Okay so, my aunt's plea worked.

Don't judge. I liked money. Who didn't?

"Okay fine, let's get little Jeffrey settled somewhere with a good view," I said with my head hung in shame.

Anessa gave a little squeal, and I swear she jumped once or twice in excitement. Ugh, now she'd be all weird about the fish, too.

My aunt just had to bring money into it. Didn't she? The woman knew my weakness.

I turned toward Anessa and held up a hand. "I will feed the fish and keep him alive. He's not our newest employee or anything."

Hopefully, she recognized that as a boundary and didn't go crazy with the fish's view or something else ridiculous.

"Sure." Anessa nodded and waved my aunt in her direction. "Okay, let's bring Jeffrey over here where he can see everyone."

Double ugh. No one listened to me. I rubbed at my forehead and even the scent of baking cookies didn't lessen my anxiety.

Right then, as Anessa gushed with my aunt about bowl placement, life overwhelmed me to the point I considered taking a quick break and letting out a scream. But I didn't have time for screaming. I had things to do. Cases to solve.

I needed a list.

Lists helped.

As the two women moved Jeffrey's bowl around the bakery searching for good light, I grabbed an old receipt from the recycle can and dug out the pen from under the register.

Things to Do

Feed Jeffrey

Solve baseball murder

Get workers out of my office

Unpack so Broadrick quits complaining

Find out Gina's story with Dom

Feeding Jeffrey came before solving the murder because if I killed my aunt's fish, my mother would surely kill me.

What was number six? I had to be forgetting something. I tapped the pen on the cool metal counter and replayed my day. What had I forgotten? The only thing I remembered was that it was important.

Oh!

I raised the pen in the air as it hit me, but neither of the women noticed.

I had to stalk my new BFF and find out her ring size so she could become a fiancée.

Even with things piling up, I had to find time to work on that case. I'd already lost a few days with no progress, and if Conner called asking for an update, I'd have to lie.

I'd do it, but I didn't want to.

A PI was only as good as her word. I just needed to carve out more time from the day to track her down and schedule an accidental bump-in.

Somehow.

But first I had to get home to let NB go potty, eat lunch with Broadrick, and something else. Crap. Did I forget something else on the list? Hopefully it would hit me later.

I folded up the receipt list and sucked in one last breath of baking cookies before untying my apron and letting Anessa know I'd be back to check on Jeffrey later.

"What the hell?" I whispered to myself as I turned on my street and spotted the unidentified van in my driveway. No one I knew had a van.

And certainly not a bright pink one with fake eyelashes on the headlights. What was it with people and pink in this town? And how had I not seen the van before? I'd remember seeing that terrifying nightmare driving around our streets. I snapped a picture with my phone-capturing the license plate-and then pulled into my driveway and parked beside it.

If they were here to kill me, they'd showed up in the most obvious escape vehicle possible.

Did Mary Kay move on to pink vans rather than Cadillacs?

Maybe Anessa had a long-lost sister, and this person came to have me track her down for a family reunion.

I wouldn't know until I faced my future, even if it came with a knife to the chest.

Fingers crossed it didn't come to that.

Broadrick had his black motorcycle parked next to the van. Too close together, honestly. They were almost touching! I walked between them and glared at the bike. Was he in my place with Mary Kay right now?

I tiptoed up the steps to catch someone in the act and then, with a flourish, slammed open the front door. It hit the wall and bounced back, forcing me to stop it with my foot.

"Ah-ha!" I yelled and pointed my finger at the two people sitting in my living room. My living room. They were together right in front of me.

A woman with bright pink hair twisted around in the big overstuffed chair across from the couch. She clutched at a necklace hanging from her chest with wide eyes as she watched me enter the living room.

My heart thundered in my chest, my anger growing as I flicked my gaze between them. NB had his head on one of Broadrick's knees and his butt on the other in an uncomfortable sleeping position.

