I sighed. “Will you keep me updated on that? Do you want me to talk to anyone that I know?”
I was sure that I wouldn’t be as much help, but I did know a few lawyers myself. Between the two of us…
“No. Let’s wait to hear back from Swayze before we do anything else.” She hesitated. “I’m going to go home and work on the cabins. What are you doing today?”
I could tell that she thought I was going to say I had to work.
But I could hear the sadness in her voice, and though there were two cases I was working on, both I was waiting to hear back from a few leads on, so that meant that I had a couple of hours of free time on my hands.
“You want to meet me for breakfast?”
I was so freakin’ proud of her.
She’d quit her job.
Granted, I wasn’t happy for the reason that she had to quit her job, but I was happy that she made the next step in making herself happy.
I never wanted her to be unhappy.
“I’d love to,” she admitted. “Where at?”
I told her the diner—which was one of two breakfast places in town—and headed there myself after hanging up with her.
I was about three-quarters of the way there when a speeder in a school zone caught my eye—and set off my radar—causing me to swing a bitch and flash my light and siren.
Getting out of my car and heading to their door, I stopped a good distance away from their car and said, “Is there a reason you’re going forty-five in a twenty, ma’am?”
The woman’s eyes were large in her face as she said, “Truthfully?”
I waited, not bothering to warrant that silly question with a reply.
“I, uh….” she hesitated. “I really have to use the bathroom. Like, on a scale of one to ten, I’m at about a fifty-three.”
I could see now that she was sweating and looked like she was ready to throw up.
I sighed. “Having to take a shit is no reason to speed through a school zone.”
She swallowed hard. “I didn’t notice that it was a school zone, or I surely wouldn’t have sped. I swear to God.”
A wolf whistle caught my ear, and I looked up in time to see Cannel practically hanging out the window of her car with her fingers in the shape of a circle at her lips.
When she saw she had my attention, she said, “You’re lookin’ fine, officer!”
I snorted.
When I turned back to the woman, completely ignoring Cannel’s cackling, it was to find the woman smiling despite the fact that she was now sweating more.
“There are other bathrooms closer,” I pointed out. “That wouldn’t require you to speed home.”
She cleared her throat.
“Normally, I would agree with you but...” She pointed at her lap, and it was then that I saw the red stain filling up her white pants. “I’m not walking anywhere in this.”
I shook my head, my eyes widening at the amount of blood that was staining her pants. “Maybe you need to go to the hospital instead.”
She waved the concern away. “I have bad periods. Like, superbad. And they’re crazy unpredictable. Sometimes they just sneak up on me. Like today. I was in a meeting when I stood up and felt this great red wave hit me. I hurried out of there before anyone could see, but I’m expected at a meeting in half an hour and my boss is a real dick, and he’s already looking for a reason to fire me, and…”
I held up my hand. “Go. Just don’t speed through a school zone again.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Yes, sir.”
I left before I could actually see her cry, then flipped another bitch to head to the restaurant that I was meeting Cannel at.
When I got there, she was grinning devilishly.
“You’re bad,” I said as I took the seat next to her.
Surprise filled her face as I scooted her over.
“I want to sit next to you so I can do this,” I teased as I threw my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me.
I was just getting situated, and pulling her into my embrace just a little bit farther, when the waitress showed looking kind of surprised.
“Detective Schultz,” she said warily. “I didn’t know that you were coming in today.”
I frowned. “It matters when I come in?”
She flushed. “I would’ve made sure to have some blueberry muffins on hand. I know how much you like them.”
Her face flushed even more, and I could feel Cannel giggling beside me silently.
“Uh, that’s okay.” I paused. “I like other types of muffins, too.”
The waitress, a girl in her early twenties, stammered out an ‘okay’ and then gestured toward our menus. “Have you had a chance to look at that yet?”
Actually, I hadn’t.
But, seeing as I was ordering breakfast, there were only so many ways that a person could order eggs.