Page 16 of Lost Truth
Cady squeezed Abby’s hand and let go. “I’m here for you for as long as I’m in town, and we can stay in touch even after I go back to Portland.”
“Order coming up,” Reece called out, ending the moment. She brought over two plates with fluffy eggs and slices of thick whole wheat bread toasted to a crisp brown. “I hope you like the toast. It’s a new bread recipe I’ve been working on. I’m trying to get the perfect balance of wheat flour to white flour to make a hearty yet light wheat bread.”
Cady blinked at her new friend. “Are you actually telling me you bake your own bread?”
“I do. Like I said, I hope you like it.” Reece headed back to the stove.
Cady glanced at Abby. “I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who bakes her own bread.”
“I hadn’t either until we met Reece, but trust me, you’ll never taste anything better.”
Cady leaned closer and tapped a jar of strawberry jam on the table. “Will she be offended if I put some jam on it?”
“First off, remember who all she cooks for and know that nothing could offend her or she would’ve stopped cooking for all of us a long time ago.” Abby chuckled. “But then, you should know she made the jam too, so I’m sure she’ll be more than happy for you to enjoy it.”
Cady shook her head over Reece’s abilities and dipped into the thick jar of strawberries wrapped in a sweet syrup and slathered it on her toast. She took a bite and moaned. “Oh. Oh. Man, is this good. Thank you so much for making me breakfast.”
“Glad you like it. It’s nice to be so appreciated.” Reece joined them with her own plate of eggs and toast.
Cady shouldn’t have wolfed down half of her breakfast instead of waiting for her.
Abby frowned and looked at Reece. “I guess we’ve started taking you for granted, haven’t we?”
She waved a hand. “You know I don’t do it for praise and thanks. Feeding you all is my love language. Seeing you enjoy it is all I need.”
“But…” Abby took a bite of her eggs.
“Yeah, but.” Reece chuckled.
The front door closed and footfalls tromped down the hallway.
“The guys have returned,” Abby said. “It’s been at least thirty minutes since they’ve eaten, so protect your plate, especially the toast, or you might lose some of your food.”
Cady laughed, but her heart warmed at seeing how much this team cared about each other. Sure, their comments were mostly joking, but behind it all, their love for each other rang out as loudly as if they shouted, “I love you.”
Gabe barreled into the room, followed by Hayden, who entered with a more cautious approach. He never seemed to rush into things but wanted to consider his options and perhaps control his surroundings.
“Yo. Second breakfast. Wait, where’s ours?” Gabe reached toward Reece’s plate, and she playfully slapped his hand. He chuckled and crossed the room to lift the coffee pot. “Is it okay if I have more coffee?”
Hayden gave a look like he’d been in the place many times before. “I think the right question is do any of you want more coffee before I take some?”
“Well, yeah. What he said.” Gabe laughed again. “But seriously, if I have to sit behind a desk this morning and track down Kai’s vehicle, I need something to keep my eyes open.”
“Go ahead,” Reece said. “I can always make more.”
Hayden turned his attention to Cady, and her heart tripped into high speed, as usual.
“Sorry I wasn’t here when you got up,” he said. “We had some rain overnight, and we sprung a roof leak. One that should’ve been repaired years ago, and it took all of us to patch it. Hopefully we fixed it for the time being.”
“Thankfully, now that the rainy season has ended,” Abby said, “we can do a proper job of fixing or replacing it.”
“If we have enough money.” Gabe leaned against the counter and took a sip of his coffee.
Looked like the business might be suffering from startup costs, which didn’t surprise Cady. It didn’t sit right with her for taking up their time to find her father’s killer. She’d like to say it bothered her enough to tell them to forget it, but she needed to know what had become of her dad. Needed to know as badly as she needed to breathe.
Hayden looked at Cady again. “Whenever you and Abby are done, we’ll head over to Kai’s house to do a thorough search.”
Having eaten every bite of her delicious breakfast, Cady pushed her plate away. “I’m ready to go whenever you are. Unless, of course, I can help do the dishes first.”
