“He let you?” I regretted the words as soon as I said them. Bruce Wayne’s family had practically disowned him after he was arrested for murder last year. And they hadn’t welcomed him back into the fold after he was acquitted, either. Violet and I had our differences, but we’d never turn our backs on each other like that.
Bruce Wayne shrugged. “He’s on my biological dad’s side. I didn’t have much to do with them before . . . everything. But I’ve been thinking about my dad lately, so I called my cousin after Thanksgiving.” He grimaced as though he was wading deeper into cold water than he’d planned. “He said we could borrow it until our electricity gets fixed. Or until there’s a snow storm in the forecast, whichever comes first.”
We spent the next forty minutes getting the computers situated and had just started installing software when the front door burst open. Neely Kate stood in the threshold, holding a plastic tub of food. “Who’s hungry?”
Bruce Wayne’s eyes bugged out like she was pointing a loaded gun at him. He jumped to his feet and grabbed his coat off the back of his office chair. “I just remembered that I’ve got to go do that . . . thing.”
Neely Kate shot him a glare. “What thing?”
“Um . . . the electricity’s out, and I need to run to the hardware store to get some supplies for the generator.” Then he shot past her, faster than I’d ever seen him move.
Neely Kate shut the door, watching him beat it down the sidewalk. “He’s not goin’ after any parts, is he?”
“Um . . .” I didn’t want to tell her the truth, but a white lie wasn’t hurrying its way off my tongue.
She spun around and gave me an amused, disapproving look. “Rose, if you don’t want to share my tofu and chipotle burgers with Bruce Wayne, you don’t have to send him off. I’ll just make double next time.”
“Oh, Neely Kate. You really don’t have to.”
A smile lit up her face. “I don’t mind at all.” She grabbed Bruce Wayne’s chair and dragged it over to me, setting the Tupperware on my desk. “Eat up while it’s still warm. I heated it up in the microwave before I came over.” She popped off the lid and handed me a plastic fork. “I don’t have any plates today, so we’ll just have to share.”
“Okay . . .” I said as I looked down at the green goo-covered patty. Surely it couldn’t taste as bad as it looked. “Bruce Wayne said you had time to look over the books.”
“Oh, yeah.” She opened her big purse and dug out the ledger.
“I didn’t think you were going to get to it ’til today.”
“Neither did I, but I had a major case of indigestion and couldn’t sleep.”
“How bad was it?”
“My indigestion? Pretty bad.”
I laughed. “Not your indigestion, although I sympathize. The books. How were the books?”
“Way better than I expected.”
“So Violet didn’t try to cheat me?”
“With the nursery’s money? No. With everything else in your life . . . well, that’s another story. I still think you should switch over to accounting software, though.”
I let out a sigh of relief, feeling better until she glanced down at the food and up at my empty fork. “You better eat up while it’s still warm.” I noticed she wasn’t exactly pulling out any utensils of her own, but there was no polite way to say so.
Holding my breath, I took a bite and nearly gagged. I was wrong. It was worse than it looked.
“What do you think? I made it last night when I couldn’t sleep. I saw it on Chopped.”
“Uh . . . Neely Kate, isn’t that the show where they make dishes out of weird food combinations? They don’t have actual recipes.”
Her eyes lit up. “That’s the challenge! To make something so unique without a recipe. When I saw this, I decided to try it. I made it while I was going over the ledger last night.”
“Did Ronnie like it?”
She waved her hand, and I noticed her nails were painted green with red polka dots. “Please. That man wouldn’t know fine food if it jumped out of the lake and into his fishing boat on a gold plate. I made it for you.”
I tried another bite and began to choke. “Me?”
Neely Kate pulled a bottle of water out of her purse and handed it to me. “You’re the only one who appreciates my cooking.” She pursed her lips together. “I was sure Mason would, but he never seems to be around when I have gourmet meals with me.”
I took a drink, trying to figure a way out of eating the glop in front of me. I decided to use Mason’s trick. “This is delicious, but Mason and I had a late breakfast at the Big Biscuit.” Then I told her about Skeeter’s comment to Mason and the vision I’d forced of Christmas.
“Aw . . .” she gushed. “You two are so cute.”
A smile spread across my face.
“Do you really think you’re done with Skeeter?”
“If I was him, I wouldn’t trust the girlfriend of the Assistant DA. I just hope he won’t go after Mason.”
“I suspect Mason’s right. Skeeter’s a pretty smart guy, and it would look suspicious if something happened to the Assistant DA right after he got his big promo in the world of crime.” She put her fork down. “Speakin’ of questionable characters, I’ve got a favor to ask you.”