by Paula Lester
“I’ll be right back. I want to say hi to Hugh from Indiana.” Gloria took off before Tessa could respond.
Wonderful. Tessa looked around, feeling like a middle schooler trying to find someone to sit with in a packed lunchroom where all the cliques were already seated together.
She decided things would look better once she had a drink in her hand. Or, at least, she’d have something to do with herself that would be less awkward than just standing there with nothing to do and no one to talk to.
Maybe Mom has a point.
She ordered a whiskey sour, paid the bartender, and then looked up and down the bar. At the far end, she spotted Cynthia, sitting alone nursing a bottle of beer. Without taking the time to overthink it, Tessa moved to sit beside the other reaper. “Hi. I’m Tessa Randolph, from the Mist River agency.” She stuck out her hand.
Cynthia took the offered hand, reluctantly, it seemed, and shook it. “Cynthia Crooks from Chicago,” she said and cocked her head. “You must work with Gloria, then.”
Tessa nodded.
“That’s cool. She’s fun.”
“Yeah, she’s been really helpful getting me on the right track.” Tessa eyed the woman. “She actually helped me with an unfortunate situation I ran into on my second day on the job.” Tessa was thinking on her feet, trying to create some common ground and perhaps get a bit of information out of Cynthia. “I actually lost a soul because I was late to a death.”
Cynthia’s eyebrows raised in interest. “Really? Did you find it?”
Tessa nodded. “Eventually. But I had to figure out who killed him and why he was running from me first. It was kind of a mess.” She paused and then dove in, throwing caution to the wind. The warmth of the whisky sour in her belly felt like courage. “Has anything like that ever happen to you?”
Cynthia took a sip of beer and shook her head. “I guess I’ve been lucky so far.”
“That’s good. You know, I had kind of wondered if you may have lost a soul or something too. Like I did.”
“What made you think that?”
Tessa shrugged. “Because you’ve been looking kind of sad so far on this trip, and I know April visited your office right before this.” At Cynthia’s surprised expression, she explained, “April was at my office before she went to Chicago.”
“Well, you’re partially right. I’m upset because April accused us—my branch, I mean—of messing with the accounting. She thinks one of us screwed up and we’re all trying to cover for it.”
“Obviously, you’re not,” Tessa said. “But are you sure no one in your office is?”
“I can’t be. But April laid the blame on my shoulders. She said we’re going to have to figure it out before the conference is over.” Cynthia slumped further over the bar. “I can’t lose this job. But I don’t know how to prove we didn’t do anything wrong.”
Tessa understood. She wanted to help Cynthia but had no idea how. “I’m sure it’ll get straightened out. I’ll tell you what—I’ll keep my ears open. If I hear anything that could help you, I’ll let you know right away.”
Cynthia smiled and looked hopeful for once. “Thanks. That’s really nice of you. And welcome to the reaper community. I’m sorry I’m not more fun to be around right now.”
Tessa waved off the apology. “It’s understandable that you’d be distracted.” She saw Gloria heading toward them. “Do you want to join us? We’re just having a couple drinks, and then we’ll probably head to the pool.”
“For more drinks?” Cynthia guessed.
Laughing, Tessa nodded. “Probably.”
“I’d like that. Thanks!”
Tessa thought of something. “Hey, one more work question before we focus on fun. Do you know who reaped Art’s soul on the plane?”
She shook her head, attention already on Gloria, who’d just sat next to Tessa. “No, I didn’t see his soul or the reaper who took him over. Sorry. To be honest, I was pretty focused on my own problems.”
“I understand.” Tessa sighed.
Gloria ordered them all another round. Tessa tried to focus on the conversation, which had turned sharply to a discussion about the latest episode of a popular reality show.
But her mind kept skipping around between the messed-up accounting that April was investigating and the mystery of Art’s untimely death.
She studied her drink, wiping the condensation on the side of the cup with her thumb. She was so out of it that she failed to notice a familiar face sidled up at the bar beside them. At least until a familiar hand came out of nowhere and brushed her forearm softly.
