“I know.” He put down the dishtowel and hugged her. “Maybe I should take a sabbatical.” A pause. “Or…being as I’m only three years away from twenty-five, maybe I should call it quits.”

“You’d be miserable.”

“Not as miserable as you think,” Decker said. “I know we have a mortgage. There are other things I could do. You know, I could hire myself out as an expert witness—a cop and lawyer. I’m very articulate, and extremely calm under scrutiny. You know what the top guys get? Five hundred an hour portal to portal.”

“You’ve always called them whores.”

“I wouldn’t say anything that I didn’t believe.”

Rina shook her head. “They have ways of making you say things you don’t mean.”

“Yes, I know that.”

She kissed his lips, then pulled away, busying herself with straightening up the kitchen. “I don’t think you should do anything rash just because I made a rude remark.”

“Okay.” Decker thought a moment. “How about this? After I get some resolution with this case, I take a week off. We’ll fly down to Florida, leave Hannah and the boys with my parents for two days. They can go to Disney World or Epcot while we bask in the sands of St. Croix.”

“Now that sounds like a fabulous plan!”

“A lot less impulsive than quitting?”

“Yes, indeed.” She smiled. “You know I have lots to do, Peter. I don’t sit around and wait for you to entertain me. For instance, I’m in charge of the scholar-in-residence lunch at the shul. Someone from the Tolerance Center is going to speak about hate groups. We’re going to have a tremendous turnout because I sent out flyers to everyone in the community. I have over a hundred positives. We’re getting twenty people alone from the First Baptist Church.”

“That’s a lot of chulent under one roof.”

“Don’t hold me responsible for the gas levels,” Rina said. “Then the next weekend after that, I promised that I’d be on a panel on Sunday.”

“Maybe you should hire yourself a full-time policy wonk on hate crime. Have your people call my people. Think you have time to work your husband into your busy schedule?”

She looked at him with mischief in her eyes. “I have time now.”

“I didn’t mean sex, but hold that thought. I mean literally work for me. I need your help.”

Rina visibly brightened. “You do?”

“Yes, I do,” Decker said. “Since the vandalism, you’ve been buried in hate crimes.”

“Just H.R. 1082. We’re about this close to getting the law passed.” She pinched off an inch of air between her thumb and forefinger. “It’s not only a moral law, it’s a just law. And a broader definition of hate crimes will also make your life easier.”