“She’s fine.” Minka turns on my lap, curling against my chest until we practically fucking melt together. We’re both sweating, and God knows it would be cooler if she sat on her own. But for as long as my hand remains on her thigh, holding her down, she stays put and strokes my arm. “Why can’t she swim yet, Detective Fletcher? She’s old enough to have had lessons by now.”
“Sorry, Chief Know-It-All.” He snags an empty glass and fills it with icy cold lemon water. “The last half-decade has been a little chaotic for me. We didn’t have a pool, never visited the pool, and my life was in shambles, so this was one of those things that fell to the wayside.” He pours noisy chunks of ice that clink against the side of his glass. “It’s on my to-do list, I promise.”
“Kinda has to be now that we’re here for the summer. She’ll want to visit, and not knowing is dangerous.”
“Only the summer?” He swings his gaze up, then over to me. “I thought you were?—”
I slam my foot against his under the table, then I flash an adoring smile and distract a curious Minka with a kiss on her lips.
“Smooth,” Felix chuckles. “Did you see my kid, Fletch? Isn’t she the prettiest little baby anyone ever did see?”
“I’m partial to mine.” He settles back again, sipping his water and rubbing his leg. “But besides Mia, I kinda have to agree. Prettiest little thing ever. The fact that you have a daughter now brings me hope. Maybe you’ll see the error of your ways.” He shrugs. “Eventually.”
Roscoe’s eyes widen. Fuck knows, they brighten, too. “What’d he do?”
“Nothi—”
“Kidnap. Pretty sure there was a deadly weapon involved.”
“She was fine!” Felix huffs. “She was visiting with Uncle Lix, all so I could meet Auntie Minka. She was safe the whole time. I always have a reason for my madness.”
“Yeah. Usually, it’s your disrespect for the law and other people,” Fletch grumbles. “Kidnapping is a serious crime, douchebag. You terrified my daughter.”
Felix gestures toward the pool. “And now I’m her favorite person on the planet.”
“Looks like Cato is her favorite,” Roscoe counters.
“I’mher favorite,” Fletch growls. “Cato hits second best.”
“What the hell am I?” I snarl. “I’m the only motherfucker at this table besides her father, who has been around since the day she came home from the hospital. I was there for her first steps. Her first words. Her first everything.”
“You lost her to Cato.” Minka tilts her head back and drops a kiss on the underside of my jaw. “I hate to say I told you so, Detective, but I recall suggesting you kick his ass to the street a year ago.”
“I can hear you people.” Cato throws Mia into the air just as easily as he tosses a basketball, clearing six feet between his hands and her flailing body. Then he catches her again and dunks her under the water. Bringing her above the surface and setting her on his hip, he wipes the heavy curtains of hair off her face and meets her smiling eyes. “You good, McStinkerson?”
She nods.
“You want more?”
She nods again.
“They were saying mean things about me, McStinkerson. They said they were gonna kick me out and make me live on the street.”
Inflamed, Mia’s fiery eyes swing our way.
In response, Felix drops his focus, Micah goes back to playing with the bottle label, I spin around, and Fletch drinks his lemon water.
“You can live with me, Cato.” The sound of a noisy, smoochy kiss echoes across the yard and taps at the back of my skull. “Auntie Minka is super nice anyway, so she won’t let them kick you out. But if you don’t wanna live wif them anymore, you can live wif me and Daddy.”
“Guess you got a new housemate, Detective Fletcher.” Minka melts into my lap, laying her head against my shoulder. “Works out perfectly for me, actually.”
“What’s going on?”
Too intuitive, too smart, when Minka excuses herself to go inside the house, and I push up from my chair, wandering onto the grass, Fletch follows, his shoulders tight and his jaw gritted.
Because maybe I’ve kept my mouth shut, but he’s my partner.
He’s my best friend.
