40. Cody
Cody
“See You Again”-Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth
“ S omeone doesn’t like that we got ours,” Tee says, voice so drowsy that I want to yank her back down to the sand and feast on her some more.
“Don’t think he appreciates the net.” My dick twitches as her tits jiggle together once she yanks her shirt back on.
“Yup, that might be an understatement, seeing as he’s making your special edition truck dance.”
Dancing—that’s the word for it.
When we’re back in the truck, Brogan barks and turns in a million circles upon seeing me. The only reason he can’t jump into the driver’s seat is because of the net, and I’m infinitely grateful for my foresight.
I’d feel guilty about scaring him, but the high she gave me is better than morphine.
I hold her off from petting him, just in case he sees her as a threat to me, but eventually I soothe over the troubled waters.
Once we’re both seated, she takes us on a Beach Boys’s journey that, hilariously, Brogan howls in on, as I deal with a couple messages.
Marty: Possible sighting of Amy Nygard at Our Lady of Sorrows.
Me: Go and check the CCTV
Marty: On my way
Me: Was her locker padlocked like we asked?
Marty: I’ll find out soon enough.
Me: Must have left something in it, or why else would she return?
Marty: Don’t know.
Me: You taking Dion?
Marty: Yup
Me: Keep me updated.
As Tee sings along to “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” I hide a smile as she swings her hips at the same time—orgasms make her a little ball of sunshine.
Switching conversations, I find the one I share with Bast.
Me: You still okay with me coming over today? Sorry for the delay.
Bast: No worries. It’s one of her better days.
Me: See you in twenty
Once he sends me a thumbs-up, I give Tee my full focus.
I’m not sure why I’m surprised, but her singing voice is damn good. Though she performed her ditty to help Elena, it didn’t really show her range. With a clean and pure tone, she sounds like the creature she isn’t—an angel.
Over the twenty-minute ride, I’m treated to more of her talents, and it cheers me up, which I figure I need considering the conversation we’re about to have.
When we make it to Bast’s ranch, he’s there—waiting.
Lowering the windows to keep the air flowing in here for Brogan, I study Bast as he studies us in turn.
“Thought you might be out on the range,” I comment, because there’s a twinkle in his eye that tells me he knows why I was ‘delayed.’
“Nah. Got your text and figured I’d stick around after lunch.”
Jumping out of the truck and after rounding the fender, I head to Tee’s side, open her door, and wait for her to alight.
Bast shoots me a knowing look, but I ignore him, preferring to let Brogan out to stretch his legs.
“Hi, Bast,” Tee greets.
“Hey, Tee. Thanks for sending that music over. I’m not sure what you did, but it’s helped. Jamie swears it’s half the reason she’s well enough to talk today. He’s been singing that Phoenix song you sent all week.”
“Magic music.” Her cheeks tinge with pink. “I’m glad it helped. Maybe she recognizes it. Your mom’s half the reason my parents took me seriously.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. Mom was good enough to play professionally, but she stopped when she had kids and only took it up again to teach me. As for Dad, he plays bass, but he considers it a hobby. It isn’t useful work according to both of them. Elena talked to them after one of her musicals. Said that I had too much talent to squander.”
Her wrinkled nose has me tapping it with my pointer finger. “Seems like it’s useful to Elena.”
She bites her lip but shifts attention to Bast, who’s watching us. I might be the cop here, but it’s clear I’m in for an interrogation at some point. “She’s in the living room today, Christy.”
“Tee, please,” she corrects.
As she walks into the house, I whistle at Brogan, who jumps back into the cab.
“New dog?”
“Yeah. He’s called Brogan.”
“You trying to get into her panties?” he asks once I shut the door. “Or already in them?”
“Not illegal, is it?”
He snorts. “You’d know. Officer .” I roll my eyes at his teasing, but he whistles. “She’s hot.”
For some reason, my mind centers on Jamie. Who’s been singing one of her songs all week. A song I haven’t even heard yet.