She jerked out of her thoughts to find Silas beside her, smiling.
Chapter 8
“I HOPE YOU DON’T MIND me just showing up like this. It’s a short walk here from my hotel, and I figured by your text you were probably done for the day. Are you?” Silas looked like a bronze statue—almost too perfect to be real. How in the world had he managed to get such a great tan in one day? Florida and Silas were getting along well.
“Yes, she’s done.” Gloria shoved Tessa off the barstool and followed her down. “There’s a free table over there—let’s grab it.” She led the way to a small round table but at the last minute, turned to Cynthia and said, “Oh, there’s Lydia. You’re friends with her, right? Would you mind introducing me?”
Cynthia shrugged. “Sure. But I thought you . . .”
In the blink of an eye, they were gone. Gloria had managed to wriggle them both away so that she could be alone with Silas. Wow. She’s good. For the thousandth time in recent days, Tessa wondered why Gloria didn’t have a boyfriend.
Silas settled into the chair across from Tessa. He slid his beer onto the table. “So, how was the first day of your conference?”
“Boring.” The word slipped out of its own volition. “I mean, super interesting and informative.” She winced and sipped her drink.
He chuckled. “I can’t imagine presentations about life insurance would be too much fun. What do you talk about? All I can imagine is someone droning on about amortization. Wait, is that a thing in life insurance or savings accounts?”
“I think it’s loans.” Tessa giggled. “But I could very well have attended a talk about amortization today and not know it. I mainly doodled in my notebook and drank enough coffee to watch my hands tremor.”
“Are you an artist?”
“I can draw a stick figure with the best of them. I just didn’t want my head to thud on the table and draw everyone’s attention.”
Silas grinned and looked around. “It must be nice to be around so many colleagues, though. That’s something I kind of miss with my job. Aside from the residents, it’s just me. It’s kind of hard to have inside jokes about work with yourself. You look like a loon laughing away at your own internal monologue.”
“I can see that. But at least you do have people around.”
“True. But they usually want me to fix something. I guess your customers are different. I can’t imagine. It seems like a rather grim business.”
“You have no idea.” Tessa couldn’t tell him that it was more than that. Her customers were on their last checkout. Ever. “How long have you been a landlord?”
Before he could answer, someone bumped into Tessa from behind. She craned her neck around to find Bubba looking sheepish. “Sorry. My first day using feet,” he quipped. “Tessa, right? Out of Mist River?”
“That’s me,” she said.
“I saw you in my shadows presentation. I hope it was helpful.”
“Yeah, it was great.”
Tessa hoped the brief compliment would shut Bubba up. But he seemed bent on continuing. Alcohol does have a way of doing that.
“I mean, April assigned the topics and presenters. It’s not really my strong suit. I kind of figure, by the time someone’s within a few minutes of dying, what’s the point of hiding, you know?” He took a sip of the light brown, iced drink in his hand—maybe a Long Island iced tea.
Loose lips sink ship
s. Tessa shot a quick look at Silas. His slightly narrowed eyes studied Bubba closely, letting her know he was trying to figure out what the guy was on about.
She tried to think fast. “Um. Yeah. Delivering a settlement to a beneficiary is both the best and worst part of our job, right?” She hoped her tone didn’t reveal the floundering feeling she felt inside.
Confusion flitted across Bubba’s face, almost mirroring Silas’s from a moment before. “Settlement,” he repeated.
“Yes. Being a life insurance agent is, like, long stretches of horrible boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, right?” She elbowed Bubba in the thigh and tipped her head a tiny bit toward Silas, hoping to get the message across to the other reaper.
Bubba’s gaze jerked toward Silas and understanding swept over his features. “Oh, yeah.” He shook his head. “Delivering the settlement. Best and worst part. Well, I’ll see you later. Enjoy the rest of the conference.”
