My jaw dropped. "You did it with my brother. That’s disgusting!"
"Only the once, I swear," Lily said, crossing her heart. "I didn't even inhale."
I hugged her again. "You never said. When did you find out?" I asked as my mother swallowed her glass of bubbly in one swallow. She blinked and hiccupped.
"We only found out this week. It was kind of a surprise."
"I'll say," interjected Jord. "I have the best swimmers. Her egg didn't stand a chance."
"Eugh," I said, snorting as my mother cuffed him upside the head.
"I can swim," said my youngest nephew, Sam, his face proud. "I'm a great swimmer too. But I don't like eggs. Or girls."
"Someone make a note of that," said Dad. "I want to remind Sam of that before he goes to college."
"Yes, you are an excellent swimmer, honey," said Traci, sticking her tongue out at Jord when she was certain Sam couldn't see her. The other side of her, Garrett choked on his beer.
"Don't worry," said my mother, leaning across the table to pat my hand. "Your time will come. It's okay that you're last."
"Thanks, Mom!" It was a good thing my gun was at home, locked in a drawer. I might have damaged someone. Or myself. I looked at my shiny dessert spoon and wondered how long it would take me to dig an escape tunnel under the table and crawl away. As I pondered my flight, my mother beamed hopefully at Solomon. It hadn't been too long ago that she was giving Maddox the same hopeful look. "I don't want to get married. I'm not interested!" I continued to protest weakly as she sized up Solomon and probably wondered what his progeny would look like. I also didn't have a boyfriend so, whatever. I had a lover. Possibly. And a detective who really wanted to talk to me. Probably in between mashing lips with his cover story.
"Sure you are," said Mom, her voice consoling as she patted my hand again. "And you can only be a bridesmaid so often before it gets embarrassing."
"What's this about wilderness skills, Mom?" I asked, remembering her text message earlier, reminding me about her latest rec class, and eager to avoid the subject of the wedding she mentally planned for me, apparently with interchangeable grooms.
My mother dropped her knife and fork onto her plate and grabbed a brochure from the countertop, passing it to me. "The instructor was stranded in a forest for three weeks and had to survive on nuts, berries and the fish left behind by bears. Now he's going to teach us all those skills so we can survive too."
"There aren't any forests nearby," I pointed out. "Or bears."
That didn't faze my mother. "What if you're on a plane and it crashes? How will you survive?"
"Eat my fellow passengers?"
Lily nodded, like I’d just said something wise. "Just like the movie."
"You could eat Lily's eggs," said Sam, his little, helpful face beaming up at me. "Unless Uncle Jord ate them all."
"He didn't mean those kind of eggs," said Patrick, the teenager. "He meant..." He stopped and weaved as his mother made to cuff him. "What?"
"You know what," said Traci, sternly.
I grimaced, and turned to my mother as she exclaimed, "Lexi! Be serious. You'll know which nuts and roots you can eat. We'll learn how to make campfires, read maps and finally, we'll camp out at night in the park without any modern conveniences to test our survival skills."
"In Fairmount Park?" I asked, with a frown. I couldn't imagine anywhere more hospitable for a survival skills course. Not that it mattered; there was no way I was camping outside. Outside was where wild animals slunk in the darkness, waiting to eat the chewy faces of homeless people, and where muggers probably wanted to steal my shoes and gym membership. As much as I didn't want to be in the great outdoors, I had a sneaking suspicion my mother would guilt trip me, and two months from now, I'd be shivering in the wilderness that was Fairmount Park. Shoeless. Eating leftover fish carcasses. Life sucked.
"Of course! It has trees," said Mom.
I raised my eyebrows. "Bears?"
"Don't be silly. We're going to pretend the bit about the bears."
"Oh. Yay." I narrowed my eyes at Traci. "Are you coming?"
"Sorry, working nights," said Traci, a touch too quickly. "So much crime happens at night, they need extra dispatchers."
"Me too," piped Alice, who was a nurse at Montgomery General. "I mean, working nights at the hospital. Lots of accidents happen during weekday evenings."
I smelled a rat. "I suppose you're looking after Victoria?" I said, turning to my sister.
