Chapter Fourteen
Tess
“Dinner.”
Kit strolled into the kitchen and plopped down in front of his bowl. I scraped the wet food out of the can into the bowl, and he nudged my hand in thank you. I tossed the can into the trash and dropped the dirty spoon into the sink.
Now it was time for me to figure out what I was going to eat. I needed to go grocery shopping, but I hadn’t gotten the nerve to actually leave the house yet.
I pulled open the freezer and surveyed my pitiful pickings.
A baggie of frozen leftover pizza or garlic toast. Both of which had been left in the freezer by the previous renter.
The garlic toast was still in its original packaging, while the leftover pizza looked very questionable.
I grabbed the box of garlic bread and pried open the end.
Garlic bread it was.
I had packed everything for Kit but had skimped on things that I would actually need. I didn’t take much of the food in my fridge because most cold items were expired, and I had no way to keep the frozen things frozen.
“T-t-tomorrow I need to go to the store, Kit.”
Kit looked up from his bowl and licked his lips while watching me.
I’m sure he was trying to figure out what we were doing and why I was talking to him so much more than I used to.
Breakfast and dinner were pretty much the only words I spoke to Kit, but since those few days with Zag, I had been talking more. It wasn’t like Kit knew what I was saying, but it was good practice for me.
After twenty-eight years, I was wanting to actually talk more.
I set the oven to four hundred degrees and grabbed a cookie sheet from the cabinet. Thank god the place I had found in the want ads was furnished with just about everything I would need; otherwise, I would have been sleeping on a blanket and eating frozen garlic bread.
I wandered into the living room while the garlic bread cooked. There was a large bay window in the living room with a window seat filled with colorful pillows.
Again, I really lucked out with this place. There was no way I could ever afford to deck it out with everything that was there.
I sat on the edge of the window seat and looked out at the street. The duplex was in a quiet part of Falls City, which wasn’t close to the touristy part of town. I had only been to Falls City a handful of times when I had been younger, and I remembered how packed and full of people the main road in town was. Bars, shirt shops, and souvenir boutiques lined the strip with restaurants and quirky attractions like a wax museum and Wild West photo booth.
Falls City was a tourist city if I ever saw one. From April to October, the town was packed with people from all over, but in the winter and early spring, the population dropped by three quarters.
I was now going to be part of that small population that stuck around year-round. Well, I hopefully was. As long as Malcom didn’t find me, Falls City was now my home.
A few cars drove by, and a mother and her son in a stroller passed the house.
Nice and quiet.
I leaned my head against the glass and took a deep breath.
And safe.
A dog barked loudly, and I sat back. I craned my neck to look down the street in the direction of the noise but couldn’t see much.
I moved to the front door and stood on my tiptoes to peek out the small window at the top of the door. I looked right, but then my breath caught when my eyes darted left.
A man was walking up to my walk with another man who looked just like him, crossing the street toward my house.
My mind raced, and then it clicked.
There was only one person I knew of who had a twin.
Zag.