Grady rubbed his jaw. “Not good. I’m short two men tomorrow due to the holiday.” He shook his head as Mac held up an empty glass next to the taps. “I’ll just have an iced tea tonight.”
He poured the tea, adding a squeeze of lemon. When he set it down on the bar, Grady added, “Unless you’re willing to do the walk-through really early in the morning.”
Mac would be working late tonight, which would make getting up early a pain, but he’d take what he could get. “Name the time. Claire and I will meet you there.”
“How about six? That’d give me an hour until I have to be at the office.”
“Deal.”
Ronnie returned to the wait station. “Mac, I need another one of those fancy spritzer drinks you made for table seven. The biker babe loved it and wanted me to give you this as a thank-you for making her night.” She handed him a ten-dollar bill. “She also wanted me to get your phone number so she can give you another sort of thank-you when you’re off the clock.”
Before Mac had a chance to blink, Claire snagged the ten-dollar bill from his fingers and shoved it back at Ronnie. “He’s not on the market,” she said. “What the hell, Ronnie? You’re supposed to have my back.”
Ronnie grabbed Mac’s hand and put the bill in it again. “You earned that tip,” she told him. To her sister, she said, “And I do have your back. I told her that if she was willing to wear a wedding band, she might have a chance with him.”
“What?!” Claire’s jaw fell open.
“I’m kidding.” Ronnie winked at Mac—twice. Or maybe her eye was twitching like Kate’s now, he wasn’t sure. “I told her he’s smitten with my burly sister, but the biker babe is drunk enough not to care.”
“Silly drunken floozy.” Claire scooped up the tray with Ronnie’s earlier order of tequila and bourbon drinks. “I’ll take care of these for you, slowpoke,” she told her sister before glancing Grady’s way. “Sheriff, I’d like you to arrest my sister for being a royal pain in the ass.”
“Which sister?” Grady asked with a grin, dodging Ronnie’s pinch.
“Both of them. It’s Ronnie’s turn to sit in jail for once.” Claire looked at Mac. “And you stop getting the women all hot and bothered.”
He spread his hands wide. “This is all for you, Slugger.”
After Claire left, Ronnie turned to face Grady, making a show of batting her eyelashes at him. “How are you this evening, Sheriff Hardass?”
Mac stepped away to give them a moment alone, making Ronnie’s clementine spritzer first and then refilling a couple of glasses of beer for some older guys in pocket-covered camouflage vests further up the bar.
He returned as Ronnie walked away with her spritzer order in hand. Grady watched her go. When he turned back, Mac grinned at him. “You’re in over your head, Sheriff.”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You’re wearing the same expression I see in the mirror every morning.” Mac took a moment to wash the cocktail shaker cups and set them on the drying rack. He strolled back over with a towel. “Any news on the killer?”
“Which one? Ronnie has them lining up thanks to her ex-husband.”
“The one on the hunt for the mules’ diamonds.”
Grady shook his head, his lined face showing his feelings about the lack of news, too.
“To top it off, there’s new trouble on the horizon.”
Mac crossed his arms, bracing for another worry-filled tightening in his gut. “What do you mean?”
“Actually, she’s old trouble. My trouble, but I’m afraid this is going to spread to Veronica’s list of problems.” He took a drink of tea and then scowled at Mac. “My ex-wife is in town.”
Claire had told Mac the story of how Grady’s ex had royally fucked him.
“How is that a problem for you?” Mac asked. Grady couldn’t still have feelings for a bitch that cold-hearted, could he?
“She paid me a visit at work this afternoon. Brought me some lunch. One of my old favorites.”
“Wasn’t that sweet of her. Did it include a poisoned apple for dessert?”
The sheriff chuckled. “I didn’t eat it. Gave it to my deputies after she left.” He stirred his iced tea. “It’s not the food that has me cringing, it’s what she wrote in the card she included with it.”
“A bunch of x’s and o’s?”
“Close. She wrote, ‘Until death do us part.’ And then she drew a heart with our names in it.” Grady made a pained face. “Does that seem four cents short of a nickel to you, or is it just me?”
“That’s the kind of love that makes you want to hop on a plane and flee to South America. Does Ronnie know about any of this?”
Grady shook his head. “I’d rather not tell her, either.”
“Why not?”
“She doesn’t need to worry about me and my damned ex on top of everything else.”
He searched Grady’s face. “Is there something still going on between you and your ex? A problem for Ronnie to worry about besides an obsessed old flame?”
One of the sheriff’s eyebrows lifted. “Do I have ‘sucker’ written on my forehead?”
“Yeah, it matches the one on mine and Butch’s.”
Grady chuckled.
Mac waved at a trucker midway down the bar who was holding up his empty soda glass. “If this gets back to Ronnie and you don’t tell her, she’ll be pissed.”
“Probably, but I can deal with that later. Right now, she needs to focus on keeping an eye out for real problems.”
Mac walked over and took care of the trucker’s soda. If he were in Grady’s shoes, would he come clean with Claire? Maybe. But Ronnie and she both had a lot on their minds with this diamond killer business. He could understand not wanting to worry Ronnie about something as trivial as an ex-wife.
He glanced out over the bar
