“I decided to be nice,” Jana replied.
“I don’t buy it,” Drew knew his sister. She’d taught him how to do his own laundry then had never done a single load for him again.
“You’re my baby brother. I love you,” Jana said sweetly.
“You’re my big sis and I love you. However, Molson’s the baby, not me,” Drew responded. “What do you really want?”
“Okay, I want information,” Jana sighed, and Drew smiled as he could imagine her rolling her eyes.
“What sort of information?” Drew wanted to know.
“I want to know all about the girl in your apartment,” Jana was distracted for a moment by Jenny. “Put that away honey. I don’t want your sister to get into it.”
“Who says I have anyone in my apartment?” Drew hadn’t told anyone that he was taking Bethany home.
“Mrs. Needles, your neighbor,” Jana commented. “She spies on you.”
Drew looked down the hallway. Sure enough, Mrs. Needles’ door was open an inch and the little elderly lady was peering out. The police department should hire her for surveillance. “You get Mrs. Needles to call you when I have visitors?”
“Only the female ones,” Jana replied. “Let’s face it, you don’t often have visitors.”
“Miguel called you, didn’t he?” Drew leaned against the wall. He’d seen his brother-in-law’s surprise when he’d put his hand on Bethany’s back to escort her out of the police station. “What information could you possibly want when you’ve already had the run down from him?”
“First, I wanted to know if it really was her,” Jana said smugly. “Which I now know.”
Drew sighed loudly.
“Second, I want to know just how involved you are with her. It sounds like you’re in deep and I want to know if you know what you’re doing,” Jana softened her tone. “Miguel is worried. That makes me worried.”
“Jana, I know your heart is in the right place, but that’s still not worth my laundry,” Drew tried to smile. He didn’t like worrying his sister. She worried enough being the wife and sister of cops. “Besides, you know me, I never get in deep.”
Drew hoped he wasn’t lying. He didn’t lie to his sister either. Jana had a way of homing in on the truth so there was no point.
“You’ve never taken a case home before either,” Jana pointed out.
“True,” Drew said easily.
“I want to meet her,” Jana stated.
That was not a good idea. Drew hesitated. He tried to find an excuse quickly, so she wouldn’t …
“Drew?”
Crud. Drew closed his eyes. Jana would know that he was trying to put her off. Which meant that she would know that he didn’t want her to meet Bethany because then Jana might see through him and his protestations of not being involved emotionally. “She’s tired. She’s been through a lot. If you talked to Miguel, you would know that someone made an attempt on her life and she’s still working through that.”
“I’ll throw in groceries,” Jana bribed him. “You know I’m going to come up there anyways. We live in the same building. You can’t avoid this Drew.”
The door to the apartment opened and a curious Bethany looked out at him.
Even just getting up from a nap, she was beautiful. Drew’s breath caught in his throat as he took in her sleepy gaze. “Who is that?”
“My sister,” Drew answered. “She’s bringing groceries tomorrow afternoon.”
“What’s she going to eat tonight? You guys could come for dinner,” Jana offered.
“That’s nice. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Drew ended the call. He wasn’t going to subject Bethany to Jana just yet. She still looked tired. “What would you prefer for takeout? Chinese, pizza, subs? My treat.”
Bethany had never had takeout. Her mother had drilled it into her that to keep a womanly figure, one did not eat takeout meals. They were considered too fatty and greasy, without proper nutritional standards according to Constance Searson. Bethany looked at Drew hopefully. “Can we get all three?”
