Page 19 of No Sweet Goodbyes

And the foot I planted firmly in my mouth is just one more example of why I don’t deserve her.

7

EMMA

Tacos and tequila. They are the ultimate cure for anything and everything that can possibly go wrong in my life. That cure is exactly how I find myself sitting in Kennedy’s usual booth at Lucy’s, with a plate of tacos and a margarita sitting in front of me, just waiting for me to devour them.

I don’t even have to worry about driving home. I’ve got my ride on standby.

My best friend is running late. So when I stuff the last taco on my plate into my mouth, I grab one off the plate I’d ordered for her and start eating that, too.

“Party foul,” Kennedy groans when she sees that her plate only has two of the delicious morsels sitting on it. “You don’t take my tacos. That’s against the rules.” I know she isn’t mad, though. Not only is she smiling, but I’ve been taking tacos off her plate for a long time.

Once she slides into the booth, she reaches over the table and steals my drink, leaving the plate where it is for the moment.

“I don’t know why they won’t just bring you two of them. So I have one when I get here, too.” She takes half my drink down in one gulp.

“I didn’t ask for two,” I admit. “I figured if there were two sitting here, I’d drink them both, and then I’d be drunk before you even got here. And then you’d have to drink twice as many to catch up.”

“Whatever.” She sniffs dramatically. Then she raises her hand in the air like we are still in elementary school and waves down none other than Violet Ortiz, Dom’s little sister.

Vi, who works for Parker at Lucy’s to pay for college, walks up with a broad smile on her face. “Hey, Kennedy. You ready for a drink and your own plate of tacos?”

“Yep.” Kennedy nods fervently. “This asshole already started eating the ones she ordered for me.”

“How’s Bee doing?” I pipe up. “Did you see her before work today?” What I want to ask is if she’s talked to her brother and if he mentioned anything about me, but I don’t say a single word about that.

Vi laughs. “That girl is a riot.” She shakes her head slightly. “She’s already plotting to take over the world. I can’t believe she’s only six.”

“Seven,” I correct. “She just turned seven. But she is extremely smart and doesn’t stop, ever. You should see her with a marker or a pen in her hand. The girl can draw. Like… better than anyone else I know. And that’s saying something since you both know that I’m pretty good myself.”

Vi hums. “I’ll have to break out some of my old art supplies for her.” She smiles at me. “She’s doing great, Emma. Even though it’s only been a day. And I think Mama said that her uncle is going to make arrangements to have her in his home by the end of the month if everything works out the way it should. I guess he lives up beyond Bangor or Houlton or something like that, so it won’t be too far for her to adjust. At least he’s not out of state.”

I nod at that, making a mental note to put together a card or something to give him so that he has all my information in case Bee wants to get in touch with me. I want to make sure that if Bee needs me, I can be there for her at any time, day or night. “Thank you.”

Vi nods and walks away with a smile on her face and the notebook with our order in her hand.

“Hey,” Kennedy interrupts the silence suddenly, clapping her hands together. “Today was your first day. You didn’t text me and ask me to get you out of there. How’d it go? Was it everything you thought it might be? I take it since you canceled your run tonight, you didn’t feel up for it? Was it exhausting?”

I flush, unable to help it. Either the alcohol is stronger than I think it is, or the embarrassment of Dom telling the chief of police that a kiss with me didn’t mean anything has brought me down to a new low that I’m ashamed to tell even my best friend about.

I vote the alcohol.

“It was amazing,” I tell a little white lie to save myself. “I wasn’t in dispatch, like I thought I’d be for the first day. I was out with my training officer, observing while he worked his cases.”

“Who is it?” Kennedy munches happily on her taco. “I thought you were gonna have Amie, but you said ‘he’ so it’s one of the guys.”

I flush some more, and thankfully she isn’t looking at me but at the food she’s shoving in her mouth. Buying a little time, I pick up my drink and take a long and loud slurp of the frozen goodness in the glass. Too much, it seems, because my mouth freezes and my head starts to burn.

“Oooooh,” I moan. Then I clutch my head and scrunch up my face, trying to get rid of the ache. “Brain freeze.”

Kennedy laughs at me, snickering at my pain. Thankfully, it only lasts a second before it eases off. But that second feels like a lifetime where my head is concerned.

“Is it Eddie?” Kennedy asks, clearly trying to get more information out of me. “I’d think it might be a conflict of interest, since you dumped him and all and had a terrible relationship, but I don’t know. I do know that it’s not Linc because he would have told me immediately if it was. And I don’t think they’d stick you with Remy, because he’s got Daisy and you’re not training to be a K-9 officer.”

She asked about Eddie.

Eddie Stryker.

---