I had no choice but to trust Dino as he hustled me out of the condo with nothing but my purse, not even my car keys, and into strangely enough, Angel’s muddy as fuck Jeep.

“What are we doing?” I asked, because Dino had just rocked my world, scared the shit out of me, and then listened to me tell him the story of my whole sordid past, then kissed me and shuffled me out the door like it was lazy Sunday.

“I said plan hide and seek. We hide you, David tries to seek while I lead him on a wild goose chase and convince him that you are not Gabriella Hensley, but Jeanette Clary, who, incidentally does not have a David tattoo on her inner wrist like he claims.”

“Laser removal. And I didn’t want to have it done, he pressured me saying it was a perfect way to show our commitment to each other. He doesn’t have one though, ironically.”

“Why would he?” Dino asked, eyes narrowing in what looked like disgust. “The owner doesn’t wear a collar, the pet does.” Well didn’t that just hit the nail right on the head? I should have been upset by the revelation, but I wasn’t. I had realized the type of twisted relationship I had with David a long time ago for what it was, and I could only find a sense of relief that someone else saw it too. If only I could have met someone like Dino all those years ago, would I still be me?

My condo was on the South end of town, closer to the city of Maumee and the quiet suburbs but as I sat in the strange silence of the Jeep Dino drove us towards the downtown area. I winced as the Jeep hit a rough patch in the road and I bounced around in the passenger seat. Dino barely jiggled and he gave me that little half smirk I always loved/hated when he saw me rubbing my butt.

“Don’t drive the Anthony Wayne Trail much do you?”

“Not if I can help it,” I muttered. “This has to be the worst maintained stretch of road I have ever driven on.”

“No way, they try every year to patch the holes, but every winter the ice and salt tear it up. In the spring it’s the worst, holy shit, but this late in the fall it usually isn’t so bad since they spend the whole summer doing patch work.”

“That sounds like a lot of road work for the summer.”

Dino laughed, a real laugh, and I felt a twinge in my chest at the realization that I had never actually seen his real full smile before. What was he hiding that he was never able to show himself to anyone? I felt like I saw a unicorn, and that smile was infectious. I had no reason to smile at all, but somehow seeing the sides of Dino’s eyes crinkle up with mirth made me want to do the same. I didn’t even know what was funny, but it didn’t matter.

“Girl, in Toledo we only have three seasons. Almost winter, winter, and construction.”

“You said we, Dino. Are you from this area? You seem awfully familiar.”

If I could have eaten the question and never let it out of my mouth I would have, the smile disappeared from his face like it had never been there to begin with. Dino dropped his head and focused on the road.

“I have some family out this way.” And that was all he said for the rest of the drive.

It was an uncomfortable silence that Dino tried to fill with music, but he turned the radio on and some distorted guitar noises and the crashing of drums filled the Jeep. I pushed a couple of buttons to try to change the station, but all the presets had the same storm of music, where all the instruments and the vocals seemed to be vying for attention at the same time.

“Holy crap, Angel listens to a lot of screamo,” I said as I turned the radio off. I would rather have uncomfortable silence than listen to that headache in the making but it succeeded in breaking whatever gloom had fallen over Dino for the last fifteen minutes of the car ride, and for that I was grateful. I had plenty of things to be depressed about, but for some reason I didn’t like to see Dino like that. It made my chest ache.

We pulled up to a small brick apartment building on a corner, only two floors high and I couldn’t see how far it went in the back, but couldn’t have been very big though. The parking lot had enough room for about fifteen cars tops and there were only three in the parking lot including the Jeep we were in. One was Gabe’s Lexus, and the other was Dino’s. The sign sticking out of the grass in front of the building had said “Washington Arms,” and I had never actually been here before myself, but I had heard of it.

“Why are we at Angel’s apartment building?”

“Hide and seek,” was all Dino said, but he was smiling again and damn if it didn’t feel like the sun had peeked out around the clouds. He was so confident, I felt a little kernel of hope in my chest unfurl into a tiny bud. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and I rubbed the spot over my heart with the heel of my hand to see if it would go away. It didn’t.

