Sunny and Blizzard into the vehicle. “She operates on coffee and spite.”
“Spite? Spite? Tell that to my face, Mr. Police Chief Samuel Quinn!”
My husband turned, looked me in the eyes, and replied, “You operate on coffee and spite.”
If I loved him any more, I would either faint or implode. “It’s true, I really do. And possibly napalm. Her coffee is almost as good as mine, Sam. But no coffee beats napalm. But I can operate on napalm, and I resent that most do not agree with me.”
“You definitely can operate on napalm. I’ve seen what you’ll do for some napalm—and what happens after you get a hold of it.”
Bethany giggled. “The news reports said you had a feud, but then the reports said you were married, and it was all confused. But you have a feud and you’re married. Were the rumors not true?”
“About the pictures of my ex-wife?” my husband asked. When she nodded, he grinned. “They’re absolutely true, and that’s the story of how I fell in love with a trouble-making cindercorn who rightfully has earned her title as the Calamity Queen.”
“I’m on vacation from creating calamities,” I announced, bumping my husband aside to check on Sunny and Blizzard, who had passed out on the seat. “Oh! The poor babies must have been tired.”
“It’s exhausting work eating treats.”
It really was. “Make sure Avalanche is nestled with Blizzard, or we’ll have a concerto in the back seat when they wake up and things aren’t to their liking.” While Quinn talked to Bethany, answering her question with more patience than I could muster on a good day, I secured our coffees so they wouldn’t spill and could be easily retrieved for refills down the road. “Get a card or something for this place, because this is now my favorite road trip stop.”
“Why am I not surprised?”
As I’d already done enough to embarrass myself, I dove into my work to finish preparing for the next leg of our trip, discovering my husband had purchased six of the cindercorn travel mugs. “Really, Sam?” As we didn’t need six, I snagged one and held it out to Bethany. “Apparently, my excessive husband thinks I needed six of these, so this is now part of your tip, because anyone who makes coffee as good as you do obviously deserves a cindercorn travel mug.”
Quinn shrugged. “We have issues with coffee.”
“Insufficient travel mugs will never be a problem in our household.” As Bethany couldn’t take the coffee containment vessel while holding Avalanche, I eyed her apron, discovered it had big pouches, and put it inside. “There! Now you can drink your coffee in style.” I scooped up my ocelot, buried my face in her fur, and dove to the SUV, scrambling inside before I could make even more of a fool out of myself.
“She means thank you for the wonderful time, and she hopes you have a great rest of your day,” my husband translated.
I caught a glimpse of the woman smiling and handing something to Quinn. “You’re welcome, and thank you. Have a safe drive.”
Once I had the door safely closed, I took off Avalanche’s harness and eased her onto Blizzard, who slept on without a care in the world. Quinn got behind the wheel, started the engine, and snickered.
“I’m sorry. I made a mess of that.”
“Was that because you forgot your usual tip sneaking and you became embarrassed or you genuinely saw the extra travel mugs and wanted her to have one?”
“I hid forty dollars under our plates,” I confessed.
“I tipped her as though you were not going to be sneaking cash under the plates as you usually do, so she’ll have a pretty good afternoon once she checks her tips. I also tipped the other staff separately after asking how many people were working.”
“Oh, that was really nice of you.”
“The kitchen staff don’t get tipped often, and they did a great job on our lunch, so I decided to dip into my wife’s not-so-secret tip fund.”
Crap. “You found that?”
“Bailey, you have it listed in the budget as your tip fund.”
Double crap. “You actually read our budget?”
“It’s not much use if I don’t read it, my beautiful. Your ‘Convince Sam I Really Actually Love Him’ fund is rather adorable, and I will deny its existence if I’m questioned about it. That said, I don’t know what you have in mind for that fund, you sneaky woman, but I’m really looking forward to finding out.”
Triple crap on a cracker. “That’s the presents fund, and it’s