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didn’t answer my question.”
    Parker turned around. His gaze darted around the room before he eventually sighed and looked at me. “I had a good night. There are just… some implications that have me riled up a bit.”
    “I’m not sure I follow you.”
    “That’s your problem; I won’t enlighten you. What happened with you and Alex?”
    I grimaced. I was here, at work, to not think about what happened yesterday evening. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Good. I don’t want to talk about what happened with David either. What have you done so far this morning?”
    I could take a hint if I got one that big waved in front of me. “Finished a report. Mr. Clark called this morning. I’m going to meet him around two. He’ll have a list of people we might want to talk to by then.”
    “That’s good—it’ll keep us busy for the rest of the afternoon and hopefully tomorrow, too.”
    I laid a hand on his forehead and drew it back hastily with a hissed, “Shit, you’re burning up.”
    Parker rolled his eyes and punched his fist against my upper arm. “I’m always that eager to work.”
    “Since when?”
    He heaved a dramatic sigh as he glanced at his watch. “Since about five minutes ago.”
    “I was going to do some grocery shopping right now, have lunch, and afterward drive over to the school. Want to meet up there at two?”
    Parker frowned before he shook his head. “How about I keep you company. I’d even go so far as to allow you to feed me lunch.”
    I stared at him. We’d always gotten along well but we’d never been particularly close. I wondered what was going on and how I should deal with the new direction our partnership was taking. “The image of me feeding you is really gross .”
    “It was a metaphorical image, you idiot.”
    “No insults if you want to tag along.”
    “Yes, sir!” he saluted.
    I swiftly turned around to grab my jacket and hide the huge grin on my face. When I turned back, I said sternly, “You’ve got to work for your lunch. I hope you know how to chop vegetables?”
    “Vegetables? Uh, how about we stop somewhere and get takeout?”
    “Nope. I promised myself I’d cook more.”
    “Do you have to start keeping your promises the one time I’m with you?”
    “You don’t have to come with me.”
    “All right, all right, I’ll chop vegetables, but only under protest.”
    “Duly noted.”
    We both smiled as we headed for the elevator. Maybe today wouldn’t suck as bad as I thought.
     
     
    S HOPPING with Parker fell into the unique-experience category. One of the “My God! What did I do to deserve this?” kind. However, he did help me unload my car and put away all the groceries.
    Conversationally, I said, “I didn’t think you’d be such a nagging bitch.”
    “You took double the time that was necessary.”
    “I compared prices.”
    “You did? Okay. We survived, didn’t we? Now what are you going to cook for lunch?”
    “I thought about a casserole with lots of vegetables.”
    “That sounds fairly different from what I usually eat.”
    “Yeah, I could tell from the look of your waistline,” I teased. I handed him a chopping board and a knife together with some mushrooms and broccoli.
    “My waistline is screaming in panic right now. How is the fat supposed to hold on there if I’m going to eat mushrooms and that greenish stuff there?” Parker waved the hand holding the knife and stared at the broccoli as if it might explode.
    “I’m sure we can find a counselor for your waistline. I’ll look up the number after we’ve eaten.”
    Parker grinned and set to work. At least he knew how to slice mushrooms and separate the florets from the broccoli trunk. He couldn’t be as cook-illiterate as he claimed to be.
    Soon the casserole simmered in the oven and we cleaned up the kitchen as much as possible. “I wonder if there’s really a threat to Amaris’s and the other kids’ lives. I mean, I can understand—understand I want to stress, not