In his hurry to get away, Bubba tripped over his own feet and crashed into another table, spilling his drink all over the table where Gloria, Cynthia, and Lydia were seated beside Lee Stuart.
Cynthia looked as uncomfortable as ever, especially with the stain now covering her blouse.
But the western district supervisor threw a few napkins over the mess, handing a couple to her. “Bubba,” he said jovially. “I believe this means you’re cut off.”
Tessa cringed. Poor Bubba. She felt a little responsible for that.
She returned her attention to Silas. “I guess some people started drinking earlier than others.”
“Yeah. Wow. That seemed like a pretty morbid presentation you had to attend.” A hint of confusion—no, it looked like actual suspicion—still floated behind his eyes.
“Well, like you said before, when you’re a life insurance agent, you basically think and talk about death and dying all day long. I guess it starts to become second nature. I think the more experienced agents tend to forget that not everyone lives hand-in-hand with death all the time.” She held her breath, hoping he bought her explanation.
Silas’s shoulders relaxed and he took a swig of beer. “I can see that. There are some professions where a dark sense of humor is probably essential to handling the work. Could you imagine being a grave digger?”
“No.” Tessa smiled, relieved that he seemed to have accepted her explanation.
“Or a medical examiner. Or, get this, a grim reaper?” He laughed, and Tessa feigned laughing alongside him. She made a mental note to suggest to someone a new presentation topic for next year’s conference: 100 Ways to Hide Your True Career.
Behind her, Tessa could hear a small group of reapers getting louder. One of them was telling a story about a funny reap she’d done. Tessa shot to her feet. This place was feeling awfully crowded. And it wasn’t the drink making her throat close up.
“Do you want to get out of here?” she asked loudly, attempting to drown out the reapers and their stories. “I do. I’ve been in this hotel all day.” There was no way she was going to be able to keep Silas from hearing something he shouldn’t in a bar full of reapers drinking and getting loud.
Silas threw down the last of his beer and got up. “How about a walk on the beach?”
“That sounds great.” Relief seeped into her mind, calming it, as they exited the bar and made for the front door.
“It’s a nice evening,” Silas said once they were on the sand.
Tessa took in the scene. The sun was beginning to set, casting a glittery reflection on the ocean, which was calm—only tiny waves lapped at the shore, making a faint tinkling sound. She took off her shoes and got close enough to the water to get her toes wet. “It’s perfect,” she agreed.
“I spent most of the day on the beach, but it’s better with you.” Silas looked at his feet instead of making eye contact.
She was glad about that because she could feel heat in her cheeks—a much better feeling than she’d had in the bar. “Beach life is nice, huh?”
He nodded. “I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time like this in my life.”
“Didn’t you get to take many vacations when you were a kid?” Tessa’s parents had made it a point to take a family vacation somewhere warm every February. That was the time of year when most Michiganders were well and truly tired of winter dreariness.
“I can’t remember going on any,” he answered. “We didn’t have the money to do stuff like that.” He glanced at her and then looked right back down. “My dad left when I was six. There were four of us little kids for Mom to feed and clothe. She did a fantastic job. I never needed something I didn’t have. But there weren’t a lot of extras. No sandy beaches or Mickey Mouse.”
“That’s understandable.” She felt a stab of guilt. Sometimes, it was easy to forget how good you had it.
“Once my older brother, Liam, turned sixteen, he got a job, and that made things a little easier. In fact, I was able to join Little League. And Liam bought me a bat.”
“Baseball,” she said. “My dad loved baseball.”
“Me, too.”
“Did you play?”
The moonlight glinted off his gentle smile. “Something like that.”
“Come on,” she teased him, “what does that even mean?”
“Well, I didn’t have anybody at home to practice with, but I spent every minute I could over at the ball field, talking anybody who wandered past into throwing for me for a few minutes. Mostly, I just threw the ball at the fence. Wore out this little section, perfecting my pitches.”
“And?”
