Page 102 of Zero Divergence
“This is not how I wanted to spend my day off,” Royce whined. Sawyer ignored him and kept pushing the grocery cart. “Stop whining, and I’ll buy you a can of the horrible squirty cheese.”
“Fine,” Royse groused. “What time are the murder club members coming over?”
The lady walking toward them stiffened, then whipped her cart around and headed in the opposite direction.
Sawyer chuckled. “Look what you did. That woman thinks we want to commit murders instead of solving them.”
“Spending my day off at the grocery store when I could be in bed with you makes me homicidal,” Royce countered.
“Didn’t I spend the morning with you at three different car lots looking for the perfect SUV?” Sawyer asked. He hadn’t minded it, especially when Royce found the one he wanted because the back was plenty big enough for camping, fishing, and sporting equipment.Just how many kids was he planning to adopt?
“Yes,” Royce admitted. “Are you going to pretend like you can’t wait to hear your audiobooks on the kickass stereo system?”
“No,” Sawyer said.
“So, let’s grab some frozen pizzas, wings, and chips and get home so we can spend the rest of the day naked.”
“Could you say that any louder?” Sawyer asked, looking around.
“Yeah, I could say it a lot louder,” Royce replied. “I could include hand gestures to avoid confusion.”
“This is our last Operation Venus Flytrap meeting, and we have special guests coming tonight. I will not feed them crappy frozen pizza and junk food,” Sawyer said, changing the subject before Royce backed up his threats with action.
Royce’s grumpy expression softened. “Emma, Dinah, Jennifer, and Sarah are looking forward to meeting everyone who helped get justice for their girls.”
“So quit your bitching and let me do this right. Go look at magazines or something while I finish shopping.”
Royce narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Are you going to put my junk food back?”
“No.”
“Are you going to pay for the groceries and leave without me?”
“Possibly,” Sawyer said dryly.
“I’ll find you if you do, GB.” Royce winked before heading to the book and magazine aisle, which enabled Sawyer to choose the rest of the ingredients for his menu in half the time it would’ve taken with Royce. Now he understood why his mother had always made him and his siblings stay at home with their dad when she went grocery shopping.
When Sawyer reached the magazine and book aisle, he was surprised to see Royce deep in conversation with Lynette Goodwin. Royce was holding a book in his hands, and she was thumbing through the pages, stopping to point out some things. Royce wasn’t the former mayor’s biggest fan. Her black shirt with pink polka dots showed off a small baby bump. She glanced up when Sawyer approached. Her gaze was wary at first but relaxed when she realized who it was.
“There were some Nosy Nedras giving Mayor Goodwin a hard time when I came down the aisle,” he said, which explained a lot. Royce hated hypocrites more than anything, and the probability that the women casting stones at the mayor were without sin was very low.
“Just call me Lynette.” The woman smiled shyly. “Thank you again for your assistance. I should be used to it by now, I guess.”
“No,” Royce said emphatically. “No one should ever get used to that kind of taunting. You made a mistake, you apologized, and now you’re trying to live your life. I think you should have the chance.”
Wow. Those women must’ve been exceptionally cruel.Or Royce believed she was sorry for the hurt she caused her family and decided she’d had enough criticism and didn’t need his too. It was how Sawyer felt about Jack Vincenzo, who had decided to suspend his re-election bid after Vivian’s funeral.
Lynette sniffled, and her lips trembled. Sawyer sensed the tears were coming next. Instead, the mayor straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Thanks again. Take care now.”
“You too,” Sawyer said, watching her walk away.
“She and Ryan are having a rough time,” Royce said, recapturing Sawyer’s attention. Royce tossed a hardback book on gardening in the cart and started walking down the aisle. “Her girls are pissed, Ryan’s family has all but turned their backs on him, and Skip filed for divorce and moved in with his boyfriend in New York.”
“And here I thought I finished shopping fast,” Sawyer remarked.
“You did,” Royce said. “After I ran off the Nosy Nedras for cornering a pregnant woman and making her cry, the information kind of burst out of her.” Royce shrugged. “Oh, they’re having a boy. I remembered Ryan was so convinced they were having a girl. She said he’d painted the nursery ten different shades of blue already. Then she noticed the book I was looking through and asked if I’d decided to take up gardening.”
Sawyer stopped and stared at his boyfriend. Was the real Royce Locke snatched up by aliens while Sawyer was picking out the best loaves of French bread?