He tried to kick me, but I dodged.
“I knew you were a softy.”
He tried again, but this time, Millie got in the way. She rubbed my arm and looked into my eyes, and I thought I was about five seconds away from getting another of those rib-pulverizing hugs. “That must have been terrible last night. How are you doing?”
“All right, I guess.” She was still looking at me, and for all her volume and energy and general excitability, Millie had a way of looking at you so that you knew she was seeing you, and that she cared, and that if she ruptured your eardrums, it was only because she loved you. I felt myself sink down onto the stool, and I propped an elbow on the counter. “I mean, it’s weird. I didn’t like him, obviously. He was a creep. And I would have been happy never to see him again. But I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him, and when I found him—”
“You felt guilty,” Millie said softly.
“I guess so. Because I was so mad at him. And I did want something bad to happen to him, maybe. Just not that.” I shook my head. “I don’t know. It was a terrible night.”
Millie rubbed my arm some more. “And you didn’t even get the number of that cute bartender.”
“Well, that wasn’t really—”
“And Bobby had to FIGHT someone for you.”
I tried to give her a look. “Yeah, like I said, it was terrible—”
“And then Bobby and WEST got in a fight because Bobby had to save you.” When I didn’t say anything, she asked, “Remember?”
Keme was biting the collar of his ancient Quiksilver tee, trying not to laugh.
“Yes, Millie. I remember. Like I said: it was terrible.”
Maybe it was my tone. Millie’s face fell, and she rubbed my arm some more. Keme, for his part, finally managed to kick me in the leg, but it was gentle, and the look on his face was concerned, so I decided to consider it a love tap.
“Here we go,” Tessa announced as she joined us. She passed a tray to me. “The Dash Special.”
It had four quarters of bagel arranged neatly on the plate. Not one bagel cut into four pieces; four different bagels—Asiago, everything, plain, and whole wheat. And the sandwiches themselves looked different. I spied ham on one. Sausage on another. Avocado, definitely. And, gods be praised, bacon.
“Campfire s’mores latte,” she added as she handed me an enormous mug. “Not quite a Big Gulp; there are probably legal considerations if we make them any bigger.”
“You’re the single greatest human who’s ever lived.”
Tessa laughed.
“You’re a saint crossed with an angel crossed with a taco.”
Keme rolled his eyes. But that didn’t stop him from taking the ham and egg bagel quarter from my plate.
“Millie,” Tessa said, “I need you to restock.”
“Oh, right. Sure.” But Millie’s eyes cut to me. “I’ll do it right now, Tessa.”
Tessa sighed. “In five minutes.”
“Thank you, Tessa!”
Already walking away, Tessa gave a lazy wave over her shoulder with a bar towel.
I tried to eat, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. Fortunately, Keme was more than willing to help—for such a short, skinny kid, he knew how to pack it away. I focused on my latte, which was chocolatey and marshmallowy and, yes, coffee-y, and all around amazing. My headache shrank to a manageable size. And although I still wished I could have slept to a reasonable hour, I did feel a little better.
“Have you talked to Bobby?” Millie asked.
I shook my head. “You?”
Keme grimaced. Millie said, “We haven’t seen him since, you know, the fight. We waited for you, and then the deputies told us to go home, and—” Her voice thinned. “He’s okay, right?”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” I said. “I think he’s got bigger things to worry about than an argument with West, though. The way Sheriff Acosta was asking questions, it sounds like they’re looking at him for Gerry’s murder.”
Keme frowned around a mouthful of my bacon, egg, and cheese bagel. Millie glanced over at him.
“What?” I asked.
“What makes you think that?”
“I told you: Acosta kept asking about Bobby, about that stupid fight.” I was so upset that I forgot I wasn’t hungry and polished off the rest of the farmhouse bagel sandwich. “It wasn’t even a fight. I mean, Bobby punched him. Once. That’s all.”
“No, I mean, what made you think it’s a murder?”
“Because someone pushed Gerry off that cliff. I saw them.”
Millie looked at Keme.
Keme snatched the final quarter of bagel and took a savage bite.
“Will you just tell me already?” I said.