“Okay so Angel said to go in the door and up the stairs, first door to the right, and whatever we do, don’t make eye contact.” Dino rattled off the instructions as he walked to the entrance and I had no choice but to follow him or stand dumbfounded in the parking lot.

“No eye contact? What the hell does that mean?” It was too late anyway because as I walked to the front door I met the eyes of a grizzled old man staring straight at me from his bottom floor apartment window. The yellow curtain was flung open wide and he was standing in front of the glass like it was a door and he was going to walk right through it. But he wasn’t walking, he was standing still. Just standing there with his arms crossed over the chest of his dingy white t-shirt and a disgruntled frown on his deeply wrinkled face.

“No idea, but let’s go.” Dino pulled my arm gently to steer me into the building, effectively extracting me from the impromptu staring contest. The old man made no other movement aside from inclining his head slightly in what I assumed was a greeting. Weird.

The instructions weren’t necessary because as soon as we walked through the door I heard two familiar voices arguing up the stairs. They sounded really close, and even though the apartment complex was pretty small they had to have a door open somewhere. We followed the bickering up the stairs and found Angel and Gabe standing in a small apartment. Gabe had on a hoodie and a pair of basketball shorts, a far cry from his normal three-piece suits and his brown hair was sticking up in all different directions like he had been running his hands through it. He was holding a garbage bag in one hand, and a stack of shot glasses in another.

“No you may not throw those away. Those are from my collection,” Angel said, hands on her hips and a mutinous expression on her face.

“It’s not a collection, it’s clutter.” Gabe held the stack high over Angel’s head as she reached to swipe them out of his hand.

“That’s my Glass City Rollers shot glass, it’s precious. And besides, I use these when the girls come over for story time.”

“You can keep the Glass City Rollers one, because it’s got a derby girl on it, and roller derby is cool. But if you want to keep the rest of these you need to find a better way to store them than all over the countertops,” Gabe thundered, his voice echoing off the walls of the tiny room that was one-half kitchen and the other half living room. “And in case you hadn’t noticed,” he added, “you haven’t had story time in a while, and we are trying to make room for a guest at the moment.”

“Fine!” Angel huffed, making one last leap and swiping the shot glasses out of his hands, narrowly missing sending them flying to the floor. “You’ve got plenty of room, I’ll just take them over to your house since I’m pretty much moving in anyway.”

“You will not bring your inability to get rid of anything over to my house. You will bring yourself and what you need and nothing else.” Gabe sounded panicked as he stared her down, probably concerned that she really would bring her stuff over to his place. I peeked in the doorway, reluctant to come all the way into the apartment because they hadn’t yet noticed we were there. It looked clean, but there was stuff everywhere. Every surface had a stack of something on it, like she had too many belongings and not enough places to put them.

“Love me, love my clutter,” Angel ground out from between clenched teeth, and then she yipped as Gabe pinched her in the side, just above the waistband of her pants and then pulled her in close with his hands on her waist.

“Well I do love you,” he said, before he covered her mouth with his. It wasn’t a short kiss, and after a moment his hand started making its way up the front of Angel’s shirt. This was coming close to voyeurism, and I glanced over at Dino to see if we should interrupt. The look in his eyes took my breath away. Blazing liquid gold and staring straight at me, I felt the heat of his gaze and it caused a ripple to spread straight up my spine. After what we’d done this afternoon, and the things that had happened after, we were caught in a very gray area. I didn’t want to hope for another go around with him, but standing in the damn hallway of Angel’s apartment, with Dino looking at me like I was food, I kind of couldn’t help it.

Embarrassed at the entire situation I cleared my throat to get their attention and the two broke apart, not looking the least bit guilty about being caught making out in their open apartment. Gabe had known we were there, I was sure of it. Especially after I noticed how he had stealthily removed the stack of shot glasses from Angel’s hand and dumped the entire stack but one in the garbage bag he still clutched like a weapon while she stood there, slightly dazed. I would have laughed if I wasn’t in my own state of confusion and semi terror. There was no way Gabe was going to let Angel fill his house with clutter like her apartment was, and he was not above using dirty tactics.

