Roz leaned back. “But what if you got caught in that lie, and they came after you?”
Lois grinned, showing her elongated canines. “I’d tell them to bite me.”
The whole table laughed.
When the group quieted, Konrad stared at Wendell. “Did you mean what you said about offering me my job back?”
“Absolutely. The board discussed it as soon as we knew we could find you. You did a good job of disappearing.”
Konrad nodded. “I didn’t know if there would be more retribution, so I went completely off the radar. You knew where Nick was, though.”
“And your brother is one hundred percent loyal to you. He refused to give us any information. I mean, not one word. We didn’t know if you were dead or alive.”
Konrad nodded, slowly. “I swore him to secrecy. We had our own business, so I paid myself in cash and used my brother’s name on our business account. We purposely didn’t live close to each other.” He gave Roz a long, soft stare. “Now I’m glad I moved where I did, or I wouldn’t have met Roz, at least under the right circumstances.” He winked, and she grinned back at him.
Lois leaned toward her. “I was thinking of going to law school at some point. The school could use some free legal consultation from time to time. Tell us what it’s like to be a defense lawyer, Roz.”
She groaned. “To tell you the truth, I hate it. I’ve spent the last several months trying to think of something else I could do for a living.”
“Really? That’s too bad. What have you come up with?”
She and Konrad exchanged glances and chuckled.
“Oh, let’s see. We tried ballroom dancing. It turns out I’m a klutz with no timing, and I sprained my ankle. Then when I got better, we tried bartending. Same thing, only some guy was being a jerk to me, and Konrad got into a fist fight with him. We narrowly escaped being arrested by paying for the damage to the bar.”
The group laughed.
“Then there was skydiving,” Konrad added.
Roz heard a few gasps around the table. “It turns out you can’t jump before your instructor is ready. I kind of landed in the trees.”
Now the others were guffawing; some laughed until they had tears in their eyes.
“The icing on the cake, so to speak,” Roz said, “was when we took a cooking class, and I set my hair on fire.”
“I have to take responsibility for that,” Konrad said. “I was kissing and tickling her when I was supposed to be pouring oil into the pan. I wound up pouring it right onto the gas burner.”
“But look—” She turned her head and showed them how the stylist cut off the damage in such a clever way. “I got a cute new haircut out of it. I even talked to the stylist about what it would take to become a hairdresser.”
Lois looked directly at Wendell. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“I’m right there with you.” Wendell turned toward Roz and said, “I’d have to run it past the board, of course, but how would you like to be our new career counselor? We’ve talked about adding the position, and since you’ve experienced quite a few jobs, and you know what it takes to succeed in them—”
Lois piped up, “Plus we could use your legal expertise once in a while.”
Roz stared at Konrad open-mouthed. “It sounds perfect,” she whispered.
“Yes, it does.”
Wendell fidgeted. “There’s just one more thing, and we, ahem, need to know for sure.”
Konrad nodded as if he understood. “Show them your mark, angel.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t expected this request, but now that they’d asked, it made perfect sense. She’d need to know she was safe.
She removed her suit jacket and hung it over the back of her chair. After unbuttoning the top two buttons of her white blouse, she was able to slide it aside and expose her neck and shoulder. Even her wide bra strap didn’t cover it, so she left it where it was.
Everyone around the table smiled.
