Page 34 of Fake Dark Vows
“They were new in. The assistant promised not to unpack the carton until later.”
“New in today.” Rose hands the rag-doll to Georgie and peers at the other shacks behind the big store. “We need something quirky. Something original.”
“This is quirky.” I stuff the globe back inside the box.
I don’t even know why I’m standing here arguing the point. I bought the globe; all we’re doing now is wasting time.
“No, Brandon,” Rose says gently, forcing me to look her in the eye and forget that we’re in a hurry. “This is tacky. There’s a difference.”
“It’s done now.”
“Not necessarily. Come with me.”
She follows the dusty trail between shacks, my niece bouncing along on her hip, and I walk close behind them, curiosity getting the better of me. She thinks that she can find something more original, something quirkier, and I’m going to sit back and watch her fail.
Rose doesn’t stop until she reaches the final shack with a window filled with crystals, authentic wands and books claiming to contain magical spells. “Everyone else will stop at the main store to save time,” she says.
“Everyone?” Because yep, the asshole in me has to question her thinking.
“Tell me you don’t think Damon will head straight for the biggest shack on the island, and we’ll turn around and do it your way.”
She has a point. “Fine. I’ll give you five minutes.”
She opens her mouth to speak and then changes her mind, heading inside instead. She greets the assistant, a middle-aged woman with dreadlocks, and black gems piercing her dimples, and wanders around the store slowly as if she’ll know what she’s looking for when she sees it.
I keep quiet. Georgie peers at me from over Rose’s shoulder, and I smile at her, which only serves to make her look the other way.
“Oh my God, what’s this?” Rose sets the child down and picks up a cylindrical object with slits around the sides and an intricate black pattern. “Can I watch it?” she asks the assistant.
“Go ahead.” The assistant smiles at Rose, and there’s nothing pushy in the gesture, nothing calculating. She isn’t expecting a sale, she’s smiling because that’s what people do around Rose, I’ve noticed. Even my father.
Rose spins the object, her eyes flickering as she watches the images inside through one of the slits. Her eyelashes are so long they cast a shadow across her cheek, and I’m still studying that shadow when she turns to me and says, “You have to see this.”
I move closer, and Rose holds the zoetrope in front of my face.
There’s a moving image of Betsy the shrimp inside, and my first instinct is to rib her for choosing something so tacky. Then the story begins to unfold, and I watch Betsy being chased by a chef. She screams, tries to hide, and finds a chef uniform complete with white hat, which she dons to escape being cooked.
I’m grinning when I turn back to Rose.
“Now that’s quirky,” she says.
I shake my head but take the zoetrope to the assistant anyway. “Can you wrap it up?”
Her gaze flits between me and Rose, and I wait for the ‘cute family’ comment to follow. Instead, she wraps the object neatly in brown paper and places it inside a paper bag, adding a yellow scented candle that I never asked for.
“Light it and tell it your greatest desire,” she says.
I glance behind me at Rose, and back again, and realize that she’s talking to me. “Yeah, I’m not sure I believe in that kind of stuff.”
The woman smiles, revealing a ruby inset into one of her top teeth. “You will.”
We head back to the boat with our purchases, and instead of urging Rose to walk faster, I find myself slowing down to match her pace. I’m not sure I get the whole tourist attraction thing, but there is something about the Florida Keys that demands visitors slow down and breathe.
We’re passing by the original shack, the first one we entered, as Damon and Jennifer come outside, holding a sombrero each.
Damon’s grin tells me all I need to know—he’s confident of victory.
“Missed a trick there, brother,” he says, eyeing up the paper bags in my hand. “Good luck finding a sombrero when you get to Sombrero Beach.”