Serena smiled beatifically. "I love being a mom."
"What about you, Dad? You and Mom could go camping together." I knew I was pushing my luck, but seriously, why me? "I don't know if I can get time off work." I nudged Solomon with my knee and shot him a look.
"So long as you're not on a case, it's fine," he said.
My mother beamed at him.
Traitor.
I ignored them. "See? I might be on a case. Take Dad!"
Dad shook his head, but before he could proffer a flimsy excuse, Mom cut in, a wounded look on her face. "Lexi, anyone would think you weren't totally buzzed about Wilderness Skills."
When did my mother start saying “totally” or “buzzed”? I was beginning to worry. "I'm psyched!" Looks like I was my mom's escort whether I liked it or not, except, maybe... "So excited that I think everyone should do it!" I looked around hopefully. My family became a study in averting their eyes or suddenly wanting seconds.
My mother didn’t notice as she exclaimed, "Great! I got us matching knives." She twisted in her chair, fiddled in a drawer, and then passed a shiny red lump to me. "It's got knives for everything. The man at the store said it was the best."
"Yay," I said feebly as Solomon took it from me, flicking through the knives. I guessed he knew what every single one was for. I hoped there was a beer cap remover. Maybe a nail file.
"Nice," he said. "This is a good model."
"Can I kill a bear with it?" I asked as he returned it to me.
"No."
"What can I kill a bear with?"
"You see a bear, you'll freak out before you get a chance to engage it in combat."
My traitorous family sniggered.
"Would not." I'd run, not freak out, which now I think about it, probably isn't the best course of action either. Perhaps I could mace it instead? Perhaps I could demonstrate my soon to be awesome safe-berry-eating skills and wow the bear into submission?
"You should carry it, along with your camera and handcuff keys."
“Why does…” Sam started.
“Don’t ask,” interrupted his mother, her eyebrows raised at the mention of handcuff keys.
"Wednesday night, starting two weeks," reminded my mother, beaming at Solomon. "Would you like to come, dear? Any friend of Lexi's is welcome."
"I'll have to pass," he said as I sighed with relief. "I think I already have the patch." He probably had it sewn onto his ninja costume, right next to his bear wrangling patch.
"We'll get a certificate. You can put it on your résumé, Lexi," said Mom as I pulled a face. "Dessert, anyone?"
Over pie, we got back to Lily and Jord, and the small, family wedding they hoped for. Though how small it would be now that two of my nieces, Chloe and Rachel, were going to be bridesmaids along with me was debatable. A Graves wedding usually ended up being a huge, chaotic affair of too many American-Irish in a room with only one bar. Then the singing would start. On the plus side, it wasn't like Lily didn't know this, having attended several family weddings already. A part of me suspected that was what she wanted anyway. A big part of me was really, really thrilled.
"Will your parents be flying in, Lily?" asked Dad.
She nodded. "I haven't told them yet, but I'm sure they will."
I leaned in to Solomon. "Any time you want to leave, let me know."
"We're good for now," he said, a fascinated look in his eyes. It was the type of look a zoo keeper got when trapped in the animal pen—did he join in the chaos? Or attempt to establish order? "
I think marriage is nice. It's a good thing to celebrate," he said, accepting a plate of pie from my mother, who baked three of them.
My mother's ears perked up. "Are you married?"
"No! Mom! He's not married. I wouldn't bring a married man to dinner."
I heard Daniel mutter, "Doesn't bring many single ones either."
I shot him a dark look.
"Of course not, honey. We raised you right." Then to Solomon, she said, "Divorced?"
"No, I've never been married."
Mom gave a sigh of relief. "Are your parents still married?" pressed my mother. Probably sizing up again for potential groom duty for yours truly. After all, I was now the only single Graves.
"No."
"Oh."
"They're dead," Solomon explained.
"But they were still married when they..."
"Mom!" I protested.
Solomon didn't seem to mind. "Yes, ma'am. Nearly twenty-five years."
My mother sensed tragedy the same way many women could smell a sample sale. "Car accident?" she asked in a hushed tone.
"Bullets." Solomon popped a forkful of pie into his mouth.
