alley again. “We need to call the police.”
“Is this about the pickles?” Brad pinned me with a dark look. “I told you that I’m the boss. That means you have to wrangle the pickles.”
“That could be viewed as sexual harassment,” David said, starting for the door. Unlike our uncle, he seemed genuinely curious to see what had shaken me.
“She’s my niece,” Brad argued, scandalized. “I can’t sexually harass my niece.”
“You could, but then we’d have a whole other problem to deal with.” David pushed open the door and poked his head outside.
“Sexual harassment is something the left drummed up to hurt the right,” Brad said. “Of course, the right used it against political figures from the left for a time. Wait ... maybe I need to give this one more thought. There could be something here.”
It’s hell having an uncle who is a conspiracy theorist and yet can manage to side with both political parties in the same breath.
David flew through the door.
“Call the police,” he barked, causing Brad to stand up straight. “There’s a body out back.”
“A body?” Brad’s eyebrows drew together.
David nodded, grim. “It’s Roy Axe.”
I frowned. I knew that name. “Grandpa’s friend?”
“I don’t know that friend is the right word, but yeah, he knows Grandpa.”
“He’s dead?” Brad couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the concept.
“He’s definitely dead,” David confirmed. “Call the police. Get Hunter out here right now.”
My heart skipped at the words, but Brad was already moving. “Wait ... Hunter? You can’t call him here.”
David shot me an impatient look. “He’s one of three police officers in this town. We have to call him.”
“Yeah, but ... I’m all greasy from working in the kitchen.” What a ridiculous thing to say, and yet I was bothered by the thought of Hunter seeing me after the hectic morning rush.
“I think the dead body takes precedence over your hair.”
Obviously he didn’t grasp the etiquette of seeing your ex for the first time in a decade. “I’m not ready.”
“Well, you’d better get ready. We need help and he’s our only option. Suck it up.” He clapped his hand against my shoulder hard enough to rock me to the side. “There’s a dead body outside. Your issues with Hunter aren’t important right now.”
That showed just how out of touch he really was with reality.
HUNTER RYAN LOOKED THE SAME.
Actually, he looked better than he had in high school, and that was saying something.
I watched his arrival from the area by the freezers, David and Brad with me, and felt my heart give a long, slow roll. Why did he have to look the same? It would’ve been easier if he’d let himself go. Instead, he’d filled out in all the right ways.
His shoulders were always broad, his waist narrow. His arms were powerful, just like in high school when he liked to brag about how much he could bench press when competing with David. They would play off each other, compete, and yet they were always friends. Apparently they still were, because David detached from our small cluster and went out to greet him.
“Hey, man.” David offered a smile that didn’t make it all the way to his eyes. “Sorry to call you out here, but, well ... .” He gestured toward the body.
“That’s why I’m here.” Hunter flashed the smile I remembered from high school and I had to tamp something down when the familiar dimple came out to play in his cheek. He was one of the few guys who could carry off a dimple and still look rugged. It was one of the things that forever etched his face into my dreams. “Tell me what happened.”
“I’m not sure.” David nervously cracked his knuckles and watched as Hunter crouched down to get a better look at the body. “I just got back from Mexico last night so I slept in this morning. I’m not even on shift until tomorrow. I stopped in to get my paycheck. That’s when Stormy started freaking out.”
Freaking out? I wasn’t even close to freaking out. David’s words bothered me. I managed — just barely — to keep my opinion to myself.
“Stormy?” Hunter jerked up his chin, surprise etching across his handsome features.
“Stormy.” David gestured toward me, causing Hunter to fix his attention on the small crowd that had gathered inside of the restaurant to watch the show through the open door. His breath hitched for a moment and then he steadied himself. There was no smile of welcome on his face. “Can you come