“Tea and cake,” he said, his gaze immediately scanning the kitchen, as if looking for the cake.
“Dad, you’re not getting cake until after dinner.”
“Right,” he said, looking down at his dinner. He picked up his fork and started shoveling it in, at a rate that was impossible to keep up. “You don’t have to rush,” she protested.
“Yes, I do, because you’re leaving soon,” he said, “and I don’t like to eat without company.”
Sometimes, nothing he said made any sense, but she just sat down and started eating her own plateful. By the time she was done, she looked at her dad and said, “I need to leave soon. I’ll put on the teakettle and cut you a piece of cake before I go, okay?”
“Of course,” he said, sitting back with a happy sigh. “That was excellent, as usual.”
“It is a taste that is hard to let go of, once you get it in your mouth, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely,” he said.
She got up, put on the teakettle for him, rinsed out the teapot, and set it up with the tea bags, then walked over and put out the cake. She cut about a half-inch slice, and he said, “Now, if you’ll make them small, you might as well cut me two.”
She looked at him and said, “Or maybe I’m bringing you something.”
He frowned at her and said, “I can have both.”
Such a childlike quality was to his voice that she had to laugh. “You sure can,” she said. “Besides, you did eat your dinner.”
“I did,” he said, with a happy smile.
She brought over a single piece of cake and said, “There is more over there, if you want it. I’ll put it away when I get home tonight.”
He nodded and said, “Be nice to him.”
“Be nice to who?”
“The new boyfriend,” he said, with a nod of satisfaction.
“I’m going for coffee, Dad,” she said. “That’s it.”
“That’s how they all start,” he said. “Not to worry. If you’re good and be quiet,” he said, “you’ll probably get there.”
“Dad, if I have to be quiet, I’m not interested,” she snapped. But he turned that big grin her way, and she realized that, once again, he’d been joking. Because of his illness, sometimes she didn’t know when he was and when he wasn’t, and, on a touchy topic like this, it was easy to take offense. She smiled. “You are trouble, mister.”
“You love me anyway,” he said comfortably.
“That I do.” She raced back, gave him a big hug and a kiss, and said, “I won’t be long.”
“You can be as long as you like,” he said. “I can’t believe you’re dating.” And he started to raise his hands in a mock cheer. At that, she turned and raced from the house. This was the last thing she wanted to put up with. Her father meant well. She just wasn’t into relationships if there wasn’t a spark. And she also wasn’t into relationships if there was only a spark. There had to be a whole lot more for her to want to go down that pathway. Especially now.
*
Eton didn’t know why he’d had the compulsion to call her and to ask her out for coffee. Even Garret looked at him in surprise. Eton shrugged. “Just felt like it. I don’t know why,” he muttered by way of excuse.
“Well, maybe you can pump her for some information,” Garret said, but there was a hesitation at pump her, a hesitation that had Eton glaring at him. Hands up in surrender, Garret said, “Honestly, she might know Joe. For real now.”
Eton considered that and said, “I’ll see how she is about talking, but I won’t pump her for information,” he said, with an exaggerated tone.
“Good,” he said, “because that probably wouldn’t get you anywhere. She seems like a nice quiet girl.”
“She is,” he said.
“Funny how just stopping like that to help her with a flat tire could do so much for you.”
“No,” he said, “it’s not funny at all.”
Garret grinned and said, “If it’s a good bakery, I wouldn’t mind a couple doughnuts or rolls and maybe a cinnamon bun too. Ever since I woke up out of that coma, I just want sugar.”
“Which is the last thing you need,” he said. “You should be home healing instead.”
“News alert,” Garret said. “I’m sitting here healing. It’s hardly a hardship to do anything that I’ve been doing here right now.”
“That’s what bothers me,” he said. “We’re not getting anywhere, and I hate it. I just need to get outside these four walls for a bit.”
“I was thinking about going up the mountain and seeing if we can change the frequency and maybe get a stronger signal.”
“Maybe,” he said. “We should also set up a similar one down here, in case he’s on the move.”
“I’ve already got most of that set up,” he said. “You go off and have fun, while I work,” he said and then laughed. “Listen to us. We sound like brothers.”
“We are,” Eton said seriously. “You know something? I wanted to howl when I heard what happened to you. We were so scared we would lose you,” he said, his voice choking up with emotion.
Garret looked up at him and glared. “Don’t you get emotional on me now,” he said. “I don’t like to cry.”
“None of us like to cry, and we won’t,” he said. “No way in hell we will lose anybody from our team. Especially not when we don’t know what happened to Bullard.”
“The worst part is the not knowing,” said Garret.
“I know,” Eton said. “It really, really sucks.”
“Exactly. But we have to stay strong, and we have to stay positive.”
“Oh, I’ve got the positive part down,” Eton said. “I’m damn sure I’ll find some asshole, crack his head open over this mess, and, if you’re feeling anything other than that, you should probably go home.”
“You’re not chasing me home,” he said, “and I do feel like that, so don’t you worry. Go have your little visit with the local girl,” he said.
“It’s hardly that,” he said.
“Well, when you come back, you can tell me all about what it is then,” he said, “because, from here, it sounds like something is there to me.”
On that note, Eton turned and headed out. He couldn’t explain the compulsion to get out, but he knew well enough he needed to honor it. Some things were just that way. It was a nice evening. The heat of the day had disappeared and had somehow given way to a cool breeze, a freshness to the air that he hadn’t experienced earlier. The frustration was just eating at him. They hadn’t run down any good leads or found anything they could tie to the case yet.
He was planning on going out to the townhome site tonight, just in case something was going on which Joe was caught up in the middle of, but it was also the place Eton and Garret were looking at themselves, so maybe somebody related to the attack on their team was going out there to make calls. Eton wanted to know about it, if they were, because he sure as hell wanted to find out who was behind this.