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“Are you okay?” Harlan asked urgently.
“I’m fine. Just needed a little quiet time.”
“Oh?” Harlan asked slyly and she nearly choked. He thought she was on a date.
“I’m working, Pop. But wait.” They’d gotten sidetracked. “Who’s there?”
“Joel Haley and his friend Sam Reeves.” The way he said Sam’s name was the same as how he’d said Oh?, but she wasn’t going to touch that with a ten-foot pole. Harlan could always tell when she was avoiding a truth.
Kit pulled the phone from her ear long enough to glance at her messages. She had several from both Joel and Sam and a few from Baz. “Are they causing you any trouble?”
Dr.Scott turned to give her a concerned look, but she shook her head. It’s fine, she mouthed and he dropped his eyes back to his notes.
“Oh, they’re no trouble at all,” Harlan said. “Your mother is feeding them pie. Says Dr.Reeves looks a little peaked.”
Kit snorted. “He does not.” Sam Reeves looked very healthy, his body toned and his skin lightly tanned from camping in the freaking desert.
“Oh?” Harlan repeated, back to sly.
“Pop. Tell Joel I’ll call him in a few minutes.”
“Or you could come out for pie, too.”
“Yes!” Betsy called in the background. “I didn’t get to talk to her last time. She fell asleep. Tell her to come and see her mother.”
Kit wanted to be irritated but could never find it in her when the McKittricks were involved. “Tell her I’ll be back soon. Is Rita okay?”
“She’s sitting at the table with them.” He lowered his voice. “Asking questions about her mother’s case. She knows, Kitty-Cat. About her mother’s pregnancy.”
“Dammit. Did Joel tell her?”
“No. She heard it at school. Some reporter—not Tamsin Kavanaugh this time—was digging into the arrest of a city councilman and saw the pregnancy on Maria Mendoza’s autopsy report.”
Regret cut deep. “I should have told her. I would have,” she added helplessly, “but she fell asleep.” And then she’d had to leave. To work.
Maybe Dr.Scott really did have a point. She did work too much. Especially this time of year. Dammit. She hated admitting the shrink was right.
“I think she knows you would have. You can tell her when you see her.”
“I’ll come by tomorrow. Can you put Joel on the phone?”
A few seconds later Joel was there. “Hey, Kit.”
“I’m at the station. By the time I get to Mom and Pop’s, it’ll be close to ten and then we’ll both have to drive south. Can we meet at my place to talk?”
“Sure. Did you eat dinner? Your mother is asking.”
Kit chuckled. “Tell her that I’d love anything she gives me.”
“I will. We’ll meet you at your place. Still on the marina?”
We. He was with Sam. Who Kit really didn’t want to see again so soon.
For reasons she didn’t want to dissect.
“Yep,” she said, managing to keep from sounding awkward. She hoped. “Same slip. I need to talk to my dad again.”
Harlan’s voice came through the phone again. “Kitty-Cat. We hoped you’d come by, but it is late. You’ll be going to sleep soon, right?” He sounded so hopeful.
