“It got me focused on the right stuff.”
“Did you make beef stew?”
“For instance, that you’re just the best man in the world.”
“Do you love me?”
“Yes, Richie. I do.”
“Did you make your deadline today?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Are you pregnant?”
“Nope.”
“We won’t have babies until you say so. If you say so.”
“You still want to marry me?”
“Feed me our new traditional first-day-of-the-month dinner, Cindy. Please?”
“You betcha. I might have burned it though.”
“Kiss me.”
“Okay. Here. Here. And here.”
“After we eat, let’s go to bed.”
Chapter 117
JACOBI AND I were having dinner at Aziza, a Moroccan restaurant; aromatic, homey, decorated in deep, earthy tones, and fragrant with all the spices of Arabia.
Jacobi’s color was good and he was wearing a blue sweater that made him look years younger than his age. Better than he’d looked in a long time.
“William Randall died without gaining consciousness,” Jacobi told me. “Good side of that is that he wasn’t convicted of anything. His widow will still get his pension.”
“You think Randall knew that Chaz Smith was a dirty cop?” Jacobi shrugged. “He could have known. It’s very possible. Ah. I got back the ballistics, Lindsay.”
“Are you going to tell me something bad, Jacobi? Because I just want to catch up and have dinner.”
“The shot to Randall’s kidney came from Brady’s gun.
That was the kill shot, and since Brady’s going to be on leave for a while, it won’t matter if he has to be without his gun and badge while we prove he fired on Randall in self-defense.”
“Don’t tell me I have to keep running the squad, Jacobi. I really don’t want to do it.”
“I’m going to be running the squad. Me.”
“Yeah?” I grinned. I liked what Jacobi was saying. A lot. “Until Brady returns and I can move back upstairs to my nice office with its beautiful view of Bryant Street.”
I slapped his hand above the plate of couscous, lifted my virgin mojito, and said, “Here’s to having you back in the corner office.”
Jacobi grinned and clinked his glass against mine, and then he laughed.
“I’m not going to let you cowboy around while I’m running the squad.”