“Seems to me the time to talk would be before you decided to break into my room and kidnap my things,” she snaps, building up steam.
Admittedly, I’d rather have her fuming mad than subdued, like she was on the way over here.Call me weird, but I enjoy her fire.
“For the record, I didn’t break in, I was given access.And, I didn’t technically kidnap your stuff, I simply moved it to a more convenient place.”I hold up my hand to stop her when she gears up to react.“Please, let me finish.Obviously, in an ideal world I would’ve talked to you first, but you had your hands full at the shop, and I thought I could be helpful dealing with your room at The Carriage House.You need every penny you have, and staying there is a waste of money when you have a free place to stay here.”
I take a few tentative steps up the stairs.
“You can have my room; you’ll have your own bathroom.And before you worry about expectations, there are none.Carson is gone for the weekend and I’m gonna crash in his room.”
My son reminded me this morning about the open house this weekend at the University of Washington, the school he has his hopes set on.With everything going on, I’d clearly forgotten about it.
“Where is he?”
One of the things I really like about Beth is her connection with my son.She really cares about him and it has nothing to do with me.I’m convinced they would have this connection, even if I wasn’t in the picture.
“He was invited a couple of weeks ago by Larry Pierce, his buddy Cody’s dad, who was able to get his hands on some Mariners’ tickets for Saturday night.It just so happens to coincide with an open house at UW this weekend the boys wanted to go to, so they are making a weekend in Seattle out of it.”
By now I’ve made it to the one-but-last step before the landing, and am at eye level with Bess, who no longer looks angry.
“I forgot.He mentioned it last week.I can’t believe he’ll be off to college in September,” she mutters.
“Neither can I.It’ll be quiet around here.”
“I’m still mad at you.”
“That’s okay, I can handle it,” I assure her, putting my hands on her hips and tugging her a little closer so she’s within kissing distance.“Go have a shower while I get dinner going, and you can yell at me some more after.”
“Fine,” she mumbles, but her arms slide around my neck when I lean in for a kiss.
I haven’t mentioned the main reason I wanted her closer to me, but that’ll have to wait until after her shower.
I’m not looking forward to it.
Chapter16
Hugo
She is barely eatingthe pasta I threw together.
“That bad?”I tease, trying to lighten things up a little.
Despite the lively dust-up on the stairs, over dinner Bess is back to being quiet and seems miles away, distractedly playing with the food on her plate.
“No, it’s good.I’m sorry, I guess I don’t have much of an appetite,” she apologizes, putting down her cutlery.
I get up from the table, gather up my own empty plate and her almost untouched one, and leave them by the sink.Then I walk back to her and hold out my hand.She looks at it and then at me.
“What are we doing?”
“The dog needs a walk and we could use some fresh air,” I suggest.
There is only a brief hesitation before she places her hand in mine and lets me pull her to her feet.I help her in her coat, shrug into mine, and clip the leash on Ragnar, who is already panting by the front door.
I scan up and down the road as we walk down the path to the sidewalk.This street is quiet, only a handful of houses on either side, so we don’t get a lot of traffic through here.It wouldn’t be hard to spot a person or a vehicle out of place.
I’m not sure whether it’s the fresh air making a difference, but I notice Bess is suddenly a lot more alert out here too.Good, she should be aware of her surroundings at all times, and I need to stop dragging my ass telling her why that’s more important now than ever.
“We made some progress today on the arson investigation,” I start, snagging her attention.“Not the one at the coffee shop, but at Main Street Mechanics,” I clarify.“We found a vehicle that was seen outside the garage before the fire started.It belonged to someone by the name of Victor Zhang.”
