Page 46 of Heart Strings & Hotlines
Thane stands, reaches into his pocket for his wallet, and joins Kara at the counter, while I stare after them, wondering how the hell I fell into a relationship with my client-slash-stalker-slash-new-neighbor in less than a month.
CHAPTERELEVEN
THANE
“Where are you going?”
“Tone.”
I jerk my head to the left. There’s a stranger in a gray trench coat shouting “tone” from the hood of my SUV.
“Good Lord, Sharky. You can’t sneak up on a stranger and shout things at him.” Lottie steps in front of me while she scolds the strange woman with bright pink hair under a winter beanie.
She has to be melting under all that shit.
“Well, Lottie, I hadn’t planned to announce my presence.” The odd woman taps the side of her nose twice, then winks, while Lottie heaves a breath so big her cheeks puff out on both sides.
“Thane, this is Sharky. Sharky, this is Thane and Kara.”
Kara waves, but steps closer to me. Then manners kick in and I offer my hand, which Sharky shakes while keeping her head down.
“Sharky, stop hiding.”
I step to the side to scan Lottie’s face, but I’m more confused than ever. She’s scrunching up her nose again. Is she disgusted by this encounter? Disappointed? Or is there yet another emotion she scrunches for?
“I haven’t vetted him yet, Lottie. You never know?—”
“Vetted? Me?” Surely this woman isn’t talking about me.
“Sharky is our local librarian.” Lottie steps back in line with me and Kara, making room for Sharky on the sidewalk. “Every few months, she goes through a new phase based on what genre she’s currently reading. Lately she’s been into cozy mysteries, and now she believes she’s a PI.”
“One doesn’t believe they’re a PI, Lottie. They either are or they aren’t. I am firmly into my training, so I am a PI.” Sharky finally lifts her head, and I’m shocked to find that she’s so young. Mid-twenties at most. I would have thought by her eccentric behavior that she was closer to the Carvers’ ages.
“Right.” I don’t know what else to say to that.
“I’m hungry,” Kara whispers at my side, but when I scan her face, she’s smiling more brightly than I’ve seen since she was a baby.
Perhaps I’m not so bad for her.
“And that brings me back to my question. Where are we going?” I direct my words to Lottie because quite frankly, I’m not sure how to address a woman named Sharky.
“See you around, Sharky. Thane and Kara are fine, nothing to investigate, I promise.” Lottie addresses her with a pleasant expression plastered to her face.
“That’s a lie.” I point at Lottie’s face as Sharky slinks off to…somewhere else.
“What’s a lie? And it’s rude to point at people.”
“Your face. What was that?”
“Ugh, Brad.” Great. I’m back to being Brad. “She was just playing nice. You don’t have to like someone to be polite. Her face wasn’t lying, it was being kind to someone she probably doesn’t have a lot in common with.”
“Exactly.” Lottie beams at my little sister and then throws a high five in the air that Kara meets enthusiastically. “You’re very intuitive.”
“Fine, Kara got all the emotional intelligence in the family. I don’t care to discuss private investigator librarian any longer.”
“Why is she called Sharky?” Kara asks, completely ignoring my request.
“Her real name is Avalon Sharkton, but everyone’s called her Sharky since she was a toddler. She had a bad habit of biting everyone—for years.”
