old friend, Rebecca Lehane, that I used to have classes with, and she was so excited to see me that she begged me to stay over with her and catch up.”
“You guys must have been close if she wanted you to stay over,” Lindsay said, taking a bite of her pastrami sandwich.
“We were rather, but things changed after the accident. However, it was still nice catching up. How was your day yesterday with Wyatt?” Ness enquired.
“Wyatt, unfortunately, got called into work. So, I spent the day with my mom.”
“He had to work?” Ness frowned.
“Yeah, some guys in Chicago needed his help, so he spent a large portion of the day there. I actually thought he might bump into you, but then I remembered how big the city actually was.”
“That would have been something,” Ness said, swallowing nervously. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you or Wyatt pop home today while I was napping?”
“It wasn’t me, and I doubt it was Wyatt. He rarely goes home during the day. Why do you ask?”
“Just felt like someone was in the house earlier on, but I’m sure it was just my imagination. I’ve been far too jumpy for my own good of late,” Ness laughed at herself.
“I kind of noticed,” Lindsay laughed, too.
“On another note, would you maybe like some company here this week? I can only start re-enrolling in my classes again next month. Now that I have a lot of spare time on my hands, I’d like to keep busy. I’ll happily work for free if you’ll have me,” Ness put on the best puppy dog eyes she could muster.
“Of course, you can. I’d really appreciate the help.”
“Great. Would you like me to start now?”
“Of course. Mondays can get strangely busy.”
Ness smiled and took the coffee cups to the sink. She wasn’t going to admit this to Lindsay, but she was almost positive that someone was in the house—she wasn't going to take the chance of being caught off guard. Being here at the shop gave her an edge, and she was glad that Lindsay accepted her offer to help out. Across the road in an alleyway behind one of the dumpsters, his prying eyes continued to watch her. If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you ages ago. No, Ness . . . the fun is just starting. He pulled his hat lower over his eyes as he disappeared into a moving crowd. Let the games begin.
19
For the rest of the week, Ness helped Lindsay at her shop; considering that she hadn’t had any contact with Eddie, she was starting to feel a sense of normalcy returning to her life. She had humorous mealtimes with Wyatt and Lindsay, and she popped in regularly at the police station to go say ‘hi’ to Heck and Agatha. Maybe she was just being overly paranoid about Eddie.
Ness stretched as the sunlight beamed through her window. It was Sunday: the day that the whole family was going to grandpa’s cabin in the Illinois woods. Ness walked to her door and could hear that Wyatt and Lindsay were already up and were busy downstairs. Ness walked to the bathroom to shower.
15 minutes later, Ness walked downstairs and saw that Heck had joined the little entourage. “Hey, Dad,” Ness said, walking forward and embracing her dad.
“Is everyone ready to go?” Heck asked, and everyone nodded in agreement. “Awesome, why don’t we all go in my truck. Would make sense to save some gas.”
Everyone piled into the truck, with the men sitting in the front and Ness and Lindsay sitting in the back. It wasn’t a far trip to the cabin, but it would still take them a couple of hours to negotiate some of the hilly terrain getting up there. When Wyatt Sr. chose to retire, he chose to do so as far away from people as he possibly could.
A couple of hours later, Heck’s truck was making its way up the last obstacle as it made its way
