“I’ll be in touch with the details,” said Eli. “We have to use the back way. Like I said, Fred, Sr., and Gretchen would not be pleased to see us there. In their minds, I’m the cause of all Freddie’s problems. If I’d just let him alone, etc., etc.”

Dan’s nod was solemn and sympathetic. “I’ll be waiting,” he said. Then he smiled sadly. “It’ll be good to get out of the house for a while—even if it’s for a funeral.”

“Melba giving you that hard a time?”

Dan rolled his eyes. “She’s being nice to me, at least when the girls are around. I told her she’s not fooling them—they’re smart kids—but she pours it on anyway. When they’re at school, she’s at work, but if we happen to find ourselves in the same room at the same time—and she does her best to avoid that—she treats me like something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.”

Eli sighed, stood up to walk Dan to the outside door.

“This is a standoff,” he said. “Two stubborn people, nose to nose, each of them refusing to give an inch of ground.”

Dan gave him a challenging look. “From what I hear, you speak from experience, my friend.”

Eli shoved a hand through his hair, frustrated. “Exactly what did you hear?”

“That Brynne’s former squeeze turned up at Bailey’s and she had a meltdown. Given your current low mood, I’d say you won’t be winning any prizes for diplomacy in the near future.”

“Holy crap,” Eli breathed. “Is this whole damn town wired for sound?”

Dan laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “The drums started beating when you and Brynne left the restaurant together and she came back alone.”

“Sometimes I feel like I’m walking around with one of those cartoon thought bubbles over my head. Today, it says, ‘Yep, good ole Eli Garrett screwed up again.’”

As they passed the reception desk, Connie made a point of pretending not to listen. She stared at her computer screen, fingers thumping busily on the keyboard.

Eli respected Connie; she was a valuable employee, always cool in the face of an emergency. He was pretty sure she was also an inveterate gossip, though he couldn’t prove it.

Gossip or not, Connie was a professional, and any news she leaked would be carefully vetted first, lest an investigation or a case be compromised.

Still, Eli regretted the thought-bubble remark because she’d definitely heard it.

Hell, she probably knew more about his life than he did.

Dan said his goodbyes and left. Eli went to the community coffeepot, saw the black dregs of the last brewing and sighed.

He changed out the basket, replacing the used grounds with fresh.

Then he rinsed and filled the pot and started a new batch.

Connie was grinning when he turned around to face her.