This past week felt like the never-ending week from hell. My plan was to cut out of work early today since it’s Friday, but nope. Didn’t happen. The homeowners caught me as I was leaving three hours ago and wanted to go over more details and minor add-ons. At least they’re happy with the job so far. I think I would’ve jumped off the roof if they weren’t.

As soon as I get in my truck, I pour some of my water onto a paper towel and wipe my face, neck, arms, and hands. The heat and humidity lately have been brutal, the dust sticking to me like a gritty second skin. All I want to do is get home, take a shower, and relax on the couch with Cassie and a good movie.

About three miles into town, I see a girl walking on the sidewalk, a backpack with a glittery skull printed on it dangling from her thin shoulders. Realizing its Skylar, I hesitate, debating if I should offer her a ride again. It’s hot as balls out, but it’s not raining, and it’s not dark out yet.

A gnawing deep in my gut reminds me it wasn’t dark or raining when my little sister disappeared.

Sighing, I pull my truck over a few feet ahead of her and open the passenger side window.

She approaches the window with a grin on her face. “You stalking me, Lucky?” she teases.

“You still don’t have your wheels back?”

“Do you think I’d be walking in this hellish heat if I did?”

I reach across the car and open the door for her. “Hop in, Sparkles. I’ll give ya a ride.”

“Maybe you should work for Uber,” she says after she climbs in. This time she puts her stuff on the floor between her feet, not between us.

Glancing in my mirror, I pull back out into traffic. “You’re the only one I’ve been giving rides to. I might just end up being your personal chauffeur.”

Laughing, she says, “I see no problem with that.”

“Any word on the car?”

“You were right. It was the fuel pump. He’s giving it a tune up, too, since it’s there. I’m picking it up Monday when my friend can drive me over.”

I nod. “Good deal. You going home now or someplace else?”

“Home, please.”

“Mind if I go through the drive-through on the way? I’m starving.”

“Not at all.”

“It’s almost seven. Where are you coming from?”

“I work part time at Belongings Boutique.”

“Rebecca’s store?”

She turns in her seat to face me. “You know her?”

“Sorta. We went to school together.” We knew each other, but we weren’t friends. She was part of the cool crowd, and I was part of the cooler crowd.

“I didn’t know you went to my school back when you were young.”

The way she says when you were young makes me feel old. I’m thirty-four, not seventy.

I nod. “It’s a small town. I’ve lived here my entire life.”

“Me too.”

I pull into the lot of the burger place and merge into the drive-through line. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

She shakes her head. “No, just me. I have a cat, though. How ’bout you?”

“A sister.” I can’t bring myself to say have a sister or had a sister. “And a dog.”

“What kind of dog?”

“A little brown-and-white fuzzy thing. A shit zoo, I think.”

She laughs. “It’s Shih tzu.”

“Guzunheidt.”

She smiles.

I pull up to the glowing menu and recite my usual into the speaker before turning to Skylar. “Do you want something? My treat.”

Blinking, she stares past me at the menu. “Um. Just a bottle of water. And a hamburger with no hamburger or stuff on it.”

“Very funny,” I say, shaking my head. I order her water, then move up to the next window to pay before pulling into a parking spot.

“I don’t like to eat while I’m driving,” I explain as I take my food out and hand her water to her.

“Thanks,” she says quietly, looking down at the bottle in her lap.

Taking a bite of my burger, I hold my cup of seasoned waffle fries out to her. “Want some?”

She shakes her head, still not looking up.

“What’s wrong?” Nobody ever turns down waffle fries.

“Nothing.”

“Spill it, Sparkles.”

She takes a deep breath. “You didn’t get my bun.”

I swallow my food and stare at her. “What? I thought you were kidding. You seriously wanted just a plain hamburger bun? With nothing else?” Why?

“Yeah.”

She’s dead serious.

“Stay put,” I say, putting my burger and its wrapper on the console.

She starts to say something, but I don’t hear her because I’ve already jumped out of the truck and shut the door behind me. If she wants a damn hamburger bun, I’m getting her one. I trudge inside the restaurant, stand in line for ten minutes, and ignore the crazy look I get from the kid behind the counter when I order a plain hamburger roll with no burger, no cheese—nothing.

“I don’t even know how to charge for this, so just take it,” he says, handing me the bag.

I throw a dollar into the tip jar. “Thanks.”

