Chapter 32
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Levi
Unsurprisingly, we all wake up famished in the morning. “Let’s go start breakfast,” I suggest as Skyler takes his turn in the bathroom. “Sky can find us when he comes out.”
We pull on some clothes and head for the kitchen. Brooke decides to make pancakes and tells me to take care of the bacon and coffee. Sounds good, but I’m going to throw in some scrambled eggs too. I’m starving.
As we’re about to sit down to eat, there’s a loud knock at the door, and all three of us groan. Skyler drags himself off to answer it. We hear him say, “Hey, Blake. Are you here to arrest me again? If so, you better come on inside, I don’t want the embarrassment of getting cuffed again in case anyone sees us out here.”
Skyler returns with Deputy Sheriff Blake Ogden who looks contrite as he says, “No one can even see your house, Skyler. It’s too far back from the road.”
“You never know who’s going to show up around here lately though. Coffee? You don’t look like you’re on official business today since you’re out of uniform,”
“Oh, uh, yeah, please. I’d love a cup. Cream if you have it. It’s my day off.”
“We don’t have any donuts, but Brooke made a big stack of pancakes if you’re interested,” Skyler offers.
“Ha ha. Everything sure looks good, and I’d be a fool to turn it down. Thanks. Look, Skyler, I came to apologize again. I know you’re an upstanding guy, and you’d never hurt a lady. I had to come get you yesterday because it was my job, and sometimes my job sucks, especially with my arrest-happy boss. I can’t wait for that old fart to retire. He watches too many cop shows and believes we have a crime spree in Honeybee Hollow if he sees a piece of litter in the road.”
When we chuckle, Blake shakes his head, “I’m not joking. When we’re in our patrol vehicles, we’re supposed to keep an eye out for litterbug criminals. So when Mrs. Henshaw accused you, it got him so excited he about had a heart attack.”
“I get it,” I tell him as Levi and Brooke set down platters of food in front of us, and she grabs another place setting for Blake. Finally, she sits down with us and holds out her hand.
“Hi. We haven’t met. I’m Brooke Spencer, Levi’s wife. We live here now too.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. Welcome to Honeybee Hollow.”
“Thanks. It’s Brooke. Not ma’am. And there’s lots more batter if we need more pancakes, so don’t be shy.”
“Yeah, okay. Brooke. Sorry. Thanks for breakfast.” He turns to Skyler and says, “So, besides apologizing, I wanted to come by and give you some information about a private investigator you might want to have your lawyer contact. He’s like a PI ninja, and he gets amazing results. This case smells like bad fish, so if you want to get to the bottom of things, Doug Freeman is your guy. He’s had some terrific results in cases all through Kentucky I can’t talk about, and one of them was so sensitive, he left the country with his family for a few years. I have my suspicions about what the threat against him was, but now that the person I suspect was his tormentor has passed away, I guess he felt safe returning home again. Here’s his card.” He produces a business card and passes it to Skyler. All it has on it is a name and phone number.
“I appreciate that, Blake. Thanks. Now, let’s not talk about this crap anymore and just enjoy breakfast.”
“I’m all for that,” I agree.
“Dig in, guys,” Brooke says with a sweet smile.
“You have no idea how nice it is to have a home-cooked meal for once. I’m a hopeless cook, and I’m getting tired of cold cereal and take-out burgers. This is a real treat.”
“So, I take it you’re single, deputy?” Brooke asks.
“When I’m out of uniform, it’s Blake, ma’…uh, Brooke,” he says with a laugh. “Yes, unfortunately, I find myself unhappily single these days.”
“What a shame,” she says with a sad smile, and I wonder if my wife is planning some matchmaking or just making conversation. Anyway, he seems like a decent guy, but I have no idea what Brooke could do about his single status. She doesn’t know many people here yet, and she certainly doesn’t need any more men in her life. I laugh at the thought. Someone told me once that a happily involved woman wants everyone around her to be all hitched up. Maybe she just needs a new hobby. We’ll see.
