man was tangled up in there somewhere, he just didn’t know how.
“Absinthe?”
“I don’t know. I’m feeling my way with her. Whatever this is, she wanted to go with me tonight. She really couldn’t. She wants to see me tomorrow and intends to. She said she was seeing an old friend and that friend was leaving the country. It was both the truth and a lie. I could hear both. She said there wasn’t another man, but I felt another man and it wasn’t a good feeling.”
“An ex? A stalker?” Lana guessed.
“She’s watchful. At the library, she’s always careful in front of windows and she definitely looks before she goes out the door, and yet tonight she deliberately put herself in front of the window. So what the hell does that mean?”
“Maybe she’s tired of running and is calling him out?”
Absinthe turned the car back toward Scarlet’s rental property. He’d discovered a little knoll up above it where he could park and they could watch the house. As always, Lana was prepared for spending the night in comfort. She had a ground blanket and night goggles.
“Don’t worry, I brought food, just in case you think you’re going starve come three in the morning.”
“I better not have to be here that long,” he objected. “I’m picking her up at eleven. I’ve texted Alena and asked for another picnic basket. I’ll have to get back there and return before eleven.”
“That’s silly,” Lana said, lying on her belly, fitting the goggles to her eyes. “Just get a room to sleep in tonight, have one of the boys bring you the food and pick your girl up in the morning. I worry about all of you without Alena and me to think for you when it comes to women. I’ve got eyes on the two of them, Josefa and Scarlet. They’re talking in her living room. She doesn’t have much furniture in there.”
“Great.” He rolled over and stared up at the stars. “I’m probably out of my mind because I’ve never had to deal with emotions like this before.”
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” Lana said.
The sadness in her voice caught at his heart. Sometimes the sorrow in Lana was so overwhelming he couldn’t breathe. He kept his gaze fixed on the constellation right above his head and forced the air to move in and out of his lungs, thinking about Scarlet and that long fall of glossy red hair. It was the only way to keep from letting the demons consume him.
“Yeah, babe, it does,” he answered, striving to keep his voice light.
An hour later, the door opened and the two women opened the trunk of Josefa’s car, stuck a few items in it and then talked for a few more minutes, hugged and then Josefa drove off. Scarlet stood there a moment, hands on hips, watching her go, waved again and then turned back and shut the door. She turned off the light in the living room and turned on the light in what must have been her bedroom, and then the bathroom light went on. The bathroom windows began to steam up as she presumably ran a bath.
“There you have it, Absinthe, exactly what your girl told she was doing tonight,” Lana said. “Let’s go get you a room at a hotel.”
“Not yet,” Absinthe said. He was more uneasy than ever. He sat up and took the night binoculars from Lana. “Something is really off. Can’t you feel it? Stop looking with your eyes. You’re good at this, Lana. You want to believe her because she’s mine and you liked her.”
Lana sat up as well, her shoulder nearly touching his, but not quite. None of them ever quite touched him, not if they remembered in time. She studied the house.
“She’s taking a bath and getting ready for bed.”
He stared down at the house. He wanted to believe it. More than anything, he wanted to believe that was exactly what Scarlet was doing. What else could she be doing? He waited. After thirty-eight minutes, the lights went off in the bathroom. He pulled out his phone and texted Scarlet.
He phoned her. Her message said she would call back later, that she was busy.
Babe, you up? Need to know if you’re allergic to anything.
He waited. There was no response.
“Don’t get crazy, Absinthe. It’s very late. She might not want to answer you this late. She might have fallen asleep already.”
“Her light’s on.”
“Haven’t you fallen asleep with the light on?”
“I don’t sleep.” Absinthe put the binoculars down and