“Jude, oh my God, you didn’t have to do that,” Skylar says when I get back in the truck. “I feel bad…”

Handing her the bag, I say, “Don’t. I offered to get you something to eat, and I fucked it up. Now I made it right.”

Her face lights up with a shy smile that could probably stop traffic. “Thank you. For a badass-looking dude, you’re actually pretty nice.”

I almost choke on my fries. “You think I look badass?”

“A little, yeah. You’re very colorful.”

A deep laugh rumbles out of me. “Annnnd that’s badass how, exactly?”

“Okay, that’s a bad description. It’s just all the ink.” Her eyes scan over my arm and then back up to my face. “The muscles. The hair.”

At least she’s not petting me, like people do. They always want to touch my tats and my hair, and it creeps me the hell out.

“Why do you just want to eat bread? They have salads, chicken, fruit cups, milkshakes. I hope you didn’t get that to be cheap. I can afford to get you a real meal.”

Her shoulder lifts slightly. “This is just what I want.”

“Okay… As long as you’re happy.”

Hey, who am I to judge? I used to mash up peanut butter and jelly in a bowl and eat it with a spoon—sans bread.

“I got a raise today,” she blurts out as she picks the sesame seeds off her bun and puts them in the paper bag. “I’m kinda excited.”

“Congrats. What do you do there?”

“Usually I work the register, rotate the displays, that sort of thing. But now, Rebecca wants me to manage the store’s social media. She’s buying me a new iPhone to take pictures of the products and post online.”

Wow. Rebecca’s little boutique must be doing well to be handing out brand-new iPhones to a part-time, teen employee. “That sounds like a helluva lot more fun than working a register.”

“Right?” she practically squeals, excitement bursting into a big, dazzling smile. “I’m starting this weekend so I can pay for my car.”

It’s cute to see her so excited about her job. I used to sell dope back in high school to pay for stuff, but I’m not going to tell her that, so I just nod. That past should stay exactly where it is.

Stopping to eat and driving Skylar across town gets me home way later than I planned, and Cassie goes into a fit as soon as I walk through the front door. I’m sure she’s been staring at the door for the past three hours, pacing the house, getting herself all worked up.

“Calm down, girl,” I say as she runs circles around my feet, her furry tail wiggling. Bending down on my knee, I pet her head, and she does her little raspy bark and paw stomp, telling me off like she does.

Someone has to keep me in line. Might as well be a cute dog.

After I walk her in the yard, I head straight upstairs, pulling my shirt off as I go, with the dog on my heels.

“We’ll watch a movie after I shower,” I tell her, and she tilts her head at me in anticipation, because she knows the word movie means sit on the couch. That probably says an embarrassing amount about my life and social status.

I stand in the shower, breathing in the steam, until the hot water turns cold. My mind drifts back to dropping Skylar off at that creepy, dark house. As I was pulling away from her driveway, I glanced in my rearview mirror and caught her climbing through a window.

Can’t help but wonder what that’s all about.

My sister used to sneak in and out of windows, too. To meet boys. To party. Who knows what else?

When she went missing, we put posters up in a hundred-mile radius. I didn’t work for a month—searching nonstop for her. Sixteen-year-old girls don’t go missing in this small town. There was even a search party with special sniffing dogs and a helicopter. Two weeks later I received a text in the middle of the night:

I never heard from her again, and her cell number was deactivated shortly after. It’s been ten years, and there were never any leads or sightings. The case went cold. The cops basically wrote her off as a runaway, especially after I showed them the messages. I’ve never known if I should believe it was her who sent those texts. That last line I have to go bugged me. We were close, and I can’t believe that’d be the last thing she’d say to me. She’d either say something funny or say love ya. Was she being forced to go? Did someone kidnap her and send it from her phone to throw us off? She could be dead. Or sold to some psycho. My blood chills just thinking about it. Or, maybe she really did run away and is out there in the world living her version of her best life.

I hope she is.

Later, when I’m stretched out on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and the dog curled up on my feet, my phone pings with a message:

A photo comes through of her and a furry, gray cat sitting on the floor. Her hair is up in a huge, messy bun.

I snap a quick pic of me and Cassie and send it back.

Earlier I gave her my cell number in case she needed a ride to pick up her car. I wasn’t expecting her to start sending me random messages. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have given my number to her. I don’t want to become a personal taxi driver or get crazy messages riddled with emojis night and day.

But I can’t deny it’s kinda nice to get a message from someone who isn’t asking for something or bitching about something, and who was just thinking about me and wanted to say hi.

Nail, meet coffin.