St. Nacho's 4: The Book of Daniel Read Online Free Page B

couldn’t remember why I’d been sleeping during the day in the first place, and then I remembered lying down to close my eyes after the collision at the gym. What a waste of the fat part of the day. It was unavoidable, especially on physical-therapy days. I would travel home half-sick and exhausted. Ready to settle onto the couch and read the paper for a few minutes, only to wake up hours later. The disorientation got to me at first, but I’d grown used to it.
    Three o’clock in the afternoon is just about the best time of day to have a word with Jake, so I headed over to his fledgling bakery, Café Bêtise. When I got there it was jumping, even though he and his business partner, Mary Catherine, had only opened the shop a couple of months before. I was gratified—but not very surprised—to see my faith in them was shared by the community. It stood to reason though; my brother’s an awesome pastry chef.
    My brother’s pal Muse waited tables—and held court—while other employees took orders at the counter. At this time of day Bêtise would be besieged by the hordes of hipster kids who liked to study there. I walked in, and there Muse stood, all five feet nothing of her, garbed as a traditional garçon de café —black trousers and vest, crisp white shirt, with a white apron wrapped twice around her tiny waist. I knew exactly why the boys and about half the girls hung out at Bêtise. I had a kind of a crush on her myself.
    “Is my brother here?” This week, her hair was black again, but I’d known her to wear it purple or blue. It fell from either side of straight severe bangs, sleek as an otter, over sharply chiseled cheekbones and curved under her jaw where it cupped her chin.
    “Who wants to know?” Muse prickled with piercings and attitude. At nineteen, she’d somehow become one of my brother’s best friends. She was competent, clever. Putting herself through school. I admired her a lot, but she scared me too. She had a frank, piercing gaze that saw uncomfortably beyond the obvious.
    “What did I do now?”
    Muse shot me a glare to let me know she might have heard about how I’d responded to Jake’s announcement the night before. “Way to support your brother, dude.”
    “Is this about them announcing their engagement? I was surprised, is all. I’m happy for them. I just… That’s something I never expected.”
    Jake spoke from behind me. “So naturally, you handled it like everything unexpected. Glue some money over it and hope it holds.”
    I hadn’t realized that he was beneath the counter, restocking the refrigerated cases. “I said I was sorry. I came to apologize some more. If you like, I’ll grovel. The sooner we get this done, the quicker you can tell me what you need from me, and I’ll get right on it.”
    “We have more fruit tarts in the back, Muse.” He rose, holding an empty sheet pan covered with sticky parchment paper. “What I need is for my brother to be happy for me.”
    “Okay, sure. But I’m in the middle of a divorce. Our parents are divorced. Everyone I know has been married and blown it, and frankly that’s what my first thought was. Oh, no . Here we go again.”
    He blinked at me. “That’s honest, at least.”
    “I don’t want to be honest. I want to say what you need to hear. But I don’t know what it is. You guys might make it. People do. No one I know but—”
    “Okay, now it’s time for you to stop talking,” said Muse
    “All right.” I almost raked my bad hand through my hair. More than once I’d forgotten and been sorry. “Maybe we could go for a walk and talk, all right? I know I’m not saying the right thing. I don’t know if I’m even capable of that. But I’ve got your back, you know that, right?”
    “I know.” He put the tray down and started to unbutton his chef’s coat. “I’ll go change, and then you can drive me over to the high school.”
    “What’s there?”
    “I’ve been unofficially helping out the soccer team, and