Page 94 of High Water
“Yep.”
“Thank you!”
“Your mom’s idea, afraid I can’t take credit for it.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
“Of course, honey. Go relax. I’m glad you got that homework done. And remember the heating pad is in your linen closet if you need it.” Aspen gives our daughter a sympathetic look.
“Thanks. Goodnight. Maybe fewer pterodactyls in the house the rest of the night?” Fallon teases her mom, and she rolls her eyes in return as she plops back down in her office chair but nods her agreement to be quieter.
When Fallon heads off to get ice cream and wind down for the night, I turn and put my hands on Aspen’s shoulders, massaging them gently as I watch her texting Charlotte and Levi a picture of the symbols she’s connected.
“See, they all laughed at me, but there’s a good reason to digitize the family archives. You never know when they’re going to come in handy like this.”
“You showed them.” I knead her shoulders more, and despite her elation, they’re still knotted with the stress of the day.
“We’ll have to make plans to go into the mine. But I have no idea what state it’s in or what kind of equipment we’ll need. That’s out of my area of expertise.”
“If anyone knows, it’ll be your brothers or Charlotte and her crew. We can get it figured out, I’m sure.”
“Maybe we can go down there and take a preliminary look tomorrow? I don’t have class.”
“Sure. Sounds like a plan. But I think you need to take a load off and relax a little tonight. You want to have some ice cream with me, maybe watch some TV?”
“Maybe. I need to shower and get into some PJs first. Did you take your shower yet?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. I was running around and got home just before you.”
“Do you want to take yours first? You’re faster than I am.”
“You got it.” I give her one last little squeeze before I release her shoulders.
“And maybe some more of that.” She grins, and her lashes lift until her green eyes meet mine.
“Anything you need. I’ll put the ice cream back in the freezer for now and go get in the shower. Don’t stay on there too long, all right? You solved your mystery. Give yourself some downtime. Find something to watch.” I worry about how much work this woman puts in every day.
“Yes, sir,” she teases me in return. “Just one more thing, and I’ll be done. I promise.”
“All right.” I leave her reluctantly because if there’s anything I know about Aspen, it’s that one more thing turns into three.
A few minutes later, I’ve got the shower running to heat up the water while I strip down. One of the other advantages of living here is that there’s always an endless supply of hot water. I’ve been working on ideas with Anson to come up with a solution that would allow us to do something similar at the homestead. Because even I’m going to miss the creature comforts of this place. I can see why Levi and Grant still spend so much time here despite the fact that they have property elsewhere.
Just as I strip out of my shirt and jeans, hanging them over the back of the chair Aspen has in front of the vanity, there’s a knock.
“Yeah?” I call out, and the door opens.
It’s Aspen with a bowl of ice cream in her hands, stripped out of work clothes and in a robe she has on over her panties and bra. She walks around me and pulls out the chair, moving my clothes to the empty towel bar on the other side of the room, and then sits down and begins to eat her ice cream. Looking up at me innocently, she takes a bite and lets the spoon linger in her mouth.
“Am I supposed to know what’s happening right now, Jones?”
“You told me to find something to watch. I flipped through a couple of channels while I was getting changed out of my work clothes, and then I remembered there’s a show I got a preview of in the doorway back there that I want to see the end of.” She gives me doe eyes as she watches my expression morph from confusion to amusement.
“Oh yeah?”
“It was a good preview. Lots of plot happening, you know? I need to know what happens next.”
“Well, I regret to inform you that this show isn’t free.”
