Page 49 of Liar & Champion
“I’m not good with people,” she said with a shake of her head. “Sorry. I’d love to chat about my art, but I’ve got to get to work. Maybe we can do lunch another time.” She turned and stalked off, leaving me kind of bewildered. Was she jealous of me? Did she have feelings for Nix that she hadn’t been able to express and thought that he’d ask her to design a ring and then he’d give it to her, so I was a cause for her ultimate heartbreak?
“Don’t mind Trix. She’s just grumpy because she’s on a low-carb diet,” Tom said and gently tried to usher me towards the elevator. I let him, because I’d already been bruised enough that day. Horse watched me go, not seeming to notice the women who jumped around him like a bunch of puppies.
Once the elevator was closed, I turned to Tom the brick wall. “Is she in love with Nix?”
He blinked at me. “I don’t think so. She’s in love with white-wall tires and pasta. Nix and her are always strictly professional. If she’s in love with anyone, it’s Horse. That’s why she hates him so much,” he said with a slight nod before closing his mouth on all subjects.
“I see. Horse doesn’t like her?”
He snorted. “Trix is his ultimate woman, but she’s never given him the time of day, because he’s too available. Also, she doesn’t give anyone the time of day. Or night. She’s OCD.”
“OCD? An OCD mechanic? How does she deal with grease?”
He shrugged and then zipped it for real. Huh. If Trixie was the good-natured one, I’d hate to meet Jezebel who really didn’t like people.
Finally, I was in the hotel room that felt like an upscale man’s gym and went to my smaller room and curled on my bed, getting ready to make my calls.
My aunt answered right away.
“Hey, Aunt Willie. I’m not dead!”
“Sunshine Ray Wilson, you scared me to death! Why didn’t you call sooner?”
“Sorry,” I said, settling down and pulling up the blankets. The air conditioning was on the cold side. I’d have to figure out how to adjust that if Nix was going to be gone so many hours all the time dealing with crazy people. Were they his patients or his co-workers? Could they be both?
She sighed heavily. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good. I got married to this great guy. He’s in home health care, so he’s really comfortable with the needles and the dislocations. We actually had sex, and it didn’t hurt!” It was only a partial lie because I loved her so much.
“Really? You got married?”
“Yep. In Las Vegas, but it was in a church. He’s so gentle.”
“And he’s okay with the fact that you’re dying?” She always went right to the heart of things.
“Yeah. I mean he’s sad about it, obviously he’d be sad about it, but he works with a lot of terminal care patients, so he has a really great philosophy about life and death. He’s just happy to live in the moment with me.”
“He sounds flaky.”
I laughed. He’d taken a bullet for me and then faced his greatest fear to continue protecting me. “Yep, he’s a little bit new-age hippy dippy, but he’s really great in bed, so…”
She sniffed. “And your friend? How does he feel about it?”
“Beastie is fine. He only wishes he could have come to the ceremony. Too bad he’s so busy this summer.”
“Too bad. Sunshine, is this really how you want to spend your last months? Are you really somewhere safe?” It’s like she didn’t trust me at all.
I took a picture of my ring finger then pulled out the marriage certificate and took a picture of that too. I sent both of them and in a few minutes she inhaled sharply. “Nix Death-Hammer?”
“Yeah. It’s a great name, right?”
“He sounds like a stripper or a porn star.”
I giggled. “And you’d know because you spend so much time with strippers?”
She sniffed again. I loved my aunt so much. She seemed stuffy, but she was possibly the coolest person I knew. “I’ve been to Las Vegas a time or two. I’ll come in two weeks to give you a check-up.”
“Aunt Willie, I’m dying! What is the point of a check-up?”