I was beginning to get an idea of what “Hide and seek” was all about.

“Hey guys,” Angel waved in greeting, a pink flush in her cheeks. “What was the holdup? I actually made it to the store and got all the stuff before you got here. Did you have trouble convincing her to come, Dino?” It was an innocent enough question coming from Angel, but I was acutely aware that Dino was wearing just an undershirt with his jeans, as we had pretty much destroyed the one he had worn to my house. Also, he hadn’t explained a single thing about what was going on, so I didn’t really have an excuse for why it took us so long to get to the apartment.

There is no way they could know though, what we were doing, could they?

Well, Angel wouldn’t know, but when I glanced up at Gabe I was surprised by the look of fury in his eyes, but he wasn’t focused on me. No, he was staring above my head and behind me, at Dino.

Oh shit.

Dino wasn’t taking it lightly either, he was standing there completely unaffected, hands down at his sides like he didn’t have a concern in the world. But his eyes told a different story. They challenged Gabe. Say something to me right now, his eyes spoke silently. I really didn’t want it to come out that I had pretty much ripped Dino’s clothes off and begged him to have his way with me on the carpet, I was still digesting it myself.

“I made it a little difficult for him, I’m sorry. I still don’t really know what’s going on, but I get the idea that I’m not supposed to run. I’ll be honest, every part of me is screaming to get in my car and drive as far as I can. So if you guys have something you want to tell me, we should probably talk about it now.” I hoped the talking didn’t involve me rehashing my past experiences anymore. Telling Dino my life story had sucked my energy away. I really didn’t want to go over it again.

Dino and I walked all the way into the small apartment and he shut the door behind us. Gabe opened his mouth to say something but Angel cut him off and started talking a mile a minute, excited to tell me that plan.

“It boils down to this. A bad guy is trying to find you. He thinks he may have hit the bullseye but isn’t sure, right? That’s what Dino is supposed to be doing if I’m correct, identifying if you are the person he’s looking for? Well, all Dino has to do is convince him you aren’t, and all we have to do is make sure that he doesn’t run into you in the amount of time it takes for Dino to do that. Hide and seek. Simple.”

Simple my ass. There were a shit ton of holes in that plot and they clearly did not know how deep down a rabbit hole David Ashley was willing to go.

“That was an awfully simplistic plan that has no hope or prayer of working,” I said gently. Bless her heart for trying though. “Don’t you have questions about why he’s looking for me? I could be a career criminal. I could have done something seriously bad.”

“Nope,” Angel replied. “One, that’s bullshit, no one would think that. Two, even if I had never met you and formed my own opinion about what kind of person you are, Gabe and Dino have your back, so I do too.”

Such a simple statement, said without hesitation. Actually, Angel was looking at me like maybe I was a little soft in the head for questioning her. Gabe stood next to her and slid his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him, silently supporting the words that had just come out of her mouth. I felt Dino’s body close behind me a moment before his hand touched my shoulder. A gentle touch, but the comfort it brought me was like a weighted blanket swallowing me up with its warmth. I was almost overcome with their unified show of support. Even without knowing all there was to know. Support I had never had before, back home. The support that could have saved me from having to run in the first place.

My throat was scratchy, and my face felt hot, I needed to change the mood before I lost control and shed a tear for God’s sake, so I cleared my throat and asked, “So what’s hide and seek all about? I kind of get it, but I need someone to spell it out because I’m scared as fuck. David is an obsessed psycho with a power complex, and I would rather die than be found by him again.”

