Page 4 of Stone

He knew that he was being harsh about it. But he liked his quiet time, and he also enjoyed being single. Not that he dated all that much. He rarely did. But if he wanted to go out, he usually made sure that he was out of town and went out with someone who was aware there would be no wedding bells between them. Most of the pack knew that, so that’s where he dated most of the time.

Chapter 2

“I don’t understand what this is supposed to be.” Sage didn’t bother looking at the new hire, who had started a month ago when he complained about the work they were doing. Instead she kept up with her work, ringing out people through her line while keeping up a conversation that they’d bring up to her. Mostly the price of food. “Why is it called an avocado when it looks nothing like one?”

“If you don’t know what it is, then all you have to do is look at the number that is stamped on the sticker. Put that into the computer like I told you. A dozen times.” He’d been told at least a dozen times an hour if you were to ask her. “Just put it on the scale and put in the number of them that they bought. Just like I showed you before.”

She wasn’t allowed to train people anymore, which suited her just fine. The last man that she’d trained had complained about her not being nice to him and not training him right. His idea of her training him had been for her to do the work while he played on his phone. Finally having enough of the little shit, she’d ‘accidentally’ knocked his phone on the floor and had stepped on it. The only reason that she’d not had to pay for him to have another one was to claim that he wasn’t supposed to have it out in the first place. He quit that afternoon. The level of frustration was getting louder by the time she was on her third customer, most of them from the line next to hers.

“Sage, can I see you for a moment?” She said sure as soon as she was finished with Mr. Humphrys. “That’s fine. Then put the closed sign on your register.”

She didn’t think that would go over well with that, meaning that everyone would have to go to the new hires line. She didn’t doubt that there would be a lot of people pissed off about it too. Once she was finished with her order, she hurriedly put up her sign before anyone else came to her line. She went to the office to see what Mr. Danielson needed from her. It didn’t bode well that he closed the door, she thought.

“I’m going to have to let the new hire go.” She didn’t so much as blink at him. “As I’m sure you’ve heard, he’s not catching on as well as I had hoped. That means that it’s going to be a little more work for you, I’m afraid.”

“I’m not afraid of some extra hard work, Mr. Danielson. You know that.” He nodded and then sat down at the corner of his desk. “Just tell me. I can take it. Do you have to fire me or something?”

“The store would literally collapse if I were to do that. No, I need a favor. It’s a big one.” He pulled out his handkerchief and blew his nose. He was the only person that she knew that still used a cloth handkerchief. “My granddaughter and her husband were killed this morning. Some other couple killed them and took my great-granddaughter, Hailey. I’m not sure of the details yet, but that’s about all I have.”

“I’m so sorry.” He broke down then, and she helped him to his chair. The man was a mess, and her heart hurt for him. “What is it you need for me to do? You know I’d do anything for you.”

“Margaret can’t travel with me. She’s got that heart condition that keeps her from being able to fly. Not to mention the stress.” She knew where this was going and didn’t want to have to tell the man that she wouldn’t want to travel either. It was too much to ask of her, she thought. “I was wondering if you’d be a gem and stay with her while I’m gone?”

“Yes.” She more than likely should have given it more thought than she did, but being so thrilled that she didn’t have to travel with him made her happy. “She and I will get along well. How long do you expect to be gone? I’m assuming not too long.”

“A week, they told me. I’m going to have to see about bringing little Hailey home with me to raise. It’ll be difficult. We’re not exactly getting any younger, but there is literally no one else to raise her. Bobby, our son, has four children of his own and doesn’t want to be bothered with her. What athing to say if you were to ask me. But I guess I can understand. None of us have ever met the child. She and her mother were supposed to come here for the holidays, but that didn’t happen.”

A lot of things didn’t happen during the holidays that she could say as well, but she kept her mouth closed. Her mother was supposed to come and visit with her new boyfriend, but at the last minute—she was at the airport to pick them up when she called to cancel. Even having the week off to spend with her didn’t pan out as she worked because there was no reason for her to stay at home alone.

“You’ll do it? You’ll stay with Margaret?” She told him that she’d be honored to and told him to make arrangements and she’d even take him to the airport so he’d not have to leave his car. “I expected you to tell me…well, I don’t know what I expected, but I’m so happy that you’ll be able to do this for me. Yes, I am.”

After making the arrangements for her to babysit his wife, she went home to pack. It wasn’t going to be difficult for her to gather up her things; she didn’t have that much in the way of clothing or anything else for that matter, but she did need to make sure that she could do her laundry while there as she’d certainly run out of things to wear at some point. After gathering up her things, she was on her way to the house as Earl Danielson was leaving first thing in the morning, and she’d be in charge of keeping his wife occupied.

