And he just plain liked her. She’d been companionable but not flirtatious. She’d dressed sensibly, during the day, low-key and unobtrusive, but then she’d put on a dress and heels for their evening out, and that had been the right thing, too.
“You said you really wanted this assignment to work?” he said, recalling her words about getting rid of the fuchsia streak. Which he still hoped she was going to replace.
She was silent for a moment. “Photographers don’t have beats really,” she said. “Requests come in from the editors and we take them. But somehow, I end up shooting the cute kid stories and Tulip Festivals. I want to shoot news. This seemed to be a chance to prove I can. Janet asked for me specifically. So, I want to do well.”
Mac wondered why Janet had, but he suspected it was female solidarity. And maybe a touch of matchmaking. “You get two thumbs up from me as an easy colleague to work with,” he told her.
“Back to you,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect. You’ve got a rep for being... difficult? Not quite the right word. People find you intimidating.”
“Just because I throw their coffee mugs in the garbage if they leave them half-full on my desk,” he grumbled. Then he grinned. “And there’s the guy I decked on the third day of work. And Precious Kevin? I put him up against the wall. Other than that? I don’t have the foggiest notion why anyone would think I was intimidating.”
She giggled. “No, I can see you’re really laid back,” she teased.
“I hope you think so, tomorrow,” Mac said. “Because I think we need to go to that church in the morning.”
She groaned. “Doesn’t that sound like fun,” she muttered. “Fine, but we need to find a café with a good Internet connection so I can get some of these photos uploaded. And I’m going to want to spend the evening there. That OK?”
“Sure,” he said. “But what’s this we bit? You’re the navigator. Find a place for us to hang out. I’ve some notes I want to send back too.”
“And Facebook,” she said. “Don’t forget your Facebook time.”
He sighed.
Chapter 13
(Mount Vernon, Sunday, May 4, 2014)
Mac thought he should make a list of the things he’d learned from dating Kate. He wasn’t sure he would have gone to church for this story, if he hadn’t become more — he wasn’t sure of the right word — more comfortable? At ease with just being in a church? Before dating her, he doubted he’d been in a church a dozen times.
And most of those had been for funerals.
So, he felt like he had an idea of what to expect — at the least the basic order of things. Music, announcements, prayer. A sermon, more prayer. Oh, and that ‘greet your neighbor’ bullshit. He hated that. Angie dithered more than he did — mostly about having the right clothes.
“Wear dark pants and a long-sleeved top, if you’ve got them,” he advised. “Some will be dressed up, and some will be in jeans. That still seems weird. I was under the impression people dressed up for church, but I guess they don’t as much anymore. Especially people our age.”
Angie nodded, and sure enough when she came down for breakfast, she had on black pants and a blouse that buttoned up the front. Short-sleeved but she looked right, Mac thought, and he told her so.
“Even more? You look good,” he said with a grin. She laughed.
They went back to the same place for breakfast, Mr. T’s, because Mac was hoping the same waitress was on shift. He thought she might have more to say. He’d neglected to consider how busy the place would be on a Sunday morning before church, but they did manage to snag a table in her zone.
“You’re back?” she said. “Must have liked the food.”
“We did,” Angie said, and added with a grin, “but you know men. They are creatures of habit. Why explore another restaurant when we know where there’s a good breakfast already?”
The waitress laughed. “Coffee for you, and keep it coming, right?” she said. Angie nodded vigorously.
“And what would you like?”
Mac asked for iced tea, unsweetened.
She brought that, took their orders, and kept moving. Mac began to think that he wasn’t going to get to talk to her. But then he wasn’t even sure what he wanted to ask.
Angie glanced at him, and then when the waitress — her nametag said her name was Sue — came by to give her a refill, she said, “so you may have figured it out yesterday, but we’re reporters from the Seattle Examiner. Well, he is, I’m the photographer. We’re doing a story about the sheriff — and the Tulip Festival, of course,” she said with a laugh. “But I was wondering, if there was one person whose perspective on Sheriff Norton you’d recommend? Who would it be?”
“You talked to Anne?” she said, considering.
Angie nodded. “Heard the divorce story,” she said. The two grinned at each other.
Mac just kept eating and watched his photog bond with the waitress over another woman’s revenge on a cheating ex. Don’t forget that lesson, he told himself.
“You should talk to Beatrice Knowlton; she’s a dispatcher for the city. Well, everyone really. It’s centralized, now,” Sue said slowly. “I’ll give her a heads up, that you might be by, if you’d like.”
“I’d like that a lot,” Mac said with interest. “This afternoon?”
“I’ll ask,” she said. “Where you headed next? Church?” And she laughed. Then she looked at the two of them. “You are, aren’t you?” She laughed some more. “I’d sure like to hear how that goes.”
Angie grinned at her. “Happy to stop by for some pie later and tell you all about it,” she suggested. “And maybe you could let us know about Beatrice?”
“Deal,” Sue said. “Oh