Broadrick had a woman in my home! Okay, so... they were sitting on opposite sides of the living room and they were fully dressed. No one jumped up and ran away when I came in-a clear sign of getting caught-but I still didn't like this situation. Also, the pink-haired woman was really giving Anessa a run for her money on the domination of the color pink, and I didn't like it. No one did pink better than Anessa.

Broadrick lowered his head and shook it slowly. He had his eyes closed when he raised it again and then tossed it back to stare at the ceiling. "Vonnie, this is Sidney. She's here for the babysitting interview. The one you said you wouldn't forget."

"For Jeffrey?" Did my aunt send her? Had she decided I wasn't up to the task already?

Like, my word, I wasn't going to kill her stupid fish.

Broadrick stared at me while sucking in a deep breath. "No, for NB. Our dog."

Ohhh.

"Right." I laughed. Of course, Aunt Claire didn't think that poorly of me. "Do you like fish?"

Sidney twisted a piece of her pink hair around her index finger and moved her attention to Broadrick like he could answer if she liked fish. If my boyfriend knew her ocean animal preference, he had a lot of explaining to do.

When he didn't answer-smart man-she nodded her head slowly. "Fish are cool."

Hmm. Definitely someone to track. Fish were not cool. They were... wet and slimy. Probably. I'd never touched one, but they looked slimy.

"Vonnie is extremely busy during the day, and she'll just need someone to help monitor NB while I'm on deployment. Make sure he gets outside and goes for pleasant walks. He likes to ride around in the car while you run errands." Broadrick rambled on about NB's preferences, but I lost focus.

Because my heart slowly died in my chest with each word he spoke. I wanted to be angry that he apparently thought I couldn't take care of one dog without him here, but the pain of him leaving canceled it out. Soon he'd be gone and he couldn't tell me where he'd be or for how long, but it was obviously long enough that he thought I needed a coparent for NB.

What if he didn't come home?

I hiccupped and sucked in a breath, doing everything possible to fight back tears against my tightening chest. It seemed like my lungs shriveled up, and I couldn't get enough air into them to take a full breath.

"Everything okay, Von?" Broadrick asked as I stood rooted to the carpet.

I nodded and even managed a smile, but I couldn't force any comforting words from between my lips. He needed me to be strong. I wouldn't send Broadrick out into the world to hunt bad guys while also worried about me at home. He had enough to worry about.

That didn't mean I needed help with NB.

Sidney patted her knee to get his attention, and he perked up from where he'd been sleeping on Broadrick's lap. His little doggy nails tore into the carpet as he jumped from the couch and then let Sidney pick him up and set him on her lap. What a traitor. She probably had treats hidden in her pockets.

She petted NB and then snuggled his nose, but not the same way I did, definitely not as good. NB settled on her lap and licked her elbow twice before shaking his head and letting her scratch behind his ear. Ahh, there's my dog. He obviously didn't like her more than me.

"He's such a sweet dog," Sidney said, unaware that he'd rejected her elbow, which was a huge slight. "Depending on schedule needs, I can walk him here or he's welcome to my place if you're too busy to take care of him for an extended period."

"I'm never too busy for NB." I scoffed. "We'll need a complete background check, obviously."

I hope she caught on to the heavy emphasis I put on "complete." We needed bank account information and anything else in her sketchy past. I wanted to interview her third-grade teacher. First boyfriend. The person who sold her that eye-sore she called a van.

Broadrick held up a manilla folder from the couch. "Done."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Already?"

Even before the interview? I didn't like it. The living room grew fishier and fishier by the moment, and Jeffrey wasn't even here. How'd he know to do a background check? When did she give him the information in order to do one?

Broadrick stood up, walked over to me, and placed a kiss on my temple. My toes curled, and I kissed him back, almost forgetting about our annoying visitor.

"Only the best for our boy," he said, handing me the folder.

I squeezed his arm. "You really like her?"

He leaned in to hear my whispered question. "Yeah."

"What if NB ends up liking her more?" I hated to think about the impossible, but sometimes impossible things happened.