Eat Crow (Cheap Thrills 6)

“One day maybe we’ll be able to laugh about it properly.”

Raising an eyebrow, he looked over at me. “I doubt it. I can laugh at it slightly, but the full weight of what could have happened is way too real for me now.”

“I get you on that.”

“So,” he sighed. “I think we should move you in this weekend. You’ll get more of a feel for what you want done while you’re in it. Plus, if anything is faulty, you’ll find out sooner rather than later and can get it fixed.”

Looking over at Pops’ chair, I knew what to do to protect it. “I want to put his chair in his room and then lock the door for a while. I’m not ready to touch his stuff or change it in there, and I want to keep the chair safe. He was the only one who ever sat on it, and I don’t want anyone to ruin it.”

Not even waiting a beat, he stood up and moved over to it. “Let’s do it now, so you’ve got that weight off your shoulders. We’ll lock his room up tight, keep it all safe, and then you only have to focus on the rest of the place.”

Knowing he was right, I got up and took one side of it. There really wasn’t any need for me to do it because I knew full well he probably could’ve carried it himself up the stairs, but still.

When we got to Pops’ room, though, I took a step back. “Can you do it? Just put it in a corner or wherever there’s space.”

He didn’t even bat an eyelid at the request and took it inside, locking the door with the key when he was done.

As we walked back downstairs, he bumped my shoulder. “What are you going to do with the yard?”

I didn’t have green fingers. In fact, if I misbehaved when I was little, that’s what my punishment was. All the kids at school moaned about being grounded and having their phones taken away. Me, I’d moaned about mowing the lawn, weeding, pruning, and the hell that was gardening.

And the one that I now owned was fucking massive.

“Burn it all,” I muttered. “Get a flame thrower and just let rip.”

Bursting out laughing, he threw his arm around my shoulders and moved us to look out the window at it. The mean shit!

“Why don’t you think about what you’d like that’s easy maintenance, write it down or find photos, and give them to the dads to work on? They love gardening and yard work, so they’ll be all over that.”

Tipping my head to the side while I mulled it over, I knew he was right. And that meant I didn’t have to do it.

“I can’t believe I’m really doing this. It feels surreal.”

Squeezing me, he gave me silent support while it all hit home, and I was even more grateful for his presence.

By the time we threw our bottles out and locked up, I’d resolved myself to the fact I was moving home and was going to be living in the house. In a way, it was beautiful because I’d have my pops with me, seeing as how it was a part of him. But in more ways, it was heartbreaking. I had so many memories of him in that house, and I wanted more.

Death was final, though, and life didn’t always go how we wanted it to. You just had to make the most of it so you had no regrets.

I was just getting into my car when Logan called my name. “I heard from DB that there’s an opening for an English teacher going at the high school. There’s an application form online, so all you have to do is complete it and send it back.”

Chewing my lip, I thought about it. That was my passion. I loved being an English teacher and had dreamed about being one since I was a kid, so this position coming up right now felt like kismet.

Pops, if that’s you making sure I’m staying, I’m going to resurface your chair with bright pink leather.

Chapter Five

Logan

“So, I told her we were arresting him for domestic violence and get my cuffs out, while Carter went to the doorway to call an ambulance for her because she was screaming and no one could hear shit,” Alejandro groaned, holding the ice pack to his bruised face. “Given that she’s got a broken arm and is bruised to shit, and it looked like she’d want him gone, I turned to restrain him so I could get the cuffs on him—” he broke off, wincing at the pain in his jaw.

Standing with his arms crossed in front of him, Carter finished the story from his perspective. “I’d looked over as he turned with his side to her to deal with the guy, and the woman just launched herself at Alejandro, then started beating the shit out of him and yelling to leave the guy alone. I’ve never seen anything like it. It was like she was possessed.”

“Meth’ll do that to you,” DB sighed. “Guys, you know this already, but you never turn away from someone like that. We covered this again recently during the de-escalation training—keep your body language relaxed and maintain attention on everyone at all times. Your feet are important, your arms are important, your tone is important. All of it is fucking crucial to not being attacked.

“I get that you’ll have situations where it’s not possible, but in one like today, you have to do it.” He waved a hand at where Alejandro was slumped. “And this is why. You never know what the other person’s going to do when you change your body’s focus.”

I felt for the guy. He’d gotten the crap beaten out of him by a woman with a broken arm and drugs pumping through her body as he was trying to help her. The guy we’d been arresting had ended up being the calm one and helped me pull her off Alejandro.