"What, why?” Lucas smacked a hand against his forehead as he realized. “Crap, I was supposed to call him when I came home from the doctor’s, wasn’t I?"
"He couldn’t get ahold of you and couldn’t find you. He didn’t know if you got bad news or even made it to the specialist.”
"I tried calling him."
“His phone’s probably still in the house.” And Lucas’s phone remained in his apartment. Like father, like son. “Dad talked him down from calling the police since you haven’t been gone long enough. They’ve been trying to track you down instead.”
"Didn’t mean to scare him," he whispered.
As Lucas had a scare recently, his family probably got jumpy when he didn’t check in and they couldn’t reach him.
“When you weren’t turning up anywhere else, he actually thought you might have gone back to work." Jack shrugged when Lucas bristled. "What else? You spend all day and night in your apartment, you don’t go out, you don’t do anything—"
"Alright thanks!" Though only minor embarrassment colored his scent, those red cheeks gave Lucas away.
"Where the hell were you?" Jack demanded.
"C-car trouble. It—at a—the car had trouble.”
"Shit, is Rhonda alright?" The man seemed more alarmed about his car Rhonda than he ever had been at something happening to Lucas.
“Yeah, she’ll be good as new. I’ll bring it, uh, her, back right after I talk to Dad.” Lucas indicated us, shuffling awkwardly on his feet. “I, uh, I found some help."
Jack looked towards us again, putting a hand over his face to help shield his eyes from the sun this time. His hand dropped. He jumped when the sun blinded him, nearly stumbling off the porch next as he forgot to step down off in his haste to come introduce himself.
“Guys, this is my cousin, Jack.” In comparison to his eager cousin, Lucas seemed resigned. “This is Chase and—"
"Hey, thanks for helping my cousin out.” He reached out to shake our hands, barely making contact with my partner’s before a hearty lingering shake with me.
Jack stood close enough to me he didn’t need to shield his face anymore as I blocked the sun for him. There was no hiding his deliberate interest. I smiled politely and stepped back.
“Hopefully Lucas wasn’t too much trouble,” Jack said. “Did he try to impress you with his secret agent routine?”
"What routine?” Temple wondered.
My mind flashed back to when we met. “Oh, you were serious about that secret agent thing?”
"No!" Lucas yelled on accident.
“No,” Jack laughed. “He’s a glorified bean counter. Guy sits behind a desk all day and crunches numbers. Or heused to.”
Lucas, not particularly the strongest or toughest guy, suddenly seemed capable of murder. He fumed silently while Jack carried on.
“How do you get into these predicaments? Aren’t you supposed to be a genius? Some people are all book smarts, it’s a miracle they survive.” He nodded to me like I was in on the joke. “You know what I’m talking about, right?”
"Uh…" Any answer could incriminate me, even using the fifth amendment rights that were supposed to protect me.
"Did you find the fishing rod?" Lucas wondered, doing a 180 from quietly murderous to helpful so fast we all suffered whiplash. “No, you’re empty handed. Let’s go track it down.” He headed off without looking back. “Come on, Jack!”
Jack lingered another few moments to talk to us—well, talking tome, but eventually he trudged in after Lucas.
They hadn’t been inside a full five seconds when Lucas popped back out, leaning against the door.
"Okay, this will just take a second," he informed us with a brittle smile, voice low. “Then we’ll head to work and see if we can catch my dad.”
"Nope, not happening.” I firmly put my foot down. “Thiswas our one stop."
"But—" Lucas stepped towards me until the door behind him began opening and he threw his body back against it. He was keeping his cousin inside while trying to argue with me. “You agreed to let me talk to my dad in person.”
