She turned to look at him. “I’m so sorry about all this. Your friend and your brother. You’ve lost the most from this.”
He opened his door. “Which is why I plan to keep on searching for the bastard who did this. Flynn and his cowardice can go to hell for all I care.” He paused. “But I want you and Sara to stop. I’ll—”
She flung open the door. “Come on, let’s buy you some fruit.” She climbed out, then watched across the seat as he wrestled with his cast and crutches. “You think they have any pink grapefruits? I love pink grapefruit. Burt’s Bees has a lip balm that smells like it and I would like to smear it all over my body.”
“Can I help?”
She’d set him up for that one, but she was glad to see his teasing, smart-aleck, devil-may-care smile return. “Can you help choose fruit? Sure.”
He gave a snort of laughter and shut the door.
They first went to the huge produce section. Jack began filling plastic bags with fruit, while Kate went for the vegetables.
“Get the ones already cut up,” he said.
“They’re more expensive.”
“I’ve got two houses you can list for me. We’ll be able to afford them.”
“We,” she whispered as she grabbed bags of broccoli, green beans, brussels sprouts and peppers. All for her new family. Was there anything more soul-satisfying than belonging?
“So what did Sheriff Flynn want from you?” Jack put three colors of grapes—all seedless—in the cart.
“A date.”
He gave her a half-hooded look.
“He told me that I’m sane, that you and Aunt Sara aren’t, so I’m to reason with you and make you stop investigating.” She left out the details of how Jack could have ended up in prison. “Did you know he and your father and mine ran around together?”
“Based on Flynn’s wimpiness, my dad might have knocked him up.”
“I’d laugh at that if you hadn’t called my entire sex ‘wimpy.’ But it does say something about the preferences of your father.”
Jack laughed. “You win. No, I didn’t know. Roy and I weren’t chummy. No fishing trips together. And no, I don’t remember ever having met your father. What did Flynn say about him?”
“That he was charming. He said my dad made people laugh, cheered them up.”
“Like you.”
“Thank you.” She put two bags full of yellow onions in the cart. “So what do we do next?”
“You and Sara stay home while I visit Arthur Niederman.”
“You plan to visit him alone? Without us?”
“I take it you don’t approve of that idea. How about if you and I visit Mr. Niederman while Sara stays home and writes?” He was putting tomatoes on vines in a bag.
“Aunt Sara won’t like that.”
“Then I take it that you don’t want to protect her? You think she can stand up to whatever Flynn dishes out if he finds out we aren’t quitting this case?”
The way he put it, it was impossible not to agree with him. And besides, he knew Sara much better than she did. She decided to change the subject. “I’ve been meaning to ask what you thought of Alastair Stewart when you were growing up.”
Jack looked like he was about to make a joke but didn’t. “I was in awe of him. Rich, blond, very tall, great athlete, four-point-oh average. When I was a kid, I wanted to dye my hair because everyone kept saying I looked like Roy.”
“And Cal.”
Jack picked up lemons and put them in the bag Kate held open. “Yeah, and