Rock Chick

Chapter Fourteen Was He Makin’ A Call?

Upon impact, the airbags blew out.

I sat in a daze for a few seconds, my mind automatically doing a body inventory to assess any damage. When I realized that I was okay, I pulled back from the airbag and asked, “Everyone all right?”

Ally mumbled something, there was a grumble from the backseat and my door was wrenched open.

I saw a penknife puncture the bag, which deflated immediately. A hand was at my chest to hold me back against the seat so I didn’t crumple forward with the loss of the airbag. Not that my seatbelt was going to let me go anywhere, it had contracted on impact and my chest was killing me. Lee was crouched in the door beside me.

“You okay?” he asked, though he was finding out for himself, his hands running along my limbs, his eyes doing a body scan, searching for blood or bones protruding through my skin. In the lights illuminating the vacant lot, I could see his face was pinched with anger and concern.

Hank was on the other side, Ally’s bag was flat and he was doing the same thing.

“Yeah. I think so,” I told Lee.

“We need to get them free of the car,” Hank told Lee.

Lee reached across me and undid my buckle. He helped me out and walked me well away from the car toward the street. I used this time to pull my head together, take stock of the new aches and pains coming my way, flip my cell shut and slide it back in my pocket.

Ally and Tex were standing five feet away, Tex stomping his feet for some reason looking like he was doing a war dance without moving his arms. There was a blood stain at the shoulder of his sling. Luckily, that was the only blood on any of us.

I decided in an instant I was going to kill them both.

“You’re both nuts!” I shouted, charging forward, intent on murder or at the very least, maiming. “You could have killed us!”

I’d made it two strides before an arm snagged around my middle, hooking me and jerking me back. I slammed against Lee’s body but still struggled forward, pumping my arms and stamping my feet.

“I can’t believe, cannot believe, you just did that,” I shrieked at Ally “You’re crazy. Totally gonzo! What were you thinking?” I shouted.

“He was gonna get away,” Ally shouted back.

“Who cares!” I screamed.

“I care!” Ally screamed back.

“It wasn’t very smart,” Hank interjected his understatement in an angry voice. In fact, his voice, his face and his body screamed not only anger, but barely controlled fury.

Ally glared at me, her head swung to Hank and then she blew out a breath of pure exasperation.

“He shot at Indy! Twice! He kidnapped her. I’m not gonna let him get away. Give me a fucking break. I’m a Nightingale. If either of you…” she pointed to Hank then to Lee, “were sitting in a car and saw the opportunity, you’d take it without a thought. What? I can’t because I’m a girl?”

Okay, she had a point there.

I stopped struggling to get at her.

“And you,” she pointed to me, “someone did those things to me or your Dad or any of us, and you were behind the wheel of a car and had a chance to nab him, would you even hesitate?”

Hmm, another excellent point.

I bit my lip.

Being caught up in the events of the last several days, I had not stopped to consider how the people I loved, who loved me, felt about everything that was happening.

So I put my foot in the other shoe and the feeling it gave me was overpowering. Tears came up my throat and I swallowed them back.

“Ally, girl,” I whispered.

Ally wasn’t done. “I’m not a badass cop or a badass…” she stared at Lee, “whatever-you-are but if I get the chance to do my bit, I’m gonna do it. I mean, that guy interrupted ‘No More Tears’. Burgundy and Indy were kicking ass up there. Something had to be done!”

“I think you made your point,” Lee said from behind me. His arm was still around me tight.

A car angled into the lot and Dad, Malcolm and Kitty Sue were there.

Malcolm charged out of the car, assessed that his loved ones were breathing and healthy and then roared at Ally, “Tell me you didn’t just participate in a high speed chase!”

“We’ve covered this ground,” Hank said.

Lee let me go and turned me into Dad’s arms. Dad held me and kissed my forehead.

“You okay?” Dad asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

A squad car angled in and Jorge and Carl were there. Carl shot out of the car, his face angry.

“Have you lost your mind?” he shouted at Ally.

It obviously wasn’t going to be Ally’s night.

Though I had to admit I found it a tad interesting how upset Carl was.

Hmm.

Jorge came out slower, his face set and showing little emotion. He approached Lee, Dad and me.

“I don’t know what’s goin’ on, Nightingale, but you should consider putting Indy in a safe house until it’s over,” Jorge remarked.

