AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Holly’s desk was set next to a large glass door that opened to a hallway. I stood by the door, ready to head into my office, when I heard movement from the other end of the building.
“Hey, Fox!”
It was Andrew Barker, a cheery guy who was quickly becoming one of my closest friends. He had a way about him that just drew you in, made you feel like family from the jump. It was nice, especially since I was starting to forget what “family” even felt like.
“Andrew, morning.” I walked over to him, shaking his hand and taking him into a hug.
“You’re looking sharp today.”
Andrew stepped back, looking me over. He wasn’t wrong, that was for sure. I was wearing a blue, white, and mustard yellow striped shirt tucked into a pair of gray pants that fit me like a glove. I had gotten a haircut a few days ago and was wearing the new silver chain I had bought myself last month, as a sort of congratulations for my new job.
“Do I look dull on other days?”
He looked at me and cocked his head, a playful grin on his face. “Sorry. You’re looking extra sharp today.”
I laughed, always impressed at how quick Andrew was on his feet. He was a thinker, a problem-solver, and that was one of the reasons Zane had chosen him to run the Miami branch of his detective agency. I had a hunch he was looking into becoming a detective, but he also seemed more than happy with steering the Stonewall ship.
“Oh, you’ve got that interview today! Duh.” He was shaking his head, realization dawning on him. “The last detective to fill up our offices. How exccciitting!”
“If he does well in his interview,” I amended.
“He was good on the phone interview I had with him, but yeah, we’ll see what happens when the two of you go into a room together. It’s all about chemistry here. Even though you all work individual cases, I can’t have rivalries or fights breaking out. This is a family, and we’ll treat it like one.”
I nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with him. It felt good to hear, too.
A family.
God, it had been so long since I heard that word. Since I really felt a part of one. It used to be that my squadmates were my family, the guys I’d see day in and day out under conditions that none of us wanted to repeat. Those guys were my family, but even then, we all drifted once our deployment was over.
My blood family? Hah, those were gone years ago.
“Oh! Come with me, Fox. Let me show you the new plants I got for my office before your interview gets here.”
Andrew led me through a door and into a bright hallway with a couple of closed doors down its length, each with a frosted window set on the center and the name of the detective scrawled in a gold font across the glass. No one was working any cases except for me, so all the doors remained closed until we reached a door at the end of the hall, after a short turn to the right.
Andrew let me walk in first, into a spacious and comfortable-looking corner office. There was a sleek, modern filing cabinet with a row of potted hanging ivies sitting on the top, their dark green leaves falling down over the top cabinet. There were two open windows allowing the soft scent of salt to float in from the nearby ocean.
“Here, look at this little gem.” Andrew walked over to his sturdy desk and grabbed the dark gray stone pot. “This is an azalea bonsai. It’s supposed to be getting more pink flowers over time. I was thinking of getting a few for all the different offices, but I’m not sure if there are any magenta thumbs around here.”
“Magenta thumbs?” I grabbed the bonsai tree, admiring the twisting branches and trunk.
“Yeah, magenta’s the opposite of green on the color wheel. So if you’re a soul-sucking monster who can’t take care of a living being, then you’ve got a magenta thumb.” He cracked a smirk. “Plus, it sounds pretty gross, too. Like you got it caught in a door and now it’s all bulbous and purple. Figure it’s appropriate.”
I couldn’t help but laugh and handed back the bonsai tree. “Here, I don’t want to kill it with my magenta thumbs.”
“Oh, honey, no, you’ve got no thumbs. I’ve seen that poor little fern by your desk. We’ve only been here, what, two weeks? That thing looks like you took it to the desert and brought it back.”
I laughed, a loud, deep belly laugh. “Sorry, plants were never my thing.”
“That’s okay, they were never really my thing either until a few months ago. I was helping Deck with the landscaping at his new equine therapy facility. I literally didn’t go to sleep for about three days because I had fallen down a deep internet wormhole on all kinds of plants and flowers and how to take care of them.” He moved around to his desk and picked up a glass of water, bringing it over to a potted fern and dropping some water onto its parched dirt. “Example, did you know that you can put a thin layer of mayonnaise on plant leaves to make them look shiny? That’s how all those magazines and TV shows do it. Crazy, huh?”
