13
A day had passed since Lon and I erected the ward around my house, and my servitor still hadn’t returned. I was beginning to worry, and contemplated pulling it back prematurely.
Apart from my house or Lon’s, or my now heavily warded rental car, one of the safest places I could be was probably the bar. Being around people coming and going would help to disguise my energy from any lurking spies. So, regrettably, I resumed my shifts at Tambuku until Lon had had a chance to research our new glass talon lead. Most of our regulars acted glad to see me back behind the bar. I only had to break up one fight yesterday, and it didn’t involve binding anyone, so not too bad.
Tambuku was busy today, and the work kept my mind off matters. During a short break early on in my shift, I tried to email Caliph Superior in Florida. I wanted to tell him about the glass talon and the visit to the Tamlins, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to phone him, just in case his calls were being monitored. However, my email bounced back, saying that his in-box was full.
While I debated whether to risk a call to the caliph, my phone rang. Lon’s number.
“Hey there,” I answered. I’d been getting antsy waiting to hear from him today, so it was a relief that he’d called.
But it wasn’t Lon’s voice that answered in reply; it was Jupe’s.
“Heya, Cady, whatcha doing?”
“Umm, working. What are you doing calling me on your dad’s phone?”
“You’re not mad, are you?”
“No—”
“Whew! You scared me there for a second. I didn’t know your number and he checks all the calls I make on my cell phone, I mean, uh, not that it matters … anyway, are you at your bar? I looked it up online. How come you don’t have a website?”
“We do have one, it just isn’t very big.”
“Pfft. A tiny photo with your address and phone number—that’s not a website, that’s a web page. You should let me build you a better one.”
A thirteen-year-old kid can build a website these days? Holy shit. “Umm … we’ll see.”
“Hey, you wanna go on a date?”
“Huh? With who?”
“With me.”
“Uh, Jupe, I’m flattered, but I’m a little old for you.”
He laughed. “My dad said the same thing—he said you’re too old for me and too young for him and told me not to get any ideas.”
“Well, he’s probably right.” Though it stung to know that Lon thought I was too young.
“Look,” he said, lowering his voice. “It’s not really a date. There’s this movie playing at the drive-in that I wanna see real bad. It’s only playing for two more nights. My friend Jack was supposed to come with me tonight, but his parents won’t take us. They say he’s not allowed to stay out after ten on a school night.”
“When I was your age, I couldn’t either.”
“Well, that’s dumb. I can stay up till midnight.”
“Impressive. Why can’t your dad take you?”
“He says he’s too busy.”
Amanda walked up to the bar and gave me a three-drink order for a booth.
“Who are you talking to?” Jupe asked.
“I’m working, remember. I’m talking to a waitress.”
“Oh, cool,” he said, unfazed. “Anyway, so I was thinking, you could come pick me up and we could go see the movie together in your rental. I asked my dad what kind of car you rented and—”
“I can’t tonight, Jupe. Working, remember?” God, the kid was hardheaded.
“What about tomorrow? Please. I’m begging! It’s the last night. I’ll die if I can’t see it.”
“Jeez, you’ll die? What movie is it?” I finished mixing one drink and started a tray for Amanda.
“Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
“The one from the sixties?”
He snorted derisively. “The sixties? Man, I thought you knew about classic movies—1954. It never gets screened anywhere around here. Please, Cady. Please, please, please—”
“I have to work a half-shift tomorrow, so I won’t get off work until eight-thirty.”
“It starts at nine-thirty. How long would it take you to get here?”
“Uh, thirty minutes. Maybe less now that I know the shortcut up your cliff.”
“I don’t know, Jupe …”
“Hey, you kinda owe me. My dad’s been locked up in his stupid library for the last two days doing research for you and ignoring me. Besides, he says I’m driving him nuts anyway. If we leave him alone, he’ll do your research faster.”
I laughed. “Hell’s bells, where did you learn to negotiate?”
“Will you do it? Huh?”
“All right,” I said, caving in. “I’ll pick you up at nine. Does your dad know?”
“No, but he won’t care. He likes you. Wait, hold—”
I finished mixing the drinks just in time for Amanda to return with more orders; as I lined up four new tiki mugs, muffled conversation on the other end of the line turned into muffled yelling.
“Arcadia,” Lon’s voice said from my phone.
“Who is this?” I teased.
“You can’t take my son on a date.”
“I didn’t ask him. He asked me.”
“He stole my cell and called without permission.”
“Sounds like a personal problem to me.” A low growling noise came out of the phone. “It’s just for a couple of hours. I’m not going to let him make moves on me, sheesh.”
“You better not. He’s still a virgin and I’d like to keep it that way.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you joking? I can never tell if you’re serious.”
“Mhmph.”
Okay, he was joking; the sad thing was that I was starting to be able to read his grunts better than his words.
“I’ll try to control myself,” I said. “Come on, it’s just babysitting. Don’t you trust me with your kid?”
“Says you, the person attacked by a Pareba demon a few days ago.”
Ugh. He had a point. What if something happened while Jupe was with me? Lon would never forgive me. I sure as hell wouldn’t if it were my kid. “You’re right, maybe I shouldn’t—”
“I know you’ve got your charm and have warded the rental car, I’m sure it’s fine. To be honest, it’s not you I don’t trust, it’s him. He once sneaked off from the drive-in.”
“Oh, really? Well, I’ve never had a date bail on me before.”
“I bet.”
“You bet what?” What the hell was that supposed to mean? I accidently overpoured the Mai Tai I was making and started cussing under my breath as I grabbed a bar towel.
“Look, he’s kind of a pain in the ass, so if you’re just telling him yes because he put you on the spot, don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ve got bigger boys waiting in line for dates on your nights off.”
I held the phone away from my ear and looked at it momentarily before speaking. Oh, too young for him, was I? “Lon Butler, are you trying to find out if I’m dating someone?”
Amanda leaned over the bar to grab napkins and gawked at me. “You’re talking to Lon Butler on the phone?” she whispered excitedly. I made a face at her and put my finger up to my mouth to get her to shut up.
“No, I was just saying—” Lon began. Low grunt, long sigh. “Don’t feel obligated to entertain Jupe.”
Wide-eyed, Amanda giddily puckered up her mouth before I pushed her away from the bar. Great. Now I was going to have to concoct some lie about why I was talking to him.
“Well, it’s not a big deal,” I told Lon. “I like Jupe and I’m happy to get him out of the house and give you some quiet time. Besides, if I had ‘bigger boys’ lined up right now … well, more interesting ones than the two losers who’ve asked me out tonight already—”
One of said losers, Tambuku’s favorite Earthbound healer, Bob, looked up from his drink with a wounded look. Oh, brother … “Sorry, Bob. You know I didn’t mean that,” I whispered before turning away to finish with Lon.
“Anyway, I probably wouldn’t be settling for movie-night with a teenage boy if I did.”
He paused, then replied, “It’s your funeral.”
“All right, well, I’ll pick him up at nine tomorrow. I take it you haven’t found anything today, research-wise?”
“No.”
I sighed. “Well, I gotta get back to work.”
“See you tomorrow,” he replied. “I’ll make sure he’s ready on time.”
“Sounds good, have a go—” But the line went dead before I could finish. “So rude,” I mumbled to myself. Maybe dating the younger Butler was preferable after all. He didn’t grunt.