“Well then, I’ll have coffee and you can just come by. It won’t take five minutes,” she replied.
“Audrey –” he started, sensing movement, his eyes went through the unusually empty bullpen to the stairs where Rivera just appeared.
Mike jerked up his chin at Rivera.
Audrey spoke into his ear. “Five minutes, Mike. I promise and it’s important.”
“Can you tell me what this is about?” Mike asked.
“Clarisse’s school.”
Mike stopped watching Rivera walking to his desk, looked down at it and blinked.
“Pardon?”
“Clarisse’s school. I talked with Mrs. Layne last week and I know there are two of them you and she are approaching with applications for acceptance and scholarships. I want to see you quickly about this.”
“Can’t we do this on the phone?” Mike requested.
“No, because I have something to give you.”
Christ. He didn’t like the sound of that. Audrey rarely gave him anything unless some occasion forced her to and then whatever she gave him, he was the one who actually paid for it and it was more than they could afford. Her being generous now did not give him a good feeling.
“Audrey –” he started.
“Mike,” she cut him off. “Mimi’s. After work. It’s two blocks away from you. Just text me when you’re almost done and I’ll meet you there. I promise, it won’t take long.”
“Can you promise it won’t piss me off?” Mike asked.
“Yes,” she answered firmly and immediately and Mike again blinked at his desk.
Then he muttered, “Five minutes. I’ll text you.”
“Thank you, Mike,” she said quietly.
“Later.”
Then he beeped off the phone and his eyes went to Rivera to see Rivera’s on him.
“I’m guessin’ that was not a call from your BFF askin’ you out for martinis,” Rivera remarked and Mike’s lips curved but he shook his head.
“Ex-wife and if my BFF asked me out for martinis they would no longer be my BFF.”
“Hear you, bro,” Rivera muttered then stated, “You got seven dozen more of those donuts you owe me but I’m lettin’ you off on two since you got me outta goin’ to the mall with Jerra and Dusty.”
Mike sat back and his grin became a smile. “Never shopped with Dusty but everything with Dusty is no-nonsense and laidback. Jerra not that way?”
“Jerra can take or leave a mall. She’ll set the computer on fire with on-line shoppin’ but a mall,” he shrugged. “Now Adriana, who I will remind you is six, lives to go to the mall. She doesn’t even wanna buy the shit. She just wants to try it on. Even Jerra says it’s jacked.”
“My advice, nip it in the bud. Now,” Mike told him and Rivera studied him.
“Your girl dig the mall?” he asked.
“She practically lived there until she got a boyfriend. And her mother was the same.”
Rivera grinned. “So that’s why you let your girl who looks like your girl and acts as sweet as your girl go out with a kid who’s probably got more notches in his bedpost than me.”
Rivera, Mike had already noted repeatedly, didn’t miss much.
“That and he’s a good kid who settled her ass down, got her studying and moved her off a path I didn’t like all that much. Her interest in the mall has vanished, her grades have improved and he gets that I’ll shoot him if he goes there with my Reesee.”
Rivera held his eyes and said quietly, “He gets that all right. I told that kid his girlfriend wasn’t made of the finest porcelain, he’d call me a liar but that would be after he’d punched me in the face and spit at me. Sun rises and sets for him in her, Mike. You get that?”
Mike nodded. He got that. It was impossible to miss. And he couldn’t say he didn’t have reservations but still, he liked it.
Rivera leaned forward slightly and kept talking quietly. “No. I mean that in a way that shit doesn’t die. She’s The One for him. He found her at seventeen. And brother, brace, because the way she looks at him, acts around him, she’s fifteen but she feels the same way.”
“I get that, Rivera,” Mike replied. “And I can’t say I don’t have concerns. What I can say is they aren’t much to get riled up about.”
Rivera sat back. “Yeah. My girl was fifteen and found a kid who’d walk through fire for her and do it smilin’, I’d be where you are now, brother.”
The way Mike saw Rivera be with his own kids, he had no doubt.
Mike stood, grabbing his blazer off the back of his chair, saying, “We got enough time to pick up a Mimi’s before the meeting. Coffees are good. But her cookies, brownies, anything in the case is only one step down from Hilligoss and it’s a narrow step.”
Rivera stood, replying, “Wasn’t sure about a vacation in Hoosierland but you Indiana folk know how to eat. After a while, I’d miss my barbeque and Tex-Mex but that’d be a long while.”
He shrugged on his blazer as they moved to and down the stairs together, Mike returning, “You get home, don’t tell anyone or we’ll have to send the crew out to cut out your tongue. Most folk think Indiana’s a state to drive right through. They took a minute to eat our food, experience our hospitality, understand the depth of our loyalty and they did it in fall when the trees are in color, no one would ever leave.”
“I’m sensing this,” Rivera muttered.
Walking past Kath at the reception desk, jerking up his chin and getting a finger wave in return which made him smile, Mike muttered back, “Sense it all you like. It’s the God’s honest truth.”
Rivera pushed open the door, grinning at him. Mike walked through grinning at his boots.
They hit Mimi’s and got coffees. While there Rivera proved irrefutably that he was a good husband and Dad when he bought a shitload of cookies and brownies for his wife and kids. Both of them carrying white, paper coffee cups with cardboard sleeves and Rivera a big white bag, they walked out of Mimi’s, one door down and into the door that led to Tanner’s offices.
They went up the steps and Mike didn’t bother knocking or announcing them when he opened the door at the top, strode through and held it for Rivera. This was because Tanner had cameras and already knew they were there.
And Mike would know why the bullpen was empty when they walked through Tanner’s reception area. He did this smiling at Tanner’s Mom, Vera who was on the phone behind the receptionist’s desk. But in his office were Colt, Sully and Merry along with Ryker, Tanner and, f**k him, Cal and Tanner’s go-to guy, ex-CIA agent and currently certifiable Devin Glover.