Pecked to Death by Vanessa Gray Bartal Page A

Obviously you shed, but I’m not allergic to feathers.”
     
    Sadie shook her head. “Sorry. I’m only in town a couple of weeks.”
     
    “Then where are you going?”
     
    “Good question,” she said.
     
    “You’re one of those go-wherever-the-wind-takes-you kind of people?” he guessed.
     
    “I’m one of those get-away-from-all-the-pain-and-misery-of-my-past type people,” she replied.
     
    “Aren’t we all,” he said. The front door banged and he turned to look. Sadie tried and failed to see the newcomer over the tips of her feet. “We’re having chicken for dinner,” her rescuer announced. “You have to do the plucking.”
     
    “No thanks,” Luke said. “I’ve seen what’s inside this one. She’s rotten.”
     
    The doctor looked back and forth between them. “You two know each other?”
     
    “Best friends from cradle to grave, isn’t that what we used to say, Luke?” Sadie said.
     
    “We used to say a lot of things,” Luke said. He leaned in the doorway and surveyed her. “What happened?”
     
    “She overheated and passed out,” the doctor said. Sadie realized she didn’t know his name.
     
    “What’s your name?” she asked.
     
    “Hal,” he said.
     
    “Hal?” she repeated. “I’ve never met a Hal before.”
     
    “Is she okay?” Luke interjected.
     
    “She looks pretty good to me,” Hal said. “Are you here to claim her?”
     
    “I could take her home,” Luke said. “I just came by for another load of my stuff.”
     
    Sadie started to sit up. Hal pushed her back down again. “Why don’t you take off the suit? You need to air out a little.”
     
    “I can’t,” Sadie said.
     
    “I really think you should,” Hal said.
     
    “I’m not wearing anything but my skivvies under here,” Sadie admitted.
     
    Luke clapped his hands over his ears. “Sadie!”
     
    “He does that every time I say I’m naked,” Sadie said.
     
    “He’s always been odd,” Hal said.
     
    Sadie nodded her agreement.
     
    “I, on the other hand, have no problem with nudity. Now that I’m a doctor, I’m impervious. It’s like staring at a blank wall. Take off the suit and I’ll prove it.” Hal said. He sat back and folded his hands, waiting.
     
    “Ignore him,” Luke commanded. “Wear something of mine and I’ll get it back later.”
     
    “Won’t Anna Karenina be upset?” she asked.
     
    “She trusts me,” Luke said.
     
    “She sounds smart,” Sadie said.
     
    “She is,” Luke said. “She’s a scientist.”
     
    She turned to Hal. “He said that without using air quotes.” To Luke she added, “Was that what her paperwork said when you took her out of the crate from Russia?”
     
    Hal laughed. “I like you,” he blurted.
     
    She beamed at him. Finally, someone was in her corner.
     
    “I’m not going to reply to that,” Luke said. He disappeared into a room and returned a minute later with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Sadie tried and failed to unzip the chicken suit. She was shakier than she wanted to admit. Hal reached out to help, but Luke bumped him aside and unzipped her. “Turn around,” he commanded Hal. They both turned while Sadie shimmied out of the suit and dressed herself in Luke’s too-big clothes.
     
    “Last time I borrowed your clothes we wore the same size,” she noted, feeling a hint of sadness for their long-lost past.
     
    The men took that as their cue to face her again. “Last time you borrowed my clothes you didn’t give them back. I still miss my lucky shirt.”
     
    “That shirt wasn’t lucky until I wore it,” she said.
     
    “I don’t think it was lucky until you took it off,” Hal said. He added a lascivious eyebrow wiggle for good measure and Sadie laughed.
     
    “Don’t encourage her to take her clothes off,” Luke said. To Sadie he added, “Don’t encourage him to be himself.”
     
    “Wow, you roomed with him in college and then chose to stick around after. Did you feel the need for daily