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So I guessed it was no surprise they showed at The Surf Club one day (though, I was curious to know how they knew where I worked, and suspected that had something to do with NI&S, where I apparently moonlighted when I wasn’t serving according to Mace and Cap’s statement to the police, however, when I asked, Cap told me no one there said anything, therefore, it was a longshot, but I thought it might be Arthur).
They sat at the bar.
Lucia made Elsie Fay a hot fudge sundae, something we didn’t have on the menu.
We talked while I worked.
Gratitude and sadness shone in Emily’s eyes when she looked at me, anger and protectiveness in Ben’s, and I found it uncomfortable.
But soon, Tito came over and took a stool by them, starting a quiet conversation, which freed me to gab with Elsie Fay.
Her favorite color was purple, and her mom and dad got her a kitty she named Tuna, and she was going to take skiing lessons…finally…after she’d begged…for years…when they went to Flagstaff to spend Christmas with her grandparents.
In other words, bottom line, their visit worked for me.
* * *
I would be remissif I didn’t share that this was the time I approached Mace.
I didn’t pry, neither did he, but since his dad had been some huge-ass billionaire, and when his sister was killed, there was a lot of media attention, when the same happened to me, I just needed to be around someone who’d made it to the other side.
I told Cap this, and he wasted no time getting me back to Mace and Stella’s.
I got it then, because Mace tried to make it so it was just him and me in their family room, rapping, but Stella found every excuse she could to check in on us, Cap wasn’t far behind her, and Tally, her kiddo senses buzzing, did the same (Walsh was busy decimating the house by rolling a toy recycling truck through every inch of it).
So, after one of the times Stella left us alone once she’d dropped fresh Fat Tire beers on us (and we weren’t finished with the ones we already had, not even halfway!), I said, “It’s about her, isn’t it?”
I meant Stella.
Mace knew what I meant, so he looked me dead in the eye and replied, “It’sallabout her.”
“Tally and Walsh?” I asked.
He shook his head. “If Stella didn’t ground me, Tally, Walsh and I would live in a cabin in the woods far away from anybody so no one could harm them.”
Serious as shit.
I dug this guy.
I sensed movement, looked down the hall, and just caught Cap strolling by the mouth at the other end of the hall, his head turned to check us out.
My lips tipped up.
“It’s all about him, yeah?” Mace asked me.
He, obviously, meant Cap.
That was when I looked him dead in the eye. “Oh yeah. Abso-freaking-lutely.”
Mace chuckled, sat back and slugged some beer.
I did the same then queried, “How long should we torture them with our heart to heart?”
He tipped his handsome head to the side. “What are your thoughts on that?”
“Fifteen minutes,” I told him. “They need to keep their senses sharp, but we shouldn’t be cruel.”
He pointed the neck of his beer bottle at me and winked.