Lee made no comment to this. Ally and Carl were shouting at each other and Dad was holding on tight. Lee and Hank started making phone calls, Jorge got out his notebook and we all made statements.

Lee put me in the Crossfire after a wrecker came in to tow Ally’s Mustang. Carl sat in the car, the radio microphone in his hand, calling in a report. Tex was going with Carl and Jorge who were taking him back to the hospital to get re-stitched up. Ally and Hank were catching a ride with Malcolm back to BJ’s to pick up Hank’s SUV.

I waved to everyone as Lee pulled away, heading north on Broadway.

“I don’t want to go into a safe house,” I told Lee.

“You’re in a safe house, the condo’s safe. You just keep leaving it.”

I didn’t like the way he said the second sentence.

“Are you thinking of cuffing me to the bed again?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

Great.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Thinkin’ about it isn’t the same as doin’ it. You’re a security challenge. I have to keep you safe while not lowering my chances of gettin’ into your sexy underwear, or, more to the point, gettin’ you out of them.”

I thought it likely that Lee was up to that challenge. At least I hoped so.

“By the way, nice performance back there. I especially liked the part where you kicked the guy in the chest. Class.”

Great.

At least his voice sounded a mixture of amused and admiring.

When we got to the condo, Lee let us in and I told him I had to do the round of calls to make sure everyone was all right.

I stood on the balcony with my phone and without me having to ask, Lee brought me three ibuprofens and a glass of water. He watched as I guzzled them, took the glass and then disappeared.

Holy shit.

He was very good at this togetherness stuff.

I called Tod and Stevie first.

They were home, safe and sound and maybe a little freaked out but not mad at me. At least Tod wasn’t, he was more interested in dissecting our act on stage.

“Girlie, we kicked ass. They were on their feet. They were chanting. We gotta go shopping, we gotta get you some mini-Burgundy outfits. We gotta take this show on the road!”

Andrea and Marianne were also safe, though Andrea’s husband said she wasn’t allowed to go out with me anymore which caused a fight as no one ever told Andrea what she was allowed to do. No one. Richie Sambora, the great and glorious lead guitar of Bon Jovi and Andrea’s dream man could have given her an order and she would have told him to go fuck himself.

Duke thought it was a hoot, Dolores was considering backing out of girl’s night out on Wednesday.

I flipped my phone shut and walked into the bedroom. Lee was in the same position he’d been in last night, in bed, on his back, chest bare, sheet nearly to the waist. The light was on but this time, he didn’t have a book and he was fast asleep.

I’d never really had the time to observe him while he was asleep and he looked different. He looked kind of like the old, pre-Special Ops Lee, the hardness and scariness gone, just… Lee.

I wanted to kiss him, as in really wanted to kiss him. He looked good, lying there sleeping. Seriously good. Melt in your mouth good.

Instead I cleaned my face, brushed my teeth and pulled on the Night Stalker tee. I double checked the door was locked and the sliding doors to the balcony were secured. I tiptoed to Lee’s side of the bed, switched off the light and then went to my side of the bed and slid in carefully, so as not to wake him.

I told myself over and over again that I was not going to kick or hit Lee in his sleep. This helped me force out thoughts of bullets flying and how totally out of control my life was.

I woke up to a hand in my panties, cupping my ass and another one under my shirt, stroking the side of my breast. I was sprawled half-on, half-off Lee, my face tucked into his neck.

“You awake?” he asked.

I nodded, sleepily assessing my semi-aroused state.

His hand moved immediately to cup my breast, his thumb sliding across the nipple. An electric pulse shot through me and the “semi” part of my semi-aroused was a distant memory.

My head tilted to look at him and say something like, “coffee”, “toothpaste” or “more” and his mouth came to mine.

He hauled me up so I was sprawled fully on him, his hand moved out of my underwear and both hands went up my sides, his mouth disengaged with mine, and then, whoosh, the Night Stalker tee was gone.

I was skin-on-skin with Lee. I felt a moment of elation mingled with extreme panic and before I could decide which one to give reign to, I was flipped over on my back and Lee was on me.

At first he was kissing my mouth, his hands everywhere, skimming, gentle and arousing. Then his mouth left mine, went to my neck, my throat, my breasts, my belly, following his hands and then…

Yikes!

My hips jerked in shock as he kissed me there, his mouth moving over my panties.

“You okay?” he mumbled against me.

