Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 717(@200wpm)___ 574(@250wpm)___ 478(@300wpm)
December 10 to fund the bar.
Anyone wanting to participate in the Secret Santa,
fill out that Google form in the same email.
If you come in jeans, we won’t throw shade, but this is about glitz and glamor and holiday cheer. So find a sequin or two or put on a blazer. It won’t kill you.
HOSTS: Bill and Zach!
“Do you think we’ll still be together on December twelfth?” I asked Eric.
“Yes,” he answered immediately.
I smirked again, though that was on the outside. On the inside, that gooey feeling was back.
I waved the flier and inquired, “Wanna be my date to a glitz and glamor holiday extravaganza in the courtyard?”
“Yes,” he repeated.
“Feel like being in on the Oasis Secret Santa?” I kept at him.
“No.”
I laughed.
Just what I thought he’d say.
But I was totally getting in on the Secret Santa. I killed at Secret Santa stuff.
It wasn’t hard, just buy a good bottle of booze.
“I don’t think you have to wear a tux, but you might have to wear a suit,” I warned him.
“I’m not allergic to suits, honey,” he told me. “What are you wearing?”
I thought about the sleeveless, black lace dress with the deep, to-the-midriff vee bodice and flirty, understated ruffles at the shoulders and on the long skirt that I scored on sale to go to a friend’s black-and-white wedding. Only to have said friend call off her wedding three weeks before it was supposed to happen because she figured out she was more in love with the best man than her groom.
An aside: I was no longer her friend. That wasn’t the first time she was a total flake in the worst way. I’d liked her fiancé, he was a good guy, so after that, I was out.
Another aside: since then, I’d heard she eloped with the best man.
The last aside: their marriage lasted four months before the new groom filed for divorce.
Wait, no, this was the last aside: the other last aside was no surprise to anyone.
To answer Eric’s question, I simply said, “I think you’ll like it.”
“I bet I will,” he murmured while getting out a sauté pan.
I set the flier down and reached for the box.
There was an envelope resting on top that had my name on it in handwriting I’d never seen before.
I slit open the envelope and pulled out a piece of notepaper. I unfolded it. It was from one of those freebie notepads you got at hotels.
And it said,
Jess,
Don’t give up on him.
He’s working through some shit.
He took it too far. You were right to be pissed.
I didn’t know he was going to go there with you.
I’ll give him time and have a word.
Sorry about the hood and zip ties.
Also the kidnapping.
Be careful out there,
~~Javi
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
“What is it?” Eric asked.
I handed him the note, folded open the unsecured flaps on the box and peered in.
I couldn’t help it.
I gasped.
“What?” Eric was right at my side, peering in with me. “Well…damn,” he muttered.
Damn was an understatement.
With reverence, I unearthed the sleek, stainless-steel cocktail shaker with copper accents. Then I pulled out the set of bar tools in their stand that included muddler, double jigger, tongs, spoon, bottle opener and strainer. More stainless-steel with copper accents, but the muddler was a phenomenal, polished walnut and had a marble tip.
“This is insane,” I whispered reverently.
“Seems the man’s got class as well as an over-honed sense of justice,” Eric stated.
I looked up at him. “Over-honed sense of justice?”
“Babe, this is the Wild West. Denver was Candyland compared to the trip that was LA. But this place, I’ve never experienced anything like it. It’s touch and go just driving from one place to another. I learned fast when I hit The Valley, anything goes. And Javier Montoya is the gunslinging marshal who put the star on his own chest.”
I didn’t travel much.
But I always knew my city of birth rocked.
“Do you think Javi extorted money out of his deadbeat dad to buy me this primo bar set?” I asked.
“I think if Javier Montoya wants to do something, he finds a way to get it done.”
And there it was again.
I knew I liked the guy.
“Since he put this on my welcome mat, I’m thinking our security gate doesn’t know it has the word ‘security’ in its description,” I remarked.
“Don’t worry, babe. Your gate is solid. Again, if Montoya wants something, he’ll get it done.”
Hmm.
I could think on it no longer. I had to feed my man, so I dragged the cookbook closer to me, gave the recipe a once over, then turned to the stove.
“So…my day,” I began as I started to melt the butter and olive oil. “The girls and I are gonna head into the camp tomorrow after Harlow and I get off work. We’re gonna ask some questions and see if anyone saw anything. We’re also going to set up surveillance. And get this, after Raye and Luna scouted out a good place to keep watch in that abandoned warehouse across from the camp, Raye asked, and Arthur is going to kit us out with communication equipment, binoculars and a camera with an extreme telephoto lens.”