Since it appeared Fox had been struck dumb, Layla managed to clear her throat. “I, ah, needed a new cartridge. For the printer? It’s on the top shelf.”

“Right. Right. I was getting that.” Fox turned, managed to collide with Layla again. “Sorry.” Jesus Christ. He’d no more than pulled the box down when Layla snatched it away, and fled.

“Thanks!”

“Do you have a minute for me?” Jo asked sweetly. “Or do you need to get back to what you were doing when I came in?”

“Cut it out.” Fox hunched his shoulders, led the way back to his office.

“She’s very pretty. Who could blame you for playing a little boss and secretary?”

“Mom.” Now he dragged his hands through his hair. “It wasn’t like that. It was… Never mind.” He dropped into a chair. “What’s up?”

“I had some things to do in town. One of which was to drop by your sister’s for lunch. Sparrow tells me she hasn’t seen you in there for two weeks.”

“I’ve been meaning to.”

Jo leaned back against his desk. “Eating something that isn’t fried, processed, and full of chemicals once a week won’t kill you, Fox. And you should be supporting your sister.”

“Okay. I’ll go in today.”

“Good. Second, I had some pottery to take into Lorrie’s. You must’ve seen what happened to her shop.”

“Not specifically.” He thought of the smashed windows, the corpses of crows on Main Street. “How bad’s the damage?”

“It’s bad.” Jo lifted a hand to the trio of crystals that hung from a chain around her neck. “Fox, she’s talking about closing. Moving away. It breaks my heart. And it scares me. I’m scared for you.”

He rose, put his arms around her, rubbed his cheek against hers. “It’s going to be okay. We’re working on it.”

“I want to do something. Your dad and I, all of us, we want to do something.”

“You’ve done something every day of my entire life.” He gave her a squeeze. “You’ve been my mom.”

She eased back to take his face in her hands. “You get that charm from your father. Look right at me and reassure me it’s going to be okay.”

Without hesitation or guile, his eyes met hers. “It’s going to be okay. Trust me.”

“I do.” She kissed his forehead, his cheek, then the other, then gave him a light peck on the lips. “But you’re still my baby. I expect you to take good care of my baby. Now go have lunch at your sister’s. Her eggplant salad’s on special today.”

“Yummy.”

Tolerant, she gave him a light poke in the belly. “You ought to close the office for an hour and take that pretty girl to lunch with you.”

“The pretty girl works for me.”

“How did I manage to raise such a rule follower? It’s disheartening.” She gave him another poke before starting for the door. “I love you, Fox.”

“I love you, Mom. And I’ll walk out with you,” he added quickly, realizing his mother would have no compunction about stopping by Layla’s desk and pumping the pretty girl for information.

“I’ll have another chance to get her alone and grill her,” Jo said casually.

“Yeah. But not today.”

THE SALAD WASN’T BAD, AND SINCE HE’D EATEN at the counter he’d had a little time to hang with his baby sister. Since she never failed to put him in a good mood, he walked back to his office appreciating the sunny, blustery day. He’d have appreciated it more if he hadn’t run into Derrick Napper, his childhood nemesis, as the now Deputy Napper came out of the barbershop.

“Well, hell, it’s O’Dell.” Napper slipped on his dark glasses, looked up, then down the street. “Funny, I don’t see any ambulances to chase.”

“Did you get that buzz cut on the town nickel? Somebody overpaid.”

Napper’s smile spread thin on his tough, square face. “I heard you were at the scene yesterday when there was trouble at the Square. Didn’t stand by and give a statement, or come in to file a witness report. Being the town shyster, you ought to know better.”

“You’d be wrong on that, nothing new there. I stopped by and spoke to the chief this morning. I guess he doesn’t tell his bootlickers everything.”

“You ought to remember how many times my boot kicked your ass in the past, O’Dell.”

“I remember a lot of things.” Fox walked by. Once a bully, he thought, always an asshole. Before the Seven was over, he imagined he and Napper would tangle again. But for now, he put it out of his mind.

He had work to do, and as he opened the door of his office, admitted he had a road to smooth out. Might as well get it done.

As he came in, Layla walked toward reception holding a vase of the flowers Alice Hawbaker liked having in the offices. Layla stopped dead.

“I was just giving these fresh water. There weren’t any calls while you were gone, but I finished the trust and printed it out. It’s on your desk.”

“Good. Listen, Layla-”

“I wasn’t sure if there was anything to type up regarding Mr. Edwards, or-”

“Okay, okay, put those down.” He settled it by taking the vase out of her hands and setting it on a table.

“They actually go over-”

“Stop. I was out of line, and I apologize.”

“You already did.”

“I’m apologizing again. I don’t want you to feel weirded out because in the office we’ve got the employer-employee thing going on, and I made a move on you. I didn’t intend… Your mouth was just there.”

“My mouth was just there?” Her tone changed from flustered to dangerously sweet. “As in on my face, under my nose, and above my chin?”

“No.” He rubbed his fingers in the center of his forehead. “Yes, but no. Your mouth was… I forgot not to do what I did, which was completely inappropriate under the circumstances. And I’m going to start pleading the Fifth in a minute, or maybe just temporary insanity.”

“You can plead whatever you want, but you may want to consider that my mouth, which was just there, wasn’t forming words like no, or stop, or get the hell away from me. Which it’s perfectly capable of doing.”

“Okay.” He said nothing for a moment. “This is very awkward.”

“Before or after we add your mother into it?”

“That moves it from awkward to farce.” He slipped his hands into his pockets. “Should I assume you’re not going to engage counsel and sue me for sexual harassment?”

She angled her head. “Should I assume you’re not going to fire me?”

“I’m voting yes to both questions. So we’re good here?”

“Dandy.”

She picked up the vase and carried it to the right table. “By the way, I ordered another replacement cartridge for the printer.” She slid a glance his way, lips just curved.

“Good thinking. I’ll be-” He gestured toward his office.

“And I’ll be-” She pointed to her desk.

“Okay.” He started back. “Okay,” he repeated, then looked at the supply closet. “Oh boy.”

Four

AT FOUR FORTY-FIVE, FOX WALKED HIS LAST client of the day to the door. Outside, March was kicking thin brown leaves along the sidewalk, and a couple of kids in hoodies walked straight into the whooshing wind. Probably going up to the arcade at the bowling center, he mused. Squeeze in a couple of games before dinner.

There’d been a day he’d have walked through the wind for a couple of games of Galaxia. In fact, he thought, he’d done that last week. If that made him twelve on some level, he could live with it. Some things shouldn’t change.

He heard Layla speaking on the phone, telling the caller that Mr. O’Dell was in court tomorrow, but she could make an appointment for later in the week.

When he turned she was keying it into the computer, into the calendar, he supposed, in her efficient way. From his angle he could see her legs in the opening of the desk, the way she tapped a foot as she worked. The silver she wore at her ears glinted as she swiveled to hang up the phone, then her gaze shifted to meet his. And the muscles of his belly quivered.