“He’s sleeping,” Chelsea said.
“Ha!” Pilar said. “He never sleeps. I gave him a list of people he has to call and he’d better do it! They want him back at work. And he often calls his mom.” As she handed Chelsea a plate of pancakes, she stared at her.
“Don’t look at me,” Chelsea said. “I’m not keeping him here. I’m just visiting. Eli can go back to saving the world anytime he wants to.”
Pilar gave a curt nod, but she said nothing as she went back to the kitchen.
In the ensuing silence, Chelsea began to feel a bit awkward. She knew Pilar and Eli were friends and that meant they looked out for each other. But that didn’t include dumping guilt on Chelsea because she wasn’t giving up her life to chain herself to a kitchen. She wasn’t going to spend her days waiting for hubby to come home. He got all the fun; she got the drudgery.
She looked at Lanny sitting across from her. “Doesn’t Grace Ridgeway work for your family’s company?”
“She does. But if you’re hoping to become BFFs with her, it won’t happen.”
“Why not?” Chelsea asked as she bit into the pancakes.
“She stays to herself. My mom keeps trying to fix her up on dates but Grace won’t go. But then, after what happened with her husband, it’s understandable.”
“Suicide, wasn’t it?”
“That’s what Colin was told. He’s—”
“The sheriff. I met him. Gorgeous man.”
“Better not let his wife, Gemma, hear you say that. She’s . . .” Lanny made a few punches like a boxer. “Shamus and she work out together.”
Chelsea looked at the boy, at the sheer size of him. “Olympic shot-putter, is she?”
Shamus, bent over his drawing pad, smiled.
Pilar, full plate in hand, sat down between Chelsea and Lanny. “Gemma is built so well I’m thinking of joining Mike’s Gym and putting on the gloves.”
Lanny looked at her. “But if you’re living in DC . . .” He trailed off as the realization of what she might be saying hit him. He looked down at his pancakes, smiling.
Chelsea turned to Shamus. “Do you know Abby?”
He nodded, then handed her his big sketchpad.
The drawing was of two young people, a boy and a girl. She was very pretty, with long dark hair, while he was cute in a nerdy sort of way. His ears stuck out rather prominently.
At first Chelsea thought it was a picture of her and Eli as they’d been as kids, but there were too many differences for it to be them. She looked at Shamus. “Is this Grace’s daughter, Abby?”
He nodded.
“Who’s the boy?”
“Scully,” Shamus said.
“And he is . . . ?”
Lanny spoke up. “The only person my little brother actually talks to is Gemma, my sister-in-law, so I’ll have to translate. Scully is Grace’s kid’s best friend. I’ve seen them together at the shop several times.” He took the pad, looked at the drawing, then handed it to Pilar. “Nobody gets why she hangs out with him. That girl is a beauty.”
“She’s fifteen!” Pilar said.
“Yeah, I know,” Lanny said. “But give her three more years and she’ll be ready to walk down a runway.” He looked at Chelsea.
“Easier said than done. How tall is she?”
“About five-eight, I guess.”