I mumbled back, “Yes,” but my mind said, Yes, yes, a thousand times, YES!

His fingertips went into the waistband of my underwear and I knew we were close, very, very close. Or, at least, I was close. Panic fled and elation and arousal took firm control and my hands moved, my fingers delving into his hair.

Then the door buzzer went, three quick shots, three longer ones, three quick ones.

Lee immediately stopped what he was doing and came up over me.

“Fuck!” he exploded, “God, I’m sorry. Really sorry.”

He got up and stalked naked from the room.

I laid there, half-naked and fully in shock.

Foiled again.

What kind of luck was that? Was this divine intervention?

I rolled, felt my aching body cry out in belated protest, grabbed my discarded tee from floor and pulled it on. By the time I got it down, Lee was back in the room.

“One of my men has been shot,” he told me.

All aches and pains fled and I jumped out of bed.

“Oh my God.”

“Bobby and Matt are comin’ up, I’ve got to jump in the shower. Let them in, will you?” and he disappeared into the bathroom.

I ran to the kitchen, tore through the cupboards and set the coffee to running when there came a knock at the door.

I looked out the peephole and let Bobby and Matt in.

They looked grim.

“You guys okay?”

Nods, no words.

“Who is it? How is he?”

“He was wearin’ a vest, amour piercing bullets.” This was all Matt said. This was all Matt needed to say.

“Oh no.” I scrambled through the kitchen. Lee had a collection of travel coffee mugs, definitely a man-on-the-go, not one that hangs around and sips his coffee. I yanked three down and asked, “Have you had breakfast? Do you want breakfast? I can make some quick toast.”

“Not hungry,” Bobby forced through stiff lips.

We all stood there staring at each other. I couldn’t stand not doing anything so I pulled the coffeepot out, wedged a travel mug under the spout, and filled the other two mugs with coffee. I was screwing on the tops when Lee came in, hair wet and freshly shaved.

“Let’s roll,” he said and Matt and Bobby started moving.

I handed out coffee, yanking the last mug out from under the spout and tossing the pot back underneath, trailing behind Lee while I screwed on the top.

“This one isn’t full,” I told Lee at the door, feeling stupid and useless.

“That’s okay.” He grabbed it.

“Call me when you know something.”

He bent to kiss me quickly and then he was gone.

While Stevie and I were packing up Burgundy the night before, Lee had gone over to my house and grabbed my bag. He’d brought it up to the condo last night. This was good, I had new clothes to wear and as it was early, I could get to Fortnum’s and help open. The Monday coffee crush would take my mind off Lee’s current activities and the fears that were encroaching that whoever-this-guy-was got shot doing something to help me.

I’d take Lee’s Crossfire, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t mind.

I showered, sucked down coffee and ibuprofen, decided to let my hair dry by itself, slapped on some happy makeup and tried not to look at the shiner which was finally fading. I pulled on my yellow t-shirt that had a picture of Starsky and Hutch’s car, the Striped Tomato, emblazoned across the chest. I yanked on faded jeans, my red belt and red cowboy boots and eased myself down to the garage.

I was sure the Crossfire was absolute heaven to drive but my mind was filled with too much garbage to process it. I didn’t know if the cops had caught Pepper Rick last night. I didn’t like considering Lee, man of action, stuck in a hospital waiting room and what he might learn when the wait was over. I didn’t want to think of what the day might bring.

It was ten past seven, we opened at seven thirty and as I drove up, I saw Jane standing outside the store looking at the sidewalk. I parked the Crossfire right out front and got out, my eyes on Jane who hadn’t moved.

Then I looked to where she was staring and stopped dead.

Pepper Rick was lounging in the doorway to Fortnum’s. It opened onto the corner, at an angle, and he was sprawled, butt and back to the sidewalk, shoulders and what was left of his head resting against our door. He was dead, dead, dead, just like Tim Shubert except there weren’t any splattered brains.

“Jane, honey, step away from there,” I said quietly.

She was frozen still and I noticed she had her cell phone in her hand.

“Jane,” I said a little more loudly, trying to get her attention.

She jumped, her cell came out of her hand, flew end over end through the air and landed on Pepper Rick’s chest, clattering down to rest by his hand.

We both watched the cell fly, land and settle.

“Oops,” Jane said and I think I saw her make the mental decision to get a new phone.

