Page 38 of Heartfelt Pain
“Seriously, I wore it to work, it’s not that nice,” she mutters.
Long gone is the girl too scared to wander into a book club. Lennie speaks with confidence. She’s calmer and doesn’t hesitate.
And now that she lives in the city, she pops into Fujimori’s more.
“Elijah had a meeting,” she explains. “Thought I’d stop by for dinner.”
She glances at the empty bowl in my hand with a smile.
“Isolde has an errand,” I say.
“You want to come?” she offers.
“This about dead bodies again?” At our startled look, Len adds, “Abe told me.”
Damn it, Abe.
She crosses her arms, motherly disappointment exuding from her. “Why wasn’t I asked to go to the junkyard?”
“You wanted to see a dead body?” Isolde asks. As if Lennie hasn’t seen dead bodies before.
“I want to be included in whatever fucked up adventure this is,” she retorts.
“Adventure,” I sigh. “I quite like calling it that. Makes it sound a lot less bad.”
Isolde closes her eyes, her chest lifting with a breath. When she opens them a second later, she’s back to business. “Right, let’s go.”
CHAPTER 9
Ren
We head only a couple miles away from Fujimori’s but it’s in the one direction I never wander around in.
Isolde’s strides are steady so there’s nothing to do but follow, though, she refuses to answer questions. Which is fine because after ten minutes of walking something else catches my attention.
“Len, what is on your hand?”
She stops struggling with brushing hair out of her eyes and tucks her hand in her pocket. “Nothing.”
“Len!” I almost trip in my stilettos when I twirl in front of her and grab her arm. A giant fucking diamond is on her finger.
She takes her hand back. “It’s not what you think.”
“Right. Not all diamond rings are engagement rings.”
“Exactly,” she replies.
“Len!” I gasp again.
“It’s not real,” she says. “At least not yet.”
“What does that mean?” Isolde asks.
“It means one day I woke up and Elijah had placed a ring on my finger.” She waves her hand in the air. I’m blinded by the dazzle.
“That’s much too tame for Elijah,” I note.
“He said he knew I needed time to get used to things. Which he’s kind of right.”
