Page 43 of Work It Out
Fran fluffed her hair. “It’s all right, but I can’t stay long. Emma’s moving into the apartment over the diner today, and I want to be there to get her settled.”
“I’ll have to go when she gets here, too. I haven’t seen my granddaughter in forever.”
“She was home for summer break a few months ago,” Fran pointed out.
“Forever,” Zandar reiterated.
Fran had already moved on. “No reason Chris can’t do promo for the Hunt now. I saw him rush that Miller girl outta here, but so did a bunch of other people, who just happened to be on their phones, if you catch my drift.”
Hell. Once it got out that Vicky had come to Bigbone to be with Jake, no one would get any peace.
“This’ll be great for tourism,” Fran went on. “And anyways, we’ve put up with Jean for years. The least Chris can do is take a few pictures.”
“I heard that.”
Fran hid her eye roll as Jean bore down on them with a saccharine smile far more terrifying than any scowl. Quin trailed a step behind her, desperately attempting to smother his laughter. Probably knowing she’d need Jean’s help, Fran fixed a smile on her face. “Good morning, Jean. Quin.”
Jean stopped a smidge too close and stared at her. “Is it, Frances? Is it a good morning? Or are you merelyputting up with it?”
“Don’t answer that, Frannie.” Quin chuckled. “My wife’s picture may be in the DSM under passive-aggressive, but she knows she can be a hard pill to swallow.”
“Quinton!” Jean huffed. “Unless you want to worry about swallowing arsenic, you’d do well to remember whose team you’re on.”
The giant, barrel-chested cowboy from the heart of Texas leaned down with the sweetest smile and placed a kiss on her cheek. Turning to Rayah, he winked. “You little ones are the feistiest—hard to catch, harder to keep, and worth every fighting moment.”
“Thank you?” Rayah wondered if Quin ever considered doing a case study on his own marriage. How those two had kept from murdering each other for forty-six years, she’d love to know.
“I’m not sure where Jake—Chris,” she corrected, “disappeared to. I’ll track him down for you as soon as I deal with a quick issue.”
“It’ll only be quick if we find that boy and get him to agree fast,” Fran said with a snap of her gum.
“I’m afraid Christopher isn’t the only one we need to speak with, dear.” Jean’s tone had gone soft and cajoling again, never a good sign.
“Blaine’s with a client,” she replied, hoping against hope he was the other victim Jean had in mind. “He should be done on the hour.”
Jean shook her head.
Crap on a cracker.
“All right, then.” Rayah’s shoulders slumped. “Come on back to my office. It’ll be a squeeze, but we can talk in there. Anyone want coffee?”
“Coffee?” Zandar shouted. “Are you trying to kill me, girl? You know my kind can’t have caffeine.”
“Funny,” Rayah said. “If I don’t get some caffeine, someone else is going to die.”
“Here you go, boss.” She thanked Samuel as he handed her a steaming cup of joe made exactly the way she liked it. It killed him to put all that sugar in her mug, but he’d lost that battle long ago, and well he knew it. “Anyone else?”
At the mention of coffee, Quin’s eyes lit up only to dim again when his wife shook her head. “None for us, thank you. We’re off caffeine. Blaine says it isn’t good for us. Such a dear boy.”
Eyes twinkling, Quin leaned toward Rayah. “Dear boy, my foot. She thinks I don’t know about hercock-tail hour and the bonus nudie money.” He rolled his eyes. “I don’t care where she gets her motor running, so long as she comes home to me. If I’d known what it’d do for our sex life, I would’ve set her up with a boytoy ages ago.”
Rayah closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Quin, what did we talk about?”
He waved her off. “You said I had to stop giving details. Wasn’t nothin’ detailed about that. I didn’t even mention the blow—”
“Nope!” Rayah walked away. They could follow or not. This morning had gone completely off the rails, and it wasn’t even nine o’clock yet. She wanted to be back in bed with Jake, but she had a feeling that was over. Silly as it was, after knowing the man for such a short while, she didn’t much care beyond that at the moment.
Quin’s laughter chased her down the hall. If she found Jake, maybe she could foist Zandar and Fran off on him while she figured out what had his grandmother’s nose out of joint.
