I nearly pointed out he had no problem doing that to me, but then I remembered him saying my lawyer should have protected me better.
TO MY SURPRISE, GABE was still at Mom’s. He grinned and squeezed my arm as I walked into the living room, but then he and Clint went to the porch.
I sat down next to Mom on the couch. “How was your day?”
She smiled. “Just fine dear. More importantly, how was your night?”
I shook my head and repeated her words. “‘Just fine,’ Mom.”
“C’mon. Throw an old girl a bone.”
I laughed. “I would do that if you weren’t my mother!”
“When’d you get so uptight? Wynnie would’ve told me every last detail.”
I looked at her askance for a moment and wondered if that were true. She would’ve told me everything, but we were sisters.
I sighed. “It was very nice, Mom. We went to the Kres.”
“Ooh, fancy! But a steak, no matter how rare, isn’t what put that rosy glow on your face.”
I groaned. “I shouldn’t have said anything!”
She gripped my arm. “Were you happy last night? Happier than you’ve been in a long time?”
I pressed my lips together because I was, and I hadn’t thought about any of my problems at all last night. All of which made me feel terribly guilty.
“Don’t look for guilt, Rae. I wanted you to go more than you did, so I’m rejoicing over here that you got a night out.” She squeezed my arm forcing me to look at her. “But next time, tell Clint to send Brock. Gabe thinks I’m a delicate flower, and I never got a chance to hear Brock’s stories from being in the Navy.”
I shook my head. “I’m not so sure there’s going to be a next time like that, but I’ll pass that along.”
“You’ll pass what along, hotshot?” Clint asked from the arm of the couch.
I grinned at him. “She wants Brock to baby-sit her next time.”
Seemed Gabe hadn’t left yet, like I thought, because he stopped in the middle of the hall putting a hand over his heart. “I’m hurt, Miss Penny. Where did I go wrong?”
“I’m sure everything was fine, Gabe,” I said.
He winked at me. “It was, but next time I’ll bring her some Beef Wellington. Anyway, I’m gonna see myself out since I gotta go. You ladies take care of yourselves. Later, Ramsey.”
Clint followed Gabe in order to lock the door behind him. As he came back, he said, “Sorry to tell you this Penny, but there are three huge games going on right now. So, we’re gonna watch some football.”
She hefted her weight out of the couch. “That’s fine, dear. Gabe kept me up late teaching me how to blend a mix and other things I’ll never remember, so I’m due for a nap. If we’re watching more football tonight, you can make up for it by getting some burgers. Raegan hasn’t let me have a decent cheeseburger in three weeks.”
I rolled my eyes. “That wasn’t really me, Mom as much as the fact there are no burgers in the house.”
She pointed a finger at me. “Which is why you have to run through the drive-thru. Wendy’s or Sonic, but I’m not picky.”
I turned a non-plussed look to Clint. “But she’s not picky. Nope. Not at all!”
Clint
BURGERS FOR DINNER sounded great, but I wasn’t going to a drive-thru if I could help it. Wynnie had bought a grill and used it frequently. The last time I swung by before her death, I noticed the grill needed cleaning and a cover for the winter. Since I hadn’t taken care of either of those things, I could clean up the grill in order to make burgers.
When I had the game on the TV, I turned to Raegan. “You ever use Instacart?”
“On occasion,” she said, tentatively.
I handed her my phone with the app pulled up. “Good. Get an order together for us. Buns, burgers, whatever condiments you don’t have on hand, and definitely a twelve-pack of beer unless you’re drinking something else tonight.”
She seemed a little annoyed with me based on the look she gave me. “Again with the bossy,” she muttered.
“Baby, it gets the job done. Besides, that grill hasn’t been cleaned since mid-August if I had to guess, and that will take at least until the groceries get here.”
Her expression turned apologetic. “You’re right, Clint. I’ll set up an order. Do you still put blue cheese on your burgers?”
I chuckled. “No. But a red onion and some sharp cheddar would be nice.”
Twenty minutes later, I was spraying the grill grate with the hose when Raegan came out.
She stopped a few feet away from me. “You really don’t have to do this, you know.”
I straightened and narrowed my eyes. “We giving this another shot?”
Her chest moved with her deep breath. Then she whispered, “Yeah.”
I widened my eyes. “Then, yeah, I really do have to do this. You and your mother are not a burden. Not sure how to make you see that.”
Her head tilted a touch. “I didn’t say that, Clint. I’m just saying, you could have left us here and gotten take-out or something.”
The hose fell to ground and I strode the three feet between us, so I was in her space. “Did you miss what I said at my place? Until we find whoever’s after you, you’re not alone. That means, I’m not runnin’ off for take-out. Do you understand?”
She shook her head. “You think someone’s watching? Even now, on a Saturday afternoon?”
“Bet your sweet ass I do. For God’s sake, Rae, they took you from a Target parking lot. You think that was coincidence? No. So, yeah, I think someone’s watching.”
She held her hands up in front of her body. “Okay, all right. I’m sorry. I’ll go wait for the Instacart delivery.”
I shook my head. “Nothing to be sorry about, Rae. I just want to be sure you get how serious this is.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I do. It just slipped my
