“Me either.”
“Want me to make you something?”
“In a minute.”
“Okay.”
She was quiet for another minute.
“There’s rice in the freezer,” she said.
“Good to know.”
“It’s from Sunday.”
“I’ll eat Sunday’s rice.”
“Graham.”
“Yeah.”
“Stay tonight.”
“I already said okay.”
“I know.I just wanted to hear it again.”
“Okay,” he said.“Okay.Okay.”
She pulled the blanket up over both of them.Neither of them moved to turn off the lamp.The hallway light stayed on.The pile of things she’d set down on the entry table — keys, badge, phone, the folded paper with R-Embry-NS on it — stayed where she’d put it.
Everything she’d been carrying.Set down.In order.
Chapter 24
Maren woke to the sound of coffee being made by someone who hadn’t been here long enough to know how she made it.
Not the hiss of her drip pot — the older one, the ten-cup with the cracked carafe she kept meaning to replace.This was a different sound.A French press being plunged.Slow and steady, the way Graham did everything with his hands.
Which meant he’d found the press she’d bought at a yard sale two years ago for three dollars and never used because she couldn’t be bothered to boil water separately when the drip pot worked fine.
She lay on her back for a moment and listened.The window was open.A mockingbird was working through its repertoire from the bottlebrush by the back fence.The hallway light was still on — the one neither of them had turned off when they’d come down the hall last night.
She got up, pulled on the flannel shirt that lived on the chair by the dresser, and went to find him.
He was at the counter in his jeans and his thermal, no shoes, his hair still flat on one side from the pillow.The press was on the counter.Two mugs.The sugar bowl out, which meant he’d figured out where she kept it.
“Where did you find that?”
“Top shelf.Behind the fondue pot you’ve never used.”
“I don’t own a fondue pot.”
“Then it came with the rental.”He poured two cups and slid one across the counter to her.“Either way, you should know it exists.”
She took the mug and leaned against the counter across from him.The coffee was better than her drip.She wouldn’t tell him that.
“How long have you been up?”