I dug my cell out of my purse, considered who to call and settled on Hank.

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Um, it’s Indy. I hate to tell you this but there’s a dead guy lounging in the doorway to Fortnum’s.”

Silence.

Duke rounded the corner and Jane and my eyes turned to him, his face began to light with greeting, his eyes flicked down and he stopped short.

“Fuckin’ hell!” he boomed.

“Duke just arrived,” Hank said in my ear.

“Yep.”

“I’ll get someone on it, do we know this dead guy?”

“Well, I don’t have to worry about being kidnapped again.”

Hank disconnected and Duke looked at me.

“Was he makin’ a call?”

I wanted to laugh, then before that thought fully formed, I decided I wanted to cry. Seeing as crying wasn’t an option for me because I wasn’t a sissy, I decided I wanted to scream.

In fifteen minutes, the place was surrounded by cops including Hank, Dad and Malcolm and the scene was taped. Gawkers and coffee customers were being directed away by uniforms.

I stood off to the side and scrolled down my phonebook to Lee and hit his number.

“Everything okay?” he said as a greeting.

“You’ve heard from your office,” I replied, thinking the mysterious forces behind his commando cartel had already alerted to my latest adventure.

“Heard what from my office?”

Oopsie.

“Well, I don’t want to disturb you but I thought I should tell you before your office hears it on police-band. Pepper Rick’s dead body was propped into the doorway of Fortnum’s this morning.”

Silence, then, “A present.”

“What?”

“I’ll be there soon.”

“Lee, you don’t have to…” but he’d disconnected.

Jimmy Marker walked up to me and after asking a few questions he wiped his eyes with his hand.

“Indy, tell me you aren’t keepin’ anything from me.”

After Tex got shot, I told Jimmy everything at the hospital, about Rosie, the pot, the diamonds, Terry Wilcox, everything. Well, not everything, I left out my B and E, so almost everything. I had nothing left to tell and if Jimmy was getting frustrated and impatient, he should step into my shoes.

“Jimmy, I may be crazy but I’m not stupid and whatever you think, I know right from wrong. I told you all I know at the hospital.”

Dad walked up to me and slung an arm around my shoulders.

“I just want to know why you’re the focal point of all of this,” Jimmy said.

“I’d like to know that too,” Dad said.

“Well, when you find out, tell me because this is beginning to piss me off!” As I talked, my voice rose and I was screaming by the end.

Jimmy took a step back and a bunch of heads swung in my direction.

I saw an SUV double park and Lee slid from behind the wheel. His eyes were on me but Malcolm and Hank stopped him before he could make his way to me.

“I take it you know what’s going on,” I said to Dad, taking my eyes off Lee.

“What there is to know. Cops talk, you’re my daughter. Jimmy’s keeping me briefed.”

“Why haven’t you said anything?”

“I trust Liam to sort it out and I trust you to do the right thing.”

Simple as that.

Dad was cool, Dad had always been cool. Somewhere in the last couple of days, Lee had been given Dad’s blessing. Probably when I started to have certain incidents, incidents the like of which any father would want Liam Nightingale to be his daughter’s boyfriend.

I walked to the Nightingale huddle. Malcolm had his back to me, Lee and Hank were at his sides, their backs mostly to me.

As I walked up, I heard Malcolm say, “Hank, I know you use Lee to do the shit that’d get your hands dirty and Lee, I know you play the game pretty loose. I let you boys play it the way you feel you need to ‘cause, so far, whatever deal you got goin’ works. But I don’t like what I’m smellin’ and…”

Lee’s head turned and he looked at me out of the corners of his eyes.

“Indy,” he said and I think he said this more to Malcolm than to me.

All the Nightingale men turned to me and whatever was happening stopped.

Great. Whatever. Fine by me.

I walked up to Lee and stopped, though not close enough for his liking because his hand came out and curled around my neck, pulling me into his side. Hank, Dad and Malcolm moved off.

“How’re you doin’, gorgeous?” he asked me.

“I’m losing my patience. This is getting old,” I told him. “How’s your man?”

“No word, I have to get back to the hospital. I see you confiscated the Crossfire.”

“Do you mind?”

“Nope.”

I turned into him and put my hand on his stomach.

“Your man, he wasn’t doing… something… for me?”

Lee’s hand around my neck twisted and he tugged softly at my hair.

“A different assignment, nothin’ to do with you or the diamonds.”

