Page 37 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

Cadee smiled widely at him. “Like nice as in hot and you wanted to make out with her?”

He gave his daughter a firm look. “That will be enough from you.”

“What? I want you to find someone and settle down,” she said. “That way I’ll know you’re taken care of when I graduate and move out.”

From Michael’s expression, that day wasn’t something he was looking forward to.

Cadee laughed. “Relax, Dad. I’ve got a few years left before that happens.”

He sighed, his gaze coming to me again. “You have any kids?”

“Nope,” I replied. A family hadn’t been in the cards for me. Not with the type of life I was forced to live.

“Astria,” he returned with a smile. “Give your contact information to Cadee and she’ll see that Yolanda gets it.”

“Thank you,” I said fast.

“Don’t be a stranger, okay, and if you happen to talk to Stevie again, tell her I said hi,” he said as he headed back into the garage.

“I need deets. Did my dad and that Stevie woman used to date?” asked Cadee as she fed blank receipt paper from the register.

“Kind of,” I said.

“Excellent,” she replied. “Is she married now?”

“Maybe, but I’m not sure,” I confessed.

“Can I have her last name?” she asked. “I plan to do some digging. If she’s single, I’m so going to set them up on a date.”

I held back from laughing. Stevie would get a kick out of Cadee for sure.

“Her last name?” asked Cadee.

Since the cat was out of the bag on who I was, mostly since no one knew my real last name, I nodded. “Holmes.”

“Stevie Holmes,” she repeated. “Got it.”

“Stephanie,” I corrected. “But she goes by Stevie.”

Cadee grinned. “I already like her.”

I smiled.

Cadee tore off a portion of the receipt paper before handing it to me along with a pen. “If you put your name and number on there, I’ll give it to my aunt.”

My shoulders slumped. “I don’t have a cell phone.”

Her eyes widened as if that concept was foreign to her. She’d grown up with them being a thing everyone had. I hadn’t and wasn’t a huge fan. They were just one more way for bad things to track me. “Okay then, how about I give you her contact info? I’ll tell her you’ll be reaching out when I see her this afternoon.”

“Thank you,” I said as she wrote the information on the slip of paper.

She passed it to me. “No problem.”

I glanced out the front window and noticed an SUV that said “Police” on the side. Even if, by some stroke of luck, the authorities weren’t looking for me in Grimm Cove, I’d had my fair share of run-ins with law enforcement over the past eighteen years. Hard not to when dealing with brain-eating monsters and demons. The last thing I needed was to have a cop digging deeper into me or my background. I wasn’t sure if there were any warrants out for my arrest or not. It was best I keep a low profile, handle what needed to be handled, and get the hell out of dodge.

I needed to secure a job that didn’t want to pry hard into my background and get to work trying to figure out why I was being pulled back to the area. And that meant I’d need to stop dragging my feet and go to the old house. No amount of mental preparation would get me to a place where I felt comfortable going back there, so delaying an hour or two wouldn’t hurt. If my time away had taught me anything, it was that going into battle tired or ill-prepared wasn’t smart.

I’d get Torid his ice cream and figure out things from there.

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