Page 89 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

I touched my chest lightly. “And then some.”

She took the devil suit from me and set it on the seat of the picnic table I’d been sharing with Stratton. “I need to use the little girl’s room and there is safety in numbers. Come on.”

“Safety in numbers?” I asked as she looped her arm through mine and started for the back of the establishment.

“Tell me all about the date. How is it going?” she asked. “Are you two planning to head back to his place and knock boots?”

My gaze whipped to hers.

She smiled wider as we walked arm in arm, following the signs that had huge yellow arrows with red writing announcing the public restrooms were out back.

“You look stunned by my question,” she said. “Not sure why. Peggy texted me. Sounds like you and the hunky detective were going at one another like two kids on prom night at the café. Or was she exaggerating? Then again, the two of you were locking lips here a bit ago, so there is probably truth to Peggy’s claim.”

“I’m so embarrassed right now,” I said, with something of a laugh and a grunt.

“Don’t be. That man is fine. I’d tear his clothes off too if given the chance,” she said. “Don’t tell Jim.”

“Jim is averyhandsome man,” I offered, and he was.

“He is,” she beamed. “And I love him to pieces, but just because I have a plate of food already doesn’t mean I can’t look at the menu.”

I howled with laughter as we rounded the corner, coming to a stop outside the door to the cleaning supplies. Next to it was the ladies’ restroom.

“You coming?” asked Faye.

My pendant picked then to heat, indicating Torid was getting restless. I smiled. “I’ll wait right here. Go ahead.”

“Why don’t you come in with me?” she asked, glancing off to the darkened area of the lot next door.

“I will. Just give me one second to make a call,” I said.

She didn’t stop to question if I had a phone or not. She merely nodded and headed into the restroom.

Once she was inside, I touched the pendant through my shirt and whispered the spell letting Torid free from his forced time-out.

He burst out of the pendant and took his true form, his glowing orbs for eyes fixed on me.I smell…food. Chic-ken! Waves!

I nearly laughed at his name for Dave. It was closer than he got most people’s names so I didn’t correct him. “Yes. I’ll have leftovers for you when I’m done here.”

He didn’t wait for me to finish talking. He’d been a fan of Devil Dave’s place for years and asked about it often. It was right up there with Gobbs for him as far as favorite eating establishments. He was to the back trash container before I could so much as blink, going through the trash, helping himself to whatever he found.

Goblins tended to have what most would term cast-iron stomachs. They had no problem with dumpster diving. In fact, Torid often preferred that to normal table food. I never questioned it. If it made him happy, who was I to stop him?

Turns out, I didn’t need to stop him. He stopped himself. His head shot up and he had a mouth full of thrown-away chicken, still on the wooden pitchforks. He gobbled them down, wood and all, and then shifted quickly into the form he preferred and took off toward the back of the property, into the darkness. His barking grew faint the more distance he put between himself and the restaurant.

I sighed, seriously hoping he was not chasing a stray cat. I’d forbidden him from snacking on them years ago but forgot to also ban him from chasing them.

“All better now,” said Faye, stepping out of the ladies’ room. “Did I hear you talking to someone? And did I hear a dog barking?”

“Nope,” I said, smiling wide. “We should probably head back out front to be sure the guys didn’t get lost or something.”

When she smiled, I noticed it didn’t reach her eyes.

A sense of dread filled me quickly. “Faye, is everything all right?”

“I’m sure it is,” she said, touching my arm. “Let’s head back out front where there are more people and more lights.”

A familiar scraping noise came from the darkness at the rear of the property, behind the trash bins, and I found myself backing Faye up, wanting to get her away from the area.

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