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Frankly, he'd been shocked she hadn't caught him yet, but he supposed she had more important things on her mind. She did look weary, her blond hair hanging limply around her shoulders.
Probably the stress of the case.
Or the stress of what had happened between them...
He shook his head, and when Jade slipped back inside he held his phone to his ear and said, "Hello?"
"Oh, hey, geez. I thought there was a problem with your phone or something," his sister Andy said. "Long time no talk."
"I know, I'm sorry. Things have been...crazy at work." He opted for the safest answer, but given the pause on the other side of the line, he didn't think Andy was buying it.
"Everything okay? Nothing dangerous?"
"You know me."
"That's why I have to ask," She sighed. "Look, there's something I wanted to tell you and it's too important to say over e-mail."
"They're retiring Logan's number?" He guessed. His sister's husband was one of the biggest stars in the baseball industry, running neck-and-neck with their brother, Matt, who'd started in the majors again this season and was already breaking records.
"Not yet. Matter of time on that one." He could hear the smile in her voice and his heart squeezed inside his chest.
He loved that sound. The smile that was always implied when Andy was talking about her husband. It was almost the same tone that he had when he talked about Jade. Or when Jade was speaking about him.
"Okay then, shoot. What's the big news?" he asked.
"Logan and I are expecting!" Her voice hitched on the last word and Derrick smiled despite everything else blowing up around him.
"I'm so happy for you, sis."
"Thanks. I just wanted to kind of sort of tell you in person. E-mail didn't seem good enough."
"No, I'm glad you called."
"Good." Andy said, and then went on, "so you going to tell me what's going on? I've heard you when things are stressful at work, and you sound different than that."
"Maybe you should be the detective." He laughed.
"Maybe. I bet I'd be damned good."
"Me too."
"So, come on. Spill. What's going on? You finally make a move on Jade or something?"
He was silent and then his sister's gasp filled the line.
"Oh. My. God."
"Don't. Come on."
"This is huge. I had a bet going with Matt and I'm going to win so much money."
"You had a bet going?" Derrick raised his eyebrows.
"Of course. You think we didn't notice what was going on? One month you're sending sentence-long emails and then the next you're typing paragraphs about the new girl at work?"
"She's not new—"
"Not anymore. Jeez. Wow." Andy let out a long breath, and then said, "Okay, so what happened?"
