Page 34 of Bone’s Choice

I fired up the bike and Hazel straightened away from her SUV. “I’ll see you around, Hazel,” I called over the engine.

She smiled and gave me a little wave. “See you around, Bone.”

I backed out enough to clear her SUV, turned, and headed for the road.

A few seconds later, Bing’s disappeared behind me.

I opened the bike up as I left town, letting the engine thunder beneath me while the wind hit harder. This was supposed to clear my head.

Instead, I’d somehow managed to add Hazel to everything already bouncing around inside it.

Chapter Eight

Hazel

My phone started ringing just as I managed to get the lid off a can of paint. “Of course.”

I’d been carrying the damn thing around with me all morning because I’d put in enough job applications over the last two days that I didn’t want to miss a call. The one time I left it in another room, someone called.

I set the screwdriver I’d used to pry the lid off on the floor and hurried through the living room. The kitchen was slowly becoming my favorite room in the house, and it was slowly starting to look like mine.

There was food in the refrigerator now. My coffee maker was on the counter, and my bright red toaster had taken its place of honor.

My phone was vibrating across the kitchen table when I grabbed it.

A local number and I immediately straightened. Only four places had my number.

“Hello?”

“Is this Hazel?”

“It is.”

“Hey, Hazel. This is CL from Bing’s.”

I smiled. Well, damn. “Hey.”

“You got a minute?”

“I’ve got several.”

He chuckled. “Good. I wanted to give you a call before I got tied up over here. I talked to the owner this morning, and we’d like to bring you on.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“That’s great.”

Relief hit me harder than I’d expected.

I hadn’t been panicking yet.

I’d had money.

Not a lot, but enough that I wasn’t going to be eating crackers and ketchup packets by the end of the week. Still, watching money go out without any coming in wasn’t exactly relaxing.

A job fixed that.