“Welcome to your safe house,” Angel exclaimed, throwing her hands wide like she was revealing the grand prize in a game show. Gabe groaned and I felt more than heard Dino’s laughter as his chest vibrated behind my back. I leaned back an imperceptible amount, just a little. I just wanted a little bit more of his warmth at my back. It reassured me for reasons I couldn’t explain and didn’t really want to examine at the moment. His hand tightened on my shoulder, just a tiny bit, but I felt it and tried to relax. I wasn’t a scared young woman anymore, completely alone with no one to help her from the bad guy. I was an experienced woman, with backup. I had friends whose job it was to know how the bad guys work.

Maybe we could do this. Maybe we could win.

“The deal is this, Jeanette,” Gabe interjected, putting his hand over Angel’s mouth when she tried to start talking again. “Angel has been staying at my house for a while now, this apartment is more like just the place she keeps her excess stuff, so it is absolutely the perfect place for you to stay.” He narrowed his eyes at me and pinned me with a glare. “And I do mean stay. No running. None of us are going to let anything happen to you, okay? But you have to cooperate. You. Will. Stay. Here.” He pronounced every word slowly and distinctly, so I wouldn’t misunderstand. “Dino took Angel’s Jeep because we want your car to stay at your house, and we didn’t want Dino’s flashy car being the last one seen at your place. Angel’s Jeep will stay here, with you, although I don’t want you to go anywhere for a few days. At least not until we get a handle on a few things. I think you have a stomach bug, you need to take a few days off work. I’ll still go to the office every day, but you know I don’t have shit to do there anyway, so I’ll be working on pulling background on David Ashley and see if there is anything I can use.”

“You won’t find anything, Gabe. I’m telling you, the guy is the town hero. He’s so clean he squeaks when he walks. I wouldn’t be where I was now, cowering in terror of being found, if he had anything on him I could have used as leverage.”

Gabe shook his head slowly. “You’ve been gone a long time, Jeanette. You took his prize away from him. You are the only single person he ever showed his true self, when you took that away from him how long do you think it would take for him to crack and show it to someone else? For him to go this far to find you after all this time of dead ends, on what? The word of someone else who happened to run into you by accident and maybe though you bore a passing resemblance? I saw the photo, Jeanette, you are not that girl anymore. This guy sounds desperate. And crazy desperate people are the most fucking dangerous, but they also get careless. I’m going to find it, that something he was careless about.”

I believed him. I had no choice.

“And what are you going to tell Chaz? I assume you are going to have to report back to him about me before you go back to whatever you were working on before.” I looked at Dino expectantly, I assumed that he would be leaving me here and going about his business after leaving me in Gabe and Angel’s hands. “Thank you for the help, I’m sorry you had to get involved but I appreciate the quick thinking.” It wasn’t like I could say thank you for the mind-blowing sex that I am sure meant nothing to you, but I will forever remember, to him for God’s sake. I apparently had the wrong choice of words though, because Dino stiffened, and I felt, rather than saw him completely close down on me. It was like a light went off behind his eyes and his expression smoothed out into one of complete indifference.

“Well, you are welcome for that,” he said as he put his hands in his pockets and walked towards the door. “I’ll just tell Chaz that this David guy obviously has the wrong girl. I’ll make up a story about a hideous birthmark or something. I’m sure it will be fine. See you guys later, I gotta get back to the D.” He gave us the two-fingered salute and walked out the door, shutting it behind him maybe a little too firmly causing the plates in the small kitchen to rattle in their cupboards.

What did I say? I was letting him off the hook. He was the one who said he was working on an important family issue. He should have been grateful I wasn’t hanging on him and begging for more help than he could give. With a shrug I turned back to Gabe and Angel, but to my surprise they were both looking at me with something close to anger in their expressions.

“What was that all about?” Angel demanded. She wasn’t talking about Dino’s exit.

“I have no idea?” I really didn’t. Dino had left in a snit for sure.

Gabe crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head at me, “You know, he came to you first.” Gabe’s brows were drawn close over eyes filled with accusation. “He may have gotten to us because you weren’t at the office like you normally are, but he came for you first. Remember that.”

