“I’ve got goodies for both the judge and those rowdy rascals who keep her in line, so point me where you want me, and we can sit and get ourselves caffeinated and overindulged.” Flo pushed through the open front door right past Tess with her hands full of paper bags and a cardboard tray with two paper cups.
Once the cats were distracted with Flo’s treats, Tess and Flo settled at the kitchen table.
“Okay, time to talk. Tell me about Bree and you.”
“There is no Bree and me.”
“I thought you had a Saturday of whale watching, dinner, and dancing a week ago. It didn’t go well?” Flo set her coffee down and studied Tess.
Tess shook her head as the memories of that day slammed into her. “It was wonderful. Our connection. Our chemistry. That’s not the problem.” She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “Or maybe it is, at least part of it. She always seemed to pull back when we’d reach a certain point. When I thought things were going so well.”
“She broke up with you?”
“No.”
Flo raised her eyebrows. “This is going to be more interesting than I’d anticipated when I took a front row seat for this romance hoopla.”
Tess rolled her eyes at her friend. Hoopla? Crap, maybe she shouldn’t have agreed to this get-together.
“Oh, don’t get your thong in a twist. So, what can you tell me? What god-awful crime did this rare find of a woman commit, since it now appears thatyoubroke up with her?” Flo crossed her arms and leaned back.
“You’re already playing the role of judge, and you don’t even have all the facts.”
“Enlighten me.”
Tess cleared her throat in an effort to remove the lump that seemed to be residing there lately. “There are things I can’t tell you. Bree told them to me in confidence. But I’ll tell you what I can.”
Tess quickly recounted the bag incidents and Bree’s flat tires. Then she told Flo about the truck incident on Sunday night, on the way to meet Bree.
“Oh my God, Tess. You must have been terrified. I’d have probably run myself into a ditch. And that happened on your way to meet with Bree about…?”
Tess was careful to tread around the specific details of Bree’s involvement with the Commission, only disclosing that there had been sensitive information that Bree was privy to that she hadn’t previously shared with Tess.
“I’m not going to press, but blink three times and touch your nose if I’m close.” Flo chuckled. “I’d guess that before Sunday night, Bree did tell you all she could, but she didn’t tell you there was more. And Sunday, she told you the more.”
Tess nodded. Not much escaped Flo.
“You heard this from Bree just after you were almost run off the road by some scumbag trying to intimidate you, so when youwalked into your meeting with her, you were already a frazzled mess. Maybe a little anxiety transfer on your part?”
Jeez, now it was all her fault? Tess wasn’t going to address Flo’s rhetorical question.
Flo pursed her lips a moment. “And when you add up all the apparent bribery and intimidation stuff, and maybe even your shooting—unless I’m way off base, something unsavory must be going on at your courthouse.”
Tess nodded again.
“Hey, just call me Sherlock. And Bree seems to have insisted on no longer being bound by whatever that confidential agreement was in order to tell you whatever she disclosed. How unforgivable.” Flo’s sarcasm was accompanied by a gentle smile. At least she was finding a touch of levity in all this.
“I’ve felt like I’ve been on a roller coaster. Wanting her, getting closer, then her turning me down.” Tess shook her head at Flo. “She let me believe the reason for her hesitation was simply about all the changes in her life. I thought that if I could just give her some time…But it’s been about so much more. Not just her personal life. My professional life.”
“Ah. She not only got that thong of yours in a twist—that long black robe of yours is involved too.” Flo’s tone shifted from teasing to serious. “Can I suggest that you’re partially upset because Bree didn’t tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, Your Honor—with the emphasis on thewhole truthbecause I’m not really hearing that she lied to you.”
“I do understand why she couldn’t tell me about the Commission—I understand confidentiality. But I’ll admit it was a shock in the moment, added to the trauma on the road coming to the meeting.”
“I’d bet she trusts you—I’d bet she told you something on Sunday that somebody preferred she keep from you. Right?”
Tess nodded one more time and muttered, “Yes. She had toclear breaking confidentiality in order to tell me. And she told me that my safety was always a top priority in her decisions.”
“So did you overreact?” Flo asked.
