BROADRICK: I brought home Chinese. If you're done being pissed, come home and eat dinner with me.

I smiled. Now he knew how to apologize.

My ass hurt from sitting in my car, and my bladder really was about to burst. Even without those things, I wouldn't turn down my favorite Chinese restaurant. Our only Chinese restaurant. It wasn't actually even in Pelican Bay, but we still counted it.

I sent Broadrick a return text and then started the car and backed out of my parking spot. I'd have to hunt down Conner's girlfriend another time to help make her a fiancée.

My stomach rumbled on the drive home, but with a little speeding, I had a crab rangoon shoved into my mouth in just over thirty minutes.

"Did you hear what I said?" I asked as I broke my third rangoon into fourths and dunked it in the red sauce. I didn't know its name, but it had to come straight from heaven.

Broadrick used his chopsticks to slop his noodles into the small puddle of soy sauce he'd poured on the side of his plate. "Lots of athletes complain about their coaches."

True, but not so publicly. People had to be careful what they put online. You never wanted to come up on a murder charge because you threatened to off someone on the internet.

"But he said he'd rather play for anyone else." That was practically a murder confession if they read that in front of a jury.

I held up my phone to show Broadrick the screenshot of the post from last October. He barely glanced at it but did the eyebrow raised thing.

"So, you think he's the one who beat the coach to death? That took serious anger."

"What? No. Have you been listening to anything I said?" The Chinese was good, but not ignore-your-girlfriend good.

I shoved a forkful of noodles into my mouth with a piece of chicken and moaned.

Okay, maybe it was that good.

"I try, but your theory is... rambling and disjointed."

Wow. He was always around for a dash of truth, whether you wanted it or not. "That's because I'm still putting all the pieces together. These things take time." You couldn't just run at the first person you thought did it. I'd learned that lesson.

"What does this post from Allen show you? Other than he's a teen who thinks he knows everything."

"You're right. This is only proof of teenage emotions, but it shows that not everyone loved the coach like they say."

All the memorials online were full-on gushing about how great the coach was, but I bet once the sadness wore off, the truth would come out. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to wait for that. I really needed to wrap up my lists of to-dos by next week. The earlier the better on these types of cases. Especially since I was in a race with Anderson and Ridge to solve it.

Broadrick squinted at me and dribbled soy sauce from his next bite onto my dining room table. "Didn't you say he had an affair with a student? That doesn't make him a great guy."

I waved my hand at him. He was stuck in three theories ago. "No, that didn't pan out. Renee moved on."

But Coach Torres's wife said she thought he was cheating. Did he have someone else on the side? I tapped my fingers on the table, debating another crab rangoon. I'd already had three, but I had room for another.

Did he have another cheating partner? "I have to think about it more."

I needed the time and space to sit and consider all the pieces I'd already figured out and how they fit together. If my office wasn't still a construction site, I'd go there and make a suspect vision board.

"You know what might help you think?" he asked.

I chewed on the most delicious piece of chicken I'd ever eaten. How did they make it so amazing?

"Hmm?" I asked around my bite.

Broadrick used his chopstick to point at the pile of boxes in the kitchen's corner. "Unpacking."

"Ugh," I moaned. "I'm going to get to them. I have a plan." Boxes were everywhere, but I couldn't open them without a plan.

I'd already figured the plan out in my head. After Broadrick left for his next deployment, I'd move all the boxes into the spare room and then shut the door. Done and done.

"A plan, huh?"

"Yup. It's a brilliant plan. My best one yet." As long as he never opened the door to that room, we'd be fine.

Broadrick laughed. "I can't wait to see it."

I broke open my fourth crab rangoon and dunked it into my red sauce. If it went well, he'd never see it at all.

**

"No more Chinese," Broadrick complained the next morning. "It's too heavy."

I rolled over. Why was he always so mean to me? He said the worst things and never stopped to consider my feelings.

"We're going to need to break up," I said and fixed the sheets on his side of the bed.

Nobody spoke badly about Chen's Chinese food. The hangover the next day was part of the adventure. You knew you'd had good food when you still had the MSG running through your veins the next morning.

Broadrick leaned over and gave me a kiss on the end of my nose. I sat up and pulled him closer, so he kissed me on the lips. His shirt wrinkled under my grip and I lay back, bringing him with me.

"Break up, huh?"

"We just aren't compatible."

I kissed him again, and he bit my bottom lip. It sent happy vibes right to my toes, so I kissed him harder, wanting to feel his lips against mine over and over. Screw the to-do list. I'd stay in bed with B all day.

"This doesn't feel like breaking up."

I laughed and slipped my hand under his shirt. He placed his on top of it and stopped me. "Why not?"

Broadrick tugged on my ear with his teeth. "I'm going to the morning workout with the guys at Ridge's building."

"Really?" Now he was doing a morning workout with them. He'd also been calling them "the guys." That meant he'd almost assimilated.

He stood up, and I dropped to the bed, not bothering to line my head up with a pillow since I'd have to get up as well. The sheets smelled like him, and I rolled over on top of them.

"Have fun storming the castle," he said in the doorway. "And by castle, I mean, your office. No dangerous stuff today."

I rolled my eyes and made sure he saw. "What about NB?"

Something told me the dog didn't want to spend the morning lifting weights with Broadrick, but I also had a full plate.

Broadrick glanced toward the kitchen where I assumed the baby was gorging on his breakfast like we hadn't fed him dinner less than twelve hours earlier. "Sidney can't start today, so for now he's with us."

He tugged on the bottom of his polo shirt sleeve and I swooned but only internally. He didn't need to see how he made me feel when he did hunky shit. I'd never live it down.

I rolled over and let my legs hang from the edge of the bed. "Fine, he can come with me."

He'd keep me company if I had to spend another seven hours staking out Conner's soon-to-be fiancée.

Broadrick turned to leave, and a twinge went through my chest.

"B, wait!"

He stopped, and I jumped off the bed. His arms were already open by the time I reached him, and I stepped into them, giving him one last goodbye kiss. My insides came alive with his touch as his tongue ran across the tops of my teeth. We pulled away, both wearing a stupid grin.

"Go get 'em, tiger."

**

"What the hell is this, NB?" I asked the small Jack Russell mix as we walked outside into a drizzle.

When did it start raining? I really had to get NB a raincoat if our springs stayed this muddy. Since they had for as long as I remembered, I probably needed to get shopping.

"You'd look adorable in something yellow," I said as we stopped to let him pee on the bushes. He didn't seem bothered by the rain, but I didn't want my almost brand new car to get wet dog smell.

He sniffed the ground and ignored my comment. Typical NB behavior. He never appreciated the sacrifices I made as a parent.

NB pulled on his lead, taking us toward a random spot further ahead on the sidewalk. "Where are you going?" I tugged on the leash to slow him.

The naughty puppy ran right for a growing puddle where my walkway met the city sidewalk.

"I don't think so," I said as he approached it, and I stopped him just in time.

NB turned left-away from the car-and darted that direction, jerking on his leash again. "NB, no!"