“I swung by Chuckwagon Charlie’s and ordered some apple pie bars to go.”
I rubbed my hands together. Their apple pie bars were covered with a brown sugar and butter crumb crust that made me drool at the mere thought of them. “I didn’t know they did takeout.”
She set her bottle of beer down. “They don’t, but I went to school with the owner’s son, who manages the kitchen these days.”
“Of course you did.”
“You need to keep icing that bruise, Sparky,” Reid said. I was surprised he was sitting next to Aunt Zoe tonight. My aunt usually liked to keep a solid body or two as a buffer between her and her old heartthrob. “Or it’s going to look even worse come morning.”
“I don’t know,” Harvey said with a snicker. “She looks bucksnortin’ mean with that shiner. Maybe Detective Hawke will quit pesterin’ her if he thinks she’ll kick his butt until his teeth fall out.”
“I doubt my face will discourage the bonehead,” I said, sharing a knowing look with Natalie.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aunt Zoe asked. When I turned to her looking as innocent as possible, her eyes narrowed. “Violet Lynn, I saw that face you made at Natalie. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” At least nothing that Natalie and I knew about so far. I made a show of spreading my napkin on my lap and picked up my small plate, eyeing the cornbread. “Everything smells delicious, Reid.”
I dished up a piece of cornbread as Doc returned to the kitchen. He snagged the bag of frozen peas from the counter at Reid’s request and settled in next to me, placing the makeshift ice pack next to my bowl of chili.
“Coop just pulled up,” he announced and grabbed a beer from the bucket before ladling some chili into my bowl and then his.
I pretended to be surprised. “Hmm. I wondered if he’d make it tonight.”
I could feel Natalie’s gaze swing my way, but I stayed focused on slathering some butter on my cornbread.
“When he heard Reid was making firehouse chili,” Harvey said, “he said he would make an extra effort to wrap up work in time.”
Right, the chili made him rush over. I’d bet Harvey’s left nut that the girl next to me had more to do with Cooper’s decision to join us than the food. Or was Harvey’s right nut the lousy one that he liked to bet on?
Stop thinking about Harvey’s nuts!
Grimacing, I hit the brakes on that train of thought and returned to Natalie and Cooper playing k-i-s-s-i-n-g down in Arizona. Wait, that wasn’t much better.
I glanced at Natalie, expecting to see her face scrunched in a scowl or hear her grumble about Cooper’s work ethic like usual. Instead, she was busy staring into her chili bowl as though Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, might poke its head up at any moment.
I fidgeted with my spoon, feeling anxious for her about how this post-Arizona-sex meeting was going to go.
Natalie and I both jumped at the sound of the doorbell.
Doc gave me a questioning look before eating a spoonful of chili.
Aunt Zoe called out, “Layne, get the door for Coop.”
A minute later, the detective joined us. “Sorry, I’m late,” he said, taking the empty seat between Harvey and Doc, across from Natalie. He wore the same clothes he’d had on earlier, only now they were twice as wrinkled. His hair was still a mess of spiky glass shards, too. “We had a vandalism call come in about an hour ago up in Lead that I needed to check out before I could head this way.”
As he scooted closer to the table, he snuck a glance at Natalie, who was stirring a sprinkling of cheese into her chili with such white-knuckled intensity I expected her to bend the spoon in half at any minute.
“Done for the evenin’ then?” Harvey asked, taking Cooper’s bowl and ladling chili into it.
“I hope so.” Cooper reached for a piece of cornbread and set it on his plate. “But with Parker on the—” he glanced up at me and froze mid-sentence. His glance turned into a full-on gawk.
I waved my spoon at him. “Hi, Cooper.”
His upper lip twitched. “Is that a …” he started and then laughed out loud.
The sound was so foreign that everybody stopped eating to stare at him. His laughter increased until he was almost howling.
“He’s cracking up again,” Aunt Zoe said during Cooper’s laugh-fest, her spoon hovering in midair. “He’s done this before in front of Violet and me, remember, kiddo?”
“Yep.” I scowled at Cooper, who was trying to stop but couldn’t. “But this time I think he’s just straight up laughing at me, no stress needed. Isn’t that right, Coop?”
“That’s Cooper …” he laughed behind his hand for a few more seconds before finishing with, “ … to you, Parker.” He wiped at the corner of one of his eyes. “Whew.” Another chuckle hiccupped out. “Sorry about that, everyone. Parker’s face caught me off-guard.”
“Hardy-har-har, Cooper.” I shot him a wrinkled lip before taking a bite of chili. The hearty mix of ground beef, kidney beans, and stewed tomatoes took the edge off me being the butt of his joke.
Still grinning, he sprinkled some cheese into his chili. “So, who did you piss off this time?”
“Prudence,” Harvey said, answering for me since my mouth was full.
That sobered up the detective lickety-split. The last time Cooper had joined me at Prudence’s, I’d suffered extensive bruises as well. Only it wasn’t Zelda who’d hurt me that day, it was Cooper, and he hadn’t been able to do anything to stop himself from doing it. Prudence had been at the helm again, and that time she’d marked me on purpose.
“Shit.” He frowned. “What happened?”
While Cooper and everyone else ate their chili and cornbread, I told them the story of my visit with Prudence this afternoon, including the reason I’d been summoned there in the first place.
When I finished, Aunt Zoe set down her spoon and watched me with a furrowed brow. “You’re sure
