Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [50]
“I’d really like to help you out, but I picked up the slack while you were off wooing Megan in Vegas. I figure this is payback time.”
“Come on, Delgado. I’ll order Chinese from your favorite place.”
“I have a husband at home waiting for me. He already ordered Chinese from my favorite place. But nice try.”
Logan sighed.
“And good luck with Megan,” Ria added with a grin. “It sounds like you’re gonna need it. Or you could be smart and stay faraway from damsels in distress like her.”
Megan was ready to return to work Tuesday morning. It was downright cold, in the low 40s, as she stepped outside, but then this was Chicago in November, not Las Vegas. A few yellow leaves stubbornly clung to the trees lining her street. They matched the yellow sweater she wore along with brown pants and a faux sheepskin coat. Her Ugg boots kept her feet warm during her commute to work at the North Shore branch of the Chicago Public Library.
In really bad weather, she took the bus. But since the CTA had raised fares yet again, she walked whenever she could. She didn’t have a gym membership and didn’t need one with the eight-block hike.
She stopped midway though her walk to drop a few dollar bills in the open guitar case of a street musician, a regular on her route. Nodding his appreciation, he kept playing despite the cold weather. He’d once told her that he grew up in Anchorage so Chicago’s weather didn’t faze him.
A gust of wind threatened to lift her cloche off her head so she tugged it down even farther. Nothing like fresh air in the Windy City to really wake you up. Most of her fellow commuters making their way to work on foot had their iPods playing, as did she, although she’d paused it when approaching the street musician even if he didn’t know she had done so. It seemed the polite thing to do. She resumed play as she crossed the street and moved on.
Instead of listening to some of her favorite tunes, she was playing a podcast from the American Library Association conference that had taken place way back in July. So she was a little behind schedule. She’d been busy helping her cousin plan her wedding.
Megan had saved some of the photos that Faith had e-mailed from New Zealand. She and Caine looked divinely happy.
“How was the wedding?” Tori Holt asked the second Megan stepped foot in the library staff room. Tori was part Southern belle and mostly punk rocker, an unusual combination that made her one of Megan’s favorite friends at work. Tori’s short hair was dyed neon pink, and not only were her ears pierced multiple times, but so was her nose. Her musical tastes ran from Muse to Mozart and her literary faves included Shakespeare and too many graphic novels for her to choose a favorite. Born and raised in Alabama, she’d gone up north for college and stayed.
Megan removed her hat and hung up her coat before answering Tori’s question. “The wedding was fine.”
“Uh-oh. Something in your voice makes me think there was trouble during the trip. Did you lose money at the slot machines or something?”
“Or something.”
“My cousin lost over five hundred dollars gambling in Vegas.”
Megan had lost more than that. She couldn’t put a price tag on losing the trust she’d had in her father because of his lie. No amount of money could replace that. She planned on speaking with her father after work today . . . unless she chickened out, which was a definite possibility.
“I’ll bet your cat missed you.” Tori was a big animal lover who frequently volunteered at the Anti-Cruelty Society.
“I was only gone four days, but Smudge acted like it was four weeks.”
“I remember when you first got her from the shelter. A skinny little black kitten. Black kittens and cats are often the last ones adopted, but you went right for her. Remember how you had us trying to come up with a name for her?”
Megan nodded and smiled at the memory. “You came up with some innovative ones.”
“Some of my faves were Elsie—or LC for Library of