GUN IN MY HAND

CHAPTER 47: MATERIAL WITNESS

'A chance encounter of circumstance

Baby he's a mantra, keeps your mind entranced

He could be the silence in this mayhem, but then again

He'll never love you like I can, can, can'

"A cherry milkshake?"

"No, two, to take away!" I couldn't help the tickles in my cheeks and maybe in all my body with the excitation and some remaining sparks from last night, though I wondered if it was that obvious when Nellie replied,

"You have a date with Blade?"

"How do you know?!" This time I sold myself out with my eyes as wide as a deer caught in headlights, but I had reasons to be shocked.

Nellie had never met Blade, and even if everyone was talking about us around, no one bothered with his name. He was the 'criminal' or 'murderer'.

Had Rachel gushed about my secrets?

"Pete may have told me about you two," the old woman sang out before disappearing behind the kitchen swinging door, and I just had time to catch the glint in her eyes and on her whole face actually. Was she...?

"Yes, she's been blushing and giggling since a few days already," Rachel confirmed what I'd seen as she appeared beside me with a tray full of dirty dishes in her hands. "Since an old bearded man is coming every day."

"Pete?!" I blinked my large eyes as my brain slowly connected the dots, yet the image it formed still appeared so improbable.

"Yes, that's his name." Rachel nodded, abandoning the tray on the counter as she turned curious eyes to me. "You know him?"

"Yes, it's Blade's uncle. I told him to come here because Nellie has the best milkshakes, but I didn't expect him to find something else to his taste!" I laughed lightly as the picture finally appeared in my mind.

Nellie and Pete, it was improbable, but so evident at the same time. They were some of the kindest people I knew, and they deserved so much happiness and love with everything they'd been through. Besides, there was no age for love.

"It looks like you're a real matchmaker!" Rachel giggled, her smile a little too wide for just a gossip about her boss.

"Speaking of matchmakers... This scarf is new?" I watched through a knowing sideways glance as she readjusted the piece of fabric like she usually did with the glasses on her nose. "It's really hot today though..."

"Okay... I might have a love bite," she whispered, the last word so quiet that I almost fell from my stool as I leaned closer to hear her over the faint Sunday late afternoon hubbub. "We shared a few kisses on the lips and in the neck, but nothing else." She accentuated with a firm gesture of her hands, making me smile down at my own fingers, where I'd taken off the purity ring as soon as I'd left my house.

"And he also asked me officially out!" she added excitedly with a grin and a blush, of course, a lot like Nellie seconds ago.

Though I knew I couldn't laugh at them when my own cheeks were starting to tingle.

"He's now my boyfriend and he–"

"Did I hear the word 'boyfriend'?" A head popped up between us, making us both jump, and this time, I had to grip the counter to not fall, while Rachel gasped, a hand over her chest.

"Please, Travis! We were–"

The real shock happened when she took in who was standing here, tall and strong, with a buzzcut in the same color as her golden ponytail, a familiar curious look in his darker eyes, and a shoulder swathe and sling holding his left arm... Her brother was back, safe and sound, at least, alive and wincing a little when Rachel hugged him tightly.