“Or something.” Joe made air quotes and grinned. “Is that what they call it now?”
Elliott laughed. “So, like I said, I called and called to no avail. And then when I went to meet the crew bringing back the lost hiker, it turns out they were one and the same.”
Joe’s eyes opened wide and he whistled long and low. “No shit!”
“Yeah. I don’t think you were there at the ambulance. But Oink and I were, and she was looking all sorts of awful on that stretcher and her voice was raspy. She started talking to me and mentioned Oink. I was confused because she looked nothing like the girl at Second Chances.”
“I saw the pictures in the paper—she looked more like a homeless woman.”
“On meth maybe.”
“Trying to be charitable.”
“Understood.” Elliott drank some more beer. “I was kind of already annoyed. I mean what we knew about her, she was kind of irresponsible when she went on that hike. And all the resources it took to save her. And the whole misleading pig situation.”
“Don’t tell me you yelled at her.”
He pursed his lips. “Worse. As soon as it dawned on me who she was, I glared at her and turned my back and walked away.”
“Well now, that’s no way to get yourself a hookup.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Have you talked to her since? After all, don’t you have to return that pig?”
“She’s called me back, returning my voice mail, about twenty times. But I’ve ignored them all. I mean, not like this could go anywhere. Too much stuff there, you know?”
“Hell, man. Since when did that get in the way of a good time. Have you never heard of makeup sex?”
Elliott laughed. “We’re not even in a relationship, so that isn’t even a thing for us.”
“Yeah, but you were mad and you let her know it. Now’s your chance to clear the air.”
Elliott shook his head. “Too much time has passed. I ignored her attempts to contact me. If I reached out now and then came on to her, she’d see right through that.”
“So? What if she does? She can always say no. Or maybe she’ll have warmed up to you, knowing you had a hand in saving her life. You never know.”
The waitress brought them their hamburgers and they took a few minutes to eat.
“You think I should reach out to her and what? Tell her I’m sorry I was a jerk?”
“That’s a damned start.”
Elliott shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”
“Maybe now’s the time to do what all good men do and let your dick think about it for you. Then you’ll do the right thing.”
They laughed, but Elliott knew he wasn’t that kind of guy. He figured the window of opportunity with her had closed and he wasn’t going to throw a rock through it to open it back up again.
Chapter Nine
“AND the blue-eyed guy never brought that cute piglet back here?”
Coco had returned to work and was trying to be sure Tippy hadn’t missed something.
“I think I’d have noticed if a pig showed back up here,” Tippy said. “But am I ever glad to have you back!”
“Awww, you missed me! I was worried you’d fire my ass after I didn’t show up for work the next day.”
“Are you kidding?” Tippy grabbed a stack of newspapers and started changing out the bottom of the cages. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to this place since I came along.” She gave her a wink.
“You sure know how to make a girl feel wanted, Tips.” Coco started pulling up the dirty paper as her boss placed the clean sheets down. “Am I wanted enough for you to give me a raise?”
“Now don’t go getting cocky on me, hon. Love you, but can’t pay you.”
Coco thrust her bottom lip out. “Was worth a shot. At least I didn’t get my pay docked for a bad adoption.”
“I take partial credit for that one. I pressured you into getting rid of it.” Tippy paused. “I mean, with good reason. We’ve got no place to handle a pig here. But still. It wasn’t fair to you to feel so responsible for finding it a home suddenly. Fact is, you did a great job of it!”
“Yeah except it appears the guy was pissed at me.”
“He’s over it by now, don’t you think? After all, we haven’t seen the whites of that piglet’s eyes.”
“Nor her squiggly little tail.” Coco thought back to how cute that little nug was, all tucked into her dad’s arms when she saw them. At least she thought it seemed cute. Maybe she was hallucinating at that point. They had given her some painkillers by then, so she wasn’t quite herself.
“I say let’s stop worrying about that pig and see if we can find some homes for the litter of stray puppies that came in while you were gone last week.”
“It’s a good thing I live in an apartment or I’d be bringing home one of everything in this place.”
“That’s cause you have a big heart. That’s what I like about you.”
“Gosh, Tippy, you’re gonna give me a big head if you don’t stop with all the flattery.” She grinned.
“I was worried we were going to lose you out there in the mountains.” She washed her hands then grabbed a stick of gum from her desk drawer and popped it into her mouth. “Figured I should tell you how much I like you now that I have the chance to do so.”
Coco walked over to her boss and pulled her into a hug. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
“Chances are it’s the last time you’ll hear something that soft come out of my mouth, so enjoy it while it lasts.”
“That’s okay—I’ll use it as a protective shield against next week.”
“What’s next week?”
Coco reached for a puppy and pulled it close to her chest, twirling her finger around its tiny ear while she talked. “Emma is making me go to the fundraiser for the rescue squad.”
Her boss lifted a brow. “And?”
“And I’d imagine that people there have low regard for people like me who put them at risk. I mean, I already sent a nice thank you, along with some of that good chocolate from Ginny’s store—you know the stuff?”
