Chapter 5
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When Mack was done eating, Doreen got up, made coffee, and the two of them settled into the living room. He looked around as she sat down on the floor.
“You could sit in the other chair,” he suggested.
She shrugged. “I’m okay on the floor for a while. I’m trying to figure out what furniture I want.”
“It’s a good time to figure it out,” he replied, “though you seem to be pretty comfortable without furniture.”
“I know, but I understand that you need bigger furniture.”
He raised his eyebrows at her and shrugged. “I don’t know that I need bigger furniture, but some furniture would be nice,” he clarified, with a laugh. “These matching chairs are great for short-term sitting, but, long-term, I’m not sure they’ll be the easiest on my back.”
“Right. So, before you move in, we’ll have to go furniture shopping.” He just nodded and didn’t say anything. “Or is that an issue?” she asked, looking at him.
“No, not at all, but, until we’re ready for me to move in, you might change your mind a multitude of times between now and then.”
She frowned at that. “I might, but I don’t know why I would.”
His gentle smile blossomed. “Because what we want can change over time,” he shared. “There’s no rush right now.”
Doreen sighed. “Nan was at me again about the wedding too.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he replied comfortably. She looked at him sideways, and he nodded. “I’m fine. You don’t have to worry. I won’t start pushing and getting angry about it.”
She nodded. “Thank you. It’s nice of you to not add more pressure,” she muttered. “Still, plenty of other people are pushing.”
He chuckled. “That’s just because your friends include an awful lot of older people, and, looking at the possible years ahead of them, they may be wondering if they’ll make it until your actual wedding.”
“I get it, but we also have to consider how big we’ll make this wedding.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Sometimes I think I just want to run away and have a tiny wedding someplace off on a remote island.”
“We can do that too,” he stated, nodding. “I’m not opposed to it.”
“But then what about all those people?”
He grimaced. “I can’t imagine telling your grandmother that we did that, without her.”
She stared at him and then winced. “Oh my gosh, me neither.” She gave him a half laugh. “Although I don’t think she would be mad.”
“No, but she would be heartbroken.”
“And I can’t imagine your mother would take it any better.”
“Ugh, no. Probably worse.”
“So, as you can see, I’m still working my way through all the decisions and thought processes.”
“Take your time,” he told her, patting her hand. “Just take your time. It’s not an issue.”
She smiled, then hooked her fingers with his, and added, “Thank you for being a nice man.”
He looked down at their fingers clasped together and closed his free hand around them. “You do realize a lot of men would take that comment as an insult.”
“Yes,” she noted bluntly. “However, I also realize that you’re not a lot of men.” When his eyebrows shot up, she smiled. “You’re a whole lot better than that. You wouldn’t distort words from somebody’s mouth and get upset about them,” she added, with a shrug.
“No, I sure wouldn’t,” he agreed, “but I would have to ask what you meant.”
“Of course, but whatever. It doesn’t matter,” she replied, with a smile.
Just then his phone rang. He looked down at it and winced.
“Work?” she asked him worriedly.
He nodded as he stood up and answered it. He listened for a few minutes and then replied, “Okay, I’m coming.” He looked down at her and tilted his head. “At least I got dinner, so thank you for that.” He walked to the door, looked back at her, and said, “Don’t forget to lock up.”
“I won’t.”
When she hesitated, he rejoined her and gave her a kiss. “And thank you for not asking questions.” Immediately the words on the tip of her tongue died in her mouth, and she glared at him. He smiled and then burst into an all-out chuckle and headed off.
“Glad I can make you smile,” she muttered.
“You always make me smile, but it was definitely something much softer tonight,” he noted, with a laugh. And, with that, he was gone.
She stared out the window, wondering what new calamity had hit the town, resulting in Mack being called out at night. She wished she could have asked him something about it. But she didn’t want to bug him, and she didn’t want to be anything other than—
“Other than what?” she muttered to herself. “Doreen, you’re being a fool. You could have just asked. He was expecting it.” It was nice that he didn’t have to explain anything to her. Yet it did feel weird to think that he was heading off on a case, and she literally knew nothing about it.
Soon afterward Doreen got a phone call from Nan. “So, what happened?”
“What happened?” Doreen repeated.
“Richie couldn’t get anything out of Darren,” she grumbled. “So I’m calling you for the latest.”
“I couldn’t get anything out of Mack either,” she shared.
Silence came from Nan’s end. “Wow,” she muttered. “What’s going on with this place? All our sources have dried up.” And, with that, she ended the call.
Doreen stared down at her phone and wanted to laugh. Yet she also recognized that she was siding with Mack on this one, even when, in the past, she would have told her grandmother how Doreen hadn’t even asked Mack for details on this one.
Groaning, she pulled out her phone and sent Mack a quick text. How about now? Can I ask now?
He called her, chuckling. “You held out longer than I expected.”
“Yeah, well, I was trying to be good. Even Nan called, wondering what had happened. She was grumbling about all our sources drying up, since Richie couldn’t get anything out of Darren either.”
“That’s a good thing,” he stated. “These are active cases. Remember that.”
“Active cases. Remember that,” she mimicked, then groaned. “Fine. Were you able to get me all the files from Alberta?”
“I put in the request,” he replied, “and you’ll get them when you get them.”
“Fine, fine, fine,” she muttered. As she went to hang up, she added, “You’ll be careful, right?”
“I will,” he said, surprised, but his tone was gentle. “You try to get a good night’s sleep.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll work on a new angle regarding this something that happened, and, no, before you ask, I won’t tell you what it is.”
“If it was dangerous, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?” When silence came, she groaned. “Of course you wouldn’t because, not only would you not want me to worry but it would be connected to an active case, so you wouldn’t say squat.”
And, with that, she ended the call on him.