"Be quiet, young lady. You were shot!"
"I know. I felt it. You don't have to keep saying it."
"Your job is dangerous! This never happened when you worked as a temp."
"Lexi can come back to work with me anytime," said Solomon.
Mom turned to me, her face determined and proud, like she magically fixed everything. "There! See? You have your job back."
"I have a job, Mom, and I'm working it." After today, I was pretty impressed with myself too. I had hard evidence to show Detective Donahue and a solid plan in play. It was only a matter of time until we had the real perpetrator in cuffs.
"No job is worth getting shot at," murmured my dad.
"No job is worth getting shot at," said my mother over the top of him.
"Unless someone else's life is at stake." I crossed my arms in an act of defiance. My mother glared at me; and I glared back. I probably wouldn't have won, given how badly my gunshot wound ached as the torn skin knitted itself back together. Besides, I really needed a drink, but I was also fully committed to giving the glaring contest my all.
"Your life would be safer if you worked with your boyfriend," Mom pointed out.
"How?" I wondered aloud, thinking back to all the cases Solomon and I worked. There were some distinctively unsafe cases.
"You would have backup."
That was a hard point to argue with. Mom was right. Working alone, I didn't have backup to readily call upon, but I did have backup that night. "I had backup," I told her. "Maddox."
"Where were you?" Mom asked, narrowing her eyes at Solomon. "She had to call her ex for backup. Do you ever seriously want to get married?"
The tablet in my father's hand chirped, and my dad grinned. "Look who's on the screen!" he said, turning the tablet around. My nephew and niece, Sam and Chloe, waved at me. Sam was speckled with chicken pox.
"Can I see your gunshot wound?" asked Sam.
"Can we see through it?" asked Chloe.
"Yeah!" yelled Sam. "Can I put a straw right through you?"
Garrett's face loomed onto the screen. "You have the right to remain silent," he said. "Please exercise that option." He slid out of view, leaving two disappointed looking children staring expectantly at me.
"No, you can't put a straw through me," I told them, and their faces fell a little more. It was hard to disappoint them. No, wait, it was pretty easy.
"I told you that was a dumb question," said Chloe to Sam.
"Can we see the bullet?" asked Sam.
"No, sorry. It's in evidence."
"Dad says if you get shot anymore, you can make a necklace out of all the bullets."
"I! Did! Not!" yelled an off camera Garrett.
Sam pushed his face against the screen. "He did," he whispered loudly, his tongue darting out to lick the screen.
"He did. He definitely did," added Chloe, pushing her brother out of the way. "He said, you'll be so holey, you'll never need to go to church again."
"We have to go," I told the kids. "I wish you were here. This has been so much fun!"
"Dad says we can video call your phone. He gave us your number," said Sam.
I sucked in a deep breath. "Tell him I said thanks." I waved.
"We will. Bye, Aunty Holey Lexi!"
"Bye!" I waved until the screen went dark.
"Something smells nice," said Mom. "Did you do this, Solomon?"
"We teamed up," said Solomon.
"So you can team up to make dinner, but you can't work together, live together, get married, or have a baby?" asked Mom. "The only thing you can commit to is food?"
"That's right," I said, nodding. I wondered if I were only agreeing with her, or simply deflecting the other things that could be in my future. Once again, I thought of Solomon's suggestion that we live together.
I liked having him on my team; I just wasn't sure about working for him again. If we were also living together, where would my independence be? Plus, last time I made a full commitment to someone, falling head over heels in love with Maddox, I spotted him with another woman and saw red, ending us. Even now, long past that event, I believed Maddox when he said it was a huge misunderstanding, but the pain of that moment still stung. The big commitment before that was when I got engaged and it turned out horribly, terribly wrong. My brief stint in the Army was testimony to that. I wondered if third time lucky lay in my future.
All of a sudden, it was clear. Solomon wasn’t my stumbling block. Or the loss of independence. Or gaining independence while living with someone who was truly on my team. It was none of those things, but rather, the fear that something I deeply wanted might end. I made mistakes before, was easily duped before, and I knew it could easily happen again. As I looked up at Solomon, waiting for his question again, waiting for him to make me that offer again, I knew I didn't want to lose him too. Living together could work. We wouldn't even have to make it work, we could just do it, and eventually, the fear should recede. Now was the time I realized, as I turned to look up at him. Now I knew what I would say.
"Lexi can have her job back anytime," said Solomon, answering the question I didn't expect to hear, "Lexi? Do you want your job back?"
Chapter Nineteen
"I love a fake wedding," said Lily. We sat in my car, watching a steady stream of people flowing in and out of Juliet and Rob's house. I was impressed. It did not look like a fake wedding at all. It looked like the real deal; and I had to admit, it was fabulous. "I hope there's cake," Lily continued, completely nonplussed about the real reason for the fake wedding. "Maybe you'll catch the bouquet."
"Been there, done that. Still not married."
"You did have a brief engagement," pointed out Lily.
I swallowed. "Maybe it'll be really good cake," I said, trying to sound more optimistic.
"A really yummy, really big cake." Lily pointed to a large box being lifted out of a van by two people dressed in white chef coats. "They are the best cake makers in all Montgomery. I couldn't even get them for my wedding! How did Juliet manage that?"
"I have no idea," I replied, wondering what kind of check Juliet was prepared to write in order to have a chance at catching her stalker. Since I once ate an exorbitantly priced, but utterly amazing, cupcake from that very bakery, I guessed it had to be a pretty big one.
"I hope they save us a slice. Is that the caterers? I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry."
"It's the baby. The baby is always hungry."
"You are eating for two."
"It feels like two thousand. I can't stop. I'm not just going to give birth. Eventually, I'll explode and… ta-da! There will be a baby."
"Call me when it's about to happen."
"I'd love for you to be there!"
"No, I meant so I could get out of the county. If you're going to explode, I don't want to see it."
"I bet I'll taste of buttercream." Lily sighed. "What a way to go."
I checked my watch. "We have two hours until the wedding. I don't think anything will happen until then."
"Does that give us enough time for lunch?"
"We just ate lunch!"
"Oh." Lily's shoulders dropped in disappointment. "I forgot. How about a snack?"