Tippy rolled her eyes back like she was in heaven. “Orgasmic, that stuff is.”
“Well, it was the least I could do after what I did. I also included a case of local IPA, because, well, beer.”
“I can’t imagine that even one of them thinks anything but good things about you, sweetie.” Tippy started filling water bowls with fresh water while Coco followed with food.
“I know at least one person there who has no good feelings toward me.”
Tippy knit her brows. “Impossible.” She swept her hand up and down in front of Coco. “For one thing, look at you. You’re so damned cute. No one hates cute people. And for another, you’re so young and thin and that makes people want to take care of you. I bet they’d all fight to go rescue you again.”
Coco laughed. “Not so much. But I’m telling you, there’s a guy who hates my guts there. He’s the one who adopted Oink.”
“Hate’s an awfully strong sentiment.”
“Fine. Dislikes intensely.”
“I don’t know. The day he was here wasn’t he lingering for a while? My bet is he has the hots for you.”
Coco shrugged. “Well, even if he did, that only goes so far. I’m afraid I exhausted my hall passes with him.”
“What makes you think so?”
Coco proceeded to fill her in on all that had transpired, setting the puppy down as she finished her story.
“I don’t buy it for a second.” Tippy wiped her hands against each other. “I think he has a thing for you, but now he’s scared.”
“Scared I’m gonna go get lost in the woods.” She laughed.
“Scared because he blew it. And too chickenshit to admit it.”
“I wish you were right. Because I remember him being pretty good-looking. Those eyes—mmm mmm.” She made one of those sounds you might make when you’re e
ating a good piece of fried chicken.
Tippy waved her hands in the air. “You young people and your hormones. I say go to the fundraiser next weekend and pull him out of that corner he’s boxed himself into. Sure beats staying at home watching reruns.”
“You know there are a million things you can watch on TV without ever watching a rerun for the rest of your life, don’t you?”
“I prefer reruns, thank you very much.”
Coco sighed. “You honestly think I should go there tomorrow night?”
“Can’t hurt, might help. Could even land yourself a good-looking guy.”
“It’s not all about that, you know.”
Tippy looked up at her from lowered lashes. “Uh, yeah it is.”
Chapter Ten
ELLIOTT was about to call it a night. Which was sad because it was Friday night and not even ten o’clock. But he had nothing going on and was kind of tired anyhow. Maybe this was a sign it was time to move on. Figure out what he wanted to do now that he’d figured out what he didn’t want to do, and move on and do it. His phone dinged with a text from an unfamiliar number.
“Meet me at the End Run in fifteen minutes.”
Huh. Weird. Who the hell was this? He typed that in and sent it.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be glad you did. Hurry and get here.”
Well, his curiosity was piqued and he knew he had no enemies who would be there waiting to slit his throat in a dark little biker bar on the far side of town. What the hell—might as well go see who it was. It beat going to bed like an old grandpa. He put Oink to sleep in the crate, brushed his teeth, and headed off to the bar.
The loud murmur of a Friday night crowd hit him hard when he opened the door to the bar. Elliott definitely needed to get out more often—he was so unused to being in a social environment with other actual people that even a seedy bar seemed like a life upgrade. When did he become a hermit? He held the door for a pretty woman about his age with long, curly hair who seemed in a hurry to leave. Maybe he should’ve stopped her, offered her a drink. Which would be fine inside a bar, though kinda weird when the woman had her feet out the door. Nah.
As he looked around, he had no idea who in here would have texted him. Until his eyes landed on a woman sitting alone in a both, listening to the fiddler on the small stage playing some bluegrass number. The missing woman. Coco. It had been her! He went back through his phone log and compared it to the number the message was texted from and sure enough, it was she. But what? Why now?
Not wanting to appear overexcited, he casually made his way toward the table, stopping first to grab two beers at the bar. He navigated his way through the crowd, out of her line of sight, and then rounded the corner and slid into the booth.
“You rang?” he said, plunking down both beers. Sitting right next to her, he turned to face her and cocked his brow.
“Ack!” she jumped as she saw him and held her hands up as if it was a stick-up. “What the what?”
“I got your text.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You told me to meet you here. You just sent it. Surely you can remember something that recent. I know you hit your head but—”
She shook her head. “My head is fine, but I’m super confused about why you’re here.”
“I got a text from you about twenty minutes ago asking me to meet you here. Of course, I didn’t know who was texting me until I got here and saw you, and then I compared your texts to the”—he squirmed for a minute, remembering that he’d never bothered to answer her many voice messages—“um, er, the voice messages you left me.”
“The ones you conveniently never replied to?”
His face became warm. “Guilty as charged.”
“Sorry, but I didn’t send you any texts. I don’t know where you got that from.” She redirected her gaze to the band, ignoring him.
He pulled out his phone and opened up his messages to the one in question. “See, here.” He pointed at it, then at the number. “That’s your phone number, amiright?”
“Yeah well, I don’t know what happened. Maybe I was hacked—” She pulled out her phone and looked at her sent messages, then frowned. “Why, that dirty little witch.”
