Miss Frost Solves A Cold Case: A Nocturne Falls Mystery (Jayne Frost Book 1) (16 page)

I laughed as the doors opened and we got on. “Nicely played. But if you hit it off, why do you need the excuse?”

She shrugged. “He’s a little on the shy side. He’s half-fae and while he’s got pointed ears and the most beautiful blue-green eyes you’ve ever seen, that’s about all being half-fae has done for him. I think I intimidate him.”

“Did he say he’d come tonight?”

She nodded and her smile brightened. “Yep.”

“Well, maybe he’ll see there’s nothing to be intimated by. That you’re just an awesome person he should get to know better before someone else snatches your hotness up.”

All smiles, she poked a finger into my arm. “Thanks.”

“I mean it. Any guy would be lucky to have you.”

“You too.” She assessed me, her gaze going head to toe. “You’re tall, beautiful, smart and funny. If I was a guy, I’d be all over you. Heck, if Pete doesn’t work out, I may still ask you out.”

I put my hand to my chest and fluttered my eyes as I answered her in my best
Steel Magnolias
Southern accent. “Why, Juniper Trembley, you do know how to flatter a girl.”

Laughing like fools, we stumbled off the elevator and straight into Toly’s path. That snapped us out of it.

I hoisted my purse strap a little higher on my shoulder. “Morning, Toly.”

“Morning, Toly,” Juniper parroted.

“Morning, morning, work to do,” he muttered as he side-stepped us and kept going into the shop. He had a piece of paper in his hands, and his attention seemed to be focused on it.

Juniper and I looked at each other and shrugged.

We got set up for the day. A very distracted Toly gave us a couple of jobs to do and then disappeared back into his office.

As the first customers drifted in, I nudged Juniper. “What do you think that was all about with Toly?”

“Nothing. He gets preoccupied with stuff all the time. Probably some new toy idea he’s working on or a notice about the next delivery coming from corporate. Who knows?”

I glanced back at the warehouse. So long as he hadn’t figured out someone had been in his office. Which reminded me that I hadn’t relocked the filing cabinet. Hopefully, he’d think he’d just forgotten.

But we only saw him two more times the rest of the day, both times when he came in to assign us more tasks. Mostly me. Lots of stocking and inventory and straightening.

Owen and Buttercup showed up a few minutes before five to spell us. She leaned around to grab her apron. “You missed it, Lilibeth. The werewolves were out in force last night. Howler’s was happening.” She fanned herself. “Ooo, those wolfy boys are smoking.”

“Next time, I swear.”

Owen stood a few paces behind, waiting until she moved to reach for his apron.

“How was your dinner, Owen?”

He looked up and blinked a few times, all movement frozen in place like every bit of energy he had was going into answering that question. He must have gone to bed even later than I had, judging by the circles under his eyes. “What was that?”

“Your dinner last night. How was it?”

He blinked some more, put his apron on and straightened. After a long pause, he said, “Good.”

Then he shuffled off into the back of the store.

“Don’t mind him,” Buttercup said. “He’s half asleep most of the time because he spends all night online with his hordes running missions or whatever they call it. He’s a total gamer. That’s all he does outside of working here.”

“Well, it’s not all he does. He was going out to dinner last night. I saw him leave.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think Owen’s left the building since he got here. If it wasn’t for delivery, I’m not sure he’d eat.”

“Based on the way he was dressed last night, he looked like he was going to meet someone. Like a date. He had a tie on.”

She screwed up her face and looked back at the way he’d gone, jerking her thumb in his direction. “That guy? I would have bet a paycheck he didn’t own a tie, forget him knowing how to tie one.”

“He probably Googled it,” Juniper said.

I glanced over my shoulder. Owen was nowhere to be seen. “He also told me Toly had called him in to make sure he could handle the Snowy Saturday shimmer, in case Toly wasn’t there. I got the sense he had to give Toly a demonstration of his magic.”

“Amateur.” Buttercup crossed her arms over her apron. “Juniper and I know better, don’t we?”

I peered at her. “You mean Toly’s asked you guys that already?”

Juniper nodded. “He usually gets around to it within the first couple months after an employee arrives.”

“But those kinds of skills are detailed in our files. Why would he need to ask again?”

Buttercup shrugged. “Because he’s forgetful? Because he doesn’t trust corporate? Because he checks everything twice? Pick one. Either way, Juni and I both faked it when he called us in.”

Juniper gave a little half-grin. “I didn’t really fake that much. I told him the best I could do was icicles that had no guarantee of being around longer than five minutes.” She snorted. “He scratched me off his shimmer list pretty fast.”

“But with hair that color, he had to know you were lying.”

She tipped her head forward. “Take a closer look at my roots.”

I did. They were dishwater brown. “You color your hair?”

She lifted her head. “Yep. In this day and age, and especially in this town, why not?” She must have read the expression on my face. “It wasn’t my magic that got me here. It was my people skills.”

So much for my theory that you had to have a certain level of magical skill to work here. “You are better with customers than anyone else I’ve seen.” I glanced at Buttercup. “Don’t tell me that yours isn’t real either.”

“Nope, this is all mine.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Then you must have skills.”

Her lids went droopy with how much she cared. “I do, but I don’t want to get stuck handling the shimmer by myself. I told him my gifts are unpredictable. And to prove it, I accidentally”—she made finger quotes around the word—“filled his office with snow in about five seconds.”

I would have paid money to see that. “I guess if I get called in I should do the same thing.”