Jamie who was in her class at school.
And I’m stuck fake un-dating her because I was a fucking idiot.
“Shut up, Bast. You know why I’m here.”
His grimace is immediate. “Sorry.”
I grunt. “Jamie been talking to Tee?”
Glee lights up his expression. “Knew you liked her.”
“Fuck off.”
His smirk is enough to have me shoving his shoulder, but he deigns to answer, “Don’t think there’s anything between them. They never got along in school.”
Did Tee get along with anyone who wasn’t Zee?
Or Marcy Armstrong?
Thoughts of Marcy have my mood sinking. Another of Clyde’s victims? I guess I’ll find out if we have another to add to his body count today.
I tip my chin at his response and feel like a fool for being jealous when this conversation’s so important. But Tee’s important too. And the town knowing she’s off-limits is equally as imperative to my fucking sanity, which isn’t aided by her desire for our relationship to remain a secret.
Gritting my teeth, because I know I’m lucky to be getting that much out of her, I head into the house and find Elena in the living room. She does look a lot brighter today. Her face is still drawn, but her eyes seem less wild.
Knowing that this is an incredibly temporary reprieve, I resolve to get as many answers as I can.
If Clay was murdered, this is beyond a cold case. There’s no point in dredging shit up, nor can I just let it go.
“Hi, Elena,” I greet, keeping my tone soft as I crouch in front of the recliner where she’s sitting, a home-knitted blanket tucked around her knees.
When I think about her being the same age as Mum, how haggard Elena appears breaks my fucking heart.
I tried to research Alzheimer’s, but all I read was shit I didn’t understand or information I already knew.
Fading—that’s what she’s doing.
Right before our very eyes.
The woman she was is no more, and the woman she’ll be tomorrow is one we may not recognize. Worse still, she may not either.
“Cody, my goodness, it’s wonderful to see you.” She struggles to sit up then settles for patting my cheek when even that’s too much for her. “You’re so grown up.”
I smile. “I kind of am.”
“When did that happen?”
“Mom, he’s here to talk to you about Clay.” A scowl flutters over her brow, but as I get to my feet, Bast mutters, “Don’t let her focus on the changes in you. It sets her off.”
Nodding my understanding, I settle on the couch opposite her, where Tee’s seated.
“What are you doing home, Christy?”
“I’m thinking of moving back,” she half-lies. “New York’s no fun.”
“That’s disappointing to hear. I used to dream of the city lights,” Elena muses.
“It’s nice enough,” is Tee’s cheerful reply, “but there’s no place like home, is there?”
Elena’s disapproval says she doesn’t agree. “I was so proud when I heard you’d made it into Juilliard.”
“You’re the reason I did.”
“Your parents are such sticks in the mud.” Her fingers pleat her blanket. “Honestly, not everyone can be a homemaker or an educator.”
“Exactly!” Tee cries. “God, Mrs. Frobisher, I wish you could talk to them again.” She folds her arms like she’s a moody teen, not a twenty-six-year-old woman. Then, she throws in her patented pout. “You were the only one who could ever talk any sense into Dad.”
“That’s because he wanted to get into my panties.”
Tee’s eyes bug before she croaks, “Mrs. Frobisher?”
“Mom!” Bast barks.
But Elena giggles. “What, Sebastian? I am a woman. You’re old enough to know that.”
“You’re definitely a hottie,” I half-tease.
“Cody!” Bast growls.
“What? It’s true. I had a massive crush on her when I was fourteen.”
“I did as well,” Tee confirms with a giggle.
That surprises her, but Elena still snickers. “I remember that too. Tee, you’d get all flustered when we worked on the musicals together. Then, whenever you came to the house, Cody, you’d flush right to the roots of your hair. God, when did those times fade away...?” The hitch in her voice triggers a thorough investigation of the rug on the floor.
Tee clears her throat. “Did Dad ever?—”
I grab her hand to stymy the question, but it’s too late.
