Page 29 of Out Of A Fix

“Okay,” I said, and took a breath.

“I don’t know why, of everyone at that party, Chief Wilson picked me to beat up. It wasn’t like I was the only one there.”

I nodded. “I don’t either.”

“What are we gonna do?”

“You are not going to do anything. I’m going to follow up on a call I made to my buddy Shaw and find out who’s coming to sit with us when we talk to the detectives.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, without a lawyer, we’re not talking to anyone.”

“But they’re here to help me.”

“Yes, but they could also ask you things that could lead to you being blamed for something you had nothing to do with.”

“I don’t know about any of this stuff,” he said, those big, vulnerable eyes of his on my face. “But you do, right?”

“I do. I promise.”

“Okay. So, whatever you think.”

“Aw, kid, if only everyone in my life was this agreeable.”

He laughed then, and that was a good sign.

Fifteen minutes later, I got a text from Shaw—Weston Kinney, an associate at the Schager and Kobayashi law firm in Seattle, would be there shortly, with his assistant. I hadn’t realized I’d been worried and finally felt a weight lift off my chest.

Back in the kitchen, dumping out old soy sauce, mustard, and tartar sauce—gross—I asked Griff what his father meant about after dinner being easy.

“Oh, well, normally after we eat, everyone goes and does their own thing. Darwin studies, Tatum talks to her friends or watches TikTok, and I go see my friends or play games or do homework.”

“So you eat together and then⁠—”

“Would we call it eating together?” Darwin laughed. “I mean, Tatum watches cartoons, Griff is on his phone, I read a book, and Dad goes to work in his office.”

I squinted at him. “You all don’t talk about your day?”

They looked at me like I’d grown another head.

“Listen, from now on, I’ll cook and⁠—”

“That’s another thing,” Tatum interrupted. “We just nuke whatever we’re gonna have, or Dad grabs takeout on the way home. For whenever he gets here. It’s not at the same time every day.”

“Oh, screw that,” I barked at them, and instead of getting worried or scared, they were all grinning. Clearly, they were learning that sometimes I was loud. “We’re doing it my way from now on, and we will make the meal together, eat together, and talk about our goddamn day! And afterward, we’ll clean up together. Do you hear me?”

Darwin’s smile was huge. “That’s how it was with Mom, except we didn’t help her cook, but we all ate together and talked and then cleaned up after.”

“Well, maybe if she’d let you all help her, then one of you would know how to prepare something other than burned pancakes,” I said, looking at Tatum.

Her smile was huge.

“Is that why we had to buy a new frying pan?” Griff asked her. “Did you burn the old one?”

She started laughing then.

“You didn’t ruin Mom’s cast-iron one, did you?”