Watcher by Valerie Sherrard Page B

just five.”
    â€œI don’t know. It’s probably going to be trafficking. Is this your first charge?”
    She nodded before lifting her chin and asking, “So, what should I expect?”
    â€œI honestly have no idea. Sorry.”
    Loren shrugged like it didn’t matter, then leaned forward and sank two more balls in quick succession. She stepped back after the second.
    â€œI didn’t call that one off the rail,” she said, nodding for me to go ahead.
    â€œOh, right.” I chalked my cue and looked the table over, hoping for an easy shot. The five was sitting in a nice line with a corner. I dropped it straight in no problem and then went for the one.
    I glanced up from my second shot, which I’d miraculously made, and was startled to see Lavender Dean standing a few metres away, watching. She gave me a hesitant wave. I smiled at her, hoping she’d seen my two good shots. A sudden rise in my pulse made it unlikely I’d manage a third. I didn’t.
    â€œIf you happen to get a P.O. named Andrew Daniels, let me know,” I told Loren. “I’d give him a call, put in a word for you or whatever.”
    â€œYeah, okay. Thanks.” Loren sank her last three balls and then shot hard at the eight, which was barely in front of a corner pocket. My single hope that she might scratch on it died when the cue ball stopped dead, just a hair from the pocket.
    I told her good game and tried to look casual as I walked over to where Lavender stood.
    â€œHey,” I said.
    â€œHey.” She looked good, kind of glowing.
    I tried to think of something cool to say. I came up with, “So, you just get here?”
    â€œA few minutes ago. You?”
    â€œBeen here a little while.” How could she resist that kind of witty repartee?
    â€œMmm.” She smiled again and then looked down, kind of shy. Made me want to pull her over and hold her against me.
    The thing about Lavender was that she was hard to read. She was always friendly to me, which might have meant something except she was basically that way toward everyone.
    Sometimes it seemed as though she really liked me, but other times I wasn’t so sure. I’d been kind of toying with the idea of asking her out for a few months but I couldn’t seem to work up to it. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been shot down before, but with her, it mattered more. I knew if she said no, that’d be it.
    I figured there was no sense rushing into anything.

chapter fourteen
    I woke up that Saturday morning to the sound of banging, followed by Lynn yelling my name from the living room.
    Struggling to pull myself awake, I was halfway down the hall before I realized that what I was hearing was someone knocking at the door.
    â€œWhere are my shoes?” I mumbled, though why that particular question had fought its way to the surface of my brain, I have no idea.
    â€œYo, Porter. Open up, man!”
    â€œTack?” I said, yanking open the door. “ What are you doing here so early?”
    â€œYour brain fogged or what?” he shook his head. “We gotta get to the bakery.”
    â€œI’m not even up,” I groaned.
    â€œNo kiddin’.”
    â€œWould you guys shut up !” Lynn sounded a bit testy. I wondered what time she’d finally wandered in the night before. The couch she was sleeping on had been unoccupied when I’d gotten home, and that was around one o’clock.
    â€œI gotta shower,” I said as the haze lifted. “Give me ten minutes.”
    A hot shower finished waking me and I threw on some clothes and mechanically towelled my hair dry while I gulped down a bowl of Shreddies.
    â€œYou are so disgusting,” Lynn said. “How can you dry your hair like that while you’re eating?”
    I knew what she meant, but I said, “Why? I’ve got two hands.” She called me a pig and then turned to the back of the couch and flung the comforter up