I threw my hands in the air after getting out of the car. “I tried. She said it was irresponsible to waste the money.”
But it would not have been a waste because mental health is important.
Reed laughed, exiting the Uber after me and closing the door.
I turned and stared at the sign. “Mellow Mushroom?”
“Yeah, have you ever been?” He passed me and held open the door.
“No, I don’t think so.” We stepped inside to… something. “Wow.”
The walls were painted bright shades of red and yellow. Large murals of famous paintings updated to include pizza covered the walls while wooden tables with metal chairs littered the large, open eating area.
“There’s Torin,” Reed said, raising his hand at a man seated alone at a back table.
I followed him in that direction, walking slowly to take in all the sights. “It’s like a stoner designed a restaurant while high.”
“That’s exactly what this place is,” Torin said as he stood up from the table to greet us. “It’s nice to meet you, Elenore.”
He had blond hair and icy blue eyes with just the start of laugh lines around the corners of his mouth. Torin had a similar body build to Reed, but something about his persona gave off an air of lightheartedness. He had that same hot guy appearance as Reed but didn’t do it for me in the same manner as my … whatever Reed was to me.
“You too,” I said as we shook hands, my gaze still hitting the different pictures on the walls. I couldn’t decide if I loved the place or absolutely hated it.
The two men joked about a coworker while we scanned our menus, but the walls continued to grab my attention, making it difficult to focus. “You two worked together?”
Torin snorted. “This guy saved my life once. How’s the shoulder? Healing well?”
Reed rubbed the same spot on his left shoulder. “It’s fine.”
The surfer SEAL raised his right eyebrow. “Last time I saw it, the thing had a hole in it. An IED outside our containment zone almost blew it off.”
I gave Reed’s shoulder a more in-depth look with widened eyes. He rolled his. “It’s clearly fine now.”
Our waitress approached, and I hurried to find something on the menu while the men ordered. “The veggie calzone, please.” I closed the menu and handed it to her while she ogled the guys at the table.
Honestly, I didn’t blame her.
“Lisa seems like she was Southern nice,” Torin said as I watched the waitress back away from the table without removing her gaze from him.
I turned my head away from her at his comment. “Excuse me?”
“Your murder victim. She’s nice in Southern. You know the type. Her face says generous to her core, but her eyes say, ‘Bless your heart’ and not in a good way.”
Reed laughed. “You always had a way with words.”
“You read the case file?” I asked. I wasn’t expecting a working meal, but I guess we were here to investigate the case and I’d take all the inputs available. “What do you think of her son? I’d love to interview him, but Delaney doesn’t think she can talk him into it.”
Reed sipped on his glass of water in thought. He didn’t speak until after he placed it on the table. “If you really want a chance to talk with Lisa’s son, I might have a way.”
“Here are your breadsticks,” the waitress said, placing a plate of thick bread covered in white cheese in the middle of the table. The move interrupted my chance to ask Reed how he planned to get me an interview.
The conversation turned from murder to the history of the two men during their time in the military and now working at the same security firm. Currently, Torin lacked an assignment—hence his quick vacation—but knew something fun would happen soon. After a slew of questions, we concluded his idea of fun and mine had major differences. I’d never yearned to play with dynamite.
Two hours later, Reed and I returned to the Airbnb. The stack of case files laid out over the small table stared at me as I closed the front door. I needed to figure out my next move.
“Ready for that interview?” Reed asked, peeking his head out of the kitchen.
I dropped the papers from the reporter. “What?”