I felt a tremendous relief. I already had Tex’s injury, Ally’s totaled car and everyone else’s worry resting on my shoulders, I didn’t need something else. Then I looked at Lee and realized all that, plus whatever this new thing was, still rested firmly on his.

“You need to go,” I said.

“Yeah.”

I started to pull away but his hand dropped, his arm curled around my shoulders and turned me into him, full-frontal.

“With Rick out of the way, you should be safe but you need to be careful. Coxy isn’t a threat but he’s a wildcard.”

I nodded.

“I want to come home to you,” he said.

My breath disappeared. I didn’t suck it in and I didn’t let it out, it just vanished.

I did a mental shake and got myself together.

“Sorry?”

“Tonight. I’ll phone you when I’m on my way. All you need to get you into the parking garage and condo is on the Crossfire’s key ring. Even after Luke gets out of surgery, I’ve got things to do but when I come home tonight, I want you to be there.”

I only hesitated a second. “Okay.”

He looked at me for awhile, his eyes got soft and he said, “I’m sorry about this morning.”

“It couldn’t be helped.”

“We’ll finish tonight.”

Finally, something to look forward to.

Duke made six big posters, taping them in all the big windows, announcing Fortnum’s was closed. Hard to open with police tape stretched across your front door.

Thank God I didn’t have a mortgage.

I had the day yawning ahead of me and no bodyguard following my every step.

It felt weird.

I went to Tex’s to give him an update and help him with the cats. He’d been re-stitched and let go last night. I wasn’t sure what his reaction would be Pepper Rick’s demise, I guessed jubilation, but was wrong.

“We live, we die,” he said.

Philosophical.

Cats fed, litter boxes cleaned, laser lights jiggled on the walls, I headed to Kumar’s to stock up on stuff for the condo and have a gossip. He wasn’t there but I had a chat with Mrs. Kumar who was behind the counter with Mrs. Salim motionless on a stool behind her. I thought, but did not say, that they might do better business if it didn’t look like a mummy was propped up behind the cash register. Then I worried if God would strike me with lightening for such a thought.

I got my bits and pieces from Mrs. Kumar and headed to Ally’s.

She made me coffee and gave me more ibuprofen.

“I know about the dead guy. Dad called Mom, Mom called me. You okay?” she asked.

“I’m getting tired of this.”

“I bet.”

“What are you doing today?” I asked.

“Laying low, I got a shift tonight.”

Ally now worked at My Brother’s Bar down by Platte River. They’d been around long enough for the wooden tables and walls to look weathered and worn, they had the best bar food in Denver, members of the symphony hung out there after performances and they pulled an excellent pint of Guinness.

“I was beginning to think you’d quit,” I told her.

“No, had a shift the night you got kidnapped but apparently it’s cool to call off when your best friend is being held hostage.”

“Good to know.”

She offered a manicure and pedicure and I took her up on it. I returned the favor by washing and styling her hair. I would have gone to beauty school if I hadn’t inherited Fortnum’s. Since I’d hit teenage status, I always gave good hair. With Ally, it wasn’t hard to give good hair, her hair was soft and thick with just enough wave, it never looked bad.

“How’re things with Lee?” she shouted over the hairdryer as I was roller brushing her hair.

“I’m totally freaking out,” I shouted back.

“I sensed that.” She was still shouting.

I turned off the hairdryer and looked at her. “He’s good at this stuff.”

“What stuff?”

“Relationship stuff. He’s a natural. It’s weird, we’re new and we’re old. I can’t get my head around it.”

“He’s shit at relationship stuff. He’s only good at it because it’s you.”

“Sorry?”

“You’re shit at it too, but only because it was never him.”

Uh-oh, Ally was on her you-two-were-meant-for-each-other kick.

I turned the hairdryer back on, subject closed.

After visiting Ally, I went home, cleaned my house, went through my mail and watered my yard and flowers. Then I watered Tod and Stevie’s. Then I went to their front door and knocked.

Stevie answered then looked beyond me in case he could see a sniper.

“I watered your flowers,” I told him.

“That’s nice.”

“I’m sorry about last night.”

“I’m not sure I forgive you, though Tod says you threw yourself on top of him to protect him from bullets so I guess I’m not so mad. Tod thought it was a blast. Says it reminded him of home.”

“The way Tod tells it, I don’t think I want to go to Texas.”

