“Those would be?”
He lifted his hand and placed it on my cheek, his thumb wiping my tears away. Then he ran his knuckles down my other cheek on the same errand. He watched his hand work and then his eyes came to mine.
“There’s this girl, see, I wanna get to know her, not to mention do other things with her. Until this mess is sorted out, gettin’ what I want is more of a chal enge than I normal y like. So, I’m gonna sort it out.”
I felt a thril race through my bel y.
“But, don’t you have a job?”
“They let me go my own way.”
The Denver Police Department didn’t let Eddie go his own way. Indy told me that Eddie just went his own way and then put up with the consequences.
“Let me do this for you, Chiquita.” His voice was soft.
“It’s a family problem, I can’t ask you…” I stopped as it hit me, “What’s Lee doing here?”
We both looked over Eddie’s shoulder. Lee and Indy were two houses down on the other side of Bear and Lavonne’s, both with hands on their hips and it didn’t look like a loving conversation.
Eddie looked back at me.
“Lee’s workin’ a connected job for some clients. I pul ed him in the Ray search.”
My eyes bugged out. “I can’t afford Lee!”
“You don’t have to afford Lee. He’s mi hermano and Indy’s your friend and his woman, this is a freebie.” Indy’s your friend and his woman, this is a freebie.”
“I can’t…”
“Would you stop saying ‘I can’t’?” he said.
“Wel , I can’t,” I pointed out.
“You can, Jet. These are your friends. Do you think they’re out here for thril s?”
I looked back over Eddie’s shoulder and took in Al y and Tex. Al y and the black guy were leaning on the Mustang and talking. Tex was obviously impatient and scowling back and forth between Indy and Lee and Eddie and me like he was watching an annoying tennis match.
My heart clenched and I got that strange pleasant feeling, like the one that kept coming at me during my Eddie Date.
“I think they’re partially out here for thril s,” I tried to cover up how moved I was by this show of support.
When I looked at Eddie again I saw the dimple was out.
“I expect you’d be right about that.”
I decided to change the subject. “Who’s the black guy?”
“Mi otro hermano. Darius. We al grew up together.”
“He doesn’t come into Fortnum’s. Is he a cop too?” Everyone in Eddie, Lee and Indy’s circle were cops, private investigators or crazy people. Darius didn’t look crazy so I took a wild guess.
“Drug dealer,” Eddie said like he would say “shoe salesman”.
I stared at him.
“Real y?” I breathed.
He nodded.
“Why don’t you bust him?” I asked.
The dimple was back, this time with a ful -fledged smile.
“I don’t bust him because he’s my brother.” Eddie’s arms tightened around me and his head dipped down, “It’s a long story. I’l tel you sometime when we’re not yel in’ at each other, sleepin’ or fending off our nutcase families.” My bel y curled.
“Okay,” was al I could think to say.
He watched me for a beat. “Can I trust you not to go after your Dad?” he asked.
I nodded.
“Does that nod mean I can trust you or you’d rather not lie out loud?”
I couldn’t help it, he figured me out, so I smiled at him.
His eyes warmed.
“I could fal in love with that smile,” he murmured as if he was talking to himself and I wasn’t even there.
My entire body froze.
He felt it, his lips turned up at the corners, then he touched them to mine.
Then he said, “One thing at a time.”
“How did your date go with Eddie?”
Mom had heard the key in the lock and was standing in the middle of the hal way waiting for me after Duke brought me home.
“It was a little… weird,” I said and walked by her and into the house. “I met his Mom.”
“You met his Mom! Oh… my… God. That’s great!” I dropped my purse on the couch and decided to change the subject and not tel her I’d also met most of his family too. She’d start cal ing florists and churches.
“What are you doing out of your chair?” I asked.
She walked in, her left arm dangling useless, her gait unsteady but she looked al right, even though it was getting late in the day.
“I’m feelin’ good. I also did two loads of laundry and cleared the dishwasher.”
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. This was great news.
She smiled back. She knew it was great news.
“Did the mechanic cal about my car?”
“Nope, but you would not believe what happened last night. We had some excitement. The police cal ed up and said there was a flasher in the building. They wanted to know if Trixie and I saw him. We didn’t but we sure as hel went lookin’ for him.”