The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 by Paula Lester (good short books .TXT) 📕

but at the last minute, turned to Cynthia and said, “Oh, there’s Lydia. You’re friends with her, right? Would you mind introducing me?”

Cynthia shrugged. “Sure. But I thought you . . .”

In the blink of an eye, they were gone. Gloria had managed to wriggle them both away so that she could be alone with Silas. Wow. She’s good. For the thousandth time in recent days, Tessa wondered why Gloria didn’t have a boyfriend.

Silas settled into the chair across from Tessa. He slid his beer onto the table. “So, how was the first day of your conference?”

“Boring.” The word slipped out of its own volition. “I mean, super interesting and informative.” She winced and sipped her drink.

He chuckled. “I can’t imagine presentations about life insurance would be too much fun. What do you talk about? All I can imagine is someone droning on about amortization. Wait, is that a thing in life insurance or savings accounts?”

“I think it’s loans.” Tessa giggled. “But I could very well have attended a talk about amortization today and not know it. I mainly doodled in my notebook and drank enough coffee to watch my hands tremor.”

“Are you an artist?”

“I can draw a stick figure with the best of them. I just didn’t want my head to thud on the table and draw everyone’s attention.”

Silas grinned and looked around. “It must be nice to be around so many colleagues, though. That’s something I kind of miss with my job. Aside from the residents, it’s just me. It’s kind of hard to have inside jokes about work with yourself. You look like a loon laughing away at your own internal monologue.”

“I can see that. But at least you do have people around.”

“True. But they usually want me to fix something. I guess your customers are different. I can’t imagine. It seems like a rather grim business.”

“You have no idea.” Tessa couldn’t tell him that it was more than that. Her customers were on their last checkout. Ever. “How long have you been a landlord?”

Before he could answer, someone bumped into Tessa from behind. She craned her neck around to find Bubba looking sheepish. “Sorry. My first day using feet,” he quipped. “Tessa, right? Out of Mist River?”

“That’s me,” she said.

“I saw you in my shadows presentation. I hope it was helpful.”

“Yeah, it was great.”

Tessa hoped the brief compliment would shut Bubba up. But he seemed bent on continuing. Alcohol does have a way of doing that.

“I mean, April assigned the topics and presenters. It’s not really my strong suit. I kind of figure, by the time someone’s within a few minutes of dying, what’s the point of hiding, you know?” He took a sip of the light brown, iced drink in his hand—maybe a Long Island iced tea.

Loose lips sink ships. Tessa shot a quick look at Silas. His slightly narrowed eyes studied Bubba closely, letting her know he was trying to figure out what the guy was on about.

She tried to think fast. “Um. Yeah. Delivering a settlement to a beneficiary is both the best and worst part of our job, right?” She hoped her tone didn’t reveal the floundering feeling she felt inside.

Confusion flitted across Bubba’s face, almost mirroring Silas’s from a moment before. “Settlement,” he repeated.

“Yes. Being a life insurance agent is, like, long stretches of horrible boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, right?” She elbowed Bubba in the thigh and tipped her head a tiny bit toward Silas, hoping to get the message across to the other reaper.

Bubba’s gaze jerked toward Silas and understanding swept over his features. “Oh, yeah.” He shook his head. “Delivering the settlement. Best and worst part. Well, I’ll see you later. Enjoy the rest of the conference.”

In his hurry to get away, Bubba tripped over his own feet and crashed into another table, spilling his drink all over the table where Gloria, Cynthia, and Lydia were seated beside Lee Stuart.

Cynthia looked as uncomfortable as ever, especially with the stain now covering her blouse.

But the western district supervisor threw a few napkins over the mess, handing a couple to her. “Bubba,” he said jovially. “I believe this means you’re cut off.”

Tessa cringed. Poor Bubba. She felt a little responsible for that.

She returned her attention to Silas. “I guess some people started drinking earlier than others.”

“Yeah. Wow. That seemed like a pretty morbid presentation you had to attend.” A hint of confusion—no, it looked like actual suspicion—still floated behind his eyes.

“Well, like you said before, when you’re a life insurance agent, you basically think and talk about death and dying all day long. I guess it starts to become second nature. I think the more experienced agents tend to forget that not everyone lives hand-in-hand with death all the time.” She held her breath, hoping he bought her explanation.

Silas’s shoulders relaxed and he took a swig of beer. “I can see that. There are some professions where a dark sense of humor is probably essential to handling the work. Could you imagine being a grave digger?”

“No.” Tessa smiled, relieved that he seemed to have accepted her explanation.

“Or a medical examiner. Or, get this, a grim reaper?” He laughed, and Tessa feigned laughing alongside him. She made a mental note to suggest to someone a new presentation topic for next year’s conference: 100 Ways to Hide Your True Career.

Behind her, Tessa could hear a small group of reapers getting louder. One of them was telling a story about a funny reap she’d done. Tessa shot to her feet. This place was feeling awfully crowded. And it wasn’t the drink making her throat close up.

“Do you want to get out of here?” she asked loudly, attempting to drown out the reapers and their stories. “I do. I’ve been in this hotel all day.” There was no way she was going to be able to keep Silas from hearing something he shouldn’t in a bar full of reapers drinking and getting loud.

Silas threw down the last of his beer and