I felt like I was going to be sick. Everything in me was screaming to go to him and make sure he was okay even though I’d only seen him an hour before. No wonder he was scared to death. He’d had to hide for his own damned safety while criminals were in his house going through his stuff. And how had they ransacked his bedroom without finding him in the closet?
“I have to go,” I said, standing up and reaching for my wallet. I handed Otto some cash. “Don’t forget to grab Evan something.” They both stared at me like I was crazy, but I didn’t wait around long enough to even apologize for acting weird.
I went straight back to Augie’s Antiques.
Chapter 9
Augie
I was on the floor trying to collect the last of the antique keys I’d spilled when I heard the bells tinkle over the door.
“Be right with you,” I called.
“Need some help?”
I turned in surprise to see Saint. “What are you doing back so soon?” I asked.
He knelt on the floor and began picking up keys. “What happened?”
“Oh, I uh… I was unpacking an urn and didn’t realize it was full of all these keys. I guess the broker included them in the package as a gift for me, but when I pulled out the urn upside down, they all tumbled onto the floor.”
He glanced at me in confusion. “Why would he include a bunch of keys? What do they go to?”
“Nothing, really. I collect them. It’s a personal thing. The man I bought this lot of urns from knows how much I love them.” I hesitated for a second before continuing. “I… I love the mystery of old keys.”
“What do you mean?”
I felt my face heat. “Ever since my great-aunt gave me a special antique key on a childhood visit to Hobie, I’ve always enjoyed daydreaming about what antique keys go to. As if maybe there’s some ancient collection of interesting items in an old chest somewhere that no one knows is there because they don’t have the right key.” I swallowed, trying not to notice how close Saint’s large body was to mine on the wooden floor of the shop. “It’s silly, I guess. Simply the product of a wild imagination.”
“I think that’s really interesting,” he said softly. “Like buried treasure without the map to lead you there.”
I looked up at Saint, stopped short by his clear gray-blue eyes. “Exactly.”
We were interrupted by the sound of my cell phone ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket to see my mom’s photo lighting up the screen. “Excuse me,” I murmured before answering. It was a long-ingrained habit not to keep my mother waiting.
“Mother,” I answered before standing up and stretching my back.
“Augie, I need you to come to the city tonight. Meet me at Dakota’s at seven.”
Her high-brow sense of entitlement that I would jump when she said jump annoyed me immediately. “I can’t. I have to work. The shop is open until six, and then it would take me a couple of hours to get to the city. Sorry.”
I closed my eyes in frustration hearing the apology come out of my own damned mouth. Why was I sorry for doing my job?
“Find someone else to close the shop. It’s important. Aurora will be there as well. I’m sure your sister misses you since you moved to the countryside.”
My mother liked to refer to Hobie as “the countryside” as if it were a summer estate in an old English romance novel. Which was better than what my cousin Brett had always called it. But my mother slipping Rory’s name in there to guilt me was a hot button of mine. And she knew pressing it worked every time.
I did have a part-time employee who could close for me, but he had a second job working evenings in a restaurant. When he closed, it left him precious little time to make it to the Pinecone for his shift. “I can’t. What’s so important that you need me there tonight?” I assumed it was most likely an investor or friend who particularly liked antiques. That was my mother’s favorite time to trot out her knowledgeable son.
“I heard about the break-in. You need to tell me what happened. Why didn’t you call me right away?”
Saint finished grabbing the last of the keys and stood up next to me to put them in the box with the others. His big muscled body was close enough to dwarf me, but instead of being intimidated by his size, I found myself wanting to lean into his sturdy frame.
I cleared my throat and tried to concentrate on my mother’s words. “What?”
I tried ignoring the little smile that quirked up the edge of Saint’s lush mouth. The man was sexy as hell. I let out a breath.