The Birthday List(26)
“Thank you for joining us.” Mia hugged me on the front porch.
“You’re welcome. Thank you for the meal. I haven’t had anything that delicious in a long time.”
Cole laughed. “Now she’s lying, Mom. You should eat at her restaurant.”
“Oh, we plan to,” Mia declared. “We’re going tomorrow night. Got it, Chief? You be home by six.”
“Yes, Ms. Crane,” Brad agreed as Mia slid into his side.
I smiled at their endearments as I waved good-bye. At dinner, I’d learned that Brad and Mia had married young but she’d never taken his last name. She called him “Chief” because of his job and he called her “Ms. Crane.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Cole said, carrying my ukulele case down the steps.
Brad and Mia disappeared back inside as Cole led me down the front walkway and toward my car a few houses down.
“Your mom is such a good cook.”
Cole hummed. “You’ve got her beat.”
“I don’t know about that, but thank you.”
I rolled my eyes at the sound of my breathy voice. Why couldn’t I seem to fill my lungs when Cole and I were alone? He’d sat across from me at dinner and I hadn’t had any problems breathing. But now? I felt like I’d just run five miles.
I took a few slow breaths, hoping that when I spoke again my voice would be back to normal. “Have you found out anything on the case?”
“Sorry.” He shook his head. “Not quite yet.”
His eyebrows were furrowed and a couple lines creased his forehead. There was something he wasn’t telling me, but I didn’t press. I was simply grateful he was assisting Detective Simmons.
“So the ukulele?” he asked, changing topics. “I’m guessing this is another thing on the list.”
I smiled. “You’d be right. Though, I can’t believe that of all the guitar instructors in Bozeman, I happened to pick your mother as my teacher.” Or that I’d walked into his karate dojo.
“Coincidence.” He chuckled. “It kind of seems like a recurring theme for us.”
Was it ever. I was just grateful he hadn’t mentioned all of these coincidences to his parents. Cole had stayed quiet all night about how we really knew one another, giving me a chance to enjoy the evening’s conversation with people who hadn’t known Jamie. It was nice to have a night when no one looked at me with pity or concern about my emotional state.
Tonight, I’d just been Poppy.
“My mother is kind of in love with you. Expect a dinner mandate after each of your lessons.”
I was kind of in love with Mia too. “Then next week, I’ll be sure to bring dessert.”
“Dessert. That reminds me, I still haven’t tried your famous apple pie.”
“I’ll be at the restaurant tomorrow if you want to swing by.” The invitation popped out of my mouth before my head could intercede. And once it was out, there was no taking it back.
Cole smiled as we reached my car. “Then it’s a date.”
A date.
A date with Cole Goodman.
A rush of excitement and a chill of terror slid down my spine.
“What the fuck?”
I hit the brakes hard, barely making the turn into the parking lot where a Bozeman PD cruiser was parked behind a seventies mint-green Oldsmobile. The patrolman had his ticket clipboard in one hand, while the other was making calming gestures to an irate woman with frizzy gray hair. Her teal muumuu was swinging around her ankles and fuzzy pink bedroom slippers as she poked one knotty finger into the patrolman’s chest.
As I pulled in right behind the cruiser, I could hear her yelling and cussing over the sound of my diesel engine. Throwing the truck in park, I didn’t bother shutting it off as I hustled out to the scene. Five long strides and I stood behind the patrolman—Officer Terrell Parnow. He was doing his best to hold his ground, but the woman wasn’t small and her jabbing finger was going nonstop.
The woman glanced at me but kept on yelling. “I’m calling my damn lawyer and you, you son of a—”
“What seems to be the problem?” My voice held enough bark to shut the crazy lady up. Her eyes flew to mine as Terrell looked over his shoulder.
His frame deflated as his hand dropped to his side. “Detective Goodman. I was just writing a ticket because—”
“I’ll tell you what the problem is here.” The woman stepped right around Terrell and into my face. “This kid is trying to give me a speeding ticket when I wasn’t speeding!”
“Ma’am, you were doing forty in a twenty-five.” He looked to me with pleading brown eyes. “Honest, Detective. I’ve got her on radar.”
She whirled around on Terrell—her muumuu whipping me in the shins—but before she could launch into another rant, I stepped between them. I stood my tallest, looking right down my nose into the woman’s paling face. “Speeding and assault on a law enforcement officer. Not good.”
She stuttered back a step, slapping a hand to her chest. “What?” she gasped. “Assault?”
“That’s right.”
“But—”
“Officer Parnow, mind if I borrow your cuffs? I left mine in the truck.”