He came to a stop, his brain sloshing in his skull.
Riley from work darted up from where she'd been sitting at one of the tables. “Hi. Wow! How are you?”
“Fine. You?”
“Great, especially now that I've run into you.” She blushed. “My brother's here with me tonight.” She motioned to a guy sitting at her table who was the male version of her. Blond, thin, pale.
“Ah.” Jude’s vocabulary had gone missing.
She introduced him to her brother, then pulled Jude out of earshot. “It's really wonderful to see you outside of work.”
“Ditto.”
“Would you like to join us?”
“Thanks, but I'm here with my own brother. I think I'm about to leave.”
“Would you . . . like me to come along with you? Wherever you're headed?” She was very pretty. And hopeful. She was clearly into him. Gemma . . . terrible Gemma had a boyfriend. So what would it hurt if he said yes to Riley? He opened his mouth to tell her yes right when Jeremiah slung an arm around his shoulders.
“Is this the woman from your case?” Jeremiah whispered against his ear.
Jude answered with an expression that said,Are you crazy? No.
“Hello there,” Jeremiah said to her. “I'm the brother.”
“I'm Riley. Jude and I work together.”
Then Riley's brother asked Jeremiah for his autograph and Jeremiah got busy charming them both. “Well,” he announced after a few minutes, “Jude and I are going to call it a night.”
“I'm happy to drive Jude home,” Riley offered with the expression of a puppy waiting at the door for a bathroom break.
That would save Jeremiah a lot of time on his drive back to Groomsport. TheOof okay was all Jude got out before Jeremiah interrupted.
“Thanks so much for offering, but I'm going to take him. Now that I'm retired, I don't have many chances to show off my driving skills to my little brother.”
“I'm tired of watching you show off your driving skills,” Jude said.
Jeremiah chuckled. “Which is why I love chances to force him to admire them. Good night, guys. Great to meet you.”
Once they were in Jeremiah's Ferrari speeding through Bangor, his brother looked across at him several times. Jeremiah was checking on him. Which was rich. Jude was the person who checked on Jeremiah. And Mom and Dad and Max. And their grandparents.
“You should have let Riley drive me,” Jude said.
“No way. She's obviously crazy about you. You're too noble to take advantage of that.”
“No, I'm not.”
“Yes, you are. At most, you'd have let her make out with you. But even then, you'd be angry with yourself in the morning. Plus, you'd have an awkward situation to clean up with her at work. So, no.”
“You're the worst.”
“Actually, I'm feeling like a prince among brothers right now.”
Jude closed his eyes and let the car veer and turn beneath the dead weight of him.
“You want to come with me to Appleton tonight and crash there?” Jeremiah asked.
“Can't. Work tomorrow.”
