“Yeah, hope it works better than these pancakes, at least,” Si said, picking listlessly at the pancakes on his plate, which seemed to be covered in tropical fruit. “Or I’m gonna boycott this place until the gift-giving holidays areover.”
“Right,” Ev snickered. “Or you could just tell Dianeno, like some of us did,baby.”
“But she was so excited, Ev.” Si shrugged helplessly. “I couldn’t say no. Besides, I was thinking myboyfriendcould share some of his omelet withme.”
“This is what love looks like,” Ev said with a sigh, pushing his plate to the center of thetable.
“Worth it!” Si said happily, digging into theomelet.
“Yeah,” Ev said, watching his boyfriend. “It reallyis.”
And yeah, I smiled cheesily enough to make any lactose-intolerant person in the vicinity ill, because I knew exactly what he was talkingabout.
But before I could slide too fully into the warm, gooey love vibe, Theo slid into the chair across from me, ducking his head like he was trying not to be noticed, and Sam crowded onto the bench between my table and Silas’stable.
“Julian,” Theo said anxiously. “We have aproblem.”
“Theo, I haven’t had coffee yet,” I informed him. “You can give me your Jason Bourne routine after I’mcaffeinated.”
“No, I’m serious! There’s a woman over there, and she’s asking about Daniel.” He nodded toward the far side of the diner. “The one with her hair up in a bun-thing—”
“A French twist,” Sam interjected. “Which, like, is either way out of style or coming back into style and we haven’t heard about ityet.”
“She’s wearing a fancy suit like she doesn’t know she’s in O’Leary,” Theo hissed, like this was tantamount to wearing the sign of theantichrist.
I sat up straight and tried to look around Theo’sbulk.
“Jesus! Don’tlook,” he whispered furiously, while Sam yanked at my shoulder to pull medown.
“Well, do you know who she is? Do you know what she wants?” I demanded. “Maybe she’s afriend.”
“If she was a friend, she’d know where he lived and wouldn’t be asking Diane if she knew Daniel,” Sam saidreasonably.
“Maybe. Or maybe she just knew the name of the town and came to surprise him.” Though as I said it, it sounded less and less plausible. “What did Dianesay?”
“Just that he lived out on the Camden Road. And I know Jay Turner overheard, too, but he didn’t say anything either. You know how people here are withoutsiders.”
I almost laughed. Suddenly Daniel was now an insider and the lady looking for him was the stranger. It made my heart squeeze in a good way and reminded me why, for all its faults, O’Leary was the only place I’d ever consideredhome.
“Well, she’s gonna see him in a minute,” I warned them. “Daniel stopped to help Dana Cobb, but he’s coming to meet me. In fact, you’re in hisseat.”
“Then you need to go over there and find out what she wants before Daniel walks into something,” Sam said. “Do you know about his family? They sound exactly like the kind of people who’d put a private investigator on histail.”
“On his tail? Are we in a cop show now? Can I beCagney?”
Sam gave me a scathing look. “Is that some outdated pop-culture reference? Because if so, you and Daniel deserve eachother.”
“Is that an insult? Because if so, you really need to work on your shadegame.”
Sam groaned. “Never mind. It’s worse when you try to talk like you’re myage.”
“Hello!” Theo said. “Hi. Sorry to interrupt, but the woman is still overthere.”
Ev leaned over from the other table. “Hey. I really fucking hate it when people butt in on conversations, but uh… I’m butting in on your conversation. Need Silas or me to go talk to thelady?”
“Ev, honey, I can’t go over there and grill the woman for coming into a public place and eating… Oh.Damn. Looks like Diane just brought her the pineapple pancakes. I guess I could go over and try to avert a public healthdisaster.”
“No one needs to go over there,” I said. But because Theo looked like he was going to argue, I held up a hand. “But fine. I’ll go anyway and see who she is, okay? Will that make youhappy?”