"Ohmygoodness!"
A wave of silence passed across the table. Apparently, there was something that could shut my family up. Who knew? Solomon looked up, his eyes darting from one end of the table to the other.
"Any more pie?" I squeaked. Mom shushed me with a flap of her hand.
"Gangbangers hit the wrong car," Solomon explained patiently and my mother paled another shade, sinking into her chair, pie knife in hand. "They took a wrong turn, went into a bad neighborhood."
"Here in Montgomery?"
"No."
"I'm so sorry." That was it. Now that he was a walking tragedy, he would be welcome at my parents forever. I hoped my mother wouldn't try and adopt Solomon, like they did Lily. "Do you have other family?"
"A younger brother and a sister. I took care of them when our parents passed."
“Oh my.”
Under the table, I bumped my leg against Solomon's, pressing it there for a moment. His hand landed on my thigh, his fingers curling in. He left his hand there and a shiver ran through me. Above the table, he shrugged, saying it was a long time ago. Then he complimented my mother's cooking, swiftly moving the conversation onto safer, less painful ground. Afterward we moved back to the bombshell that was my brother and Lily reproducing. But all the time, his hand never left my leg, and after a while, I covered his hand with mine; and we sat like that a long time.
~
"I have a date tonight," Serena confessed over coffee as the children ran off to watch something hideous, shrieky, and animated, on the TV in the living room. My dad didn't even complain. It was probably the emergency vodka.
I flicked my eyebrows at her. "That so?"
"I'm almost officially divorced," she said. We all raised our glasses and drank to that. Serena continued, "I haven't been on a date since Ted."
"It hasn't changed much since the dinosaur age," I told her. “But you can put out now and no one will mind.”
She snorted. "And I think Antonio is nice."
I swallowed the wrong way and Lily had to thump my back. "Delgado?" I spluttered, glancing at Solomon, who gave me a questioning frown. “Again?”
"Yes." The doorbell rang and we all looked toward it. Serena smiled happily. "That should be him. We're going to see a movie."
A moment later, Tony Delgado appeared in the doorway of the dining room. If he was surprised to see Serena's entire family, he didn't show it, but on seeing Solomon, he did a double take so comical, I wished I caught it on film.
"Boss," he said, with a nod.
Solomon returned the gesture. "Delgado."
Delgado turned to Serena, passing her the little bouquet of pink flowers in his hand. They looked impossibly delicate in his giant paw. She took them, smelling them, and thanked him before offering him coffee. He declined politely, waiting while Serena put the flowers in water. While she was out, baby Victoria, who was snuggled in my Dad's lap, sleepily sucking her thumb as we made our way through enough coffee to keep our local Starbucks in business, made a show of jumping and squeaking. She was raising her arms to Delgado. Without hesitation, Delgado picked her up and she snuggled against his shoulder. He patted her back softly and her eyes closed.
"Seems you have a fan," said Dad, his eyes running over Delgado's impressive frame. He made Victoria look like a fairy child, resting on an enormous, muscular leaf.
"It's mutual," said Delgado and I fought to hold back a snort at his gruff appreciation and acceptance of my sister's baby. First, the security alarm system and drinks, and now this? Two points in his favor. And he wasn’t a dick. He was already way ahead of Ted.
Serena beamed when she saw them, then took Victoria, kissing her sleeping head and passing her to my mother, who wrapped her in a blanket. "I won't be late," she said.
"Take as long as you like," said Mom. I figured Mom would probably even be okay with Serena turning up in a couple of weeks, given how happy the divorce made everyone. Ted Whitman the Third was never anyone's favorite, but we tolerated him for Serena's sake as he was her choice, not ours. We continued to endure him, from afar, given that he contributed to Victoria's existence. Ted may have been acting a bastard during the divorce, but Serena's reminder that he was still her daughter's father kept him safe from the wrath of the many, many Graves who weren't his fans, not one little bit. Impregnating her was probably the smartest thing he ever did, but one wrong move, and his car would be in the crusher. I didn’t fancy the chances of him getting out of the trunk in time.
We watched as they left, Delgado even taking Serena by the hand.
