Love in the Time of the Dead (20 page)

“Hmm,” she said thoughtfully, squinting suspiciously at the girl. “What do you want?”

Eloise’s face lit up with a crooked grin. “I wanted to know about one of the men you came in with.”

“Aw, really? You too? What
is
it about him? It’s the dark hair, right? His jokes aren’t really that funny, you know. He thinks he’s wittier than he really is.”

Eloise looked at her with such a profound look of confusion that she stopped talking.

“Not the dark haired one. The other one,” the girl clarified.

“Sean Daniels?”

“No, not him, though he is a handsome man too. No, the other one. The quiet one.”

“Guist?”

“His name is Guist?”

“Well, everybody calls him by his last name. His name is Aaron Guist.”

“Aaron,” Eloise whispered, like she was tasting the sound his name made on her tongue.

“I have to tell you, this is a first.”

“What is?”

“Guist, he just doesn’t really shack up with a lot of ladies when we go to colonies.”

“Good. Wait, does that means he doesn’t like girls?”

“No, no.” She shook her head vigorously. “No. He likes the ladies. He’s just shy when it comes to them.”

“Oh,” Eloise said through a slow smile. She looked embarrassed, and her cheeks turned pink enough to make her freckles stand out even more.

All right, so she would throw out two bones that day. “Look, if you come by our table at dinner I’ll introduce you.”

“But what would I say?”

“I don’t know. Just say some stuff about the importance of pruning or something.”

“No, not to you. I mean what do I say to Aaron?”

Laney glanced at her out of the corner of her eye to judge her seriousness, but the girl seemed genuinely lost in thought. She shrugged and waved to the guard at the colony gate as they passed through. “That I can’t help you with. I have zero game. If you want advice on how to swoop into the friend zone, or how to unattract men, or even how to become like a little sister to the object of your affection, I’m your girl.”

Eloise giggled. “I highly doubt any of that is true. You came into this colony with a harem of the hottest men in the universe, and they circle you like planets. I suspect you have more game than you think.”

She snorted and held in a retort about said men only wanting to be around her for her zombie-sniffing abilities. Let the girl think what she wanted.

Dinner wasn’t as eventful as Laney had anticipated. She was the first one there, so she filled a plate and picked a table near the area they sat in at breakfast that morning.

“Where is everybody else?” she asked Guist as he approached the table with a full tray of his own.

“Mitchell volunteered to do a night shift tonight. We have to do two a week. He’s back in the room catching some sleep before he has to report for duty again.” He sat down and held up a cloth sack that sagged at the bottom with the weight of its contents. “I’m bringing him dinner after I finish up here.”

She waited for more information, but he dug into his food instead.

“What about Sean?” she asked innocently. Too innocently because Guist looked up at her and squinted thoughtfully.

“I don’t know where Sean is. I haven’t seen him all day.” His gaze lingered on her as she took a drink of her water. “Laney, I’d be careful with that one.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Mitchell wouldn’t like it,” he said in a low voice.

She narrowly avoided sputtering her drink all down the front of his shirt. “And why would I give a fig what Mitchell would and wouldn’t like?”

He opened his mouth to answer, but apparently thought better of it and went back to spearing broccoli florets with his fork. The bewildering man had closed up. She would get nothing more from him until he was good and ready. Which could be the day after never.

A movement caught her eye. Eloise nervously approached their table and waved timidly from behind Guist’s silent figure.

Laney smiled and waved her over like she had just seen the girl in passing. “Hey, Eloise. You want to come sit by us?”

Guist glanced behind him.

“Uh, would that be okay with you?” Eloise asked him.

Laney had no guess as to what passed between her new friend and her teammate. They stared at each other for a loaded moment before he nodded his head slowly.

“S’okay with me,” he told her.

Eloise walked around the table and set her tray down beside Laney before taking a seat.

“Guist, this is Eloise,” she introduced them, pointing at them each in turn with a forkful of mashed potatoes. “She works at the gardens with me. Eloise, this is Guist.”

“Nice to meet you,” Eloise said shyly.

Guist smiled, a rare sight, and cleared his throat. “Likewise.”

Laney pursed her lips happily and looked from Guist to Eloise and back to Guist. “Well, I’m stuffed.” She lifted her tray and headed to a trashcan nearby.

“Where are you going?” Eloise squeaked, mortification evident in the tremor in her voice.

“Lots of stuff to do,” she lied. She cleared her tray and set it on a table beside the trash. Eloise looked partly frozen, and mostly like she wanted to flee. “Enjoy your dinner. See you tomorrow morning.” She waved at Guist who was looking at her like she had lost her mind. “Later, Guist.”

“Later,” he said suspiciously.

When she reached the cool crispness of the night, she rubbed the gooseflesh on her arms. What should she do first? Her jacket was in her room, but Mel’s house was only a ten minute trek up the mountain from the dining hall. If she went back for her coat it would take much longer. She had decided she wasn’t above begging for a better job from Mel. One that preferably involved deadly weaponry.

