“Shit.” She turned, her back to the reporter, her body curled protectively around the phone as though she could send that protection through to Charlie. With her free hand, she traced a charm against the countertop, and her voice slid sideways, out of eavesdropping range. “By what?”
“I couldn’t tell. Shadows.” Charlie sighed, bone-deep weariness apparent in the sound. “Well, shadow, singular, probably… I think it was the same fucking thing every time.”
“Are you all right?”
“I’m tired and I’m angry and I’ve puked up everything I’ve eaten for the last six years, but yeah, I’m all right. I’m just in Brazil. Rio. I think it’s trying to keep me from you.”
“What?”
“For fucksake, Allie, pay attention. I said, I think…”
“I heard you.” Fear, not for herself but for Charlie, sharpened her tone. “That was an exclamation of surprise, not a request for you to repeat yourself. If you can’t get to me, go home!”
“Oh, stupid me, not to think of that!”
She gentled her tone, pulled Charlie back from the edge. “You tried?”
“I tried. Every time I go in, fucking shadow bounces me out. Doesn’t matter where I’m pointed.”
“Then why do you think it has to do with me?”
“I just… I can hear your song in the way the Wood changes, okay? And yeah, I know that doesn’t make sense to you, but it does to me, so be careful. Don’t trust anyone outside the family. I’m on my way.”
“How…?”
“They have these things called planes.”
“Yeah, but they smell like ass and they make you check your guitar.” Allie could hear Charlie smiling in the silence. “Have you got the cash to…?”
“Credit card. I’m on a flight that’s boarding in about forty-five minutes. It’s going to take a while, though.” She could hear paper rustling and maybe, now she knew what to listen for, a distant security announcement. “It’s Rio to San Paulo to O’Hare to Denver to Calgary. Thirty-six hours and fifty minutes. I’ll get in about six thirty in the morning on Saturday if there’s no delays… except that I’m going through O’Hare, so delays are fucking inevitable.”
The layout of the runways at O’Hare meant that two or three times a day, planes heading east sketched a dark charm on the airport. Had the family needed to fly into Chicago with any regularity, they’d have done something about it. As it was, it was easier to just to avoid the city.
“Wait a minute, O’Hare to Denver to Calgary?” Allie mapped it out against the counter. “That’s going back south before you go north.”
“Beggars and choosers, babe. At least I’ll get caught up on some sleep.”
Charlie didn’t have her phone; she’d have thirty-two hours and twenty minutes of peace and quiet. “You haven’t called the aunties yet, have you?”
“Figured you should get a heads up first.”
“You’re too good to me.”
“I know it.”
“Charlie…”
Charlie’s interruption was more of a snort than a snicker. “I’ll be careful if you keep from doing anything stupid.”
“Define stupid?”
“Bite me.”
“Love you, too.”
She pressed a kiss to the phone before she closed it and turned back to Graham. His brows rose, and questions about why he suddenly couldn’t understand a word she’d said swam just under the surface of his expression. “Problem?”
“Unexpected travel screwup.” She still needed to know what he knew, but she really didn’t need the distraction of his eyes and his scent and his smile and his hands and all the lovely that cheap suit was covering while dealing with the inevitable calls from the aunties.
“Family member?”
Interesting phrasing.
“Cousin.”
“In Brazil?”
“Yes.” But that much he’d overheard. “She’s a musician.”
“I should go.” He didn’t want to, and he wasn’t bothering to hide it. Easy enough to see that his desire to stay mostly had to do with wanting confirmation of whatever he thought was going on. With the store. With her grandmother. With a cousin in Brazil. She could almost see him drawing lines, connecting dots he thought he had. But that wasn’t the part he let her see; she took a look at that all on her own. The part he let her see had more to do with her, personally, and she really wished she had the time to appreciate the sentiment.
“Yeah, you should go.” Her fingers tightened around the phone. “It’s going to get very…
Graham smiled at that, like he understood what she meant. He really didn’t. He really couldn’t, but she appreciated the thought and caught herself wondering about his family as he said, “I’d like to see you again. To talk about the store. For my article.”
Nice save. She wondered why he felt he had to make it. He wasn’t wearing a ring, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a significant other attached. “How about coffee tomorrow?”
“Coffee’s good.”
“I’ll see you around eleven, then.”
“Great.”
