Page 56 of The Dawn

I said, “I don’t see why Asgall would bother with you, you don’t know anything useful.”

“Yeah, I’m just a bartender, I don’t know nothin’. But still, y’all aren’t doing anything illegal, right?”

“No, nothing, probably, but what do I know? I’ve only been around them for a little over a week.”

“Damn you’re a risk taker, you’re really gonna marry someone you just met?”

I glanced at the door, Lochie’s back.

“Yeah, I’m scared, this is a lot to take on, but also, I’m set in it — I know him, I never met someone like him before, he will take care of me, but also he needs me, likereallyneeds me. I can’t explain how he’s both those things, but he is, and I adore him for it.”

“He’s pretty hot, all that other stuff is bullshit, you just like his ass.”

I grinned. “Yeah, that’s pretty great, it doesn’t hurt.”

“What else you need from me, your plants watered?”

“If you could clean out my fridge and take my plants to your place, that would be great. I’ll owe you.” I put the keys in my pocket. “I’ll leave the keys in the mailbox.”

“Gotcha, when will I see you again?”

“How about next Wednesday, the bar opens later, you’re here earlier?”

“You can come back that quick?”

“You forget, with time travel I can stay away for years and come back at the same time.”

“Damn, that’s... that’s absurd.”

“Yep, if I wasn’t doing it, there’s no way I would believe it.”

“So you don’t blame me for not believing you — can you take me somewhere so I can see it for myself?”

“Where would you like to go?”

“I don’t know, maybe to early nineties, to see Pearl—” Then he shook his head. “No, don’t hold me to that, I can think of something better.”

“Think on it this week, I’ll come back on Wednesday, the fourth.”

He uncapped a pen and circled it on the calendar. I gave him the phone number of our burner phone in case he needed it. Ashe wrote he said, “I’m going to not even mention that ‘burner phone’ is usually a sign of some illegal shit going down.”

I shrugged. “Yep. Better not to mention it... But now I have to run.” I stood up and he walked me to the door. He shook Lochie’s hand and then returned to the saloon to finish setting up for work.

Lochie embraced me.

I held on tight. “That was hard. It’s next to impossible to explain this to someone.”

“Aye, tis why I couldna tell ye, tis good that ye told Don though.” We walked to the truck and climbed in. I started the truck and drove toward my house.

First, I drove by it slowly, very slowly, while Lochie and I both peered out the windows. He said, “Notice anythin’ off?”

“No, except the glass by my car. My landlady will be pissed, but she barely goes outside, maybe she hasn’t noticed.”

Next, I drove past, circling the block, scanning in all directions, andthenpulled up in the driveway. I climbed from the truck and approached my car.

Someone had locked the doors, so I had to carefully reach my arm through the broken window to open it from the inside. I remembered being yanked through it, the man reaching in the car, scaring the heck out of me, dragging me out. So much had happened since then, but the memories hit me, fresh, especially the fear. I felt the fear all over again.

Lochie said, “Och nae, twas dire.”

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