Elena snorts. “He’s too much of a prig to cheat on your mother. Scared of losing face in town. Didn’t stop him from drooling though.”
“Gross.”
Bast coughs. “Do you remember what you told me about Clay, Mom?”
“Clay? My Clay?”
“ Your Clay, Elena?” I ask softly.
“Oh, yes. Mine. I loved him so much.” A dreamy cast overtakes her features, softening her eyes with the memories of her feelings for my uncle. “I think he loved me too. No, I’m sure he did. But you can never tell with men, can you, Tee?”
“No, you damn well can’t,” she grumbles, though I shoot her a pointed look because, hell, I came out and said it first!
She sniffs at me.
“It wasn’t until John—” Bast’s dad. “—almost lost me that he told me he loved me. Married for eighteen years and that was the first time.” She shakes her head. “I only stayed because he did, mind you. And because he started showering after he came home from work. I told him his feet stank, but he never used to listen. Now, he’s as clean as a daisy, isn’t he, Bast?”
“Yes, Mom. He is,” is my friend’s dutiful reply.
“Do you shower, Bast?” Tee taunts.
His lips twist. “Yes. Mom never lets any of us hear the end of it if we don’t.”
“Rightfully so,” is Elena’s stout retort. “I’m not making it hard on my future daughters-in-law. If John’s mother, that old bitch, had told him to shower after work, then I wouldn’t have had to. Do you know how many arguments we had over something as simple as that? And she could have fixed it!”
“You’re so right, Mrs. Frobisher,” Tee chimes in.
“It’s Elena, dear. We’re far too old for all that nonsense.” A glint appears in her eye. “I was about your age when I fell for Clay.”
“You were having an affair with him for so long?”
She nods, then flicks a look at her son. “I’m sorry, love.”
“It’s fine, Mom.”
“It isn’t, but I was very unhappy with your father. Clay changed that.” She frowns at her blanket. “I think he’d have married me, but he was so scared of what Clyde would do. He said that whatever he had, Clyde wanted. And he was right, wasn’t he?
“One moment, we’re trying to sneak off to Saskatoon. The next, he’s dead and I’m attending his funeral as a neighbor. Not as the woman he loved. I didn’t even get to pick the music for the service.
“I used to hope that Bast was his, but no. It never happened. Clay was so careful. He used to fear... said any wife of his would be in danger. I’m half-certain that’s why he took up with me. Despite the fact I was messing around on John. They were such good friends.”
“I know,” I rasp.
It’s half the reason Theo and Colt are best buds and Bast and I are close—Clay used to bring us around here. Was that for two pals to hang out, or was it to facilitate Clay and Elena’s affair?
I was too young, too na?ve, and too dumb back then to register any signs of them hooking up. I wish I could remember—it’d corroborate this. The whole relationship could, after all, be a fantasy her illness crafted to mess with us.
“You really think my dad did it?”
“Cody, you might not remember, but he was so smug at the graveside. He always did think he was so damn clever. God, I hated him. He should have died. Not my Clay.”
The words are a wail, and like that, as if a switch has been flipped, the wildness I saw that day in The General Store is back in her eyes.
Tee recognizes it immediately, almost before Bast does, and she starts singing.
Hands loosening around the blanket, Elena stops wailing as if Tee had grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, then she blinks, closes her eyes, and joins in with the song.
“I always loved this one, child. You must perform it next week at the musical. Please?”
“You’ll have to talk to my daddy, Mrs. Frobisher,” Tee lies, the words strained. “He won’t let me. Says music is only a hobby.”
“That fool. Such a stick in the mud. I’ll talk to him. You see if I don’t.”
As I get to my feet, I slip her fingers into mine and tangle them together for a quick squeeze before I let go.
Bast shifts over to the window, leaving the two women to talk as if it were ten years ago—I hear them discussing the cast’s flaws and the best musical scores.
How the fuck Tee remembers any of this is beyond me, but it’s evident that the past is clearer than yesterday for Elena.
