Page 67 of Time to Bounce

“Sorry, hello?” I answered.

“Um, did I wake you?” Callena sounded worried.

“Yeah, but only about two minutes before my alarm,” I said right before my alarm interrupted the call and I turned it off before placing it back to my ear. “What’s up?”

“Tyrone and I were hoping to meet you to discuss the case,” she supplied eagerly. “A couple of new things have popped up.”

I sighed. “Sure. I’m at my house. I have about two hours before I need to be on shift, though, and it’ll take me thirty-five to get there.”

Meaning, we didn’t have long, and maybe they should wait.

Callena didn’t want to wait, though, and said, “We’ll be there in fifteen.”

I scrubbed my tired face and once again glanced at the clock.

Athena and I had to be at the station at the same time.

As I was leaving last night, Quaid asked me if I would be willing to take a shift working in a less than desirable beat that tended to be one of his highest turnovers.

I’d agreed, but only if I could come in when Athena needed to so I could get her there safely since we’d left her car behind last night.

Speaking of her car… it needed some work.

I realized she liked it and all, but she seriously needed to look into something more reliable. One that also didn’t look like it was going to have a tire pop off at any moment.

Heading to the laundry room, I got dressed in my jeans since I didn’t want to wake Athena.

When I was done, I headed to the guest bath to brush my teeth.

I was back in the laundry room looking through a load of mostly towels for a t-shirt when I heard the knock at the door.

My door opened and closed before I could get to it, and that meant one of my brothers had seen my light on and headed over.

“Gable,” Garrett called.

The sharp click-click of Boss’s nails on my hardwood floor would’ve also been a dead giveaway on who it was.

Boss was the only dog in the Carter neighborhood right now. We loved animals, but none of us were here enough to take care of them. At least, none of us had been here enough at first. Now that the majority of my brothers were wifed up, they could have a dog if they wanted to. The only issue was that their wives worked just as much as they did, and none of us would subject an animal to the boring existence of staying inside all day with nothing to do to entertain them.

My dad and mom had talked about getting a puppy after they retired, but with no retire date in sight, no puppy was in sight, either.

“Hey,” I said as I came out of the laundry room, dish towels in my hand.

“Can I use your coffee pot?” he asked as I put the towels away. “I really need to leave, but my coffee pot isn’t working, and I’m dying.”

I snorted out a laugh, then handed him a cup from the cabinet I was in front of.

He grumbled something dark about the cup I chose, and I couldn’t help the lecherous grin that spread over my lips.

Garrett had a thing about clowns.

He hated them.

So, of course, I’d given him the one with Ronald McDonald on it that said, ‘I’ve about McFuckin’ had it.’

“I hate you,” he said as he went to my coffee pot.

The doorbell rang, and I reluctantly walked over to it, glancing to the hallway where I’d hoped not to wake Athena up for another twenty minutes or so before I had to take her into work.

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