Page 44 of Sanctuary

Gabe liked Lori’s surprise. “Really,” she said. “I hope that’s okay.”

Lori’s shy smile was wildly cute. “I hope it was all good.”

“I haven’t experienced anything other than good. Great, as a matter of fact. You’re great.” Gabe squeezed her eyes shut briefly. Maybe she had hit her head harder than she’d thought.

Lori took Gabe to the dining room table, where cookies, brownies, and fresh lemonade were laid out along with two piles of legal paper about a half-inch thick.

She pulled out a chair and guided Gabe into it. “Wait there while I get a cold compress from the kitchen.”

When Lori had left the room, Lightning smacked Gabe upside the head.

“Hey, don’t make my concussion worse.” Gabe pushed Lightning’s hand away then held the back of her head as if she’d been battered with a rifle butt. “And, ow.”

Lightning narrowed her eyes and somehow managed to frown at the same time. “You haven’t been out long enough to go that soft.” She sat in the chair beside Gabe and leaned in. “She is beautiful.”

“She’s out of bounds.”

Lightning clapped Gabe on the shoulder. “I know that, you idiot. I was just messing with you, like I have a thousand times before. Interesting that you took me seriously this time…”

Gabe glanced toward the hallway to make sure Lori wasn’t coming back. “I was messing too,” she said, sounding as false as her claim.

“Yeah, okay, Captain Panic Pants.” Lightning tapped her short, manicured fingernail on one of the stacks of paper. “Is this the contract?”

“I think so. I read an electronic version, so I don’t know how many pages it was. I do know that it took me half a day to read it and barely any of it made sense.”

“Knucklehead. It’s good that we’ve got a lawyer in the family then, huh?”

“Janie was a sweetheart to go through it all so quickly.”

“Janie as in Hannah’s wife?” Lori asked as she came back into the room. “Sorry, I just can’t call her Solo.”

“That’s right,” Lightning said. “And Janie would thank you for not calling her Solo.”

Gabe hadn’t responded because she was too busy being impressed that Lori had remembered her friends’ names and one of their nicknames. “Uh, yeah. Janie is a lawyer for one of the top firms in the city.” She saw the instant but brief change in Lori’s expression. “She’s one of the few good attorneys out there,” she said, hoping to rescue the mood.

Lori looked like she’d stopped herself from asking a follow-up question or maybe from saying something mean. Although being mean would seem out of character from what Gabe knew of Lori, she also knew that broken relationships were complicated things that made people do and say things that they usually wouldn’t. She’d learned that useful life nugget firsthand from Cynthia and the sergeant major.

Lori approached Gabe and gently placed the ice pack on her forehead. “I’ve wrapped it in a dish towel so it doesn’t burn your skin.”

She held it there for a moment longer than was necessary while her other hand rested on Gabe’s shoulder. Gabe didn’t miss the quiet sound that escaped Lori’s mouth when she touched her, and she tensed her muscles in response.

Lori pulled her hand away instantly and didn’t make eye contact. “Help yourself to something sweet,” she said.

Gabe couldn’t look at Lightning or she’d almost certainly laugh. Both of them would’ve liked to help themselves to the sweetness of Lori, and Gabe knew Lightning would have that mischievous expression she got when she was on the hunt.

Instead, she snagged one of the gooey-looking brownies and took a bite before she moaned appreciatively. “These would tempt Amenadiel to this earthly plain,” she said after swallowing the delicious treat.

Lightning gave her signature WTF expression but didn’t say anything.

“I thought you said you didn’t believe in God?” Lori handed her a glass of lemonade.

“I don’t. I just grew up in a very religious environment, and it’s kind of stayed with me.” Gabe clenched her jaw, and she saw the flash of concern in Lightning’s expression. “Do you have one of those special photographic memories?” she asked, steering the conversation onto a safer track.

“An eidetic memory, no. Hyperthymesia syndrome? Yep. I remember absolutely everything.”

“So I was dead on when I said that you had a memory like an elephant?” Gabe asked.

“In essence, yes. But I really can’t forget anything even if I tried.”

---