"You good?" Brim said.
"Good. Where are we on Saturday?"
"Saints confirmed at thirty-two. Pecos Devils hauling from Odessa, seventeen men, on the road by six Friday." A pause. "Detour volunteered for the ride-out route."
"Tell him no."
"Told him no twice. He keeps volunteering."
"Tell him I'll run the route from the truck and he can ride sweep where I can see him."
Brim made the sound he made when a problem had been solved to his satisfaction. "Cricket says you've got a situation with a nurse."
"Cricket talks too much."
"Cricket is accurate. You coming Saturday or are you going to keep convalescing?"
"On-site by noon." And he was gone.
I came back inside. Whitley had two bowls out and a cereal box in each hand: Froot Loops in one, Frosted Flakes in the other, milk already on the table.
I looked at the boxes. "I'd have put you at bran flakes. Oats, maybe."
She set them down. "I am a trauma nurse. I have seen things no human being should see before seven a.m." She pulled out her chair. "I have earned my Froot Loops."
"Fair point." I reached for the Frosted Flakes and sat.
She poured her bowl with the same focus she'd been giving everything since she walked in her door, and I thought: yeah. That's my woman.
"Trouble?" she asked, chin tipping toward my phone.
"Volunteer situation." I poured my own bowl. "One of my guys keeps putting himself forward to run the ride-out route. Nobody wants that."
"Why not?"
"Last time he navigated, we ended up on a county road the county stopped maintaining in 2019."
She considered that over a spoonful. "And he keeps volunteering anyway."
"Detour operates on enthusiasm over evidence. Brim, our president, put him on permanent no for route-running. Detour filed that as a standing challenge."
"How many men are we talking about?"
"Three clubs. Forty-nine confirmed."
We worked through the cereal without needing to fill the quiet, which was its own kind of thing. Outside the mockingbird ran its morning set.
"Where is it?" she asked, after a moment.
"Outside Bandera." I watched her face. "Hill Country in May, darlin'. Live music, good brisket, bluebonnets still going if we're lucky." I let the drawl go warmer. "You know exactly what it's like. Offer still stands."
She pointed her spoon at me. "Your brisket better be as good as you say it is."
I'd take it.
The morning went steady after that. She had things to do and I found things to do that didn't involve lifting, which put us in the same orbit without requiring a plan about it. She was reorganizing the top shelf of the hall closet when I came past, balanced on her toes, two inches short of where she needed.
I reached over her head and set the box where she wanted it.