Does that make what she said more likely to have happened or not?
“Well?” Bast inquires.
“I was hoping she’d give me more.”
“You’re lucky you got what you did,” he comments, tone sour. Which makes sense—we are talking about his mom loving another man.
“I’m a dumbass.” I clap him on the shoulder. “You know I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Yeah.” He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Sorry. It’s been a rough couple we... Who the hell am I kidding? It’s been a shitty couple years.”
“Mrs. Frobisher,” someone sings as they sashay out of the kitchen and into the living room. “It’s time for a lovely soak. I have your bath all ready for you!”
Elena’s mouth tightens. “It’s too early for a bath.”
“It’s never too early for a soak. What a luxury it is,” the woman says cheerfully—from her scrubs, I know who she is.
“Ohh, yes. I love a nice hot soak,” Tee concurs, earning a beaming smile from the nurse.
My cell buzzes and I skim an eye on the message from Marty.
Marty: Wasn’t Amy and the locker’s locked.
Me: Waste of time, then?
Marty: Yup
“How’s it working out with the new staff?” I ask Bast, tucking my phone away.
“I don’t know how the hell you got her here as fast as you did, but I’m grateful.”
“You don’t have to be. Elena’s family. Colt should have tried to send someone else in sooner,” I grouse. “I don’t know how he didn’t hear her escapades in town were worsening.”
He scoffs. “The town tells the Korhonens what they want to hear.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means there’s a distinct divide between the town and you. One you’re only breaching because you’re the new chief. The town approaches the Korhonens when they need a new bus service for the school or want to fix the church roof. They close rank around the ones they think need protection?—”
“From us ?”
“No. From Clyde.” He purses his lips. “Wouldn’t be surprised if that’s why Theo didn’t tell Colt. I know he did at the start, but her state is deteriorating faster than the doctors predicted.”
“Nothing’s stopped him from sharing it now that he’s in jail.”
Bast laughs. “You seriously think he’ll see the inside of a cell for long? Ha . Doubtful. Cells are for the poor, Cody. But you wouldn’t know anything about that.”
My brow lowers, but how can I defend my inheritance? I can’t.
He continues, “If Clyde did kill Clay, can you imagine what he’d think about Mom claiming to be Clay’s girlfriend? He mowed down Marcy Armstrong’s mother… What would he have done to Mom if it came out that she was accusing him of killing Clay? Even in death, Clay’s powerful enough to open a cold case investigation?—”
Because he’s right, I hold up a hand. “I get it.” It’s a dumb time to bring this up, but I can’t stop myself. “Colt’s nothing like Clyde. You’d think Theo would know that.”
“Theo’s scared. We all are. We’re already losing her. We don’t want to accelerate that with interrogations,” he mutters. “Plus, Theo’s… Theo. He’s close-mouthed on the best of days. What with Colt being in the honeymoon phase still, I don’t think Theo’s doing much more than telling him the bare bones.
“Then there’s the fact that he’s foreman for the Seven Cs and the Bar 9, which, to be frank, has been a godsend financially.”
“Bast—”
“No. You’ve done enough as it is. I figured you’d send in some help for a few hours a day—not have two nurses come and live in. You’ve… You’re a good friend, Cody. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I mean it,” I grumble when his mouth opens to argue. “How’s Blanche coping having strangers around?”
“Grandma hates it, but I know she’s relieved. She can finally rest. Maybe she’ll start healing. She fucked up her leg when she had a fall earlier this year. It doesn’t help that she feels guilty about being relatively well while Mom… isn’t.”
I wince. “That must be hard for her. Look, I have a couple more nurses coming around?—”
“Two?”
“Yeah. They’ll work in shifts.”
“Good thing the house has plenty of bedrooms.” His tone’s dry, but how he sags against the wall says it all—they need the extra hands.
“Tell me if one of them doesn’t work out. There’s no harm in swapping. This is your house. Elena and Blanche’s comfort is what matters the most.”
