Page 6 of Cash

“Those jerks in the truck paying for it?”

“No, actually the guy moving into that corner townhouse is. It was his stuff in the truck.”

“The one with the big fancy deck? Damn. Big money.” Noah laughed heartily. “I was just thinkin’ about makin’ those guys an offer to move in myself.”

“Sure you were.” Trixie rolled her eyes.

A heavy man with an unfortunately obvious toupee came out of the funeral home. He was wearing a windbreaker and carrying a black duffel bag with him, and he waved at the trio as he headed around the side toward the back parking lot.

“You all good, Fanny?” Ziggy called to him.

“Good, good. All done in there now,” Fanny replied, pausing as he glanced across the street at the townhouses. He seemed to be looking at the big moving truck, but he only stopped for a moment. “See y’all later!”

“Bye!”

“Who’s that?” Brick hadn’t seen him before.

“Michael Fannes. Medical examiner,” Noah explained. “He comes by to look at the bodies sometimes for cremation stuff.”

Trixie waved her hands. “Hey! I wanna hear more about the guy at the townhouse. He’s really gonna help fix your yard?”

“He’s paying to replace everything that got wrecked, and he’s even coming over to help me clean up,” Brick said. “He seems pretty nice.” He heard a noise from the truck, and he turned to see Jules bringing the ramp down. “There he is. That’s him.”

“Wow.” Trixie stared.

“That’s a big ol’ boy.” Ziggy whistled. “Wouldn’t wanna go pick him up.”

Noah didn’t seem impressed by Jules’s massive size, rolling his eyes and continuing on, “Y’all can toss all that broken shit in our dumpster if you want. That way you ain’t fillin’ up your cans.”

“Thanks.” Brick considered the sheer volume of wreckage and added, “You know, I may take you up on that.”

“Well, hey, we’re neighbors, ain’t we?” Noah chuckled. “It’s the neighborly thing to do. We’ll let you go on your way now, but you holler if you need anything.”

“Even if I need to hide a body?” Brick teased, a joke he’d told them several times before.

“There ain’t no cameras by the crematory,” Ziggy teased back. “You know we’re always open.”

“Twenty-four-seven,” Noah confirmed. “Holidays too.”

“Thanks. I don’t think I’ll need to, but I do appreciate it. Later guys! ” Brick waved farewell, driving away with a chuckle.

He was in and out of the grocery store thanks to the self checkout, though he did have to wait for someone to come check his ID since he’d impulsively grabbed some wine. He still had to make a trip to the Asian Mart for some of the other less common ingredients—fernbrake, glass noodles, and gochujang, a red chili paste he usually had on hand but couldn’t remember how much he had left.

Brick parked in his little driveway that ran between his home and the townhouses, separated only by a small picket fence. As he walked around to his trunk to grab the groceries, he glanced over at Jules’s place.

There was new patio furniture out on the deck, and the moving truck appeared to be almost empty.

Again not seeing any sign of Jules, Brick headed inside to put up the food and then get back to work.

Whatever spell Jules’s presence had cast upon him had faded, and it was a lot easier to focus now. He was able to finish his current assignment, answer a few emails about some potential typos, and accept two new projects, one of which was an exciting romance novella while the other was an installation guide for a wireless router.

Brick decided to log off around four o’clock so he could prep for dinner and decided he’d earned himself a glass of wine.

He’d chosen a brisket for the protein and got it into a big pot full of water with onions and shitake mushrooms. It would need at least an hour to boil, and he could work on the sauce and get the vegetables ready.

Brick was glad he’d gotten more gochujang since he’d been very close to being out, and it was a key ingredient for the sauce. Once the sauce was finished, he moved on to the veggies.

The fernbake, also known as gosari, was dried, so it had to soak before he could cook with it. He’d just finished getting it into a bowl when he heard a noise outside.

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