Page 78 of Silos and Sabotage

Gage zinged an almond in his direction. “You don’t even have a girlfriend.”

Rock effortlessly caught the almond, tossed it nearly to the ceiling, and managed to land it in his open mouth.

Ella chuckled. “With skills like that, you’ll impress the socks off of some sweet Heart Laker.”

Rock’s eyebrows rose a little. “Right now, I’m more concerned about getting my second career off the ground than finding a date.”

“Shoot! You got at least two job offers at the wedding.” Johnny cupped his hands and motioned for Gage to throw an almond to him, which he did.

“Really?” Gage remembered the sheriff hinting about a job at the medical center the other day, but that was it. Although he’d bragged up a storm about Rock to his boss in recent months, there hadn’t been an opportunity to follow up on his bragging since Rock’s arrival in town.

“Yep, and he already accepted one of ‘em.” Johnny sounded excited. “Are you gonna tell ‘em, bro, or do you want me to?” Without waiting for Rock to respond, he crowed, “Lonestar Security snapped him right up! It was like the whale chasing after Jonah.”

Gage gave a whoop of delight. “That was fast!”

Rock lifted his cane to twirl the end of it on the tip of his forefinger. “This is the part where I should probably admit I’ve been in negotiations with Decker Kingston for over a month.”

“What?” Gage hollered the word so loudly that Rock jolted, making the cane wobble a little. Since Gage reported to Gil Remington, he hadn’t had much interaction with the other three partners. All he knew about Decker was that he’d once been a bull rider.

Rock quickly reestablished the cane’s perfect balance on his finger. “Yep,” he affirmed. “The sheriff wants access to a sketch artist, but he can’t justify a full-time one in his budget. Fortunately, Lonestar can. Decker is asking me to spearhead their all-new forensics team and bring at least one more sketch artist on board as soon as possible. I’m already reviewing resumes.”

“Before your first day of work?” Gage wasn’t overly thrilled to hear that part. “Shouldn’t they be paying you for stuff like that?”

“I was on board before I came into town, bro.” Rock’s dark eyes were twinkling as he lowered his cane to the floor.

It was even better than Gage had hoped for. His shoulders relaxed. “That’s great! Really great!” He strode into the living room to high-five his brother.

“If it’s so great, then you can quit worrying about me.” Rock’s expression grew obstinate. “I didn’t come into town looking for sympathy. I know it might be a while before I can run again. Maybe never. But I’m more than capable of moving on to the next adventure with a cane. You hear me?”

“I hear you.” Gage high-fived him again for good measure. “Just make sure that next adventure includes finding a girlfriend, because I might want to get married someday.”

As laughter erupted around him, he sought out Ella’s gaze to see her reaction to his statement. She was blushing and seemed to be having trouble meeting his gaze. He wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign.

Rock turned up the football game while Gage helped Ella in the kitchen. He and Johnny got noisier and noisier with their hoots, hollers, and running commentary about the plays.

Gage didn’t mind how preoccupied they were, because it meant he had Ella all to himself. He tied an apron around his waist and entertained her with his egg juggling abilities. And his corny dance moves. And his stirring and flipping skills after she got the rice boiling and the chicken browning.

She joined him at the stove with a shoulder bump. “You’re kind of useful to have around once you quit clowning around.”

“Thank you.” He promptly tipped the rubber spatula on end and balanced it on his nose.

She laughed and made a swipe for it. He snatched it off his nose and held it out of her reach, making her stretch so hard for it that it brought her flush against him.

“Kiss me, and I’ll give it back,” he teased.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and nearly brought him to his knees with the tenderest of kisses.

Johnny’s and Rock’s hooting and hollering grew louder. It took an extra second or two for Gage to realize they were no longer watching the game. They were watching him and Ella.

She wrestled the spatula away from him while his brain was still dizzy from kissing her, then treated him to an aha look.

Rock turned down the television. “Fine. I’ll look for a girlfriend.” He shot Johnny a mischievous look. “You wanna be my wingman?”

Johnny hesitated before answering, and it was his hesitation that clued Gage into the fact that it was a sensitive topic. With all the guy’s joking around, he would’ve never guessed.

To get him off the hot seat, Gage changed the subject. “Speaking of hunting for things…” He moved into the living room to flop on the end of the couch near his brother. “I had a brainstorm earlier today about the case. I think we should reverse engineer the facial recognition process. Since our ghostly assailant isn’t in the system, let’s gather photos of everyone who’s connected to the case and compare them to the sketch.”

Ella looked doubtful. “What if it was a paid hit? A complete stranger with no obvious connection to the case?”

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