He plucks at his bottom lip. “You’re making me feel like a real asshole for that situation with Samantha.”
“You were an asshole.” I smirk at him. “You can’t change your personality, Bast.”
“No, it’s too late for this old dog to learn new tricks.” He peers out onto the yard. “So, you and Christy MacFarlane, huh?”
“What about us?”
“I saw you squeeze her hand.”
“So?”
“Ahh, like that, is it?”
“Like what?” I grumble.
He taps his nose. “I’ll keep it on the DL if the next time you come over, it has nothing to do with a case, my mom, and everything to do with a six pack of beer.”
I hold out my fist for him to bump. “Sounds good to me.”
Twenty minutes later, the windows are down, Tee’s hair is blowing in the wind, my hat was almost lost to the same breeze, and Brogan’s stuck his head out of the back window for some fresh air.
“Feels a little Bonnie and Clyde, doesn’t it?” she whoops.
“Aside from the fact we’re not criminals.”
“I am now. Grand theft auto, baby.”
“Only if I filed charges. Which I didn’t.”
“How did you know I’d come back to the lake?”
I shrug. “Fifty/fifty chance. I wasn’t going to worry either way.”
“Why not?”
“Because the noisiest part of your body, Tee, is not your mouth. It’s your brain. You’d have come back for me eventually.”
“Ten years later.”
“More like that afternoon. Anyway, you do know I was a combat pilot, right? I’ve been trained for worse situations than a morning by a lake.” She blows a raspberry at me. “Have to admit I wasn’t expecting a triplet escort.”
“I got lost.”
“Thank God they were there, then, eh? Otherwise, you’d have been fucked.”
“The Three Wise Triplets. Who’d have thunk it?”
Hair whipping around her face, she turns away from the side of the road where a massive field lays spread before us. Though I can feel her focus is on me, mine’s on our acreage.
For the first time in a long while, the urge to take up our plane, to fly over our land hits me. Especially if she was my passenger and I got her to catch the bug too.
“What are you going to do about Elena?”
The question shatters my thoughts like a hammer to my windshield.
“Nothing I can do, aside from what I’ve already done.”
“Nonna said the family couldn’t afford a nurse.”
I grunt.
“You paid for one.” She smiles. “I knew I was right to fall in love with you epistolarily.”
“Is that a word?”
“I’m making it one.”
“What else did Nonna say?”
“That I was being dumb holding out on you. That you had knowing eyes and that I should enjoy them before they get cataracts.”
“Reassuring, Nonna. Thanks. ”
My sarcasm has her hooting. “Nonna’s a pragmatist who was born right in the prime of Canada’s epic feminist era. I don’t know how it bypassed Mom entirely, but we can’t have everything.”
“She genuinely said that about the knowing eyes?”
“And a whole lot of other words between, but I’ll spare your blushes.” Her hoot shifts into a cackle. “Don’t look so distressed, lover boy. The cool shit might have skipped a generation, but I was raised at Nonna’s knee.”
“Thank God for that.”
“Amen,” she teases.
“Bast suggested...”
“That something was going on between us?” Her shrug’s dismissive. “He can suggest what he wants.”
I relax my hold on the wheel. “If it gets out, I just want you to know it’s not me. I meant what I said about making it up to you before.”
“And I believed you.” She shuffles on the seat, earning a lick from Brogan, who takes it as an invitation to stick his tongue between the nets. Her chuckle has a grin kicking at the corners of my mouth. “At least your dog likes me.”
“We have good taste.”
“Not sure you can take the credit for that when Callan and I picked him,” she jokes, rubbing her fingers over his snout. Then, her tone turns pensive. “I do trust you, Cody. I hope you know that. Just… I need some time.”
“You can have as much time as you need. I’m not going anywhere, Tee,” I tell her calmly.
Tee hums, a happy sound, one that lilts on the air and trails off into her scrabbling for her purse and writing down the notes in her notepad.
