Page 55 of Tempting Fate
“Fine, I’ll help you. But today’s the last day, Ray. Tomorrow, I’ve gotta work.” There was always shit to do in the office, and with Logan gone he was pulling the weight of two people.
“Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed him softly on the lips.
“Go take a shower.” If they kept this up, they’d never get out of bed. “Daylight’s wasting.”
She dropped the blanket and walked to the bathroom buck naked. He watched, enjoying the view, then got up, put on his jeans, and carried a pile of bedding to the laundry room. The house had to be seventy degrees, and he turned down the heat before starting breakfast.
The refrigerator was full of leftovers, and he considered warming up some of the mini quiches but decided to make pancakes instead. Growing up in the Moretti household, every kid had one meal specialty. His was pancakes. Even in the teams, he was the flapjack king. He started the coffee, then pulled out his ingredients before heating the griddle. Annie kept her kitchen well-stocked, unlike his.
By the time Raylene came down the stairs, the table was set, the batter ready to go, and the coffeepot filled to the brim. Raylene filled them both a mug and took a long sip, warming her hands on the cup.
“I thought of something while I was in the shower,” she said. “Logan has a security camera on the front of the house. Maybe it got some pictures of the person who broke into my truck.”
“Too grainy to see anything in the dark. I already checked.” He swiped his phone off the counter and showed her the footage.
She watched attentively, pressing the rewind button a few times. “It’s just shadows.”
He took the phone from her and pointed at one of the frames. “See here? There’s two of them.”
She focused on the picture and shook her head. “I don’t see it.”
“Take my word for it. There were two.” He put the phone down and spooned four dollops of batter onto the now hot griddle.
“Did you tell Rhys?”
“He knows.” They were both of the opinion that it was the vagrants Rhys had seen wandering the backcountry. Gabe suspected they were looking for anything of value they could pawn or sell. “Lock your truck from now on, okay?”
“I will, but it’ll be a first in Nugget, I can tell you that.”
“There’s crime everywhere.” He didn’t bother to point out that her father had received a life sentence for killing a man only a few miles away.
His phone pinged with a text and he picked it up to read the message. “Weezer says he’s making good time and should definitely be here by Wednesday, which means we have to find a place for your horse, ASAP. I’ll call Griffin as soon as we finish breakfast.”
He flipped the pancakes over and grabbed a plate. Five minutes later, they were sitting at the table like an old married couple. He’d had plenty of mornings after with the women he slept with. The difference now was he wasn’t in a rush to leave, which wasn’t good.
“These are delicious,” Raylene said around a mouthful. “I haven’t had pancakes in…I don’t know how long.”
“We used to have ’em for dinner some nights when I was back in the teams. We were stuck using that artificial maple crap, but they were still good, even if it was weird to eat breakfast for dinner.”
“Not really,” she said on another bite. “It’s comfort food, and you guys saw a lot of bad stuff in Afghanistan and Iraq. You needed some chicken soup for the soul.”
That was the understatement of the year, but she had an insightful point about the comfort food. He’d never looked at it that way. Back then it was just food, and it was a hell of a lot better than an MRE.
“How about you? You ever have pancakes for dinner?” Somehow, he couldn’t visualize her and Butch sitting around a cozy supper table, laughing over a stack of hotcakes. The one time he’d met Butch, the dude had struck him as a colossal dickweed with anger management issues. He’d said a few choice words about Logan’s mother, and Gabe had to pull his best friend off the moron. Anyone with half a brain could tell that if Logan hit you, you’re weren’t getting up. Ever.
“Not that I can remember,” she said. “Cecilia used to makechilaquilessometimes for dinner when I was a little girl. They’re traditionally for breakfast.”
“Yeah?” he said as he watched the memory wash over her. Now Cecilia would probably poison thosechilaquilesif she got the chance. “So, you and Lucky Rodriguez, huh?”
She looked down at her half-eaten stack of pancakes. “How’s his daughter, Katie? Last I heard she was in remission from the leukemia.”
“She’s good.” He’d only lived in Nugget since summer, yet he knew everyone’s life story. That’s how it was here, and he liked it. In a way, the town was sort of like the Morettis: always bickering but as tight-knit as a sweater. “You’re not going to talk about it, are you?”
“What’s there to talk about? I screwed up with him, like I have with everything else in my life.”
“So there are still feelings there?” Now why the hell was he asking that?
She lifted her gaze from her plate. “Not those kinds of feelings, but he was the only person, except for Logan, who every truly cared about me. And look how I rewarded that.”
