CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Laura shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe I slept through the whole drive,” she said.
“Yeah,” Nate replied drily. “It’s almost as though you had a recent head injury, or something.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Laura rolled her eyes at him. “The EMTs said I didn’t even need a scan. I got lucky. In the darkness, he completely missed his mark and just glanced the blow off the side of my skull. One of the hard bits. He must have used up all his energy hitting the security guard – and that guy was strong enough to pull through, too. They didn’t even tell me not to drive.”
“Yeah, well, maybe they were hoping you’d go with common sense on that one,” Nate said, pulling a face at her. “I am honestly very happy to drive you home right now. You don’t have to do it yourself.”
“And then come back tomorrow on the bus and have to get my car anyway,” Laura said, shaking her head. She didn’t even wince as she did so. The few hours of sleep this morning on top of what had remained of the night in the motel had taken away most of the sting. It was still a blow to the head, of course, but it really wasn’t as bad as some of the other ones she’d had.
Either that or she was now so far into the chart of concussions that she no longer felt them. But, hey. There wasn’t an awful lot she could do about that after the fact.
“Well,” Nate sighed, running a hand back over his short-cropped hair as if he was reaching the limit of his frustration and had no answers left. “Just – text me when you get back, okay? So I know that you made it back safe.”
“Will do, Mom,” Laura said with a teasing smile. She was glad things were back to normal between them. Better than normal, maybe. Now they no longer had to have any secrets.
She turned around and made for her car across the parking lot, leaving him behind at the door to his.
“Hey, Laura,” he called out, when she was only a few steps away.
She turned again, raising her eyebrows.
“Uh.” Nate paused, glanced around. They weren’t in a private place, here. “Just wanted to say it was, uh, pretty cool. The technique you used. It really worked out for us finding the killer.”
Laura almost wanted to scream. If he thought it was impressive that she’d seen the killer in the warehouse – even though it hadn’t actually led her to right person for such a long time – then he would have been so much more impressed by the way her powers worked when they were actually, well… working.
But it was something, and she’d take it. He believed in her. He’d seen it for himself.
And finally, she knew now that it wasn’t going to drive him away.
He would keep her secret, and their partnership could go on – just as it always had, but now even better.
“Thanks,” she said, with a smile. Then she lifted her hand in a farewell wave. “See you on Monday for the paperwork.”
Nate groaned and threw his head back at the mention of the dreaded p-word, and Laura laughed as she walked back to her car.
***
Laura stepped back into the kitchen with a grin, watching Chris trying to supervise a tea party and failing miserably. The girls had already forced him to wear a pair of fairy wings on his back, and now he was being lectured sternly about not holding out his pinkie finger while he drank his tea or offering any of his cookies to the unicorn stuffie next to him.
He glanced up and saw her, and apparently his eyes lit up with the jackpot signs. “Oh, look, girls!” he said, in a tone that was almost desperate. “Looks like Laura wants to join in with our tea party!”
“Come on, Mommy!” Lacey called out. Laura’s daughter waved her tiny hands emphatically, the gap between her lower teeth flashing from within her wide grin. “You’ve got to come. It will fill up the last seat!”
Laura nodded. “Alright, darling,” she said, taking her spot on the last ‘seat’ – one of the cushions from the couch which had been pulled down and arranged in a circle on the floor, around an assortment of plastic teacups and saucers. The spaces between Chris, the girls, and Laura were all filled with various toys and dolls who had also been invited to join them. “What kind of tea is it?”
“It’s tea,” Lacey said, with such a matter-of-factness and a bewildered tone that Laura had to laugh. The girls probably didn’t even realize that different kinds of tea existed.
“Here you go, Mommy,” Amy said, handing her a cup, and Laura blinked.
That was new.
“Thank you,” was all she managed to say, reeling from the surprise. She looked up and met Chris’s eyes and saw the same reaction mirrored in him. The two girls were carrying on playing as if nothing had happened. Maybe they didn’t even realize the slip that she had made.
What should she do? Correct her?
But Chris recovered first, clearly deciding to just brush over it. “What should we talk about with our tea?” he asked.