By the time she was in the little bedroom that she was given while there, she was exhausted. It was only seven-thirty in the evening, but the Danielsons were upset, and it was something that she wasn’t used to dealing with. Keeping them together, at least as much as she could, Sage was ready to go to bed long before their beloved show, Jeopardy, came on at eight so that they could have something normal in their lives. The poor couple decided that they’d go to bed early rather than their normal time. It was just nine, just after, when she found herself in her room with the lights off.

She’d be spending the next week with Margaret Danielson and that would mean that she didn’t have to work at the grocery store at the same time. Keeping the elderly woman company, she was happy that she’d not have to go to work, too, but then she thought it might be nice to have a distraction. But since she didn’t have any idea what she’d be doing all day with the woman, she also brought her tablet as well as a couple of books that she’d been wanting to read.

Taking Earl, Mr. Danielson, to the airport turned out to be a drama. Margaret decided that she didn’t want him to go and the two of them were crying in the airport. Asking her if she’d go, they turned over their ticket and money so that she could purchase whatever she needed when she got there. This was not the way that she wanted to spend her week off. Much less traveling to an unknown place to pick up a child that she didn’t know and bring her back to them in a few short days. Sitting on the tarmac, Sage didn’t even know if there would be anyone there to pick her up. Christ, this was worse than she thought it might be.

The ride wasn’t all that long. By the time she landed, there were two phone messages on her cell. One that the Danielson’s got home all right, and two that there would be a couple, Edwin and Storm that would be picking her up and taking her to the hotel. She only hoped that the hotel was all right, with it being her instead of Earl. Sage shouldn’t have done this in the first place and wished that she’d stayed home to work.

There was a couple there with a sign with them that said her name. Sage Tigner couldn’t have been that common but they did ask her to verify her name. After digging out her driver’s license, she handed it over to them and told them that she didn’t have any luggage. Instead of being upset, the two of them laughed.

“Hailey has been staying with my brother and his wife. They have other children, four little girls that are about the same age as your niece.” She explained to them that she wasn’t related to either the child or the Danielsons but was simply doing them a favor. “Oh. I guess I knew that, too. All right. How about some lunch? Then we’ll be on our way. There is a hearing in the morning for the couple that killed her parents. I’m to understand that you’ve been asked to go to that as well.”

“Yes. I’ve been asked to do a lot of things that I have no idea what I’m doing.” She didn’t mean to sound bitter but she wasn’t in the best of mood. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take that out on you two.You’ve done nothing wrong.”

The child behind her had kicked her the entire trip, and it had been all she could do not to kick his mother in the head when she couldn’t be bothered to get off her cell phone long enough to keep her kid in line. Sage never wanted to have children, much less meet some man who might want to have them with her. She didn’t care for kids at all. And the thought of marriage of any kind was something that she never wanted to think about in her life.

The lunch diner had good food. When the bill was paid by Edwin, she thanked them after telling them that she was on a tight budget. The Danielson’s only had thirty bucks in cash between then and decided that their credit card would get her into more trouble than not. She was going to have to watch every penny and shop for second-hand clothing while she was here. This trip was something that she wished had never happened.

The hotel, of course, had trouble with her staying in the room that Earl had booked. Even after talking with him, they said that they couldn’t be scammed and that if she had the cash, she could get her money back from the Danielsons when she returned home. Like she had that much ready cash on her right now. In the end, she ended up staying with the Griffins, telling them that she was only there to pick up the child and return home. The sooner, the better.

“I don’t know that you’re going to have any better luck with that than you did with the hotel.” She just knew that Storm was going to be right about that. Why should that part, the only part that she’d come out here for, go any better than anything else so far? “I’ll see what I can figure out and pull some strings for you. I hate that you traveled all this way for nothing.”

“This was very last minute.” She told them how the Danielsons were an older couple in their early eighties. She thought that they were much too old to be raising a child but hadn’t voiced that to anyone. “Mrs. Danielson as been ill for some time now, and she couldn’t make the trip due to doctor’s orders. I was set to stay with her, but she wanted her husband at home, so I was persuaded to go instead. I have no idea how this is going to work at all.”

“No matter. We’ll figure it out.” She was happy that they were confident about the way things were going. Not only had the Danielsons not met the child, but she’d never met her parents either. “Now, let’s get you to our house, and you can unwind a bit. It’s been a hard couple of days on you and you need the rest.”

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