Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

Somebody was saying something indecipherable, and it was much too loud. I groaned and tried to put a hand to my head, but the effort made my stomach heave.

“Cleanup in frozen foods,” the muffled voice shouted again. It sounded slightly hysterical.

“Cleanup. That would be you,” said a different voice. A calmer voice.

I managed to force open one eye. It was teary from the effort.

“Bartholomew? Are you back with me?” Bland-haired Reed Taylor was kneeling over me, peering at me with his fantastic eyes.

I groaned and shut my eyes again. Suddenly, I shot up into a sitting position. It made my head spin. “Lydia!”

Reed Taylor put his arms around me. “Calm down. She’s okay, just sitting right there in the cart. Can you see her?”

Lydia peered down from her seat and smiled at me. “Mama,” she exclaimed.

Reed Taylor’s arms loosened around me. He stood up and started to pull me off of the floor.

“She’s my niece,” I said a bit too quickly.

“What’s going on around here?” A red-faced, beefy man came waddling furiously up the aisle. He eyed Reed Taylor heaving me off of the floor. It was obvious this paranoid Chef Boyardee suspected shenanigans. Golly.

“Bartholomew here has a little sugar problem. If she doesn’t eat, her blood sugar goes all wacky, and she passes out. Isn’t that true, dear?”

I rolled my eyes. “Please, honey. How many times do I have to ask you to drop the formality and call me Bart? I was named after my father,” I confided to the man. He looked appalled.

“That’s a terrible name for a woman!” he sputtered.

“I see your point . . . ” I leaned in to read his nametag, “Shannon.” Shannon? “But Mother was a sentimental old thing.”

Shannon Boyardee continued glaring at us. “But the yelling and screaming. You can’t tell me that’s low blood sugar.”

Reed Taylor hung his head. “Nah, that would be me. I just can’t resist when Bart here gets all swoony. It’s every romantic fantasy I’ve ever had come to life. I can’t seem to help myself.” He looked properly shamed. I snorted in laughter and tried to cover it up with a cough.

“Well, thanks so much for your concern, Shannon, but I really ought to be going now. Obviously I need something to eat, and then everything will be just fine.” If the extra hostile demons managed to keep from flinging their soul-destroying selves at me, that is. A girl can always hope.

I pushed the empty cart out of the store with as much dignity as I could muster. Which wasn’t much because the wheel kept sticking and I had to throw my whole body weight against it in order to make it move. Every eye in the store was upon me.

“See ya, guys,” Reed Taylor said, waving at everybody. “I’ll try to keep my hands off of her until we get home, but I can’t make any promises.”

“Blood sugar?” I growled at him as we walked to my car. Well, he walked. I was trying to do an angry, stalk-like thing, but the cart was ruining it for me. Finally, I snatched Lydia out of it and did a much more satisfying stalk that way. Go, me.

“Well, what else was I going to say? ‘Bartholomew here had a psychotic breakdown? Help, run away, save yourselves and your children?’ You should be thanking me.”

I turned to face him. “My name is not Bartholomew. Nobody names their daughters Bartholomew. I’m Luna.”

“I’m slightly relieved to hear that. I think.”

“Get bent.” I turned away. He jogged after me.

“Hey, why are you so angry at me, anyway?”

I stopped, and Reed Taylor nearly ran into me. He had a point.

I decided then and there that I would try my very best not to be horrible to him. After all, it wasn’t his fault I saw the things I did. Besides, he hung around with a strange invisible presence that had the power to mess with the demonic.

I smiled sweetly at him.

“Thank you for your help, Reed Taylor.”

He stopped short, eyed me a little bit. “That sounds highly unnatural coming from you.”

My smile quickly dropped into a scowl. “I was trying to be nice,” I nearly shouted. And winced. My head was killing me.

Reed Taylor shook his head. “Wait,” he said, looking frustrated. “This is going all wrong. Let’s start over, shall we?”

He stopped and held out his hand. I resituated Lydia so I could take it.

“Hi,” he said and smiled winningly. “My name is Reed Taylor. It’s nice to meet you . . . ?”

“Luna. Luna Masterson.” I shook his hand demurely.

“Well, that’s quite a moniker.”

My handshake became quite firm. Crushing, even. “I thought things were going to go well this time?”

Reed Taylor smiled at me. “Maybe you and I are bound to create sparks, Luna.”

I snorted. I couldn’t help it. That was so corny.

Apparently, Reed Taylor agreed. “I just . . . I’m just not batting a thousand. I swear I’m not so much of a loser.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Want to go to dinner?”

“I don’t date losers.”

“That’s pretty harsh. Eight?”

“If you’re more than five minutes late, I’ll kill you.”

We glared at each other, and then we both grinned. He bounded away, and I was humming as I strapped Lydia into her seat. He seemed like a nice guy, and heaven knows I could do with a nice guy every now and then. But more than that, I needed to get a bead on that mysterious presence. What was it? Could it help me?

I was going to find out. And I needed Reed Taylor in order to do it.