Page 20 of With Stars in Her Eyes

Thea

Before leaving the condo, I checked on the living room couch where Marshall had been camped out for weeks now. He was snoring, and the beer on his breath carried all the way down the hall. I would have to figure out what to do with him soon. But not today.

On the way to St. Clare Circle, I stopped for several coffees and a large pink box of doughnuts. My mother had her issues, but she had taught me the best way to demonstrate gratitude was through copious amounts of expertly brewed caffeine and sugar.

I sat on a bench beneath that enormous tree my rock targeted yesterday and pulled one of Courtney’s loaned books from my pocket.

After I’d read several pages, a voice called out a good morning from a foot away from me. Jeannie .

I clutched at my chest and steadied the coffees in the carrier. “You move really quietly.”

“For an old bat you mean.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Jeannie chuckled. “I think it was implied. Now grab your things and head around to the alley behind the old school building.”

“Am I going to be blindfolded and thrown in a van or something?”

“Guess you’ll have to take that chance.” Her tone did nothing to assuage my wariness.

Despite this, I grabbed the coffees and box of doughnuts and followed her to the old brick school building anyway.

I wasn’t sure what I had expected to find there, but it wasn’t Courtney and Samantha both bundled in jackets, standing in front of a large tow trailer painted with an angry-looking plant hitched to an enormous extended-cab truck.

Jeannie told me to wait here and then hustled into a door just beyond where the truck was parked.

“Coffee, thank god.” Samantha stepped forward to take a cup off my carrier.

“What are y’all doing here?”

Courtney’s upturned nose was pink in the cold, but her green eyes seemed even brighter today. “Well…”

“All of y’all owed Ms. Jeannie a favor?”

Before Courtney could respond, a man jumped out from the shadows near where the truck and the hitch were joined. “ Everyone owes Jeannie Gallagher-Keegan a favor.”

“Who are you?” I said, completely forgetting my manners. “Sorr—”

He shook off my attempts to apologize for my rudeness and held out a hand. He wasn’t quite as tall as Marshall, but he was nearly as broad. “I’m Nic.”

“My cousin.” Courtney ruffled his hair, then grabbed a fleece hat out of his coat pocket and pulled it onto his head. She handed him gloves with an almost maternal amount of fussiness. Her voice rarely sounded that confident in the bookstore. “And we were told you have an emergency situation.”

“Nice to meet you.” His voice was gruff, almost smoky. He patted the hood. “The truck should fit a lot in the back, and with Jeannie’s trailer—”

“I’m confused, I already have a moving company coming…”

Nic shook his head. “Oh, it’s actually for—”

Courtney covered his mouth with her gloved hand. “Ms. Jeannie said she would explain, Nicky.” She grinned at me.

And hoo boy , that smile. If I was blushing as intensely as it felt like I was, hopefully they would just think it was the cold.

Nic’s eyes flicked toward his cousin and then back at me. Her head twitched in what might have been a subtle nod. There was a question and answer in that quick exchange. “Alrighty then…”

I loosened my scarf a smidge. Am I sweating? Both Nic and Courtney had piercing green eyes, though Courtney’s were a warmer shade. Nic pushed away her hand, which led to another wordless exchange between the two. I definitely hadn’t had enough coffee yet to interpret this.

Samantha slurped her coffee more loudly than necessary as if she were deliberately trying to distract me from whatever was happening on Courtney’s and Nic’s faces.

“Oh, thank god Marshall told you where the best coffee is, which means…” She opened the pink box.

“She brought Sal’s doughnuts. Perfect moving-day food. ”

I frowned. “But my moving truck won’t get here until Thursday.”

“Ms. Jeannie.” Samantha shrugged as if this would explain everything.

Nic grabbed himself a coffee and put a doughnut in his mouth before opening the driver’s side door. “But it’s all good. Be excited,” he said through his mouth full of doughnut.

“Right now I’m just confused.” I gave Courtney a look of desperate befuddlement.

“Well, in that case…” Courtney leaned a little closer. “I recommend chocolate frosted with sprinkles.” Her hand emerged between us with her partially eaten doughnut held there.

I narrowed my eyes and snapped a bite of the doughnut quicker than a swamp rattlesnake.

“ Hey . Get your own.” Laughing, Courtney tried to snatch the doughnut away, but I was too quick. I grabbed the doughnut and scored another big bite before she could move away.