He squinted at her in confusion. “Everything okay?”
“No, it is not okay,” she said. “My sneaky, dirty, rotten friend set me up against my wishes. I didn’t send you that text—she must’ve gotten hold of my phone when I went to the bathroom and sent it. And then slipped out when you got here after telling me she was going to the bathroom.”
“Your friend—is she about yay high?” He held his hand up. “Brown, curly hair?”
Coco grimaced, throwing him the stink eye. “Were you in cahoots with Emma?”
He squinted. “I don’t even know who Emma is. I just held the door for someone leaving when I walked in who fits that description.”
“You’re going to tell me you were sitting at home, minding your business, and you got this text supposedly from me and voila, like that”—she snapped her fingers—“you dropped everything and came running?”
He frowned. When she put it like that, it made him sound like a pathetic little lapdog. But, uh, yeah.
“I was home alone—and bored—when I got the message. Mind you, I had no idea who sent it, but it sounded intriguing, so yeah, I did drop everything. But I didn’t run, if that matters.” He grinned at her. “Does it help if I tell you I was relieved when I saw it was you?”
Her face softened. “You were?”
He nodded. “Very.”
“But I thought you hated me.”
“I don’t hate you at all. I don’t not hate you either. Well, that sounds not good. Let’s just say I, well, I felt conflicted.”
“Conflicted, why?”
He sighed. “I don’t exactly know, now that you ask me. I guess I was annoyed about the pig. And you refused to call me back—”
She held up her hands. “Uh, news flash. I was otherwise occupied.”
He put his hand on his forehead and shook his head. “I know, I know. I know. I mean, I know now. But I didn’t know then. All I knew then was that I needed to get rid of the pig and you were nowhere to be found. And then the call came in and I couldn’t even find a moment in the daytime to slip away to take the pig back, and the next thing you know I’m stuck with this thing. Like a stuck pig. Ha ha.”
Her mouth curved up in a half smile, reminding him that he liked her smile, even as weak as it was at the moment. It made him want to elicit a true smile from her.
“Why didn’t you call me back?”
He took a big drink of his beer and closed his eyes. “Because I’m weird. Because I was exhausted probably, with the emotional fatigue that goes along with volunteering with a search-and-rescue group. And because I was stuck with a pig. And the person who was supposed to save me from the pig had ghosted me. And because I kind of was annoyed that you went off in the woods as if you didn’t know any better and it left us all to figure out how to freaking save you.”
She nodded. “I knew it. I knew you blamed me for that.”
“It’s not a ‘blame you’ thing. If anything, it’s a reason I need to rethink my motives for doing this type of volunteer work. The last thing anyone involved in search and rescue does is blame the person who’s gone missing. We all know what you—the missing one—is suffering through. You’re scared and tired and lonely and cold and thirsty and hungry and miserable. But then, this logic kept kicking into my head that told me you did it to yourself. Which wasn’t logic at all. It was me being an asshole. Because I honestly don’t—and didn’t—blame you. But then when I saw you, it kind of messed with my head. You were you! Both the missing person and the pig girl! And it just—I mean I just—I mean, I don’t know. I froze emotionally. Which is lame of me because when I met you the day I wanted to get my mom a kitten, I desperately wanted to muster the courage to ask you out, but then instead, well, here we are.”
“Here we are
indeed.” Coco drank her beer and rested her chin on her hands. “All because of a sneaky setup by my friend. Remind me to never speak to her again.”
He shook his head. “Please don’t do that on my account. I’m happy she did this because I’d never have had a chance to meet up with you again, all things considered.”
“Though you could have just shown up at the shelter.” She swigged her beer.
“Except that I got my chickenshit on.”
Coco spat out the beer. “Is that a term?”
“More or less.”
“So, should we talk?”
“About?”
“About your thinking I failed the entire search-and-rescue team when I went into the woods, for starters. And about how I stupidly pawned a pig on you that will become a giant farm animal before you know it?”
He turned to face her even though they sat mere inches away from each other. The warmth of her body was palpable from such a close distance. If he wasn’t such a pussy, he’d lean in and kiss her. But he was so afraid it would lead to him getting a fat slap across the face and never seeing her again. “What can I do to prove to you I don’t hold any ill will toward you regarding your disappearance?”
She shrugged. “I suspect that’s on me. I feel guilty about what happened. I did know better and figured it was a short hike and I’d be fine. In all honesty, I did at least bring water along, but I felt bad for the guy who was choking.”
“How could I judge you on that? You shared all the water you had with a stranger.”
“And the pig, well, I didn’t know much of anything about pigs. The pig was so teensy, it never crossed my mind how huge it could be one day! I figured it was like those teacup dogs. Have you ever seen a teacup Maltese? My old boss had one and it was the only thing I liked about him. Anyhow, I never would have pawned her off on you if I knew! My boss was pressuring me to find a home since we weren’t equipped to care for her. I’m terribly sorry about that.”
Lady Killer (Confessions of a Chick Magnet Book 5) Page 5