“So what do
“That you’re relieved because we believe you,” I said, glancing to Cole for confirmation. He nodded quickly.
“You know what I think this means?” he asked us both. We shook our heads. He took Cassandra’s hands, smoothing over the flaked polish, the chipped nails. “I think the gods have stopped laughing.”
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Having already eaten dessert, we decided a healthy lunch was in order. While Cole opened three cans of ravioli and Cassandra made orange Kool-Aid, I called Evie.
“Jaz, the best thing happened!”
“E.J. cried all night last night.”
“Awesome!”
“Okay, I can see how you don’t get that’s a good thing. But you’ve got to understand. There we are, just me and her, rocking in the chair beside her crib at four a.m., both of us crying buckets. And suddenly it hits me. This is complete and utter bullshit!”
I held the phone away from my ear and stared at it. Evie does not swear. And I mean never. I finally realized the extremity of her situation. “So what happened?”
“I woke Tim up and I said, ‘Tim, you can only cry so long before it doesn’t do you any more good.’ I don’t think he really knew what I meant by that, but he did think it was a good idea to take E.J. to the emergency room. We met this amazing pediatrician there who said E.J. had an awful ear infection. She said E.J. had to have been in utter misery. Plus she said there’s medicine we can give her for the colic, which is actually reflux. She doesn’t have to suffer, Jaz. Isn’t that incredible? And we are sticking with this new pediatrician. She’s amazing!”
“That is such a relief! I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that! Hey, are you listening really closely to me right now?”
“Of course.”
“Because I want to make sure there’s no interference on your end when I say I told you so.”
Evie’s laugh, finally stress free and full of the same joy I’d heard the day her daughter was born, lifted my spirits like nothing else could. “Yeah, I guess you did.”
“Okay, you keep on being an excellent mom and I’ll get back to work. And, hey, next time she takes a nap, you take one too.” I, on the other hand, would be avoiding sleep like a bad concussion victim until further notice.
“Yes, ma’am!” Evie sang.
“That’s what I like to hear.”
I took ten minutes to shower and change. By then lunch was ready. After I’d related my good news we ate in relative silence, which might’ve been why Cole’s eyes quickly lowered to half-mast and, if not for Cassandra’s rapid reflexes, his entire face would’ve been masked with pasta sauce when he fell asleep a minute later. I woke Bergman and he willingly changed places with Cole once he learned we’d saved a can of ravioli and a handful of chocolate for him.
“Are you women going to stay in here all day?” he asked as he sat down to his meal. One glance at the monitor had shown him what Cole had reported seeing all morning. A whole lot of nothing. “Since the
“Are these tests so painfully shy they can’t stand an audience?” I asked.
“Something like that.” Despite the fact that we’d all signed Bergman’s lip-zip oath the night before, it looked like old habits would be dying real hard, or possibly not at all, on this trip.
“No problem,” said Cassandra. “It’s time for Jaz to meet my friend anyway.”
“What, did he send you a message by courier fairy?” Bergman asked, his lip curling.
We each grabbed ID and money and I holstered up, covering Grief with my leather jacket. I also wore the outfit Vayl had bought me to replace the one that had been ruined on our last mission, a soft red silk blouse with an ornate, scooped neckline and black jeans. I’d stuck with my boots, since Cole said a guy from Seven Seas Succulents had come for theirs, plus all the other stuff we’d borrowed, earlier in the day.
We left Bergman to pull a couple of boxes of electronics from the trailer and start playing in them like a kid with his LEGOs. As the door slammed behind us I told Cassandra, “I want to say, ‘Don’t mind him,’ but you should. He’s acting like such a jerk.”
“He’s afraid,” she replied.
“Fear is the locus of his entire existence. But that doesn’t make it okay for him to demean you and your work every time he opens his mouth. If he wasn’t so damned brilliant I’d have given him an earful weeks ago. It’s just, he’s very thin-skinned, so you always run an excellent chance of mortally offending him. And then we can kiss our dandy gadgets goodbye.”
“I can deal with him,” she said. “I have just been so distracted ever since . . .” She looked at me with good- humored accusation. “Ever since I met you, in fact.”
“What can I say? I just have a way with people. Now, where is this buddy of yours?”
“At a sidewalk cafe called Sustenance. We’ll have to take a taxi.” Though I would’ve preferred to arrive in my corvette, I found that as long as she didn’t suggest mopeds I’d be fine with whatever mode of transport she chose.
We took the twenty-block trip from the festival to Sustenance in a cab that looked like it had been the site of a