“So, you guys are Army buddies, I assume? Are you planning to buy or build a house here?” he asks me.
“Uh…yes, we are and no.” I’m not sure what to say, and somehow, I feel that Skyler ought to answer this kind of question since he’s the one who’s from this town, but maybe I’m just a chicken. We need to discuss what we plan to tell people.
But Skyler looks me in the eye and then looks at Blake and answers for us, “Brooke and Levi are going to be living here with me. Permanently, I hope.” He looks at Brooke, who smiles and winks at him, so he continues, “We are in a three-way relationship. We all love each other.”
Blake, to his great credit, barely blinks, although he clears his throat after taking a swallow of coffee. Maybe it was too hot. “Oh! Like your new neighbors who are building nearby?”
“If you mean Jack, Asher, and Juni, yes. Very much like them,” Skyler explains.
“Hmm. Must be something in the water around here.” Blake smiles and says, “I wish you all luck. I can’t see it for myself because I’m a jealous bastard, but if it works for you, that’s great.”
“Well…you’re the first to know,” Brooke adds. “It’s still somewhat new for all three of us. The guys were friends for quite a while before I married Levi. Are you by any chance also a military man? You seem to have that kind of bearing.”
“Yes. I needed a way to pay for college because I wanted to study police science, so right out of high school, I joined the Marines. It was an interesting experience.”
“I bet,” she says. “Have you ever been married?”
“Brooke!” I exclaim, “What’s with the probing questions?”
“It’s fine,” Blake assures me. “I was engaged a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t meant to be. Since then, I’ve been as single as a monk.”
“Aww. Too bad,” she tells him.
“Maybe it’s for the best. I’ve been told I’m not all that easy to live with.”
I think about all the complaining Kate did about me as a kid and laugh to myself. “I used to hear that too until Brooke civilized me,” I offer. “My big sister used to say I was impossible every chance she could get.”
“Well, you grew out of it,” Brooke says and plants a kiss on my cheek. “Now look at you all domesticated.” Skyler snickers at me.
The rest of the breakfast conversation consists of small talk about local entertainment, fishing, and music. Blake does seem like a nice guy, and I can’t hold anything against him for doing his job. It was thoughtful of him to come apologize and try to help Skyler by letting him know about the private investigator.
Before he leaves, Blake promises to come to the gig I have scheduled next week at The Hive, and he makes sure we all have his private number in case we need anything or just want to shoot the breeze. I get the sense he might be a little lonely, so maybe Brooke’s matchmaking idea has possibilities. Eh…not my problem.
I need to call the guys about rehearsing. That thought gets me going. I have so much to look forward to all of a sudden, but it makes me feel worse for Skyler because he has to look forward to slogging through a bunch of ridiculous legal issues.
About an hour after the deputy leaves, there is another knock on the door. This time Brooke answers it to find a nervous young man standing there with a packet in his hands. “I need to speak to Skyler Colfax, ma’am. Is he available?”
She looks at me questioningly, and I tell her, “He just went upstairs to paint for a while.”
“Just a minute. I’ll have to go up and get him,” she tells the guy. I have a bad feeling about this, but she politely asks him to step inside so she can close the door.
A couple minutes later, she comes back with Sky who already has a bright streak of blue paint that goes across his cheek and into his hair. He looks frustrated. “Can I help you?” he asks.
“Skyler Colfax?”
“That’s me.”
“This is for you.” The guy hands him the envelope and scurries out the door without another word.
Skyler sighs unhappily like he knows this is bad news, but he opens the envelope anyway. With a troubled expression, he tells us, “Just to make things an even bigger pain in the ass, Mrs. Henshaw is suing me for personal damages in civil court. She’s arbitrarily decided that I’d be good for a cool million dollars. What a miserable bitch.”
All we can do is surround him in a warm hug. “It’ll turn out okay, Sky,” Brooke tells him. “You’ll be fine. There’s no way she’ll win any of this nonsense or they will convict you . No way .”