“I’d have come with Eb and Micah when they dropped by,” Cy added, “but we were out of town with the kids. It’s good to see you again.”
“Same here,” Kell said. “I owe you.”
“For what?” Cy shrugged. “Friends help friends.”
“They do.”
Cappie stared at her brother with a blank expression. A whole conversation seemed to be going on under her nose that she didn’t comprehend.
“I’ll see you,” Cy said. “Nice to have met you, Miss Drake,” he added, smiling.
“You, too,” she replied.
Cy left without a backward glance.
After he drove away, Cappie was still staring at her brother. “You didn’t say you had friends here. Why haven’t I seen them?”
“They came while you were at work,” he said. “Several times.”
“Oh.”
He averted his eyes. “I met them when I was in the service,” he said. “They’re fine men. A little unorthodox, but good people.”
“Oh!” She relaxed. “Mr. Parks has an injury.”
“Yes. He was badly burned trying to save his wife and child from a fire. He was the only one who got out. It turned him mean. But now he’s remarried and has two sons, and he seems to have put the past behind him.”
“Poor guy.” She grimaced. “No wonder he was mean. Who were the other men he mentioned?”
“Other friends. Eb Scott and Micah Steele. Micah’s a doctor in Jacobsville. Eb Scott has a sort of training center for paramilitary units.”
She blinked. “You do seem to attract the oddest friends.”
“Men with guns.” He nodded. He grinned.
She laughed. “Okay. I’m stonewalled. What do you want for supper?”
“Nothing heavy,” he said. “I had a big lunch.”
“You did?” She didn’t recall leaving anything out for him except sandwiches in a Baggie.
“Cy brought a whole menu full of stuff from the local Chinese restaurant,” he said. “The remains are in the fridge. I wouldn’t mind having some of them for supper.”
“Chinese food? Real Chinese food, from a real restaurant, that I don’t have to cook?” She felt her forehead. “Maybe I’m delusional.”
He chuckled. “It does sound like that, doesn’t it? Go dig in. Bring me some of the pork and noodles, if you will. There’s sticky rice and mangoes for dessert, too.”
“I have died and am now in heaven,” she said in a haunted tone.
“Me, too. Get cracking. I’m on the fourth chapter of this book already!”
“You are?” She laughed. He looked so much more cheerful. More than he’d been in weeks. “Okay, then.”
He pulled the laptop back into place.
“Do I get to read it?”
He nodded. “When it’s done.”
