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Sandra agreed with Bob that she should share her brilliant water bottle theory with the police. But how? And what if they already knew that? She’d sound like an idiot! So, she didn’t call that night. She spent the evening rubbing peppermint oil into her sore muscles and helping her kids with homework. Then she fell asleep on the couch. So, it wasn’t until four in the morning when she woke up with a crick in her neck that she started agonizing over the imminent police contact. On some level, she knew she shouldn’t be scared to call them. They were the good guys, after all. But she feared she would annoy them and get into trouble for interfering. She’d never been in trouble in her life. She didn’t want to start now.
Therefore, she needed to call anonymously.
Once she’d decided on that course of action, relief washed over her, and she almost fell back to sleep, but a new thought prevented that: how? How does one do anything anonymously in this day and age? Her bladder announced imminent danger, and she got up and crept through the darkness. As annoyed as she was to have to use the bathroom so often, she did do her best thinking in there—probably because that’s the only time she was ever alone.
No way she could email the police. They could trace it back to her, couldn’t they? But would they bother? Just what kind of budget did the state police have? Maybe she could email from a library, with an anonymous email? Yes! That was a great idea. But how would she know if they got the email? So, maybe she should call them. Did pay phones exist anymore? Should she buy a prepaid cell phone and use that? What did they call those things on Hawaii Five-0? Burn phones ... burned phones ... fire phones ... whatever. She guessed it didn’t matter what they were called. She would do that. If it worked for fictional Hawaiian drug lords, then it would work for her, wouldn’t it? She hoped so.
With sleep now just a silly fantasy, she got up to make some coffee. She’d taken five steps in the right direction before she realized that the pain in her legs was ninety percent better. The ache that remained wasn’t really pain at all—more like a faint memory that pain used to be there. She would’ve leapt for joy, but she feared reinjury. So, she was humming “Who You Say I Am” when Nate scared the snot out of her with a kiss on the back of her neck. She jumped what felt like a foot into the air, and her whole body broke out in goosebumps.
He laughed. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Startle me?” she cried. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!” She tried to slow her breathing. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!” Especially when I’ve been crime fighting.
He looked at her suspiciously, but then appeared to give up on figuring her out and reached into the cupboard for a coffee mug. “Why are you up so early, and why are you in such a good mood?”
“I’m up because the couch woke me up, and I’m in a good mood because I’m no longer in pain.”
He opened the fridge and stared inside as if consulting a crystal ball.
“The creamer’s on the right door shelf.”
“Thanks.” He pulled out the half and half. “That’s awesome that you’re feeling better. I’m impressed. Soon you’ll be in such good shape you’ll be running 5Ks on the weekends.”
She snorted. “Hardly. Want some eggs?”
“Really? Yeah!”
Don’t act like I’ve never made you breakfast before. Though, in truth, she hadn’t in quite some time. Part of her was jittery about getting him out of the house so she could get back to crime fighting, which was ridiculous, because she still had to get the kids up and to school before she could go fire-phone-shopping.
After she’d finished scrambling, she placed his plate in front of him and kissed him on the cheek. “Bon appétit. I’m going to go hop in the shower before it’s too late.”
He chuckled. “Nah, you’ve still got time. Sit.” He patted the table beside him. “Eat with me.”
She wasn’t hungry, but she sat down with her coffee, touched that he wanted to spend time with her.
“So, you think you’re going to stick with this reffing gig?” He put a forkful of eggs into his mouth and then said, “You enjoying it?”
“I am.” She said that because she thought that’s what she was supposed to say, but once she’d spoken those two words, she realized with some shock that they were true.