“It was eating the mayor’s roses,” Lucas clarifies. “Nate put it in the back of his cruiser and drove it to the station. Filed actual paperwork.”
“The paperwork was a joke?—”
“You wrote ‘suspect is uncooperative and refuses to provide identification’ in the incident report.”
“Because it wastrue.”
Cara is laughing so hard she’s crying. “Please tell me there’s more.”
“Oh, there’s more.” I grin. “Lucas got banned from the Dairy Queen in Pine Valley.”
“I did not getbanned?—”
“You’re not allowed back, Lucas. That’s what banned means.”
“It was a misunderstanding about soft serve portions.”
“You asked to speak to three different managers.”
“The large was clearly not large! I measured it!”
Cara wipes her eyes. “What about you, Theo? What’s your scandal?”
“I don’t have scandals. I’m delightful.”
“He set a shed on fire,” Nate offers.
“That was anaccident?—”
“With a heat lamp. For tomatoes.”
“They were heirloom tomatoes! They needed warmth!”
“They needed you to not burn down a structure.”
“The shed was fine. Mostly.” I wave my hand. “Minor smoke damage.”
Cara is bent over the table now, gasping for breath. “I can’t—I missed so much?—”
“You missed Lucas’s brief country music phase,” I add.
“We agreed never to speak of that.”
“He bought a cowboy hat, Cara. And boots. He learned to line dance.”
“It was for a charity event?—”
“You went to line dancing classes for six weeks. You have a certificate.”
Lucas’s face is bright red. “I was being thorough.”
The laughter settles, and Cara wipes her eyes. She’s smiling, but there’s something underneath it. Something fragile.
“Sounds like you managed just fine without me,” she says lightly. Too lightly.
“None of us did,” Nate says quietly. His thumb traces circles on Cara’s knee. “Stop having fun without you, I mean. We tried. But it was never the same.”
Cara’s smile softens into something real. “I’m glad you had each other, though. All those years.” She looks around the table at each of us. “And I’m so glad to be home.”
