Pilar moved her plate closer to her side of the picnic table and rolled her eyes. “I figure the two of you are big boys and can handle yourselves. If you want to drag me into the middle of this ‘issue,’ you can both count me out.” She picked up a fry and took a big bite of it. “My fries.”
“Fine,” Walker groused, “starve me.”
“Oh brother…”
He looked at her. “How is my brother doing these last days before the wedding? Is he ready to gnaw off his ring finger and jet off to Aruba?”
Crois reached across the table for Walker’s arm, but Walker didn’t shy away from him.
The look he gave Crois said that he could take anything the stick could dish out.
Pilar dropped her arm down between them and glared at Walker making Crois smile. “We have twenty minutes left of our half an hour lunch, so if you’ve come here just to be a complete shit, don’t. If you have something to say, then go ahead.”
Walker sat up and gave Pilar a look that Crois didn’t quite understand.
“I know I give you shit about Roan and getting married, but we’re okay, right? You and me?”
Oh boy, Crois groaned aloud. “Merde.”
“Don’t call me shit, skinny boy.”
Crois narrowed his eyes at Walker. When did the obnoxious detective learn French? “Who said-”
Walker turned to smile at him, baring his teeth like a wolf. “I was the bad boy between me and Roan. I know how to say shit in a half dozen languages.”
Crois picked up one of his fries and then pushed the tray closer to Walker. “Just a half dozen?”
Walker picked up a fry from the tray and bit off half of it. “Don’t push it.”
Pilar waved a hand between them again, drawing attention back to her. “Yes. You asked a question and the answer is yes.”
“Okay.”
Walker picked up another fry, but he didn’t immediately bite into it. Crois had a feeling that the detective was hesitating about something other than eating fries he didn’t pay for.
Pilar must have thought the same thing. She gave the detective a measuring look and gave him a nudge. “That’s not all of it, Walker. Just ask me what you want to ask me.”
Crois was more curious than he’d like to admit. So, he didn’t say it. He just stared at the other man.
Walkeravoided Crois’ curious gaze as he pulled another fry out of the tray. “I don’t have another question.”
Beside Crois, Pilar shook her head and tapped her finger on the top of her Coke can. “There’s something else that you’re worrying about, you might as well spit it out.”
Walker reached out and snagged the little cup of ketchup that Crois had been using.
“Hey.” Crois had half a mind to grab it back and make the man eat the fries dry. He didn’t like anyone messing with her partner, even a member of her ‘family,’ but Crois let him have it without a fight.
Dipping the fry into the cup, Walker looked Pilar straight in the eyes. “If you know so much, why don’t you explain.”
Pilar sat back on the bench and shook her head.
Crois smiled and decided to watch the show. The other man may be a detective, but he had something’s to learn about human nature. “Okay, Detective Ashley. Let me do your job for you.”
Yes. Crois gave him a big shit-eating grin. “This is going to be good.”
And it was.
“I think you’re struggling to figure out where you fit into everything now. At first it was you and Roan. Mutt and Jeff. Jekyll and Hyde.”
