“After four days MIA, you now know I’m alive,” I say, grinning and doing jazz hands. “Yay.”
Ren sighs, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “You suck at this.”
I can’t help but chuckle.
The bell to our little shop door dings, and Renaldo sits up straight.
“Gotta go. Duty calls.”
“Geez, that boss of yours is a slave driver,” I say, giving him a sideways smirk.
“Don’t I know it, sister,” he says, jostling his head back and forth, and snapping in mid-air in true, stereotypical fashion.
I shake my head, reaching for my Tarot card deck to pull today’s cards. I’m curious what messages I’ll receive today. Even if I can’t get any psychic impressions for myself, I’ve found the cards to be helpful in at least discovering trends.
“She in here?” a man’s voice filters in from the shop.
“Diana doesn’t take walk-ins without a referral,” Ren replies.
“I’m not a walk-in, I just need to talk to her for a minute,” the man says.
“Honey, don’t they all? Look, how about you tell me your—hey,” Ren says as the door to my reading room bursts all the way open.
“Diana,” Blake says, a bright smile beaming across his face.
“Blake,” I reply, setting my cards aside and standing up. “What are you doing here?”
Renaldo quirks an eyebrow and gives Blake the once-over from behind his back.
“Nice ass,” he mouths at me, pointing.
I widen my eyes, and shoo him with my hands. He, of course, closes the door only part-way so he can stand outside and eavesdrop.
Sighing to myself, I return my gaze to Blake.
“I feel like we got off to a rocky start,” Blake says, shoving aside my large amethyst cluster and rose quartz to place his perfect ass on the opposite side of my glass table.
“Oh, yeah?” I say, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, I, uh—yeah, a little,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Okay,” I say, waiting.
“Granted, we did find Esther. I mean, what could be better than that? Overall, I’d say we made a pretty good team,” he grins, the hint of a dimple emerging beside the edges of his goatee.
My hand slides up over my face.
Christ, he has dimples. How did I not notice this before?
“Yeah, we did. Which is why I’d say our partnership has officially come to a close,” I mutter, shoving him off the desk. “So, pretty sure you can go on your merry little way and I’ll go on mine.”
“Well, see…there’s a problem,” he continues, “the perps—”
“Got away,” I finish for him.
“So, you’ve heard?” he says, leaning forward and placing his hands on the table instead of his ass.
I glance at his hands, then back to his face.
“Something like that,” I say.
“Well, aren’t you the least bit interested in helping get these guys behind bars? I mean, if your abilities are really a thing, you could be the one to crack this open quickly,” he says.
“Blake, you might be getting paid to go hunting for these guys, but the last time I checked, I wasn’t employed by the police department, or you, for that matter. I have a business to run, and clients I need to contend with. I can’t go on a wild goose chase just because you want to—what? Get the credit?” I say, sitting back down.
“Who the hell says I’m getting paid?” Blake says, his dark eyebrows coming together.
“Oh, I guess I assumed—”
“Your abilities are still off with me, I see,” he says, doing air quotes when he says the word, ‘abilities.’
It’s true, as much as I hate to admit it. I’m just throwing in the dark when it comes to my observations and assumptions.
“Well, that doesn’t change anything—” I say, swiping my hand in the air dismissively, “there are plenty of assholes like those guys out in the world. I can’t go hunting down every last one just because I have abilities beyond what others do. Besides, I don’t know if I could take dealing with it day after day.”
“Yeah, but if you could put just one of these bad guys away so they can’t hurt another kid, isn’t it worth it? I mean, sure—you have a point. There are lots of assholes out there. But they’re faceless assholes. These sick ones shot up my damn Rover and were taking part in child trafficking.”
I shudder.
“I’m sorry, Blake. The answer is no. So, perhaps it’s time for you to leave.”
He holds his ground, still hunching forward on my glass table.
“Okay, look. I respect your decision. I do. So, maybe we could, I dunno, go out for coffee or something instead?”
My eyes widen at the audacity. He’s been nothing but a thorn in my side from the moment he bumped into me on the street and he wants to go out for coffee?
“She’d looooove to,” Renaldo says from the doorway.
My eyes flash from Blake to the doorway. In the small crack of the doorway, Renaldo peers inside, tipping his right shoulder, and grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
“Butt the hell out, Ren,” I spit back.
“C’mon, Diana. It’s just coffee,” Blake reiterates. “I promise, no shop talk.”
Turning to Renaldo, I say through gritted teeth, “I’ll deal with you in a moment.”
I hold up my pointer finger, trying to decide whether or not to turn it into a fist. Instead, I press it against my lips. Hard.
Part of me—an annoying part—is sorta thrilled he’s asking me. Don’t get me wrong, he’s nice to look at. As stupid as it is, it’s been a while since I went out on a date. It’s damn hard to make a real connection with anyone when you can hear their every thought. The other part of me is too smart for my own good. Of course his request is meant to soften me up so I’ll eventually say yes to helping him track down the bad guys. C’mon.
The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. I mean, do I have dumbass stamped across my forehead or something?
I take a deep, cleansing breath, trying to center myself before I completely lose
