The Broken Lake by Shelena Shorts Page B

dead cricket on the stack of books she was putting away. Dawn found him amusing. He was like a big brother who didn’t know it all. Sometimes he got on her nerves, but the two of them couldn’t go five minutes without cracking up about something.
    I always ended up being the mature one. Maybe I just wasn’t the horsing-around type, or it could have been that my history made me more serious. Either way, the bookstore was becoming a bit of a downer. All I thought about was Wes, all day, every day. Was I obsessed with him? Probably. Was that wrong? I don’t think so.
    If he wasn’t meant to be the center of my world, then why did I keep coming back to be with him? No, obsessed was not a bad thing in my mind. It was simply the truth. He was my past, my present, and my future, and other than the safety of my mom and friends, nothing else mattered, including an annoying new attention sponge named Chase, who was cramping my style.
    I had to separate the bookstore from my personal life, because if I didn’t, I found myself griping about it the entire ride home with Wes. So I learned to block out the annoyances of work as soon as I got into his car. Wes wasn’t even in the same league as a regular teen or college boy, and he made it a point not to even step onto the playing field. That was until Chase pressed his buttons.
    Wes dropped me off one day at work, as usual, and Chase was outside smoking a cigarette. We pulled right up to the front, and I leaned over to give him a good-bye kiss.
    “I miss you already,” I complained.
    He smiled softly.
    I kissed him again and turned to get out when I noticed Chase staring intently through the windshield.
Peeping Tom
. Then I realized this was something different because, when caught, peeping Toms look away quickly. Chase was still staring—but not at me.
    I followed his gaze to Wes, who was staring back.
    “See you later,” I muttered, dreading going in, wondering who called in sick this time.
    Without taking his eyes off of Chase, he said, “Call me.”
    “Will do,” I said, shutting the door.
    I walked past Chase, wondering what his problem was. He took one long drag on his cigarette without looking away from Wes. Once inside, I turned back to see Wes backing out of the space, certain that Chase was still watching him. Dawn was there, which meant Danny was the one MIA.
    “Where
is
Danny?”
    “Where
is
Danny?” she repeated. “Since when are you Danny’s keeper?”
    “Since it means I have to work with
him
.” I tilted my head toward the door.
    She laughed, following me to the back room. “He’s not that bad.”
    “Yeah, right.” I checked to make sure he wasn’t coming. “He gives me the creeps.”
    “Why? He’s just a goofball.”
    “Yeah, with you. With me, I don’t know. He’s always looking at me like he’s trying to figure something out. Not to mention he just spied on me and Wes kissing in the car.” Maybe I was being overly sensitive. But still. “I just miss Ms. Mary.”
    “Yeah, me too. But, you have to admit, he brings some flavor to the store. It was getting way boring for me before.”
    She may have had a point, but I kind of like boring. There’s nothing wrong with peace.
    I relished the thought and put my purse away.
    As if on cue, Chase interrupted. “Is one of you going to work the register, or what? A lady wants to check out, and I can’t count, so it’s one of you two.”
    Dawn laughed, as always, and that time I couldn’t help but join her. Even though it was probably true, that was not why he wasn’t able to check people out. Mr. Healey never trained him on the register. He only used him for stocking and inventory-type stuff.
    Actually, the more I thought about it, Mr. Healey probably didn’t trust him at the register. How did he get the job anyway? Oh, right. Danny.
    I volunteered for the register and was reminded of his filthy habit when the fresh scent of cigarette smoke wafted off his shirt as I passed him in the doorway.