“We sure are. Spend the day seeing if you can get medical or dental records for him. I want to know which part of his body we need to examine,” I say.
“I’m supposed to be dealing with Nadine.”
“Let Merna do that.”
“Her name is still not Merna.”
“You’re right, she’ll probably fall asleep on the body and contaminate the evidence. I’ll do it,” I decide.
“Hon, you’re a lot of things… a medical examiner is not one of them,” Gabriel says.
I would like to assure him that I would be the best fucking medical examiner, but Gabriel’s sweet look makes me decide I’ll just agree with him. “Fine, I’ll find the records. You two just fiddle around.”
“Got it,” Jesse says. “Off to work to fiddle instead of do my job.”
The three of us head to work, and boy does Matthew the Jealous take note when we all roll up together.
“Do not make this worse,” Gabriel warns me before I can evensayanything. It’s like this man can read my mind and… I kind of like it.
“I would never make anything worse for Matthew,” I say as I sling an arm over Jesse’s shoulder and pull him close so I can brush a snowflake off his shoulder.
Gabriel jerks me off him and gives me a look that tells me the joke is over. “I think Matthew is really feeling upset,” he hisses.
Jesse glances over at Matthew and looks guilty. “I’m just… I feel like Whitaker would prey on people I’m close to. It’s for his own good.”
“Hear that, Gabriel? Jesse is staying away from Matthew to protect Matthew’s life by hanging close to us,” I say. “Makes me feel warm fuzzies inside.”
Jesse freezes as he realizes what I’m implying. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
I pat Gabriel’s shoulder. “He definitely meant it like that.”
Jesse looks distraught now. “No! I really don’t want either of you to get hurt. Shit, you’re right. I’m just…” And then he scurries off like fleeing from us will miraculously save our lives.
“Don’t forget your shovel,” I yell after him.
“What’s the shovel for?” Matthew asks as he walks up.
“Jesse has this annoying neighbor he asked us to… ‘plant bushes for.’” I even throw in some air quotes to get my point across.
“You’re going to bury a neighbor together?” he asks, like he’s disappointed he wasn’t invited to our fake murder.
“So just… asking for a friend… how tall are you?”
His expression shifts. “You’re buryingme?”
“The less sleep I get and the more you talk to me, the higher the possibility,” I warn him.
Gabriel gives me a look. “Liam, we’ve talked about this. You cannot bury your friends.”
“You should never have to talk about that.” Matthew trots after us. “Is something going on with Jesse?”
I stop and turn around to face him. “Matthew.”
“Yes?”
I grab him by his shoulders. “I want you to listen to me.”
He looks extremely serious, like he thinks I have all the answers. “I am.”
