Page 14 of Stay in Your Lane!

I snorted. “No, it’s fuckingSteve.”

His eyebrow flicked up. “‘Steve’?”

“Yep.” I gave huff of annoyance as I brought up my coffee for a sip. “The other six are completely chill and docile. One of them bit me once because I startled him. All the rest of these?” I gestured at some of the scars. “Those came from Steve. Because Steve’s a dick.”

Everett once again assumed that expression of someone who was absolutely certain he was being fucked with.

I took out my phone and flipped to an album. “That’s my tank.” I showed him the screen, on which there was a photo of the two-hundred gallon aquarium taking up most of my living room wall. Then I swiped, showing him some photos of the various occupants. Most were them hiding in amongst the plants and toys, though I had managed to get a good shot of Bill eating a piece of fish.

“And that”—I swiped to another photo—“is Steve.”

Everett looked closer. “How can you tell them apart?”

“Eh, when you see them in person, their markings are a little different. Plus Gladys has a wonky tooth and Bill’s missing a piece of one fin.”

His eyebrow rose. “What sets Steve apart?”

“The fact that he’s an aggressive douchebag.” I pointed at the screen. “He was having a stare down with my cat in that photo.”

“You have a cat?” Everett’s head snapped up and he shoved my phone back at me. “Do you have pictures?”

I laughed. Of course he’d be interested in the cats. “Yeah. The orange one is Jeff and the calico is Patches.” I paused. “She came with the name.”

“Yeah, I figured.” He laughed. “All your other animals have human names.”

That caught me by surprise. But again, it probably shouldn’t have—Everett wasdamnobservant.

“They’re cute,” he said as he handed back the phone. “And they don’t try to drink out of their tank or anything?” He grimaced. “I’d be afraid they’d fall in.”

I shook my head as I put the phone facedown on the table. “Nah, the top of the tank is really secure, and I pen the cats up whenever I’m doing anything that requires opening it.”

“Smart,” he said solemnly. “I’d be worried as hell. With, you know, piranhas.”

“Especially since my cats are so stupid,” I muttered.

“Are they?” He paused. “Well, the orange one makes sense…”

“I know, right?” I chuckled. “I love him dearly, but he’s not very smart. And he’s so fucking weird about delivery drivers.”

“Yeah?” Everett tilted his head. “How so?”

Just like that, I was off and running, tell him how my himbo of a cat was in love with the FedEx driver, terrified of the UPS guy, and was plotting—stupidly—to murder the Amazon driver. Which segued into how much Everett wanted to get a cat, but his dad had forbidden it due to the fact that theytechnicallylived in a morgue, but eventually, hewouldget a cat. Or several.

And before I knew it, it was almost four in the morning. I’d had another slice of pie. Everett was working on another order of mac-and-cheese bites. The coffee I’d drunk wasn’t going to keep me awake much longer, and I had another job site to clean tomorrow. And I still needed to swing by the double wide again to document the shoe impression on the Pinkie Pie camera.

“Shit.” I wiped a hand over my face. “I should get home.”

“Yeah, me too.” Everett took on that earnest expression that was becoming charmingly familiar. “So, you’re going to talk to your dad tomorrow, right? About the case?”

I nodded. “First thing in the morning. And you’ll track down the maybe-girlfriend and kid?”

“Yep.” He popped his last mac-and-cheese bite in his mouth. “Who knew all that time I’ve wasted on social media would come in handy?”

CHAPTER 5

EVERETT

“Everett?”

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