Page 43 of Buddy System

Once we finally begin the laborious trip back down with me supporting a lot of Levi’s weight, I lead him into the bathroom to grab a pain pill. It’s then that we discover Brooke, who has already turned off the hot tub, locked up the house, and gone to bed.

“Are you guys both good again?” she asks groggily as she sits up in the spot in the big bed I’ve been claiming as my own for the past few days. It’s wonderfully obvious that Brooke has decided to sleep in the nude.

“Yes,” we both say.

“Have you kissed and made up?”

“Not yet,” Levi tells her. He turns to me and grabs my face. He lays one on me that I feel all the way to my toes.

“That’s better,” she says. “Now come to bed. I have more ideas for tomorrow, and we all need our rest. One particular part ofmeneeds lots of rest,” she says with a soft laugh and snuggles back down under the blanket.

How did we all get to be so lucky? In the midst of a horrible day, we have Brooke and her love to shield us like a colorful, safe umbrella in a crazy shitstorm.

I stand there for a moment pondering what to do when Levi whispers in my ear, “Just climb into the middle. I’m sure Brooke would love it if you spooned her, and I need to hold you.”

Okay then. I will wallow in their affection tonight after the shit show earlier today. I smile, whip off my shorts, and before I crawl under the covers, I plug in my phone. Once in bed, the amount of warm, naked skin on both sides of me is like a dream. It only takes a moment before we’re all sound asleep.

Chapter

Thirty-Two

Levi

Unsurprisingly,we all wake up famished in the morning. “Let’s go start breakfast,” I suggest as Skyler takes his turn in the bathroom. “Sky can find us when he comes out.”

We pull on some clothes and head for the kitchen. Brooke decides to make pancakes and tells me to take care of the bacon and coffee. Sounds good, but I’m going to throw in some scrambled eggs too. I’m starving.

As we’re about to sit down to eat, there’s a loud knock at the door, and all three of us groan. Skyler drags himself off to answer it. We hear him say, “Hey, Blake. Are you here to arrest me again? If so, you better come on inside, I don’t want the embarrassment of getting cuffed again in case anyone sees us out here.”

Skyler returns with Deputy Sheriff Blake Ogden who looks contrite as he says, “No one can even see your house, Skyler. It’s too far back from the road.”

“You never know who’s going to show up around here lately though. Coffee? You don’t look like you’re on official business today since you’re out of uniform,”

“Oh, uh, yeah, please. I’d love a cup. Cream if you have it. It’s my day off.”

“We don’t have any donuts, but Brooke made a big stack of pancakes if you’re interested,” Skyler offers.

“Ha ha. Everything sure looks good, and I’d be a fool to turn it down. Thanks. Look, Skyler, I came to apologize again. I know you’re an upstanding guy, and you’d never hurt a lady. I had to come get you yesterday because it was my job, and sometimes my job sucks, especially with my arrest-happy boss. I can’t wait for that old fart to retire. He watches too many cop shows and believes we have a crime spree in Honeybee Hollow if he sees a piece of litter in the road.”

When we chuckle, Blake shakes his head, “I’m not joking. When we’re in our patrol vehicles, we’re supposed to keep an eye out for litterbug criminals. So when Mrs. Henshaw accused you, it got him so excited he about had a heart attack.”

“I get it,” I tell him as Levi and Brooke set down platters of food in front of us, and she grabs another place setting for Blake. Finally, she sits down with us and holds out her hand.

“Hi. We haven’t met. I’m Brooke Spencer, Levi’s wife. We live here now too.”

“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. Welcome to Honeybee Hollow.”

“Thanks. It’s Brooke. Not ma’am. And there’s lots more batter if we need more pancakes, so don’t be shy.”

“Yeah, okay. Brooke. Sorry. Thanks for breakfast.” He turns to Skyler and says, “So, besides apologizing, I wanted to come by and give you some information about a private investigator you might want to have your lawyer contact. He’s like a PI ninja, and he gets amazing results. This case smells like bad fish, so ifyou want to get to the bottom of things, Doug Freeman is your guy. He’s had some terrific results in cases all through Kentucky I can’t talk about, and one of them was so sensitive, he left the country with his family for a few years. I have my suspicions about what the threat against him was, but now that the person I suspect was his tormentor has passed away, I guess he felt safe returning home again. Here’s his card.” He produces a business card and passes it to Skyler. All it has on it is a name and phone number.

“I appreciate that, Blake. Thanks. Now, let’s not talk about this crap anymore and just enjoy breakfast.”

“I’m all for that,” I agree.

“Dig in, guys,” Brooke says with a sweet smile.

“You have no idea how nice it is to have a home-cooked meal for once. I’m a hopeless cook, and I’m getting tired of cold cereal and take-out burgers. This is a real treat.”

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