“I do not.”
He laughs harder. “You do, Camellia. Whenever it’s something good, you do this little mmmm-mmmm thing.”
I narrow my eyes at him and realize he’s not laughing anymore.
“It uh,” Aaron coughs. “It’s distracting.”
Well. Well. Well.
It seems Mr. Stoic Fireman can be ruffled. I briefly consider messing with him but realize I’m way too hungry to fuck with him right now.
Food first. Fucking later.
Now I’m distracted.
He clears his throat. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you what I learned about Nimble’s cause of death.”
This has my attention. “You mean it wasn’t death by tree?”
“Well, that killed him,” Aaron concedes. “But, Dr. Faith Jackson - the Medical Examiner - found some interesting things on the autopsy.”
I stop shoveling bacon in my face and motion for him to continue.
“Faith found a brain tumor.”
“Wow.”
“She said it likely impaired his decisions for weeks, maybe even months.”
“That explains the change in behavior Nadine told me about,” I sigh.
“So, she didn’t know about the brain tumor?”
I frown. “Not that she said, why do you ask?”
“Faith found signs of radiation in Nimble’s body,” Aaron explains. “If he were going through radiation treatments for cancer, that would explain it. But it sounds like Nadine didn’t have a clue about it.”
“Damn. Now, I feel bad for thinking the worst.”
“The worst?”
“She said he was working weird hours and being evasive,” I explain. “She thought there’d be another explanation for it. But, I thought he was having an affair.”
Aaron shifts on his stool but says nothing.
“Sorry,” I turn to him. “Sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“About what?”
“I shouldn’t have said anything. You know. With what you went through with Sabine.”
Aaron looks at me for a brief moment then goes back to his plate. He’s quiet for so long. I think he’s done talking.
“She cheated and lied from the very beginning,” he begins. “But you probably don’t want to hear about all this.”
I put my hand on his forearm and wait until he looks me in the eye. “Before everything, at the core, you were my best friend.”
“And losing your friendship was harder than everything else,” Aaron croaks out. “It took a long time to get over. I don’t think I can go through that again.”
