“Shit. We need to head back to the house and see about cracking their phone passcodes.” I’d forgotten we needed to text people about the viewing.
“How are we going to do that?”
“I have no idea.”
When our tacos were ready, Avery was still in the cage, hitting round after round after round, so I got his to go. The entire drive back to the house, Avery was quiet. We both had a lot of questions with no answers.
“How about you and Easton grab some beers and play bocce ball while Brooke and I try to get into your mom’s phone?” I suggested, thinking he needed more stress relief.
Avery looked over at me as he put the car into park. “No, I can’t let you do that.”
I patted his knee. “I’m your wife. Let me do this for you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” We got out of the car. “Plus, Brooke and I are women. We kinda live for this thing.”
“What thing?”
I shut my door. “Finding shit out.”
Avery stared at me for a moment and then glanced at Easton, who was grabbing his and Brooke’s bags out of the trunk of the car. Avery looked back at me. “Okay.”
“Okay?” I asked, making sure I’d heard him correctly as I made my way around the hood of the car.
“Yeah. My heart can’t take all of this anymore. I thought we were coming to California to identify my parents and then bury them. I had no idea they were living some sort of a secret life.”
“Okay. We’ll go to Edna’s and see if she has a VCR. You and E—”
Avery walked to the front door, but then stopped and spun around. “Don’t watch the tape without me.”
“But you just said—”
“I know what I said.” He turned back and slipped the key into the lock, unlocking and opening the door with a groan. “My head’s fucked up. I don’t know what I want.”
I glanced back at our friends real quick and then back at Avery before walking into the house. “Okay. Brooke and I will see if Edna has a VCR, and ask her about the mystery man. But first we’ll try to get into your mom’s phone so we can text people about the viewing.”
“And bring us back In-N-Out?”
I balked. “You’re hungry?”
“No, but we will be,” he clarified.
“You have tacos.” I held up the bag.
He took it from me. “I’ll eat them now, but I’ll still be hungry for In-N-Out in a few hours.”
I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Fine, we’ll get you your In-N-Out after we find out all the info.”
“Good.”
My lips met his for a quick kiss. “We’ll be back.”
“Where are we going?” Brooke asked as I grabbed her wrist and started to go up the stairs.
“We have a mission.”
“A mission?” Brooke followed as I dropped her wrist.