“I was pretty good. High school all-star and all that. I wanted to make a career out of it. Make the big bucks and get my whole family a big house and fancy cars.” He snorted. “A kid’s ridiculous dream.”
Tessa’s heart squeezed as she imagined young Silas spending hours on the ball field, late into the night, trying to get good enough to lift his family out of poverty. “I think it’s a beautiful dream.”
His head snapped up and he met her gaze with a wide-eyed one. “It didn’t work out, though. I made it to the minor leagues but blew out my shoulder before I could get to the majors.” He shook his head. “I should have spent that time studying computer science or something. Maybe it would have worked out better.”
She wanted to say something smart, but nothing came to mind. She stared at the water instead.
“My family’s doing fine, though,” he said in a more cheerful tone. “Liam worked his way up to management and now he owns a little grocery store. My younger sisters both went into the medical field. My mom has a nice house in the suburbs, and she doesn’t have to worry about anything. We all help take care of her. She deserves it.”
That must be why he worked so hard. Silas knew what it was like to not have enough.
“Wow, I can’t believe I just told you all that. Way to go, Si—you managed to be more boring than the woman’s life insurance presentations.” He snorted and shook his head again. “Sorry about that. I don’t know what got into me. I don’t talk about myself all that much. I promise.”
“It’s not boring,” she insisted. “I’m glad you told me about it. I’d love to meet your family some day.” Oh, geez, Tessa. You basically just invited yourself to be his girlfriend.
He stopped suddenly in the sand, grabbed her hand, and looked into her face. “I’d like that too,” he said with a smile. “Tessa?”
“Yes?” She felt her body leaning toward his, anticipating a kiss.
His expression was earnest, and he leaned forward a bit too. “Do you want to find that empanada truck again?”
Chapter 9
“YOU LOOK LIKE SOMETHING that cat of yours swallowed, partly digested, and then brought back up.” Gloria’s head tipped as she evaluated Tessa.
“Thanks. I appreciate your candor.” Tessa rubbed her face and then ran a hand through tangled hair. “I’m going to hop in the shower.”
“You don’t look in any state to hop. How late were you out las
t night?” Gloria perched on the edge of her bed, already dressed for the conference in khaki capris and a scarlet scoop-neck blouse. “Thankfully, I didn’t hear you come in—or else you’d have other problems this morning.” She smiled.
Tessa groaned as she pawed through her suitcase for an outfit. “I don’t know. Two or maybe three in the morning, I think.”
“And you were with hottie landlord that whole time?”
“We lost track of time. We found this great food truck. But last night, it was parked next to a margarita truck. I’m not even kidding. Then we went for a walk and got hungry again.”
“Not a good sign.”
“Yeah, we found a little restaurant with a patio facing the ocean and had appetizers and drinks. There was a band. Some very bad dancing—on my part. Silas, it turns out, is an excellent dancer.” She groaned again. “I missed my alarm this morning, too exhausted to get up and do my workout. I guess I’m too old to stay up past midnight.”
Gloria snorted. “Okay, Cinderella.” She grinned. “At least you got to spend some quality time with your prince.”
“He’s not my prince.” She went into the bathroom and shut the door.
Through it, Gloria’s voice floated. “Stop fighting it! You two are adorable together. Like Ken and Barbie. William and Kate. Beauty and the Beast.” She paused. “You know, after the Beast got un-furry.”
“I don’t see how I could date someone right now. He’s already gotten suspicious a couple of times, I think. You know, about the reaper thing.” Tessa turned on the water, drowning out whatever Gloria may have responded with.
It was her argument and she was going to stick to it. There was just no way that she and Silas would work. Their lives were so different. And once they were back in Mist River, everything would go back to normal. Wouldn’t it?
When she came back out, dressed and ready to go, the other reaper acted like there hadn’t been any interruption in their conversation. “Reapers date normal people. It can be done. You just have to get better at explaining away the weird. And, eventually, you could even tell him the truth. If you guys get serious and you’re sure he’ll keep the secret. He seems like the type that could.”
