Page 43 of The Boy With The Sharp Teeth
Sanagave him a commiserating nod; she knew exactly what he was talking about. Hoursof just mindless chitchat and family gossip while parading each of theirchild's accomplishments not so subtly in the other's faces. Yeah, been there,done that, and no thanks.
"Youescaped a bullet there," she said, pulling out the still-hot andimpossibly large triple-decker club sandwich out of the lunch bag.
Acrossfrom her, she could see Elijah's flaxen eyes watch her, and she nearly laughed.He reminded her of those memes of dogs staring at their owner's food withpainful longing. Blessedly Lana had precut the sandwich. Taking a napkin, sheplaced half of the huge sandwich on it and pushed it towards the boy.
"Here,eat with me," she ordered. "There is no way I could eat this wholething."
Perkingup, Elijah gave her a broad smile as he sat up in his seat. For the briefestmoment, she saw that his canine teeth, much like Zach's, were very sharp. Mustbe a family trait, she thought as she bit into her sandwich. Turning herlaptop around so that they could both see it, she put on a show from Netflix.
Havingbeen a few hours after Elijah left, Sana sat back in her chair with a tiredstretch and blinked at the low light in the office. With her west-facingwindow, she really hadn't needed to turn on the light to her office, but now asthe sun faded behind the tall trees in the distance, she realized how late ithad gotten. Checking her watch, she sighed at the time. She had planned to runby the grocery store before going home, but it was too late for that now. Beinga small town, everything in Tarki closed ridiculously early, and she knew shewouldn't have enough time to get to the store and comfortably shop. Closing upher laptop and stacking her paper to the side, Sana got up from her chair andswiped the office key off the desk. She was turning towards the door when heroffice phone rang.
"Hello,Sana Bhatt speaking."
"Ijust wanted to report that the site area has been leveled and prepped to thedistributor's specifications in Antor." The sound of Zach’s deep voice nearlysent her back down to her chair with a flop. God, have mercy, he sounded sovery good over the phone.
"Good,"she replied stiffly. "By the time they bring it in, I should already havea field engineer hired."
"Youfinally found someone then?" She could just imagine one of his black browsraising in interest.
"Yes,”she said with a nod. “He came recommended from the sheriff down in Gaulding. Hesays the man lives in the forest but has a background not only in fieldengineering from the military but lives off the grid as well. I've emailed himback and forth now, and I am feeling very confident about him."
"That'sgood. He's local too, so that helps," he agreed. "So, I hear you and Elijahspent some time watching movies and eating lunch. Why wasn't I invited?"
Leaningback onto the edge of her desk, she smirked. "You are all the way in AntorFalls, how could I have invited you?"
"Iwasin Antor. I'm currently driving back," he corrected smoothly.
Sana’spulse quickened at that. There was something dangerous and promising the way hesaid that. She could imagine his truck flying down the highway towardsTarki—towards her. It made her feel stalked, hunted even.
Sanacleared her throat, straightening from the desk. "Regardless, you weren'there to invite."
"Andwould you have? Invited me, that is,” his voice purred over the line.
"No,"she said primly, feeling the heat rise to her face at his low tone. "Iwouldn't have gotten any work done with you around, unlike Elijah." Oncethey had gotten done eating, Elijah had cleaned off her desk and gathered thetrash and thanked her with a strong, enveloping hug, and left. Zach would nothave left with just a hug.
"You'reright about that," he replied as if reading her mind. "Tell me, doyou like your office?"
"Yes,"she answered hesitantly, uncertain where he was going with this, but she couldfeel it going somewhere. "It's quite beautiful, thank you."
"I'mglad you like it. Do you know I even soundproofed it for you?"
Ittook a moment for the meaning of his words to register. Sana flushed."Goodbye, Zachariah," she said crisply and hung up the phone beforehe could say anything.
Despiteherself, she stomped through the empty halls of city hall with a smile creepingat the corners of her mouth as she replayed his illicit words.
Pullingout of the now empty city hall parking lot, Sana looked up at the sky. The dayswere getting shorter, heralding the approaching winter. In all her years goingback and forth from Tarki to Seattle, she had never once spent a winter inTarki. Primarily visiting in the summer and spring and maybe the occasionalfall when she was little, she had always seemed to miss out on winter. Would itbe as blisteringly brutal as her perpetually cold grandmother used to make itseem? Sana smiled at that. The ache of missing her grandparents pulsing in herheart. The house, while beautiful, wasn't the same without them.
Pullingto a stop at the light, Sana looked to her right at the road that would leadher to her house. She could just hear her mother's response to her melancholythoughts.Then fill the house with children. You're getting too old not tohave kids, Sana.Or her dad's much less abrasive way of saying the samething.Life is about family, Sana. That big house can't be a home with justyou in it.
Thethoughts made her angry. Still waiting at the red light, she looked around andspied a car or two going through the light and wondered where they wereheading. Were they going to a friend's house or maybe Shipley's bar near thepier? Suddenly, she realized she didn't want to go home because somehow, that'swhere everyone expected her to be. A righteous sense of anger burned throughher as she accelerated her SUV through the light and ignored the turn into herstreet. She would bet anyone who knew her selected at random or not wouldprobably just assume she was going dutifully home after work like the good girlshe was.That's our Sana, always reliable and predictable to a fault.How lame was that?! But worse, she knew Zachariah would expect her to be home.He would no doubt assume she was sitting in her big lonely living room justwaiting for him to turn up so he could kiss the sense right out of her like heusually did.
Well,not today!
Turningher car into Shipley's parking lot, she noted the cluster of vehicles parked.It was a pretty decent crowd for a weeknight. Grabbing just her phone and keys,she hopped out of her car and made her way to the dive bar's entrance. Openingthe heavy jangling door, Sana stopped over the threshold and blinked. The dimlylit bar was surprisingly quite spacious on the inside. With a giant bar counterto the left of the door, it looked over an open space surrounded by ascattering of tables and a few booths along the wall. Despite the decent sizeand the gentle notes of a country song crooning from the jukebox, everyone'sattention was turned suddenly to her.
Turningtoward the bar, she tried not to let the curious stares stiffen her stride asshe slid onto the black vinyl barstool.
"Heythere, Sana," the older man, with a graying mustache and salt and pepperhair, walked down from the other end of the bar where he had been talking tothree men to stop in front of her. "I was wondering when you would come byand see me, darlin."
