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“Hello, Mike.”
“Hey, Dad.” Mike dropped onto the rumpled covers of his bed.
“How are you, boy?”
“Doing good. How about you?” Mike lifted one end of the towel from his neck and rubbed the shaving cream off his face.
“Some days are good. And some days are even better.” His dad laughed. An everyday comment since his dad had quit working. Shame his mom hadn’t stuck around to share Dad’s retirement.
“You must have been fishing,” Mike said.
“Fish don’t talk much. Not like your Aunt Lucy. She darn near pecks my ear right off.”
“But she feeds you good, huh?” Aunt Lucy was the best cook in the state. Everything she made was from scratch, no box fare for her family. She thought it her duty to fuss over her little brother, since he didn’t have a woman to look after him.
“Let’s see now,” his dad began. Mike could imagine his dad scratching his head. “This is Thursday. She’ll be bringing spaghetti over tonight. She always makes her homemade sauce on Thursday. When you coming down, boy?”
Same question, same evasive answer. “Soon, Dad.”
He stayed on the phone another ten minutes, solving the world’s problems before telling his dad bye. The old man sounded good. With his aunt’s cuisine, no need to worry about him starving.
Mike scrubbed a hand down his face. His shift didn’t begin for another forty-eight hours. If he didn’t have a date with Cassie, he’d be tempted to leave his brush of whiskers. He shoved from the bed and he padded to the bathroom. Half of his face was covered in lather when the phone rang again. Cursing under his breath, he grabbed the towel and mopped his face again. Calming his irritation, he answered in a reasonable tone. It wouldn’t do to yell when the person on the other end might be Cassie.
“Hello.”
“Mike.”
He ran a frustrated hand through his spiky hair. Not Cassie. Then his alert system kicked in. “What’s up, Shep?”
“There’s no emergency and we’re not on call, so relax.”
“Habit.” Mike rolled the tension from his shoulders and settled back on the bed.
“I just talked to my brother.”
Shep has four brothers. Then Mike remembered their last conversation where Shep had mentioned the possibility of his brother helping Tammy with her ex-husband. “The lawyer?”
Mike glanced at his watch. Hope Cassie wouldn’t mind his dark shadow.
“Yes. I mentioned Tammy’s ex and he’s going to look into it.”
“That’s great.” Tammy was a sweetheart. She didn’t deserve her asshole husband giving her shit.
“Thought you should know, so you can tell her.”
Mike frowned in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Thought you could tell Tammy about Eddie and she could give him a call at his office.”
Mike’s fingers tensed on the phone. Sounds like going around the barn to get to the barn doors. “Why don’t you tell her?”
“Well, I’m not too sure of the reception I might get.” Shep let out a sigh.
“Did something happen? Or is there something you didn’t tell me about when you took her home last week?”
“No.”
Just no? Nothing else.
