“Just stay in the car,” Deklan says as we arrive at the Foley place. “This shouldn’t take long.”
“I was supposed to be at work this morning. Is it okay for me to call Terry from here?”
“Sure.” Deklan heads into the house, and I turn on my phone.
“Claire’s Coffee Creations, this is Terry. How may I help you today?”
“Terry, it’s Kera.”
“Kera! Where the heck are ya, girl?”
“I am so sorry. This week has been…insane. I can’t even begin to explain everything over the phone.”
“I was kinda surprised you didn’t show up this morning. I figured it was something important. Business is light today. I can cover for you.”
“Thank you so much! I’ll be in early tomorrow.”
“No problem, Kera. Hope everything is okay!”
“Hey, Terry?”
“Yeah?”
“You know that weird guy who always comes in and reads the newspaper for hours at a time? I think his name is Charlie.”
“Yeah, I know who you mean.”
“Is he there now?”
“Actually, no. He was in earlier, but he left without buying anything.”
“Oh. Okay. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See ya then!”
I lean the car seat back and pull my knees up to my chest. The sun is shining brightly through the windows, and the car is nicely warm. I pull up a game on my phone and poke around at it for a while. About thirty minutes later, Deklan returns.
“Well, Sean is pissed.” He starts the car and pulls away from the house.
“He didn’t know what you and Brian planned.”
Deklan looks at me out of the corner of his eye but doesn’t reply.
“Did you tell Sean?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“Are you going to tell me?”
“No.”
I glare at him, but he doesn’t look back at me. He reaches toward the dash to turn on the radio, and I grab his hand.
“Do you think I’m okay with being woken up in the middle of the night to watch you get arrested? And don’t you dare say you didn’t know it was going to happen. Insisting on me wearing pajamas for the first time ever was a bit of a giveaway.”
“I didn’t know for sure,” Deklan mumbles as he gives up on the radio. “I didn’t want them walking in on you naked.”
“Bullshit. You knew they were coming.”