Page 57 of Tied Over

“And I know we gotta wash the lid now too, but that’s okay.”

“It is okay, and since you’re cooking, I’ll wash.”

“But you only have one arm.”

“I’ll wash,” Bodhi said, joining us in the kitchen, looking as bleary and sleep-deprived as I did at seven thirty in the morning. “Is there coffee?”

“Jed made it.”

“Oh God, it’ll be like crude oil.”

Stella thought that was hysterical.

“Just drink it and shut yer pie hole,” I told him.

“That wasn’t shut up exactly, but it was still naughty,” Stella assured me.

I gave her a shrug. “Do I get eggs and bacon too?”

“You can have plant bacon, but we can’t eat piggies. They’re super smart and cute.”

I looked at Bodhi, who bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t laugh.

“Fine. Where’s the fake meat?”

Bodhi had to help her, and when the three of us sat at the island, she showed us her new Zelda game on her Switch, and then Bodhi showed me the confirmation on his phone that Stoker was home in Denver, talking to the police there, and that they appreciated our reports. I had written mine before I passed out last night, and Bodhi had apparently done his at the same time.

I then showed him an email from Detective Maxine King of the Denver Police Department that came in very early in the morning. She was the one questioning Stoker, and in her email to me, she explained that she might need to reach out to Stella and her parents. It might not be necessary, as she had reports from two marshals and a Seattle detective, but if she needed more, she wanted the family to be prepared. I emailed her back that I would make the family aware.

“He won’t go back to prison for what he did,” Bodhi said under his breath.

“I know. But they’re focused on him now, and that’s good.”

“You’re not eating,” Stella pointed out.

“Yes, I am,” I snapped at her, which made her smile. Already, she knew me.

Bodhi was chuckling.

“You know,” I said, taking another bite of the heaviest pancakes I’d ever had in my life, “you can go golfing.”

His brows furrowed. “Enough with that.”

I grinned at him.

“What?”

“Hayden’s gonna think ya like me better,” I goaded him.

But it didn’t work because I didn’t get the rise out of him I was after.

As we were washing dishes—I could hold with my left hand and dry with the right—the doorbell rang. Stella was off her stool and running, but I yelled and she froze.

“Check to see who it is first.”

She turned around to look at me.

“Always. No matter who you’re expecting. You check before opening the door.”