I think he wanted to say more but there was a clinking sound right outside the apartment door. I thought maybe it was Dino coming back for something but then I heard a feminine giggle. Angel sighed and stomped towards the door, immediately agitated although I didn’t know why. Until she swung the apartment door wide and in stumbled two small elderly women, a dark-haired one holding a glass half full of a light green liquid and a little gray-haired lady carrying a full pitcher.

“Oh, hello, Angel dear,” the dark-haired one said in mock surprise. “We heard a bunch of voices and thought there was a party.” The gray-haired lady snorted softly behind her hand but didn’t say anything.

“Looks like you started your party without us, Jolene,” said Angel dryly. “And shitcan the act you old eavesdropper. How long were you standing in the hallway listening?

Jolene wrinkled her nose up in disgust. “We couldn’t hear anything, and we almost got caught by that glass of water that left in a hurry a few seconds ago. He left out of here like someone had lit a fire under his butt. Should have sent him over to my place.” And she erupted into peals of laughter, at the kind of blatantly sexist joke that only little old ladies can get away with in this day and age. So he really had been mad, huh? I guess I didn’t handle that well.

“Here’s another reason this place is so well guarded,” Angel gave the two old women the side eye as she spoke. “Jeanette, meet the neighborhood watch. This is Jolene and her sidekick, Gerta.” Waving her hand in front of the dark-haired woman first, then the little gray-haired lady second. “I love them to pieces but two nosier biddies you will never ever meet. No one comes into this building or out of it, without these two noticing. Or Gary,” Angel added as an afterthought. “You don’t see Gary too often because he likes to stay inside his apartment, but he lives right under me, so you will hear him for sure. He wakes up with nightmares sometimes from the war. PTSD,” she said sympathetically.

That must have been Gary I saw on the way in.

“Jolene, Gerta, this is my friend, Jeanette. She is going to be staying here for a few days while some things are being taken care of at her house. It’s kind of a secret that she’s staying here though, so no telling secrets okay?” Gerta nodded politely but Jolene’s eyes narrowed at the word “secrets.” I was willing to bet by the way she rubbed her hands together that secrets was Jolene’s favorite word. I began to worry a little as to the effectiveness of our plan.

“A lady shouldn’t have secrets from her landlord, Angel.” Jolene sounded like she was getting ready to play let’s make a deal.

“A lady doesn’t day drink and eavesdrop outside her tenant’s apartment door, Jolene.” And then both women smiled and laughed. A couple of weirdos, it was clear they had played this game before.

“You are going to need to buy my silence,” Jolene demanded, while Gerta looked around for a place to set her pitcher before finally settling on a side table that only had one stack of notebooks taking up the surface space.

“Okay fine, I’ll write you into my next book.”

“I want to be young and beautiful with big boobs,” Jolene said, a triumphant smile creeping across her face. “And I want a dark and handsome man like the one that ran out of here upset earlier.”

Ugh. Another reminder that I had said the wrong thing to Dino. Guilt started creeping in, eating away at the edges of my fear. I was so conflicted.

“Deal, but don’t bug Jeanette too much. Gabe and I are leaving soon but that doesn’t mean she is going to be up for company.”

“We won’t,” the two chorused as they turned to leave, Jolene snagging the pitcher that Gerta had previously put on the end table.

“Uh huh,” Angel said as she shut the door behind them. “I bet they come back tonight. They are harmless, and really great fun to be around. Gerta and Jolene have the best stories ever, I just like to give them a hard time. If I don’t keep them in check, they will run right over the top of me. Jolene owns the building so if you have any questions or issues she will certainly be able to help you.” Angel clapped her hands together loudly, scaring Gabe who had been staring at the door after the two ladies left, like he was checking to see if he could hear their footsteps walking down the stairs. How nosy were those two anyway?

“So here we are,” Angel looked around the room excitedly as she gave me the tour. “It’s small but it’s cozy and I’ve done some of my best writing here. I’ve been spending most of my time at Gabe’s, so the fridge and cupboards were pretty much empty. Gabe and I bought some groceries. I know we wanted to leave your condo as untouched as we could so it didn’t look like you left in a hurry or anything, so I picked up some clothes and essentials. Everything in the bathroom is new as well as the clothes and things on the bed.”