Stevie didn’t say anything.

“Anyway, it’s easy for Tod to say it was a blast, he was protected a foot deep by foam rubber.”

We both knew bullets would tear through Tod’s rubber.

I kept talking, I knew Stevie was mad and somehow couldn’t help myself.

“The dead body of the guy who started it was set in the front door of Fortnum’s this morning.”

Stevie’s eyes widened.

Okay, so now I was beginning to let the shock of it all wear through me. Not to mention, Stevie was mad at me and I didn’t like people I cared about being mad at me. It wasn’t my fault even though it felt like it was. Tears sprang into my eyes.

“Talk to you later,” I said.

“Girlie, you’re a mess, get in here.”

He yanked me inside, gave me a drink and sat me on the sofa. I let it all hang out, including the fact that even though we’d get closer each time, Lee and I hadn’t done it yet.

Stevie listened, hugged me occasionally, got me tissues when the tears threatened to spill and cast no judgment. Then he took me home, snapped through the hangers in my closets, opened and closed boxes of shoes until he found what he was looking for, all the while he communicated His Plan.

While Stevie walked me to the Crossfire, he told me that Tod was at Denver International Airport, he had a flight and wouldn’t be back for a few days. Stevie was leaving late the next morning to do the same and asked me to look after Chowleena while he and Tod were gone.

“If I need to take her to Lee’s, would that be a problem?” I asked.

“Just write us a note.”

Then, like a fairy godfather (pun intended), he waved me off on my errands that would eventually end with Lee.

I went to Cherry Creek and popped into Linens ‘n Things. I grabbed a few necessities and went over to Fresh and Wild, got the stuff I needed for the night and added a few things for the morning and just in case my stay at the condo was even longer, carted it all, plus the stuff from Kumar’s store, the dress and the shoes, up to Lee’s condo.

I dumped everything in the kitchen and living room and started work. I made the chocolate cream pie first, then prepared the au gratin potatoes, topped them with aluminum foil ready to put in the oven. I trimmed the green beans ready to be blanched. I left the steak in the fridge, I could broil it in ten minutes and Lee told me he’d phone when he was coming.

I set the table and put out the placemats and cloth napkins circled with napkin rings that I bought at Linens ‘n Things. I tried to buy the most macho placemats, napkins and rings I could find, as they would be adorning Lee’s table, but they didn’t really do macho in that kind of retail.

In the center of the table I placed the high, tapered candles in silver candle holders I also bought. I arranged the flowers I got at Fresh and Wild in the vase I purchased. I got out the deep bowled glasses I’d noticed in Lee’s cupboards and, as a finishing touch, I put the expensive bottle of red wine between them on the dining room table.

I didn’t exactly need to plan a seduction but a little romance never hurt, or at least that’s what Stevie said. And anyway, Lee was running himself ragged. I knew he liked steak, au gratin potatoes and chocolate cream pie. Kitty Sue made it for him every birthday, he deserved a treat and maybe after I gave him one, he’d give one to me.

I went into the bedroom with dress and shoes and stared at the chair. Both my bags were gone. I did a check in the closet and a couple of drawers. Not only were my clothes put away, the dirty ones were cleaned, ironed and also hung in the closet or were folded in the drawers. I looked around the room and the bed was made with fresh sheets, the carpets freshly vacuumed.

Obviously Monday was a Judy the Housekeeper Day.

I did the whole girlie thing, going overboard with full, wild Tawny Kittaen hair, the front pulled loosely back in a clip and dark makeup on my eyes. I put on the dress Stevie chose, black satin, thin strapped, skimming my body in a clingy, but not obvious, way, decent cleavage but the kicker was a killer dip in the back. I put on Rock Chick sandals, high, death-defying, thin heel with so many straps, you had to wrap some of them up your calves. Subtle perfume, no jewelry because, in the heat of the moment, who wanted to waste time taking off jewelry?

It was getting late, so I slid the au gratin potatoes in to cook, even if Lee was really late, I could warm them easily enough when I broiled the steaks.

I found a John Grisham and started reading. I took the potatoes out and went back to reading. Then later, I got up and went to the kitchen, got my cell and Lee’s cordless and put them both on the coffee table so they were within easy reach and went back to reading. I settled on my side to get more comfortable and kept reading.

Then, being who I was and seeing as it was late, I fell asleep.