“But…” Remi continues hesitantly.“I was wondering if I could maybe go to the firehouse to work on my truck for a bit.”
I suppress the firm and instinctive, “No,” wanting to slip out, remembering Mancuso’s gentle caution.Thinking about it for a moment, it’s probably a good way for him to find some distraction.Plus, he’ll have Clem right there to keep an eye on him.
“Yeah, okay.But I’m driving you.”
Clem
I movedthe Civic I worked on into the parking lot for pickup, and am just closing the overhead doors against the snow starting to blow in earnest, when Tessa’s Jeep pulls into an empty spot.
I knew Remi was supposed to come home today, but I’m still surprised to see him getting out of his mother’s ride.
I’m waiting with the regular door open and wave them inside.
“Hey, kid.Good to see you.”
“Hey,” the boy mumbles in response, his eyes fixed on the floor at his feet.
“Hope this is okay?”Tessa asks tentatively.“He was hoping to get his hands dirty on the truck.”
Ignoring Remi, I hook Tessa around the neck and pull her in for a firm kiss.
“Hey to you too,” I mumble against her hair as I quickly breathe in her scent before letting her go.
“You know where everything is; what are you waiting for?”I prompt the boy, whose eyes I find fixed on us now.
When he moves to the coat hooks just outside my office, the dog pokes her head out to investigate.When Remi spots her, he freezes in the middle of shrugging out of his coat.
“That’s Mouse,” I call out.“She’s mine and she looks fiercer than she is.”
The kid still doesn’t move as Mouse inches closer, wagging that tail of hers and smiling her smile; which I only now realize could easily be misinterpreted as snarling.Tessa catches on to her son’s unease too and immediately joins him, sinking down on her haunches and giving the dog a proper greeting.Mouse sticks her smiling face in the air and gyrates her body as she’s getting some good scratches.
“She’s a sweetheart,” Tessa mumbles to Remi as she gets to her feet, takes his coat off the rest of the way, and hangs it on an empty hook.
He cautiously offers Mouse the back of his hand, which she proceeds to slobber enthusiastically.The kid cracks a smile as he tries to wipe it on his jeans.Then he crosses the shop to his truck, which I’d tarped up for the time being.Mouse follows on his heels and plops down beside the engine block, where she can keep an eye on him.
Guess she found herself a new buddy.
“I was just heading upstairs to grab a drink, wanna come up?”I direct at Tessa.“Or do you have stuff to do?”
She grins.“I’ll never run out of stuff to do, but I wouldn’t mind another coffee.I never quite got to finish my second cup of the day.”
“It’s really coming down good,” she comments, looking out my kitchen window a few moments later.
“Shouldn’t last too long though,” I supply as I drop a pod in the coffee maker.“It’s supposed to be only a couple of inches and blow over by late afternoon.”
“I hope so.Linc and a few friends drove out to Newport to catch a matinee at the Roxy.I don’t want them coming back in a blizzard.”
The Roxy is the closest movie theater there is, other than the summer viewings in the park here in Silence a few of the local vendors organize every month between June and September.Newport is about a forty-five-minute drive from here, right on the border with Idaho, where the Pend Oreille River crosses into Washington State.
“They should be good by the time the movie gets out,” I reassure her.“But we’ll keep an eye out.If it looks like it won’t let up, I can always go get them.”
“Stop being so dang perfect,” she complains, but she does it smiling.“You’re making me look bad.”
The coffee machine gurgles its final drops and I quickly add some cream and sugar to Tessa’s mug before I bring it over to her.
“I wouldn’t be able to if I tried,” I share as she takes her first sip and moans a little.“But you shouldn’t be making noises like that, not unless you want me to?—”
The loud overhead ringing of my business phone cuts me short.Kyle is off this afternoon and Manuel is downstairs, welding a new muffler under a RAV4, so I should probably get that.