Somehow my other hand had ended up holding her waist, so she couldn’t escape. It was close to how we had stood clinched together in the romance section. I chewed and swallowed slowly, with my eyes never leaving hers. “Sharing is caring, Miss Starling.” I still held the doughnut between us.

Courtney’s eyes narrowed, and she took a bite without taking the doughnut out of my hand.

When her mouth wasn’t dangerously full, she smirked.

“I never went to kindergarten, so I think I skipped that lesson, Thea Quinn.” Her next comically large bite made the doughnut disappear into her mouth, with her lips just grazing my fingers.

A throat cleared behind us, and Samantha muttered something that sounded like “ Toldja so ” to Nic, both of whom were leaning against the truck cab with amused expressions. Humiliatingly, I’d completely forgotten they were there at all for several seconds.

My hand slid off Courtney’s waist. “Um… Looks like you’re saving some sprinkles and chocolate for later.”

“Where?” Courtney laughed.

“Basically everywhere.” I held out a napkin to her, aware of the places on my fingertips that her lips had grazed just seconds earlier.

Samantha muttered something else, but I couldn’t make out any words this time. Before one of us could say anything else, Jeannie came out of the door again, holding a packet of paper. “Here you go.”

“Wait…” I looked it over. “This is a lease ?”

Jeannie nodded. “I did some research, and it seems like a reasonable price for the area. You don’t have to sign it now. Read it over and give it to Samantha whenever you sign. She can give it to her grandpa.”

“But this says prepaid.” My mouth fell open. “How is it—”

Jeannie cleared her throat. “Y’all are going to clear out the unused space over the tattoo shop.

It’s been empty for years, and Samantha’s grandfather never knew quite what to do with it.

If y’all can get it cleared out, it’s yours for one year beyond a small security deposit to cover the insurance.

” She gestured to the old door behind the truck trailer.

Just like on the blizzard night, I knew there was no possible response to a command by Jeannie Gallagher-Keegan other than to obey, so I followed her.

She twisted an old key in the lock and climbed a somewhat narrow staircase to a second locked door.

The door opened into a large room. A burst of air sent a plume of dust up in the space full of boxes and broken furniture all draped by cobwebs.

“When they converted the building from the school, there ended up being a few of these spaces that were difficult to rent. It’s basically just this room here, which was an office for one of the teachers, and through there is a large janitor’s closet in the back with a sink and such.

No bathroom facilities though. I estimated you would be able to fit most of the things here.

It’s linked into the central furnace system, so I thought it would do about as well as those storage units you were talking about.

Seemed more convenient than that and cheaper, at least for the first year. ”

“Wow…”

“Dr. Powell said you would be welcome to salvage anything, not that there seems to be much worth saving in here, but if you and the kids there are willing to clean it out, it’ll save him the cost of the junk hauling.

There is a window behind that stack of boxes.

Not sure if you’ll be able to open it, but it’d be worth a shot. ”

Courtney, Samantha, and Nic stood in the doorway.

“So, y’all are just here to…”

“We’re here to help you clean up the space in time for your movers to come and put all the boxes up here.” Nic spoke with authority. Like it wasn’t an offer. Like it was simply what he had on his to-do list for the day.

“But I don’t even know you and I just met y’all”—I nodded at Courtney and Jeannie—“ basically yesterday. We all have jobs, and—”

“Shouldn’t take more than into the early afternoon if we all work at it.

” Samantha grinned. “Don’t try to fight it, sweetie.

Once Ms. Jeannie decides someone is family, the rest of us fall in line.

This is usually my day off anyway. I found another manager to come and cover for Courtney’s shift.

And we should be done by the time your shift starts, since don’t you do the closing shift today? ”

My mouth fell open. “How did you—”

“Courtney thought you had said that yesterday, but we double-checked with Denise.” Samantha sipped her coffee. “Any other objections?”

“Ms. Jeannie, seriously, how can I thank—” I twisted around, but Jeannie was already gone. Holy moly that woman could move fast when she wanted to. “Where’d she go?”

“Probably wanted to avoid the thank-yous.” Courtney now held the key.

Nic set down the large bin he’d been carrying and opened it. Cleaning supplies. Trash bags. Work gloves. “Municipal dump closes at three. Let’s see if we can get two trips in before then. If you have to go to work before that, Sam, Courtney, and I can go unload the second round ourselves.”