"So?"
"So, he seems to really like you."
I made a forward motion with my hands. "And?"
"And I do some video work on the side, weddings and stuff."
I shook my head. "So?"
He lowered his voice. "You know that sex tape of his? If you wanted, I could set up a sequel."
My mouth fell open. "Are you sayingyoudid the first one?"
He glanced around. "I don't like to brag."
"Oh trust me," I said, feeling a cold rage sweep over me. "It's nothing to brag about."
"But I'm guessing you want to be famous too, right?"
I gave him look. "Does Lawton know about this?" Of course, I knew the truth, but his answer would tell me a lot.
Shaggy reached up to scratch his ear. "Not yet. But I mean, he'd find out eventually, right?"
I crooked my finger, inviting him to come closer. When he did, I moved my head close and whispered in his ear. "Listen, if youeverask me something like that again, you're gonna be real sorry. And you wanna know why?'
He leaned back and gave a nervous look around the restaurant. "What are you gonna do? Tell Lawton?"
"No." I smiled. "I'm gonna tell Jen."
His eyes widened. "Jen, my girlfriend?"
I nodded.
"You wouldn't."
I crossed my arms. "I would."
Again, he looked around. "She's not here now, is she?"
I shrugged.
"I gotta go," he said. A split-second later, he was heading for the exit.
I gave him a cheery wave. "Don't come back soon!"
Chapter 44
That next day was Sunday. I had the next day off and was determined to make the most of it, especially with Lawton still out of town. When he returned Monday, I wanted to be all caught up on chores and ready to make up for lost time.
I spent most of that Sunday catching up on things I should've been doing all along – doing loads of laundry, creating a new flyer for Grandma's non-existent job, and spending some quality time with Chucky.
But no matter what my hands were doing, my brain seemed to be doing something else entirely. I still hadn't heard back from the Parkers, and I was trying not to panic.
As the hours dragged on with no answer and no return phone call, I couldn't help but consider the worst-case scenarios.
This was a slow-motion train wreck waiting to happen. Mrs. Parker had writtenmechecks, and I'd written my own checks against those checks. It had never occurred to me that her checks wouldn’t be good. The first few had cleared just fine.
Eventually my own checks would bounce, but not right away, only because my account had overdraft protection. Still, it wouldn't be cheap. It was tied to a scarily small line of credit with a scarily big interest rate. If I needed to tap into that line, I'd have virtually no way to pay it back – unless, of course, I wanted to take Shaggy up on his sex tape offer.