Buttercup nodded. “Unless you want to be the Big Elf in Charge on Snowy Saturday, I’d say hells yeah.”

Juniper let out a little gasp, then grabbed my arm. “Look at the time. We need to bounce. We have to get ready for the spaghetti dinner.”

Ah yes, the non-date and the maybe date. “Yep, let me grab my purse. See you later, Buttercup.”

She waved us off. “Later. Have fun with the fire hoes.” Then she snorted. “See what I did there? Fire hoes?
Hose
?”

“Yeah, yeah,” we said, but we were laughing as we left.

Twenty minutes later we were on the street, headed to the fire station, looking as chillacious as possible with twenty minutes of prep time. Which, if I do say so myself, was pretty freaking chillacious.

I glanced over at Juniper, who was wearing a cute purple dress and boots. “We clean up good.”

She nodded. “Yeah, we do.”

I’d stuck with skinny jeans, boots and a flannel shirt over a lace-trimmed tank top. My version of country chic. And once again, trying for cute but not too cute. “Pete’s meeting you there?”

“That’s what he said. I hope he doesn’t back out. Hang on, I better check that there weren’t any pharmacy emergencies.”

“Is that a thing?”

“It can be.” She pulled her phone from her purse. We both stared at it. “Nope,” she said. “No text from him so I guess we’re still on.”

“Isn’t this an unexpected pleasure?”

The warm honey-over-gravel voice brought my head up in time to stop myself from running smack into Greyson. Whoa. Talk about unexpected. “Oh, hi. Hey.” I shuffled nervously, feeling a little like a kid caught lying. Not that I’d lied about anything this time. Or had any reason to feel guilty.

“Lilibeth. How are you?”

“Good, thanks.” His gaze shifted to Juniper as his brows rose. Oh, right. “This is my friend Juniper. We work together. We’re going to the spaghetti dinner fund-raiser at the fire station.”

He nodded. “Sounds…filling.” Then he smiled that bone-melting grin of his at Juniper. “A pleasure to meet you, lovely Juniper. Any friend of Lilibeth’s is a friend of mine.”

But no kiss to the hand. Maybe he was afraid of scaring her. She was looking at him with a slightly bug-eyed expression. Or maybe I was special. I know, long shot, but everyone liked a little ego stroke now and then.

“You, too,” Juniper managed.

“You’re working?” I asked as I remembered he’d already told me he was on the schedule Friday night. He was dressed pretty much the same as he’d been the night I’d met him. Although he seemed to be wearing a touch of black eyeliner this evening. Very Depp.

He nodded. “VOD until midnight.” Then his sly smile was all for me. “But don’t worry, not tomorrow night.”

I swallowed. “Okay, well, we should get going.”

His gaze lingered on my mouth for a long moment, sending hot little sparks of anticipation through me. “Have fun.”

“Thanks. See you…later.” I grabbed Juniper’s arm and got us moving. It was that or conjure up my own personal snowstorm to put out the fire in my pants.

Five steps in and she found her voice again. “You know Greyson Garrett?”

“Sort of. I mean, I know him well enough that we’ve shopped for cat litter together.” Maybe not one of the finer points in my history of male-female relations, but there it was.

“Then you know he’s a”—she lowered her voice—“vampire.”

“Yep. I know.” Boy, did I. You didn’t forget jumping two stories with someone. “Is that not cool for some reason? Aren’t we equal opportunity daters?”

“You’re dating him?” Her eyes widened again, and her voice went a little screechy. “What about Cooper?”

“Cooper doesn’t want a relationship.” And neither did I. Not with him, of all people. “And who says I can’t keep my options open? Guys date around all the time.”

That seemed to calm her down. She nodded. “That is true. But
Greyson
.”

“What’s so wrong with Greyson?”

She got a curious look on her face. Sort of like someone had just handed her a sex toy and asked her to explain how it was used. “He’s…so…
sexy
. And he’s a vampire. They’re like wild things. Feral.”

“Have you had this talk with Buttercup about the werewolves? Because she seems to be a pretty big fan of men with lycan tendencies. And I don’t think you get much wilder than a guy who can turn into a wolf whenever he wants. Just saying.”

Juniper let out a huge sigh and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’ve talked to her about that. You two are so alike.”

I took that as a compliment. Buttercup was pretty rockin’.

Juniper shook her head. “Doesn’t he scare you?”

I lifted one shoulder in a non-committal shrug. “A little. I think that’s part of the appeal.”

“Huh, yeah, bad boys.” She crossed her hands through the air like she was cutting that thought off at the root. “Not me. I like nice guys with good jobs who aren’t ever going to accidentally bite me.”

“Like Cooper.”

She frowned. “Like Pete.”

“Right. Like Pete.” Because Cooper
might
bite me when he found out who I really was.

We managed to get to the firehouse about ten minutes early, but it was still pretty busy. Juniper decided to stand outside and wait for Pete, which left me on my own to venture in and look for Cooper.

Volunteers from the school were in last-minute mode, rushing around the rows of tables that had been set up in the big space. I found Cooper hauling in a rolling cart of chairs.

He greeted me with a smile. “You made it.”

“No way I was going to miss a chance to slide down your pole.” Wait. What had I just said? Heat flared through my cheeks. I looked around to see if there was a sudden sinkhole I could jump into. “I, uh, I mean, the firehouse’s pole.”

Cooper laughed. “I knew what you meant.” But he was still smiling more than necessary. He parked the cart and gestured toward the back of the station. “This way.”