“I’m about to go to lunch. Swing shift today.”
“Ah,” I say as I try to calm myself down and act like a normal human. “Collinsworth got you working all by yourself…”
My brow raises in question and Lurch immediately sticks out his hand. “Chase. Chase Hartley.”
“Leo.” I force myself to shake his big mit, noting how huge it is compared to mine. “Allan. I’m restoring the?—“
“Paintings, and you used to front The Ravens.” When I awkwardly pull my hand away, my unease over his response clear, Chase quickly adds, “I was briefed on everyone who works here. And I might have seen one or two of your shows a long time ago.”
Which is perfectly normal and understandable, especially if he’s from New Orleans. It’s where we started after all, so it isn’t weird to run into someone who’s heard of the band or knows who I am. I need to keep reminding myself of that, it’s just hard to do after not talking to anyone but Justine or Pierre for so long.
“And I’m not.”
I frown. “Not what?”
“Working by myself.” Chase checks his watch then gives me a nod. “Mr. Collinsworth hired three of us from Wroughton Shield Protection. It’s a branch of this huge company, All Out, that provides basically any and every service someone with moneymight need. Caters to a lot of celebrities, you know, actors and musicians, people like that but if you have the cash, Karissa will work with anyone. Elias, he’s out of Colorado but he owns WSP, sent Sal from California, Boris from New York, and me. I’m local.”
I arch a brow as my nose scrunches. “Cool…” That was a lot of random information I didn’t exactly need.Weird.“I haven’t seen?—”
“Sal or Boris? You probably won’t, not this time of day. You come in shortly before I leave, then leave after I come back. I’m here the most because I’m local but we rotate days, and one of those guys usually comes in overnight with me. Tonight it’s Sal. And the other?—”
“Does the swing shift?” Why is he telling me all of this? This is literally the second time I’ve seen this dude and after the first, I didn’t think he regularly spoke so many words to anyone. Chase struck me as the strong silent type, not like Pete, more like, well, Lurch, but here he is, chatting my ear off when I’m trying to go home.
He smiles, his light eyes dancing. “Exactly. It’s a good system but we end up like ghosts to some people.”
Gripping the straps of my backpack tightly, I glance back toward the direction of the carriage house. “It was really nice meeting you, Chase, but I should probably… get going…”
“Right, and I should take my lunch while I still have some of it left.”
“Probably a good idea.”
I watch as he turns toward the mansion, taking a few steps before he quickly turns my way again. “Oh, you dropped these.”
With a frown, I watch Chase reach into his pocket and pull out my AirPods, tossing the royal purple, definitely mine, case my way.
“Thanks,” I say as I catch them. “I didn’t even realize I dropped them.”
He gives me a small salute as he walks backward, smiling brightly before he spins on his heel and jogs out of sight.
What a weird interaction.
I mean, I feel better knowing security was here. I can’t stand Collinsworth but this was a good idea, and it makes my paranoia seem even sillier than it did before. Especially when my phone buzzes from inside my backpack and I jump again.
LUCKY: Where are yoooouuuuuu
Giggling a little because I can actually hear that text message, I fire off a quick reply, drop the iPhone and my keys in my bag then light a cigarette as I head to my car.
My god, I will never understand how I went so long without those kinds of texts making me crazy every day. Never again will I allow that to happen. Never.
I smile to myself as I think about the same thing I’ve been thinking about since I woke up, the men in my life quickly filling it with purpose again, but I can feel it fade a little when Mark pops into my head.
He’s been kind of weird the last few times we were together, almost… sad, I guess? I don’t know, maybe not, but something has been off with my teddy bear boy and I really want to know what it is. And since he’s coming over to cook dinner, hopefully I’ll be able to find out.
I wonder if Norm found that ice cream.
God, I could go for…
I frown as I hit the quarter mile marker on my walk, my car coming into view way down in the lot but what has me making a face and deciding to search for my phone is what I swear I just saw.
