“Ms. Carter.” She grins. “I like the sound of that.”
“Mrs. Campbell has a nice ring to it too.”
Riley rolls her eyes. “Who said I’d take your last name?”
“Why wouldn’t you take my last name?”
“Maybe I want to hyphenate.”
“Riley, you can call yourself whatever you want, as long as I get to call you my wife someday.”
She clears her throat and blushes. “Smooth talker.”
I’m about to capitalize on my momentum by reaching for her hand when her phone rings.
She sees the name on the screen and, like a switch being flipped, Riley’s expression shifts to a stern, concentrated one.
“Jimmy,” she says into the phone. Whatever he says makes an amused smile grow on her face. “Jimmy, just a second. I’m with Nat. I’ll put you on speaker. Can you repeat that?”
Jimmy’s loud voice booms through my living room.
“So like I was saying, we set up the hidden cameras like you said, Boss. And we looked at the footage today. Turns out, there’s a rat in the shop and it was running all over the place. We saw the rat heading up to the ceiling, so we got a ladder and went up there. This critter somehow got an oil bottle up in the ceiling.”
My jaw drops. “How does a rat take a bottle up to the ceiling?”
“Not to brag, but the rats in Lucky Falls are next level.”
“Okay then…”
Riley laughs. “There must have been something sticky on the bottle. Maybe it stuck to the rat’s paws.”
“That makes more sense.”
“The ceilings are porous and kind of moldy,” Jimmy explains. “So the oil kept falling from different parts of the ceiling while the rat was kicking around the bottle up there. That’s why the puddle was always somewhere new, and we could never find the leak.”
“Mystery solved then!” I celebrate and offer my hand to Riley.
She gives me a high-five. “Finally.”
Riley takes the phone and asks in a business-like tone. “Before you go, Jimmy, I wanted to ask about the car that came in yesterday…”
Riley migrates to the kitchen while I check my phone.
There’s a text from Max wishing me a speedy recovery and warning me that I’ll be in the Lucky Strikers reserve lineup until I’m medically cleared to play.
I notice a text from Chris too.
Chris: Glad you’re recovering well, Campbell. If you get hurt again, my sister will break your other leg so try to stay out of the hospital from now on.
I chuckle and flick down to another message.
It’s a confirmation of my bank transfer to the Happy Go Lucky Nursing Home.
Betty is safe for now, but even if someday Uncle Will decides to investigate what happened at Riley’s previous job, Betty’s nursing home fees will be taken care of.
Riley returns to the living room and I tuck the phone away. “Everything good at the garage?”
“Yeah, I just wanted to go over a few details.” She checks her watch. “You have a couple hours until you need to take your next medication. What do you want to do in the meantime?”