"Tony works for Solomon," I told everyone. "We work in the same office."
"Serena doesn't have the best choice in men," said Dad, rocking back in his chair to look at Solomon. "What's this Tony Delgado like?"
"One of the best men you'll ever meet," said Solomon. "I would trust him with my life."
Dad took a moment to nod slowly. "Good enough for me," he said. "And do I trust you with my other daughter?"
"Dad!" I stood. "Time to go. Work stuff," I said, blowing a kiss to Lily, who rested against Jord, his arms protectively around her like she'd always wanted.
Solomon answered anyway. "You can trust me," he said; but before my family could check whether he meant with my social security number or my body, I herded him out the door, calling out my goodbyes.
"Just when it was getting interesting," he said, opening the car door for me.
"No, it wasn't. Interesting is when he gets out the spotlight and sits you on a chair in the kitchen and fires questions."
"For real?"
I tucked my new knife into my pocket. "High School Prom."
Solomon laughed.
"Glad you think it was funny. Danny Lorenzo has never been right since. Though, come to think of it, all that acid he took in college probably didn't help."
Solomon laughed harder.
I glared at him, which didn’t help either, so I just rolled my eyes and got in. "What's this lead you're interested in?" I asked him as he got into the car.
"Jason Davy. Tate's roommate. He's been in the gym every day this week. There's something off about him."
"How so?"
Solomon started the engine. "There's been a lot of talk about Tate, as you can imagine. A lot of support and a lot of condemnation."
"And Davy?"
Solomon glanced over as he pulled into the street. "Nothing. Hasn’t said a word. I find that odd. Flaherty's watching him now. We're going to pull by the bar he's at and see if we can talk to him."
"What makes you think he'll talk to us?"
"I don't. I just have a hunch he's going to be a helluva lot more chatty off base."
Jason Davy was still holed up in the bar in Chester by the time we drew up next to Flaherty. Getting out, we slipped into the back of the ex-detective's car. He pointed out Davy, a man with
a build similar to a toll guard booth: broad, square-shaped and a little empty upstairs. His brown hair was in a buzz cut and he had a sour face with reddened cheeks.
"He looks a trip," I said.
"He looks like a man with a lot on his mind," said Solomon, before turning to Flaherty. "What's he been doing?"
"Nothing," said Flaherty, with a yawn. "That's his third beer. He hasn't talked to anyone except the bartender. His car is the Ford over there. Why do I smell roast chicken?" He looked from Solomon to me.
"We just had dinner," I said.
"You bring me any?"
"No. Sorry."
Flaherty grunted. His stomach followed it up with a grumble.
"Lexi, let’s go make friends with Davy. Stick around," Solomon told him.
“Not for dinner,” I added, my hand pausing on the handle, just in case he thought one of us was going to magically produce food from thin air.
“Lexi?”
“Coming!”
We got out, walked across the street and entered the bar. Solomon looked around, then acted all surprised when he saw Davy. "Hey, man," he said, walking over.
Davy looked up, a flash of panic crossing his face, which settled into weary suspicion. "Hey," he said. "New gym instructor, right?"
"Yeah," agreed Solomon, pulling me forward. "It's Jason, right? Have you met my wife, Lexi?"
I stuck a hand out. "It's so nice to meet someone Solomon is working with," I said, enthusiastically pumping Davy's hand. It felt like five fat sausages attached to a pork chop. "We thought we'd escape for a while and get drinks." I dropped into the seat opposite Davy before he could protest and slid my jacket off, hanging it over the back of the chair.
"We don't work together," said Davy. "I just use the gym."
"Oh, right. My bad." I planted my palm against my forehead. "There's just so many guys and all those uniforms. I don't know how I'm ever going to keep everyone's faces straight."
"I'll get drinks," said Solomon, rubbing his hand together, and not apologizing in the least for crashing Davy's quiet evening of staring into the bottom of his glass mug.
I chattered inanely at Davy until Solomon returned, two beers and a wine glass in his hands. He set them on the table and took the last chair. "What's happening?" he said.
Command Indecision (Lexi Graves Mysteries) Page 16
