Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(70)

He’d pulled her back and gotten close, whispering in her ear, “Easy, Killer. This is the game.

Everything’s priced with that in mind. I’m gouging the ones who don’t play.”

But she didn’t care. It pissed her off. So instead, Isaac suggested that she hand the hagglers off to him.

She did so, gladly. She still wanted to punch them, but she forbore.

He was different here—still Isaac, but more relaxed. Much more. It really hit home for Lilli how much responsibility he carried in Signal Bend. Here, his cares moved back a little and gave him room to stretch out. He chatted with the people browsing his booth, and flirted with the old ladies oohing and aahing over the knickknacks he made. Boy, did they flirt back.

There were lots of groups of older people traversing the park. Lilli didn’t know if they came in buses or whether this was just a general draw for the older set, but some of the women, in colorful, coordinated slacks and blouses and big sunhats, literally, actively flirted with Isaac, taking every opportunity to put their hands on him—squeezing his biceps, patting his pecs. One teensy, stooped woman in a purple pantsuit and a red hat, who must have been at least 85, actually rubbed his belly and exclaimed, “Oh, Maeve—it’s a twelve pack!” At which point, her similarly clad friends tittered and slapped at each other like high school sophomores.

Isaac took it all in stride, flirting right back, making the most of that sexy, lopsided smile, even lifting the red hat lady’s hand from his belly and kissing it. When she left, clutching several pieces of Isaac’s work, she pressed her new loot to her concave chest and grabbed his ass in her bony hand.

That shocked him. He even blushed. And Lilli about wet herself laughing.

He didn’t wear his kutte here, but he was still a huge, brawny guy with long hair and a full beard. Only the bottom half of the ink on his upper arms showed under the sleeves of his t-shirt, but he did not look like someone with whom to f*ck. Normally, people who didn’t know him—and quite a few who did— looked on him with fear and respect. Not here, though. Here, he smiled almost constantly, and his smile was a thing of wonder. It made Lilli’s heart swell to see it. His aura was warm and approachable, and people approached him.

She really liked his friends, too, the other artists and vendors. They had a true community together.

They were a lot like Isaac, the way he was here. They came as they were, without artifice or fa?ade. Lilli’s kind of people. She had very little patience for most people, who seemed consumed by shit that didn’t matter, and who spent a great deal of energy trying to pretend they were different from their true selves.

Lilli liked people who cut the crap. She’d learned that she could find those people on the edges. They were those who lived close to the bone, their lives, for one reason or another, not giving them room for pettiness and triviality. Soldiers. Outlaws. Artisans. Wanderers.

She’d spent some time talking to several people here, especially Duncan and Mindy, who had the booth next to Isaac’s, and with whom Isaac seemed especially close. Duncan did beautiful leatherwork. Like Isaac, he did art pieces and also more accessible, and cheaper, craft things, like leather-bound journals, for which Mindy made the paper. She, too, did both art and craft. Lilli was sorely tempted to buy a sensational art piece that at first glance looked like an elaborate quilt. It was lovely at that first glance, but when Lilli examined it more closely and understood the intricacies of the work, done all in handmade paper and natural dyes, she was nearly brought to tears. But she was not in a position to be collecting possessions. She needed to be able to shove everything she owned into her military-issue duffels and take off, on very short notice.

The show wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows, though. Lilli was surprised to learn that Isaac had himself a girl here. The violent jolt of jealousy that charged up her spine when she saw said girl—well, woman, more like; older than Isaac, and almost a generation older than Lilli—surprised her even more. She didn’t think she’d ever been jealous before, but seeing some flouncy blonde with her arms around Isaac’s neck—yep; that did it.

Though the previous night at the bonfire was a haze of beer and weed, parts of her memory had cleared throughout the day. At first, she remembered being cozy with Isaac by the fire, then there was a big blank space. She vaguely remembered being in the lake. But as the day advanced, she’d feel a piece of memory fall into place here and there. She remembered getting bored when she and Isaac had become encircled by artists cackling like washerwomen over what the f*ck ever, and she’d headed to the bathroom to pee and then maybe wander around a bit.

When another piece of the puzzle fell into place, it was skinny dipping. Well, that was totally like her.

Dropping trou in public while wasted. There was probably a plaque in her honor commemorating it hanging somewhere at her college. It’s why she never drank with her unit. When she was drunk, she followed whatever impulse came on her. Isaac had told her she’d almost drowned, though, and she couldn’t remember why she was out there without him. Probably just because she came across a lake.

But then, toward the late afternoon, when she was bringing a late lunch back from one of the food vendors, she passed the booth of Miss Lucinda Old News, and they made eye contact. Her fancy blonde hair was pushed back with a pair of sunglasses. She had a nasty black eye. Lilli had a sore right hand, which she’d figured was a consequence of banging it against something last night. Apparently, that something had been Miss Lucinda’s left eye.