I turned to look over my shoulder to find Mr. Rhodes standing just inside the garage. Dressed in that incredible uniform with his arms crossed over his chest, feet wide apart, he was smiling. Faintly, but it was definitely there.
Probably because of Yuki’s beautiful voice.
But it was me he was looking at. Me that he was focusing that slim smile on.
I smiled right back at him.
“I didn’t know you sang!” Jackie shouted out of nowhere.
I turned my attention back to her. “I’ve sat through a lot of voice lessons. I’m not bad, but I’m not good.”
Beside me, Yuki snorted. I didn’t even spare her a glance. “What? I wish my voice was as husky as yours.”
That got me to blink at her. “Don’t you have a four-octave range?”
She blinked back. “Just accept the compliment, Ora.”
Standing up, I handed the guitar back over to Amos, who was watching me still pretty sneaky and then set his notebook down beside the pillow he’d been sitting on. My old friend had gotten up too, and I tapped her shoulder before gesturing to my landlord.
“Yuki, this is Mr. Rhodes, Amos’s dad and the man who owns the house. Mr. Rhodes, this is my friend, Yuki.”
She instantly thrust her hand out. “Pleasure to meet you, Officer.”
Mr. Rhodes’s eyebrows rose up from beneath the sunglasses. “I’m a game warden, but nice to meet you too.” I hadn’t noticed until then that he was carrying bags in each hand. He shifted the one in his right hand over to the left and shook hers quickly, so quickly it wouldn’t hit me until later how quickly he moved on, before he turned his attention back… to me. “Not sure if you want to come over, but I brought the kids lunch. I’ve got plenty.”
What kind of weird game was he playing? Did he take some kind of happy pill every once in a while? My little heart gave a tight, confused squeeze. “Um, well—”
Yuki’s phone started ringing obnoxiously loud, and she cursed before walking away, answering with a “Yes, Roger?”
“I’ll ask her,” I explained, tilting my head in the direction she had gone. I threw out the first thing I thought of. “How was work today?”
“Fine. I wrote out too many tickets.”
He’d actually answered. Huh. “Did a lot of people play the dumb card and say they didn’t know something?” I asked, not expecting much more of a response.
“Half of them.”
I snorted, and the corners of his soft mouth went up just a little bit.
“I’ll take the kids,” he said. “You decide you want to eat, you know where we are.”
He was serious about inviting us over. I wanted to wonder why he was being so friendly but wasn’t positive I should find out. Instead, it was probably best to just accept it. “Okay, thank you.”
But Mr. Rhodes didn’t walk away. He stayed right where he was, just being all big and muscular. No big deal. “How’d it go today?”
“Really good. They know my friend.”
“The kids?” He didn’t ask how or why they recognized her though.
“Yeah.”
He nodded, but there was something very casual about the way he did it that didn’t sit right in my head, but I wasn’t sure why.
“Is your friend staying the night?”
“I have no idea, probably not.” She had a show tomorrow in Utah, so I highly doubted it. I just hadn’t wanted to ask.
His next nod, again, was a little too casual.
“Dad, can we eat now?” Amos called out from where he was lingering right outside the garage.
The older man replied just as I turned a little to catch Jackie by him, but this time, she was looking at me. Again. That funny, funny expression on her face. Little Rhodes and Mr. Rhodes headed out of the garage, not saying a word to each other, and it made me snicker.
Jackie wasn’t following after them though.
“You okay?” I asked her, hearing just a hint of Yuki’s voice from around the house, still talking on the phone.
“Umm, no?” she croaked.
I took a step closer to her. “What’s wrong?”
“I need to tell you something,” she said very seriously.
She was starting to scare me, but I didn’t want to put her off. “Okay. Tell me.”
“Please don’t be mad.”
I hated when people said that. “I’ll try my best to think about what you’re saying and try to take it with an open heart, Jackie.”
“Promise you won’t be mad,” she insisted, her slim fingers tap-dancing at her sides.