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“No.” I take the sheet and shove it into my back pocket for safekeeping, then looking to Tim, I lift a brow. “Why are you here?”
“True love. Valentine’s Day.” He throws his hand in the air. “Fuck knows. Mayet told me to be here, so this is where I am.”
“And you normally work blindly on someone else’s word?”
“Not typically,” he grumbles, “but I’m starting to wonder if she’s not all that normal.”
“She’s not.” I look to Aubree. “Why are you here?”
“Because she asked me to be.” Aubree doesn’t look at Tim. She doesn’t even do that side-eye thing she’s so practiced at.
If I didn’t know better, I’d wonder if she was completely oblivious to his existence.
“She told me it’s a special day, so I came.” Moving her attention to Minka, Aubree mumbles, “Can we get this done? I want to go home.”
“Actually, since you’re here.” Tim turns to face Aubree. “Can we have a—”
“No.” Aubree’s eyes remain on Minka. Her body and soul and every fiber of her being are focused on her boss. “No, we can’t have anything. But can we go inside already?”
“Inside where?” I huff. “What the fuck are we doing?”
“Not yet.” Minka steps closer to me, almost as though she’s coming in for a hug, but she actually reaches around and snags the paper from my back pocket. “We can’t go in until Fletch gets here. It’s important.”
“I’m here!” On cue, Fletch jogs along the sidewalk from the opposite direction we came. He carries Mia on his hip and heaves for breath as the girl giggles and thrills in the ride. “Did you do it already? Did I miss it?”
“Minka!” Mia throws her arms out, despite the twenty feet that separate them and us. “We’re here, Minka!”
“You’re totally here!”
Leaving me without a backward glance, Minka approaches Fletch and Mia, and when they’re close enough, she takes the girl for a hug that everyone in a five-mile radius can feel. It’s squishy and noisy, anddamn, but I wish it was me.
“You made it just in time, Moo. How are you today?” She bends back to study the girl’s face. Her frizzy hair. The ugly blue beanie I know belongs to Minka herself. “Are you good?”
“I’m good! Daddy said we could get hotdogs on a stick after this.”
“Good.” Carefree, stunning in the way she smiles, Minka presses a motherly kiss to Mia’s cheek. “Maybe Uncle Archer and I will come too. We’ll see.” Then she wrinkles her nose. “Uncle Archer is a bit crabby today, so we’ll have to play it by ear.”
“I’m not crabby,” I grumble. “I’m never crabby.”
“It’s yourbirfday, Uncle Arch! You can’t be cranky on yourbirfday.”
“I’m not cranky! I’m tired.” I glower and wait for Minka’s eyes. “I’m tired. I’m done with this. I want to go home.”
“See?” She looks back and tickles Mia’s neck. “He’s so cranky.”
“Mayet!” My temper alights, my shoulder burns, and we’re all really fucking public as we stand in the street and hope a sniper doesn’t take us out, one by one. “What are we doing here?”
“You’d know the answer if you opened your present.” With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, Minka sets a giggling Mia back in Fletch’s arms, then she comes around to me.
Her tone says she’s bored. Her expression says she’s sick of my shit. But the glint in her eyes says she’s about to fuck the world up and make things a million times worse.
“As you know, Archer, I’m quite friendly with the mayor. And the mayor just so happens to be pals with Judge Mistleforth.” Twisting, she waves toward the building we stand in front of. “Judge Mistleforth has time in their schedule to see us.”
“And why the fuck are we seeing a judge?”
Exhausted, I look to Tim, who throws his hands up, then to Fletch as he ducks to the side and snags a heap of weeds from the overgrown garden at his back. He hands the clump to Mia and winks when she giggles.
Bringing my gaze back to Minka, I stare deep into her eyes. “I’m sore, Mayet. I’m tired. I’m cranky as fuck, so how about you get to the—”
