Page 29 of One Impossible Moment
But he sure as hell wasn't done with her.
Chapter 12
Kallie
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Kallie scanned grocerieswith the kind of disinterested efficiency that came from doing the same motion thousands of times.Beep.Slide.Bag.Give a smile that didn't reach her eyes.Repeat.
The store buzzed with fluorescent lights and the low hum of refrigerators.Customers shuffled through the aisles, comparing prices, arguing with their kids, living lives that seemed normal from the outside.
Kallie didn't feel normal.
She hadn't since the day Finn pushed her through the veil.
It took some online research to find the words to describe what had happened to her, and the only parallels she found were on supernatural websites and in fictional entertainment.Finn was a real man.Everstill, while small, was a working town.There was nothing online that matched what she'd experienced over the years.
Four years later, she still woke some mornings with the phantom feeling of Finn's hands on her shoulders, the wind roaring around them, her voice breaking as she screamed his name.
She swallowed hard and forced her attention back to the register.
"Hey, sweetheart."The male customer leaned over the counter."You got a smile for me?"
She didn't look at him."Your total is eighteen dollars and forty-two cents."
He leaned in, breath thick with alcohol."Come on.A pretty girl like you shouldn't look so serious."
Her jaw tightened.Men always said things like that.Men at the store.Men on the street.Men in restaurants when her coworkers dragged her out after shifts.Men who reminded her too much of the ones who used to hang around her mother when she was a young child.They were always loud, careless, and hungry for something they hadn't earned.
She handed him his change without meeting his eyes or touching his hand.
He lingered a second too long before walking away.She exhaled slowly, shoulders tight.
Her manager called her name from across the store."Go ahead and pull your till."
She nodded, grateful that her shift was over.Exchanging places with Pauline, she dropped off her drawer, clocked out, and grabbed her purse and coat.
