Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 313(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 209(@300wpm)
“Wow. So, there’s film of us doing the deed.” She sits back in her deck chair, blinking several times. “That’s…”
“Crazy?” I supply. “I know. I’m sorry. Truly. You can watch me delete it if you want. I didn’t bring my laptop, but if you don’t mind watching Bella for a little while, I can go get it right now.”
She shakes her head. “No, I don’t… I’m not upset. I mean, I am upset that someone is doing illegal things in your shop—that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about—but I’m not upset about the camera. I mean, maybe a little upset, but I’m also…interested.”
“Interested.” The fluttery feeling in my stomach inches lower as she holds my gaze and nods, her softly parted lips making me think her interest in this footage is something that might interest me, too. But before I let myself go any further down that road, I need to know what she knows. Willing myself to focus, I say, “I want to hear a lot more about that, but first, tell me what you heard.”
“Nothing much, really,” she says. “Raney just mentioned that she’d heard a rumor that some bad people were doing bad things in your shop and warned me to be careful. She didn’t want me to get in trouble by association if you were involved.”
I curse. “Maybe I should skip the nanny cam and go straight to the police.”
Starling’s forehead furrows sympathetically. “Yeah, maybe so. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s my own fault. If I’d been paying closer attention to my business, this wouldn’t have happened. I’ve just been so distracted by learning the fundraising gig and applying for jobs. And I thought Gage could handle managing things over there.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” she says, reaching out to squeeze my knee beneath the deck table. “You should have been able to trust your employees not to do sketchy things. This is their bad, not yours, and I—”
We’re interrupted by a sharp chirp from the deck. I look down to see Bella standing at the top of the porch steps. She stomps her feet and chirps some more, but this isn’t her usual happy chirp.
This chirp sounds…alarmed.
“Is she mad that I’m touching you?” Starling whispers, slowly pulling her hand from my leg. “Did you tell her about the no banging at home rule, so she knows we’re going to keep our clothes on this time?”
“No,” I say as Bella stomps and chirp-grunts again, making me think it wasn’t Starling’s hand that has her upset. “And she’s a skunk. She wouldn’t have understood that, even if I had.”
“So you assume. Animals understand way more than we think they do.” Starling makes a soft, distressed sound as Bella adds scratching at the deck and deeper grunts into the mix. “Oh, honey, what’s wrong? Aren’t you having fun with Kyle?” Starling sits up straighter, the color draining from her face as she jerks her attention back to the yard. “Kyle. Where’s Kyle?” She surges to her feet, calling, “Kyle? Kyle! Where are you, buddy? Kyle!”
Bella whimpers and scampers over to my chair, her fit seeming to pass now that she’s alerted us to the danger. I scoop her up, cradling her in my arms as I stand and go to Starling. “Don’t worry, we’ll find him. He can’t have been gone long. I remember seeing him by the slide right before we started talking about the nanny cam.”
“I should have known better than to look away from him for a second. The wild turkeys have been walking around behind the fence again and that always gets him riled up.” Starling drags a frantic hand through her hair and calls more loudly, “Kyle! Kyle, please come back!”
I rest my free hand on her back while Bella continues to lick my other hand. “Come on, let’s go look for him. Where can we put Bella in the meantime? I don’t want to leave her out in the yard alone. She’s probably too big for an owl to carry off, but no sense taking the risk.”
“Right. Absolutely. We don’t want to lose another friend.” Starling reaches out, quickly stroking Bella’s head. “Thank you, good girl. You did the right thing, letting us know Kyle had flapped out of the coop.” She starts toward the back door. “Come on, we can put Bella in the big bathroom with some snacks until we get back. Kyle did this once before, so I have some idea where to look. Hopefully, he’s in the same spot and we’ll have him home watching America’s Funniest Home Videos before it gets dark.”
But unfortunately, after driving by the creek where Starling found Kyle last time as well as the fields behind the house and the swing set a few streets down that Starling theorizes Kyle might like more than his own swing set, we’re still empty-handed.