Free C's Comeuppance: A Bone Cold--Alive novel by Kay Layton Sisk

She couldn’t go back to the office looking like this. She couldn’t go home either. And thank the good Lord no one had traveled down this county road and found her in her current condition. C could have quickly become the most wanted man in the county and it wouldn’t have been for his musical ability.
    She dug behind the seat for the box of tissues and ripped out several. Wiping her face and blowing her nose also served to clear her head. There was some place she could go. Some place no one would find her and where she could sit and ‘get her head on straight’, as her father had told her many times before.
    Jemma put the SUV in gear and headed for Norm’s.
     
    ***
     
    The mile-long trek back to the Quik-Lee served to clear Eddie C’s head. He went through Jemma’s list of his faults and straightened each of them out in turn. Like she should judge!
    Rude: Yeah, like she couldn’t be rude! Talk about a class A bitch!
    Selfish: He deserved to be selfish! He’d worked hard for everything he had, and by God, it was his right and privilege!
    Egomaniacal: He was good at what he did, maybe not as high-tone artsy-fartsy as T was becoming, but he could drip music too. If he didn’t showcase his ability, who would?
    Belligerent: Didn’t get anywhere in this ol’ world being nice! Miss Jemma Lovelace was a case in point. Just where had she gotten?
    Self-centered: Nobody else loved C like C did. The reason seemed to elude him.
    Vulgar beyond description: Came with the territory. It was his image. It was Eddie C.
    Common: Like she had room to talk!
    Snobby: That took the cake! Snobby, his ass! He could talk to anybody any day about anything. Sign autographs, eat at that greasy spoon T married into, take a shower at that no-tell motel Lyla recommended… Snobby? She could just get off her high horse and see what all he did! Bet she wouldn’t take a shower at the Blue Dream Inn. Probably never even been invited to spend an hour there!
    As he stepped over Shep, he took note that Tib’s official vehicle was nowhere to be seen. That was all he’d needed: to have the pseudo-law wonder what in hell he’d done with sweet ass-biting frigid-as-hell Jemma!
    “Where’s T?” he demanded as he stood in front of the register. Lyla was sitting on the stool casually perusing a decorating magazine. There were two stacks of them beside the register and a book of wallpaper lay open on the counter.
    “Well,” she scanned the front parking lot through the plate glass window, “I suppose I could ask, where’s Jemma? Have car trouble? She not have her phone with her? And, of course, you don’t leave home without yours.” She smiled sweetly and waited for his answer.
    C laid the piccolo in the open pages of the wallpaper book and wiped his palms down his jeans. “Can I get a glass of water?”
    “Certainly.” Her words were measured. “Where’s Jemma?”
“Where’s T?” He saluted her with the glass and turned to fill it from the tank behind the counter.
    “Sam went home to get the staff paper we’ve been marking on since I have to stay here till Murph shows up at four. We thought we’d work out the problems on the counter keyboard.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Satisfied? Where’s Jemma?”
    “I don’t know where she is now.” He looked around the convenience store, stared at the milk cartons in the cooler, finally turned to her, sipped the water.
    “Where was she when you left her?”
    “Sitting in her car about a mile from here going toward Norm’s.”
    “And you left her sitting there because—”
    “She threw me out.” He sat down on the end stool. “Now you happy with your ill-gotten knowledge?”
    “I don’t suppose I get to know why she ditched your rear from her car.”
    “No.” He leaned on his elbows, blew into his steepled hands. “When will T be back?”
    “Any minute now. Was she all right when you left her?”
“She was in one piece.”
    “And she was going to Norm’s?”
    “How