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Mac grabbed Colin’s arm and spun him around back toward the door. “We gotta go if we don’t wanna be late, eh?” He gave Stephanie a great big smile over his shoulder. “Great talking to you, Steph.”
“Debt. Of. Gratitude,” she shouted at their backs.
“Debt of gratitude, huh?” Colin asked. “Whatever’s in that tin must be really good.”
Jacob Langley stepped out of his meeting, pulling Mac out of his thoughts. He looked relieved to have the deal done, and chatted with Mac and Colin all the way to the SUV, and then throughout the drive to his home, a gated community just outside of Boulder, where they left him in the care of a neighborhood security team. Mac’s money was on the ex-partner being all bluster and no bite, especially now that the deal was finished.
“Every day like this is a good day,” Mac said as they walked back to the SUV, echoing the line Kyle fed every new hire in their first week.
“Tell that to my feet.” Colin slid his sunglasses down and gave the quiet neighborhood one last look. “They’re barking at me. I’ll drive,” he offered, and Mac tossed him the keys.
Mac got into the passenger side and looked down at the tin resting on the console between them as Colin drove them out of the neighborhood and pointed the SUV toward Watchdog.
“We gonna eat those,” Colin asked, gaze on the road, “or are we just driving them around Boulder County for fun?”
“No, we’re not.”
“Awesome. Then pop ’em open and I’ll eat half.”
Colin followed up with a laugh as he watched the dismay on Mac’s face. He flicked the turn signal and merged onto the highway. “I’m just kidding you, brother. They’re supposed to be for Jodie, aren’t they?”
“They’re for anyone who wants them,” Mac answered lamely.
“Oh don’t give me that bullshit. What’s going on? Jodie never misses a day, Stephanie looked like the cat who ate the canary, and you obviously knew Jodie needed some sort of, I don’t know, gift?”
“A get-well present,” Mac mumbled.
“She sick?” Colin’s voice carried concern for the first time.
“She sprained her ankle pretty bad on Saturday.”
“Yeah? How would you know that?”
Mac shook his head and gave up. As he told Colin what happened, he couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face as he remembered how Jodie had made him laugh, how good her sweat and perfume smelled wafting off her neck. How she made the sweetest sleepy sound as he laid her down in her bed.
But those little details he kept to himself.
“You’ve got it bad, my friend.” Colin shook his head. “But I don’t blame you. Jodie rocks.”
Mac thought about standing in her house yesterday morning, telling her straight to her face, like an idiot, that it was okay to let friends help her.
He’d said the word himself. Out loud. On the record.
“It doesn’t matter. I already blew it.”
“What?”
“Yeah. I basically told her we’re friends.”
“Just friends?”
Mac shrugged.
“Mac. Don’t make me pull this thing over and park until I get an answer out of you.”
Mac chuckled. “You sound like you’ve been a dad forever already.”
That made Colin smile. “Truth, my little girl’s got me wrapped around her pinkie.”
