Page 105 of Sunset Beach
She turned around and headed home, for a shower and then bed. All evening she’d kept her cell phone close at hand, hoping for a callback from Rae Hernandez at the sheriff’s department, but the only call she got came as a complete surprise.
WhenUNKNOWN CALLERflashed across the phone’s display screen, she didn’t pick up, but let it go to voice mail.
“Uh, hey, Drue. It’s Jonah. From work?”
She grabbed the phone and tapped Connect.
“Hi Jonah. It’s Drue. What’s up?”
“I was kind of hoping you wouldn’t pick up,” he blurted.
“Then why did you call?”
He sighed. “Remember that do-over I asked for? I was thinking maybe we could try it on Saturday night?”
She felt the color rise in her cheeks. He was asking her out. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had asked her out on a date. It had to be pre-Trey.
Yes, definitely pre-him. Her six-year off-and-on relationship with Trey had been a long segue from hanging out to living together; now that she thought about it, she realized Trey never had formally asked her out. One night, after a long day of kiteboarding, he’d sat next to her at a bar and bought her drinks. The next night, when their group of friends had drifted off the beach and out to a restaurant, Trey had picked up the dinner check. And the next night, they’d met up at a concert and he’d gone home with her and stayed over for the next week.
“Drue? You there?”
“I’m here. Okay, I’d be up for that,” she said cautiously.
“So just to be clear, that’s a yes?”
“Yes, Jonah,” she said, rolling her eyes. “That is a yes. What did you have in mind?”
“Drinks and dinner? There’s a new place downtown, near the Vinoy, that I’ve heard good stuff about.”
“That sounds nice,” Drue said. “Tell me the address and I’ll meet you there.”
“Huh? I mean, I thought I’d pick you up at your place. That’s okay, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I just wasn’t sure if you’d want to drive all the way out to Sunset Beach and back.”
He laughed. “God, this is the most incredibly awkward phone call I have ever had with a woman. Does it feel awkward to you too?”
“Incredibly so,” she agreed. “Painfully awkward.”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” he said. “But the worst part is over, right? I asked, you said yes. We have a plan. I’ll pick you up, we’ll have a nice dinner. No stress.”
“There’s no stress for you, because you’re a guy. You don’t have to think about what to wear, or what to do with your hair.”
His voice softened. “Wear it down, okay, Drue? You have really pretty hair. And if you don’t mind my saying so, you look great in jeans.”
“I don’t mind your saying that at all,” Drue said, surprised. “It’s actually lovely, hearing a compliment from a man.”
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, then. Right?”
“Right.”
Once in bed, she fell asleep immediately but awoke after only two hours.
Her dreams were stranger than usual. She dreamed of Jazmin Mayes, staring up from a basket of soiled sheets; of her own mother, Sherri, plucking at the edge of the blanket the hospice worker had tucked around her pale, emaciated body, her eyes clouded by the effects of the drugs in her IV drip. And she dreamed of Colleen Boardman Hicks, and a pile of blood-spattered but neatly folded clothing placed on the bucket seat of an orange Camaro.
Her mind kept drifting back to that binder on the kitchen table, and the mystery of Colleen. Corey was right. She really did need to find herself a hobby.
But in the meantime, she had questions. So many questions.