“You never mentioned in your letters how you composed so much.”
“The orchestra killed my buzz,” she replies, the words huffy because I’m distracting her. “I barely composed anything in New York. Whatever I did was written when I was on PTO or sick. The last couple weeks before I moved here, I took some time off because I wasn’t coping well, so I thought it might help. It made things worse.”
“Pigeon Creek is good for you,” I say with no small amount of satisfaction.
“It is.”
The humming starts up again, until she jumps when Brogan touches her shoulder with his snout.
Cutting him a look, I snort. “You’re turning into Dr. Doolittle.”
Stroking Brogan’s head, she chuckles. “Had worse things said about me.”
“Tonight, we’ll work on getting Milord to come to you. After… you can spend the night in my room, if you want.”
“Why would I do that when you’re never in it?”
I roll my eyes. “I’d be in it. If you were there.”
“Ahhh. Probably best if you came to my room, no? Callan’s next door?—”
“Mum’s next door to you,” I point out.
“Huh. True. But I think I’d prefer your mum knowing rather than Callan.”
“Why?”
“Your mum wouldn’t say anything.”
“How do you know?”
“Because we have an agreement.”
My shoulders straighten. “What kind of agreement?”
“What happens in the hallway, stays in the hallway.”
“What the fuck happens in the hallway?”
She snorts. “That’d be telling. Okay, you can room with me.” I gape at her until she tsks. “Eyes on the road, marshal.”
Shifting focus to the road, I mutter, “What the hell is Mum doing?”
“You’d have to ask her. Also, I think Mom and your mum have zero in common, so I doubt they’d ever chat if they were in town together.” She taps her bottom lip. “Do you think Colton would soundproof my room?”
“You can keep your loudest screams for when we’re outside.”
“So anyone nearby can think you’re killing me, gotcha.” She grins at my sniff. “I was thinking about a cymbal.”
“You’d have to ask Colton, but I don’t see why not.”
“Who owns the house?”
“Colt, now.”
“You can live there forever though, right?”
“Yup. I have some land earmarked over by the knot of trees in the west quadrant though. I’ll build something there when I’m ready.”
“I think I like that you know I’d know which part the west quadrant is.”
“I have infinite faith in your brain.”
“You’ve no idea how sexy that is.” Before I can utter another word, she muses, “I bet Callan never moves out.”
“Callan’s a homebody. He’ll end up getting married and they’ll knock down the wall to Cole’s room so they can have a suite.”
“To be fair, that suite would be bigger than most people’s three-bed homes.”
“Has he talked to you about girls?”
“You know he has. I told him about the clitoris.”
“He knows what that is,” I drawl.
“Sure he does, but the porn stuff doesn’t work.”
“It does, only not on you. You need a different touch.”
“Don’t do that,” she whispers breathily.
“Do what?”
“Get me hot and bothered.”
I smirk. “Does he have a girl in mind?”
“Maybe.”
“Another ‘what happens in Callan’s bedroom, stays in Callan’s bedroom’?”
“Ew, I’m not sleeping with your brother!”
“I never said you were.” Wait . “Mum’s sleeping with someone?”
She makes a zipping motion with her fingers as she swipes it over her mouth. “I’m saying nothing.”
“You said enough!”
“Hardly!” She harrumphs. “Anyway, it’s the girl who owns the inn.”
“I thought she was dating Calder McAllister.”
“Hence Callan’s problem. Cody?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you think I should send a mixture of music to the Majors or heavy, in-depth pieces that show my range?”
“Why not send a bit of everything? That way he can decide for himself. You should start with that ditty though. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since you first sang it.”
“Oh, you think I should include that?”
“It’s very powerful, so yes. And Jerry Majors makes a lot of action movies, but he also does the older stuff. Remember that movie with the gladiators?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Your work would be perfect for that.”
“You haven’t heard my work. Not really.”
“Maybe we could change that.”
She clears her throat. “Maybe we could.”