“This here’s real nice,” Lula said. “Surprisingly plush. ’Course, I’m a animal-print person, myself, so I appreciate the decor.”

“I did it myself,” Mooner said. “I was going for retro animal kingdom.” Mooner ground the RV into gear, performed a U-turn at the dirt road, and headed back to Trenton. “Were you ladies attending the bonfire?” he asked. “It has to be mega. I could see the glow from the bridge.”

“We didn’t go to the bonfire,” I told him. “We were just riding around and the car broke down.”

“I could turn this bus around and take you to the fire if you want,” Mooner said.

“Not necessary,” I told him. “You’ve seen one fire, you’ve seen them all.”

“So true,” Mooner said. “Personally, I’m more a wind man. Wind rocks.”

Mooner dropped Connie off at her brother’s house, so she could retrieve her car, and he took Lula and me back to the bonds office. Lula got into her Firebird and drove away, and I walked back to the Jeep, where Morelli was waiting for me. He was lounging against the Jeep, arms crossed over his chest.

“Hey,” I said. “What’s up?”

“You were asking about Bobby Sunflower, so I thought you’d want to know one of his properties burned to the ground tonight.”

“Which one burned?”

“His Pennyslvania house.”

“Was anyone in the house?”

“It’s too early to tell. No one was rescued.” Morelli wrapped me in his arms and nuzzled my hair. “You smell smoky,” he said.

“Must be from Mooner’s motor home. He took us for a demo ride.”

“It’s not nice to lie,” Morelli said.

Our eyes locked.

“Do you honestly want the truth?” I asked him.

Morelli thought about it for a beat. “No,” he said.

I stood on tiptoes and kissed him on the nose. “It’s late. I have to go home. I have a big day of bounty huntering tomorrow.”

His arms were still locked around me. “I could go home with you.”

“You’d go home with someone who might be a liar?”

“Yeah,” Morelli said. “I’m getting desperate.”

“You were the one who wanted to break up. You said I wasn’t relationship material.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You did!”

“Can I take it back? I hadn’t had my coffee yet. And I needed . . .”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You needed what?”

“Toast,” Morelli said. He blew out a sigh. “This isn’t going to happen tonight, is it?”

“No.”

I was getting mad all over again. No one pushed my buttons like Morelli. I mean, why was I the one who had to remember to buy the bread? Okay, in all honesty, I thought this was a pretty stupid thing to break up over. And in all honesty, I should have remembered to buy bread. That didn’t alter the fact that I was mad. Mad wasn’t a reasonable emotion. And the truth was, I wasn’t entirely sure if I was mad at Morelli or mad at myself.