Page 82 of Mother Parker
“Any luck?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Nah. Their cameras only point at the front and back. It doesn’t reach across the street, so we’ve got nothing.”
I sighed and leaned over the counter, putting my head in my hands.
“Hey, don’t worry. We’ll find them,” he said.
He reached across and moved a lock of my hair to the side with a delicate finger. I stared into his beautiful dark eyes and inhaled the certainty he spoke with. The touch may have only lasted for a second, but it warmed my face and chest.
He grinned and looked at my hair with his lips pursed.
“What is it? Is it a bug?” I asked, immediately batting off whatever he’d spotted.
“It’s not a bug.” He laughed.
“Then what is it?”
“Nothing. Calm down, princess,” he said. I flipped him off.
“Don’t scare me like that.”
“I wasn’t trying to scare you. I just…”
“What?”
“How do you do it?” he asked.
“Do what?”
“Change your hair so often, so quickly? Are you a witch?”
The way he smirked, all sex in his eyes, told me he wouldn’t mind if I were.
If only.
“It’s a wig,” I said.
“A wig?” I nodded. “Why are you using wigs? Shit. Sorry. That was insensitive. Is it cancer? Leukemia?”
I straightened and rolled my eyes.
“Whoa, big guy. Don’t jump the gun. It’s not any of those things. I just like…wigs.”
He let out a sigh, and I felt the urge to walk around the counter and give him a big hug, but I didn’t. Anyone could walk in at any moment and see us.
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. I like colorful hair and the ability to change it on a whim without burning my hair. I told you. Not everything needs a profound reason,” I told him, and he smiled.
“I like it,” he said. “I like you. Why do you make life look so easy?”
That took me by surprise, and I got lost in how he looked at me for a moment.
“I don’t know. I guess that’s just who I am. My halmeoni only had me when she lost her daughter, and I liked making her laugh, so…I guess it stuck.”
Parker shook his head with a stupid grin and licked his lips.