“You even bought me new clothes?” I asked, incredulous. A lot of thought had gone into this. Dino had only been at my condo for a couple of hours, how did they pull all this off?

“Well, yeah. That’s okay isn’t it? I know your sizes from when we went shopping for your dress. I mean, Dino yanked you from your house with nothing but what’s in your purse. It’s kind of a big one but I doubt you have spare undies or pajamas in there, do you?”

Gabe spoke up before I could reply, “Jeanette, you still seem to be laboring under the impression that you are in this by yourself. You’re not. We are your friends, you need to let us help you. That includes Dino.” He frowned as he spoke again. “And as far as he is concerned, you can act like nothing is going on between you two, and maybe there wasn’t before. But the Dino that was here a few minutes ago is not the same Dino that was in my office, demanding information from me so he could help you better. All I’m saying is, just like you, there is more to Dino than anyone else knows. But you know what kind of man he is in the way that counts. He’s a fucking mystery, and he pisses me off on the regular, but if I’ve needed him, he’s always been there. Don’t push him away.”

I didn’t answer, and Gabe didn’t need me to. He was giving me something to chew on after he and Angel left. Like I needed an excuse to think about Dino. My thighs were still sore from straddling him and I still felt the heavy weight of him inside my body. The hard part would be to not think about Dino.

“I’m heading back into the office after I drop Angel off at home. I need to at least have a presence there in case Chaz or David decides to have the building watched. They know that Jeanette Clary works for me, so I’ll probably be the next person under surveillance if they decide not to take Dino’s word that you aren’t Gabriella.”

Gabriella. I hated even hearing the name, and I was grateful that even hearing the truth, everyone, including Dino, continued to call me Jeanette without hesitation. Gabriella was gone. David Ashley had killed her.

“I have a gig at Nasta’s tonight,” Angel piped up. “Can I take the Lexus?”

“You can take the Escalade. I like Nasta’s, and Jesse runs a relatively tight ship, so the bar is generally pretty safe. But it’s right across the street from Affini’s and they’ve been having some trouble lately with vandalism and petty crime. The Escalade has a better security system on it than the Lexus, I’ll feel better knowing you are driving that instead.” Gabe said it conversationally, but I knew the area of town he was talking about. I hadn’t heard that about Affini’s, they had the best authentic Italian food around. That place was a local landmark.

“Safer? Or you hacked the satellite tracking for it on your phone like Jeanette’s car?” Angel asked with her eyes narrowed, lips pursed, and eyebrow raised as she waited for his response.

“Wait what?” This was the first I heard about this.

“Nothing. Come on Angel, let’s go.” Gabe changed the subject by coming over and giving me a quick bear hug. Angel didn’t want to be left out, so she wiggled in with us until it was a three-way squeeze, her huge boobs pressed up against my arm. I couldn’t help but laugh, it was so ridiculous.

“We love you, Jeanette. Let us take care of you. Stay here for now and we will work it out. Even the boogeyman has no power during the day. You aren’t in that tiny town anymore, and David Ashley doesn’t have the kind of power here that he had there.” Gabe and Angel were almost to the door but before he opened it he had one more thing to say.

“I don’t want to downplay your previous situation, because I know what I saw when I found you, so I mean no disrespect. But David Ashley sounds like a textbook sociopath, and even though he’s dangerous – I’m dangerous too. Dino even more so than me. Trust me. He does not know who he is fucking with.” Then he and Angel were gone, and I was left in the small apartment, alone with my thoughts.