She could live without a jacket for half an hour, so she marched determinedly up the path that led to the leader’s cabin. The lights were on. Nick must have hooked a generator directly to the cabin, because while everyone else in this colony lived by lanterns and candlelight, Mel was afforded more luxury. Laney knocked. Jubilant voices could be heard from the other side of the door, and Mel was laughing as she opened it to find her on the other side.

“Laney,” she said in surprise. “What’s happened? Are you all right?”

Sean and Adrianna were putting their coats on in the entryway. So that’s where they’d been at dinnertime. She dragged her eyes back to Mel. “Yes, I’m fine. I just wondered if I could talk to you about something.”

“Of course,” Mel answered, sounding concerned. “Sean and Adrianna were just leaving. We can talk in my office.”

Laney pursed her lips and nodded. “Fine. Yes, that sounds good.”

“Hey, Laney. What are you doing here?” Sean asked as he noticed her coming through the door.

She opened her mouth to respond, but Adrianna shrieked and ran to hug her legs, eliciting a surprised laugh from her instead.

Sean chuckled and turned to the woman holding the door. “Mel, dinner was delicious.”

“You are welcome anytime, Sean.”

Gag. Laney zipped up Adrianna’s jacket and stepped out of their way.

Sean cocked his head to the side and looked at her curiously. He squeezed her bare arm as he passed. “Why aren’t you wearing a jacket? You’re going to get sick, Laney. It’s really important that you take care of yourself.”

She warmed despite the dropping temperature. He cared. “Come on. If I can survive Dead bites, I’m pretty sure a little breeze isn’t going to do me in.”

They said their goodbyes, and Mel led Laney into her office. “How do you like your cabin?” Mel asked.

“It’s fine. Perfect, really.”

“And the mess hall? Were you able to find it all right?”

“Yes, yes. Mel, why didn’t you tell me?”

Mel sat behind a huge mahogany desk and motioned to a plush looking chair on the other side. Laney sat and waited.

“You’ll have to be more specific,” the woman said.

“Adam?”

“Ahhh. Well, I wanted to, but I didn’t know how.”

“Why didn’t anyone send word that he was here? He still looks just like the drawing and his name was on it.”

Mel sighed. “Look, Laney. Adam just came to this colony a few weeks ago. His home base is in Fairplay. He and his wife came up to have Dr. Mackey deliver their baby. He is the best doctor around and a lot of pregnant women want him to deliver them. They’ll be leaving again after the baby is born to go back to their colony.”

“You still could have sent word that he was alive.”

“He requested I didn’t, and my colony members’ privacy is their right. He asked me not to say anything the first time he saw the board. I didn’t have a problem with it because, honestly, I didn’t assume you were even still alive. The Laney Landry I’d heard about was a fighter. You guys tend to have short expiration dates.”

Laney bit her lip calculatingly. “You could make it up to me, you know.”

“I can’t give you guard duty.”

“Why not? I’ve been fighting for three years and my nose could be a huge asset to your colony. I can smell Deads from a distance. I could be the colony’s own personal Dead warning system. There is no reason for me to be working in the gardens.”

“There is, actually.”

Laney waited, eyebrows arched.

“Look, I promised a friend I wouldn’t put you on guard duty.”

“Sean?”

Mel nodded. “And part of me agrees with him. You’re important, Laney. We could potentially get a vaccine from you in time and it is too big a risk to put you in life or death situations.”

She was baffled. Did Sean care for her, or for what she could provide? The difference mattered. “Look, Mel. I will wither if I have to stay on garden duty. It isn’t about not wanting to work hard at my job. It’s about not finding any joy or fulfillment in it. I’ve been a successful fighter for three years and now I’m shoveling fertilizer all day. Can you please just think about another job placement for me?”

Mel tapped a pen on the table in quick rhythm. “Give gardens until the end of the week. If you still feel as strongly, I’ll try to come up with a new placement. It won’t be what you want though, Laney. It’ll still be a safe job with no action.”

She clenched her teeth against more begging. What was the point in pouting? Mel had made up her mind, and she wouldn’t be moved.

Laney left for her own cabin with a quiet goodbye and a heavy heart. Things were not turning out the way she had dared to hope.

Laney remembered to bring her canteen and sack lunch to the gardens the next day. After a gloriously warm shower, she ate breakfast with Finn and Guist and, surprisingly, Eloise, who had been invited by Guist himself. Mitchell was still nowhere to be found. Probably working the last of his night shift or crashed out asleep in his room. Or with Vanessa. She was putting a substantial effort into blocking that possibility from her mind, though. The most surprising thing was that she never even looked for Adam or his wife when they gathered for meals. Surely it was a good sign that she was over him, or at least well on her way.

She and Eloise said goodbye to the boys and headed off to the gardens in companionable conversation. When they approached the exit gates to the colony, she assumed the guards would be the same as the day before. She was stunned to find a much more familiar face instead. Mitchell looked exhausted, and his rifle hung limply at his side as he leaned against the gate. He talked in a low, deep voice to the other guard on duty.