Page 44 of Buddy System

“So, I take it you’re single, deputy?” Brooke asks.

“When I’m out of uniform, it’s Blake, ma’…uh, Brooke,” he says with a laugh. “Yes, unfortunately, I find myself unhappily single these days.”

“What a shame,” she says with a sad smile, and I wonder if my wife is planning some matchmaking or just making conversation. Anyway, he seems like a decent guy, but I have no idea what Brooke could do about his single status. She doesn’t know many people here yet, and she certainly doesn’t need any more men in her life. I laugh at the thought. Someone told me once that a happily involved woman wants everyone around her to be all hitched up. Maybe she just needs a new hobby. We’ll see.

“So, you guys are Army buddies, I assume? Are you planning to buy or build a house here?” he asks me.

“Uh…yes, we are and no.” I’m not sure what to say, and somehow, I feel that Skyler ought to answer this kind of questionsince he’s the one who’s from this town, but maybe I’m just a chicken. We need to discuss what we plan to tell people.

But Skyler looks me in the eye and then looks at Blake and answers for us, “Brooke and Levi are going to be living here with me. Permanently, I hope.” He looks at Brooke, who smiles and winks at him, so he continues, “We are in a three-way relationship. Wealllove each other.”

Blake, to his great credit, barely blinks, although he clears his throat after taking a swallow of coffee. Maybe it was too hot. “Oh! Like your new neighbors who are building nearby?”

“If you mean Jack, Asher, and Juni, yes. Very much like them,” Skyler explains.

“Hmm. Must be something in the water around here.” Blake smiles and says, “I wish you all luck. I can’t see it for myself because I’m a jealous bastard, but if it works for you, that’s great.”

“Well…you’re the first to know,” Brooke adds. “It’s still somewhat new for all three of us. The guys were friends for quite a while before I married Levi. Are you by any chance also a military man? You seem to have that kind of bearing.”

“Yes. I needed a way to pay for college because I wanted to study police science, so right out of high school, I joined the Marines. It was an interesting experience.”

“I bet,” she says. “Have you ever been married?”

“Brooke!” I exclaim, “What’s with the probing questions?”

“It’s fine,” Blake assures me. “I was engaged a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t meant to be. Since then, I’ve been as single as a monk.”

“Aww. Too bad,” she tells him.

“Maybe it’s for the best. I’ve been told I’m not all that easy to live with.”

I think about all the complaining Kate did about me as a kid and laugh to myself. “I used to hear that too until Brookecivilized me,” I offer. “My big sister used to say I was impossible every chance she could get.”

“Well, you grew out of it,” Brooke says and plants a kiss on my cheek. “Now look at you all domesticated.” Skyler snickers at me.

The rest of the breakfast conversation consists of small talk about local entertainment, fishing, and music. Blake does seem like a nice guy, and I can’t hold anything against him for doing his job. It was thoughtful of him to come apologize and try to help Skyler by letting him know about the private investigator.

Before he leaves, Blake promises to come to the gig I have scheduled next week at The Hive, and he makes sure we all have his private number in case we need anything or just want to shoot the breeze. I get the sense he might be a little lonely, so maybe Brooke’s matchmaking idea has possibilities. Eh…not my problem.

I need to call the guys about rehearsing. That thought gets me going. I have so much to look forward to all of a sudden, but it makes me feel worse for Skyler because he has to look forward to slogging through a bunch of ridiculous legal issues.

About an hour after the deputy leaves, there isanotherknock on the door. This time Brooke answers it to find a nervous young man standing there with a packet in his hands. “I need to speak to Skyler Colfax, ma’am. Is he available?”

She looks at me questioningly, and I tell her, “He just went upstairs to paint for a while.”

“Just a minute. I’ll have to go up and get him,” she tells the guy. I have a bad feeling about this, but she politely asks him to step inside so she can close the door.

A couple minutes later, she comes back with Sky who already has a bright streak of blue paint that goes across his cheek and into his hair. He looks frustrated. “Can I help you?” he asks.

“Skyler Colfax?”

“That’s me.”

“This is for you.” The guy hands him the envelope and scurries out the door without another word.

Skyler sighs unhappily like he knows this is bad news, but he opens the envelope anyway. With a troubled expression, he tells us, “Just to make things an even bigger pain in the ass, Mrs. Henshaw is suing me for personal damages in civil court. She’s arbitrarily decided that I’d be good for a cool million dollars. What a miserable bitch.”

All we can do is surround him in a warm hug. “It’ll turn out okay, Sky,” Brooke tells him. “You’ll be fine. There’s no way she’ll win any of this nonsense or they will convict you. No way.”

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