Well, maybe not just my thoughts. Even though the apartment had a lot of clutter, it really did have some form of organization, and I sort of figured it out based on Angel’s personality. The living area was her office and workspace. There were notebooks with scribbled notes inside stacked on every surface. And books. There were books everywhere from popular romance authors, to indie titles I had never heard of. I picked up one with a half-naked man on the front and a wolf in the background. The synopsis on the back looked interesting - shifters? Hmm…I set that aside for later. Wandering into the bathroom I noticed the fresh tube of toothpaste and toothbrush still in the package on the sink. There was a brand-new hairbrush and fresh towels laid out. The bedroom had some department store bags on the bed, and in them was exactly what Angel had promised, clothes. There were some bras and panties and socks, as well as a couple of pair of jeans and some shirts along with a silky soft sleep set in pink cami and shorts with lace on the hem.

She’d thought of everything.

I sat down on the bed, contemplating what I was going to do with my time since I couldn’t leave the apartment, when I heard a tentative knock on the apartment door. Fear gripped me briefly until I heard a feminine voice call out, “They left, dear, I saw them. Let us in, let’s have story time.”

“What’s story time?” I asked as I opened the door to reveal two sets of twinkling eyes and two mischievous grins.

“It’s where we drink margaritas and talk about men,” Jolene said as she brushed past me into the apartment like I am sure she had done with Angel an innumerable number of times.

“Oh yes, young lady, it’s no good to be alone in here when we are right downstairs.” This was the first time I think I heard Gerta speak. She had such a soft-spoken voice.

“Well I am not opposed to the company,” I replied, and I wasn’t. It was probably much better to have someone to talk to than to be left alone with my thoughts. And these ladies certainly were interesting, if just a bit overbearing. “But I’ll have to pass on the alcohol, I don’t drink.”

Jolene gasped and lifted her hand to her chest, squeezing her yellow polka dotted blouse as if my words gave her chest pains. Gerta looked panicked, like she had just shown up with a plate of hamburgers and I told her I was vegan. It was adorable.

Jolene tried another tactic. “How do you know, girl, maybe you just have never had a really good drink before?”

“Maybe she has to take medication, Jolene. Is it for health reasons, honey?” Gerta was obviously trying to keep me from feeling uncomfortable, but equally incredulous that I could pass up a good margarita.

“Oh no,” I assured both women. “My health is fine. I just don’t drink because I like to be in control at all times.” It was the best way I could explain it without having to say more than I had to.

“Well that’s no fun,” grumbled Jolene, and I took pity on her confused state.

“Well, story time sounds fun anyway, so if you ladies don’t mind drinking my share, I’ll make something to eat?” Angel had said there was plenty of food and I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. My stomach picked that moment to audibly gripe at me and the other two ladies heard it.

“Let’s raid the fridge, dear. You are just skin and bones. That won’t do at all.” Gerta took my arm and walked me to the kitchen, which was the other half of the same room we were already standing in so it was only a few feet. Gerta rifled around in the fridge and pulled out a jar of pickles and a block of Colby cheese. “Look what I found, Jolene!” she crowed.

“Pickles?” I asked. I wasn’t sure pickles were something to get excited about.

“Those aren’t just pickles,” Jolene exclaimed, looking perturbed that I would even look down on them. “Those are Tony Packo’s Pickles n Peppers, girl. Pop one of those in your mouth with a chunk of Colby cheese and you will be in heaven.” Jolene grabbed the items from Gerta and started opening drawers, rifling around until she found a fork, and then pulling a chef knife out of the knife block, she turned to me again. “Sit down on that sofa over there, young lady. I’m gonna give you an education on a good old Glass City staple.” Then she turned back to the counter where she started cutting little cubes of Colby cheese and arranging them on one side of a large plate while Gerta arranged pickle slices from the jar on the other end of the same platter.

“I can’t believe you’ve never heard of Tony Packo’s,” Jolene mumbled under her breath, and I stifled the laugh that bubbled up in my throat so she wouldn’t get offended. These women were so colorful, and I loved them already.

“Are you sure I can’t get you just a tiny little glass?” Gerta asked, holding up what looked like a small juice glass from Angel’s cabinet. Her face was full of shining hope as she continued, “It’s my very own recipe and I’ve perfected it over the years. Going once…going twice…”

Well, maybe just one small taste wouldn’t hurt.