Page 49 of Sugar and Skulls

“You will. We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

“What exactly do you want to know?” she asks, pressing her hand to the center of my chest. She gives a little test push, before letting her gaze drift to mine.

I tip my head back and forth as if weighing my options. When my head stops she cringes. She’s good at reading people.

“No.” She shoves hard now. I don’t budge.

She needs to know. This is the trailer, the prequel for what is to come. My eyes follow hers as she tries to look anywhere but directly at me.

“I’m not telling you anything. Let me go.”

“Tell me, Jesse, when did it start?”

She huffs and puffs. “When did what start?” she asks, angrily.

“When did the hiding start?”

Jesse’s chest rises and falls, rises, and falls. “I’m not hiding.”

“Hmmm.” I tap her head. “You’re up here. Hiding behind a red velvet curtain, frantically trying to set the stage for the next scene.”

She doesn’t say anything. Her green eyes blink once. Twice.

“You see there are those in the audience who only care about what is playing out in front of them. They don’t give a shit what goes on behind scene.”

Her tongue darts out to wet her lips. The wind blows the leaves above us. The sun cuts across her face, the light bringing out the gold flecks in hidden in the green of her eyes. A whole treasure is buried there. It will be mine.

“You’ve done a good job at keeping that stage set but it’s getting harder and harder isn’t it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Did you fall and hit your head this morning?”

I cradle her face in my hands. “Talk to Raffe. Prepare yourself. The three of us are going to take a little trip over spring break.”

She doesn’t say anything, her eyes never leave my chest. I kiss her forehead before leading her back to the lake. Jesse lowers herself back to her spot, leaning against the post. Katie and Bill are having such a good time fishing they didn’t even notice she had left.

I take the post opposite of her. “Catching anything?” I holler down to Bill.

He turns towards us smiling. “No, but that’s not the point.”

Jesse’s focus goes back to the dark tree line. I wonder what is going on in that pretty little head of hers.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Jesse

???

Spring break begins this Wednesday. Four days. I have four days to prepare for a trip with Dirk and Raffe. I don’t know where we are going or what we are going to be doing. I’m nervous. I’m excited. I’m terrified.

My life is getting more and more complicated. I really don’t have time for Dirk and his mystery trip. I need to monitor Katie’s well-being. Then there’s Tom. He is probably wanting to visit his daughter in Phoenix. He goes every few months to see her and he depends on me to take care of his dog, Teddy. Then there is the shop. Dan just started letting me tattoo actual people.

On top of my schedule there is Sugar’s. She has a business to run. Funds to distribute. Product to secure. And, of course we can’t forget she still has Jimmy to deal with.

I’ll talk to Raffe and tell him whatever they are planning I just don’t have time.

Katie and I are sitting at a picnic table on the brick patio that is behind the warehouse while the guys are grilling steaks for supper. Katie watches as I scratch out a drawing of her holding a fishing pole. “It’s really cool you can draw,” she says in her sweet little voice.

I rip a sheet of paper out of my sketch book, handing it to her. I give her a charcoal pencil. “Here you go. This is how I started, by putting pencil to paper.”

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