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“Two and a half years. I was mobile after twelve weeks, more or less, but not fully functional for six months. I still do PT every day. At this stage, I’m thinking it will be part of myroutine for the rest of my life. But those are the breaks—or the aftereffects of literal breaks.” She flashed him a smile. “Did you talk to your grandmother?”
The discussion about her accident was over, and her message was clear.
Don’t coddle me, and don’t feel sorry for me. Because I don’t feel sorryfor myself. I’ve accepted what happened and moved on.
She rose another few notches on his admiration meter.
“Yes. She was watching an old movie and told me not to hurry. She said there were plenty of leftovers from our dinners over the past couple of days and that she was going to make it an early night anyway.”
No need to tell Bri that Nan had probed for details about his unexpected plans for the evening or that she’d managed to nail them with her first guess. While the cancer treatments had slowed her down physically, they hadn’t put a dent in her intuitive powers.
“Did you tell her about the shooting?”
“No. She worries about me too much already. I keep assuring her my job isn’t as dangerous as she seems to think, but it’s a hard sell.”
“Understandable. Everyone knows any job in law enforcement is risky. More so these days.”
“Going grocery shopping at a mall can be too.”
“Sad but true. Few places are safe anymore.” The doorbell rang, and Bri set her Coke on the table beside her. “That’s the pizza. They were fast today.”
Before she could stand, he rose. “I’ll get it.” He deposited his soda on a side table and hustled toward the door, digging out his wallet as he entered the small foyer.
Tip money in hand, he unlatched the lock, twisted the knob—and found himself face-to-face with Bri’s brother.
Hard to tell who was more surprised, but Jack’s monumental jaw-drop gave him a slight edge.
After several charged seconds, the other man narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t expect to find you here. Especially after our conversation today. I thought you said the two of you weren’t dating.”
“We’re not.”
“Then what are you doing here on a Saturday night?”
“Getting ready to share a pizza with Bri.” He tried hard to restrain his amusement at Jack’s befuddlement.
“And that’s not a date?”
“Not a planned one. You want to come in? I’ll let Bri explain why—”
“Jack?” At Bri’s query, Marc turned to find her hovering on the threshold of the living room. “What are you doing here?”
Her brother lifted the bag in his hand. “Delivering your favorite frozen custard. After the week you had, I thought you could use a pick-me-up. But I see someone beat me to it.”
“This wasn’t planned.” Bri folded her arms.
“So I heard. I’m more interested in why you didn’t—”
“Stop.” She held up her hand. “Don’t give me a hard time for not calling you, okay? I’m fine.”
Jack squinted at her. “What are you talking about? I was referring to all my unanswered texts from this afternoon. Why wouldn’t you be fine?” He looked back and forth between the two of them. “What don’t I know?”
Whoopswas written all over Bri’s face as she came to the same conclusion Marc reached.
Despite his inside track to law enforcement news, her detective brother didn’t know about today’s shooting incident.
Should he step in or let her handle this?
Bri didn’t give him a chance to debate the pros and cons of those options. In a few pithy, rapid-fire sentences she told Jack the story.
