“Feel we got that straight. Now, out.”
Hal had slunk out and Hix had made a point not to schedule Donna on weekend call with Hal, nor had he put them on a case together.
It was working.
Just.
“Sorry, boss,” Hal muttered.
Having been reminded of his place, something, thankfully, that Hix didn’t have to do often, Hal looked that mix of chastised and pissed he pulled off so well.
He then cleared his throat and asked, “Larry phone in about the weekend?”
“Accident on 28,” Hix told him. “Lots of damage to the cars, thankfully minimal damage to the people. He says his report is on my desk.”
Hal nodded.
“Outpost had a thing but Betty-Jean handled it before Larry and Donna could hit it,” Hix went on. “That’s it.”
“Right.”
“Yeah,” Hix said, dipped his chin and then walked the rest of the way to his office.
He didn’t look at Hal as he settled himself and he also didn’t think of Hal.
He’d had Junk Sunday with his kids. It had been great. Now was the not-so-great part, since they were off to Hope’s after school and practices that day.
But also now he could turn his mind to something else, something his, and what he was turning it to was Greta.
He should have gotten her number before he left her.
He didn’t.
He’d rectify that.
But that morning, after Lou’s opened and he was sure Greta would be around, he was going to call down to the salon and ask her to meet him at the Harlequin for lunch that day.
He didn’t care what that would say to anyone but Greta.
And what he hoped it would say to Greta was that Hix wanted to spend time with her in a place they couldn’t lock lips and things would then get out of control.
Not that he didn’t want that. Greta out of control was a very good thing.
He just wanted to get to know her better.
He liked looking at her. She made him laugh. There was stuff about her he was curious about and he wanted to know.
And she knew where he was in his life and his head, and she didn’t care.
She was uncomplicated, the only thing in his life that had been in a long time. She gave him that freely, when he wasn’t acting like a dick.
He liked it.
And he wanted more.
He could give it headspace, overthink it, fuck it up.
There was no reason.
She was just Greta. She made him laugh. She made him feel good.
So he wasn’t going to make something simple, complicated.
He was just going to have lunch with a woman he liked to spend time with.
What came after that, he wouldn’t give it headspace either.
His son had been right. He’d been living so long with trying to hold together his family his only focus, he forgot to look after himself.
That wasn’t teaching his kids good lessons.
If his two girls found out about Greta, he’d deal with that if or when the time came.
But Corinne may give her brother guff, she still looked up to him and listened. Mamie adored him and would follow his lead.
It might end up in disaster.
It might be great.
It didn’t matter right then. He wasn’t bringing her into his children’s lives right then.
Right then it was two people getting together for lunch.
That was all Hix was thinking about.
And for the first time in a very long time, he was looking forward to something.
This lasted all of ten minutes, when the deep chill that came from the bullpen hit his office.
He looked from the report he was reading out the window to see Bets had arrived and she was avoiding Hal at the same time doing that to Hix.
If he was there before her, she came in and said hey.
This time, she was at her desk, staring at her computer like the impossible had happened and something interesting was on it.
She’d been like that all last week.
He’d give her that week.
Then he’d find some way to snap her ass out of it.
He was finishing up reading the report when another feel came from the bullpen.
He looked out the window and then he fought closing his eyes and tipping his face to the ceiling.
He just drew a breath in through his nostrils.
Letting it go, he got up and moved to the side of his desk, standing there but leaning his thigh into it as he watched his ex-father-in-law, Jep Schroeder, finish walking by the window to disappear down the back hall.
Hix aimed his eyes at the door and saw Jep walk through.
Jep had a thinning head of gray hair and a thick mustache over his top lip, and the only thing about it that had changed since Hix had met him was the color.
He also had a way about him that said plain he was a good ole boy in the right sense of that—he was a good man and he was not young.
“You got a minute, son?” Jep asked.
In all likelihood, he had all day.
And it had been setting itself up to be a good one, if Greta agreed to lunch.
Now?
Not so much.
“Jep, not sure this is a good idea,” Hix said by way of answer.
Jep gave him a look that lasted a few beats before he replied, “Won’t take much of your time, Hix. Promise. And I won’t be much of a pain in your patoot. That’s a promise too.”
Hix sighed before he tilted up his chin.
Jep closed the door behind him and walked in. He stood behind a chair and put a hand on it when Hix didn’t move from his place, leaning against his desk.
“We got a situation with Hope,” Jep announced.
Well then . . .
Right.
He had to make this clear as best he could without hurting feelings or damaging a relationship that meant something to him.
And he had to pull that off now.
So Hix shook his head. “Love you like a father, you got that and always will, no matter what papers I’ve signed. I hope you knew that before I just gave it to you. That being so, I also hope you get you got my respect even as I tell you whatever situation you have with Hope has nothin’ to do with me.”
Jep held his gaze as he nodded slowly.
“That’s the situation we got with Hope, son,” he said quietly.
Not a surprise. She probably went straight to their ranch after her conversation with Hix in that very room last Tuesday.
“I know it’ll take time,” Hix replied. “I know it won’t be easy. And I know in this town, it bein’ so small, that’ll make it even harder. But that doesn’t negate the fact I’m tryin’ to move on from all this and I’ll ask you to help me with that by not bringing this kind of thing to my office. But also, Jep, not bringing it to me anywhere at all.”
“You’re done with her,” he whispered.
“She divorced me, so yes. I’m done with her, Jep. I’m sorry but there it is.”
Jep swallowed, looked to the side, sniffed loud and Hix gave him time.