"Kashi, tell me everything!" Sierra demanded as the two relaxed in a booth in their favorite restaurant. "We haven't talked in weeks. You've always been busy or tired or—"
Kashi cut her friend off with a laugh, laying back in the booth. "I have been tired. It's a lot of work. And there really isn't much to tell." She chuckled again, grunting as she struggled to sit back up on the red seat. "This weird ranch hand named Markus keeps staring at me. I don't know what his problem is. We spoke a little the other day. I think he was talking about my dad. Every time I try to ask him a question though, he goes silent."
Sierra twirled a strand of her curls around her finger. "He sounds pleasant."
"Trust me, I'd take him over Felix any day." Kashi laughed. "He'll be in school now, so if I want to visit dad I don't have to deal with the monster." She smirked. At least there was one positive.
"Okay but like, tell me something exciting. All you ever talk about is the back breaking work. There's gotta be something." She nagged, swirling her straw around her ice water. The condensation was making the already worn table look more weathered.
"You remember that guy from the dance, Carr? The one that works for dad? Well He caught me trying to grab my photos and stuff from the barn. But we've been chatting a little the last couple of days."
"Why don't you lead with this?" Sierra demanded.
"That's not even what I was going to say," Kashi couldn't keep a straight face at the exasperation flashing over Sierra's features. Always one for gossip she was. "I grabbed a different envelope, Sierra." Kashi said, "I went back and my photos were still there but I have no idea where this came from Sierra."
She explained the weird notes and letters. There were also a few pay stubs. Any writing however had been blurred on wasn't readable. The chili she ordered along with Sierra's bratwurst showed up as she continued to explain how strange it was. She expressed her concern about her dad and her brother. After showing Sierra the photo, her friend sighed heavily.
"Well this isn't the fun kind of detail I was expecting, but I am intrigued." Sierra's eyes traced the people in the photo. "You know, we can go to the library and look through the old yearbooks. Your dad would have been just older than that, so maybe we can find the other man too."
Kashi laughed. "Okay come on let's go pay the check!"
"Dude chill, we come here for the desserts. Can't we stay for a slice of butter cake or something?"
"Get one to go!" Kashi said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and standing up to walk out of the homey restaurant. "Belle won't mind packing it up for you."
The Library was a short, hot walk from the restaurant on a corner of West Main street. Two blocks and Kashi was already sweating even with her baseball cap to shield her face from the sun. The cracked pavements didn't make the walk any faster either.
"We should have driven my car," Sierra whined from behind Kashi. "I'd take a parking ticket over this heat any day."
The dim library offered little relief aside from shade. Every fan was whirring and an air conditioner unit by the front desk seemed to try it's hardest but it barely touched the dry summer air hanging around the shelves of books.
The girls set their things down on a table, grabbing the stacks of yearbooks in a ten year range. Their high school was small enough that it wouldn't prove too difficult to sort through everyone's photos. Kashi found her dad right away. "So I guess we should start to look for this guy in all the other yearbooks, then huh?"
Sierra seemed more inclined to finish her butter cake. "Your loss. This is good." she shrugged when Kashi sent her friend a glance.
"We're missing a year." Kashi mused, standing up to go find the yearbook.
The shelves she was looking for were a short walk from their table. The book she was looking for wasn't on the shelf it should've been on. She searched the general area, thumbing through thin hardbacks and spiral bound books alike.
"What are you doing here?"
Kashi spun around coming face to face with Carr.
Being in a relatively good mood, she smirked. "I could ask the same of you. Can you even read?"
His laugh was loud enough that she was sure the librarian would come running to hush him. "Ouch." His brown eyes twinkled. "Believe it or not, I like to dust off those literary skills and pick up a book now and again."
"What book is it this time?" She gestured to the paperback in his hand.
He thrusted it behind his back fast enough that she was genuinely curious as to what he was hiding. "Just some modern classics and stuff." his ruddy complexion grew redder.
"And stuff?" she smirked. "Lemme see."
"What are you reading?" He gestured to the stacks. "Collections of Newspapers, yearbooks and… what are those, journals?"
"It's research." Kashi said definitively, her eyes landing on the book she was looking for laying flat on a bottom shelf. "Personal project." She turned around to walk back to her table.
Carr followed her. "So what are you doing with old books then?"
Kashi smirked, "nothing much, just..." She seized the book from his hand triumphantly, gasping, then cackling at the title. "There is no way."
Horror mixed with the smallest hint of amusement flashed on his features.
"His Best Friend's Bed." Kashi howled with laughter. "Book three! Carr I didn't peg you for a romance-smut reader."
"You tell anyone, you're dead." He wasn't hiding his laugh very well.
"Embarrassment looks good on you." Sierra laughed, coming around the corner.
"Ah I should have known there'd be two of you." Carr chuckled, running a hand through his hair.
"Don't worry, we won't ruin your reputation tough guy." Sierra winked. "Come on Kash, I finished my cake."
"So what are you researching?" Carr asked, still seemingly sheepish from the book encounter.
"Oh, remember that envelope I went to get?" Kashi asked as the three of them returned to the study table. "Well it wasn't mine. Instead I found this envelope full of letters, photos and paystubs about my dad, uncle and someone else. They seem really shady." She handed a few of the letters to him.
After a moment he nodded. "Wow, this is some weird business. Mind if I help you look?"