have been an accident? Were any of the conditions in the plant unsafe?”
“There’ll be insurance company inspectors, I’m sure,” Delilah said with distaste. “The Fire Marshal came to the scene and he and Dev agreed: the explosion was deliberate.”
“That’s terrifying,” Shea breathed. “Who would do something like that?”
“That’s just it,” came Dev's familiar baritone from the corner. “A whole lot of people have a motive.”
Shea didn’t know whether the thrill that shot down her spine at the sound of his voice was arousal or fear. Its smooth tones had haunted her imaginings of all kinds. For the moment, he was focused on other criminals. But for all she knew, the day might come when Dev himself would read Shea her Miranda rights.
Shea half-expected Delilah to scold Dev for sneaking up on them. Instead, she rose out of her stool and gave her brother a hug. Dev looked like he needed one. It had only been two-and-a-half days since Shea had seen the man and he looked like he might not have slept in all that time.
The moment between him and Delilah was tender and sweet. She was short enough next to him that he could tip his chin and easily kiss the top of her head. Shea imagined what they must have been like as children; she wondered who had taken care of who over the years, and how.
“When was the last time you ate?” Delilah coaxed him to follow her to the counter, reaching beneath it and pulling up yet another stool. His bare forearm brushed Shea’s as he slid into his chair. His arm was on the “very” side of warm. Even the parts of him that weren’t touching her seemed to radiate heat.
Dev seemed mildly disoriented as he attempted his answer. “You know … I can’t remember?” It came out more like a question than it did a statement. “I can’t even remember the last time I had my juice.”
Delilah stayed standing and began to move around the kitchen, clearly on her way to cooking something Dev would like. Shea pushed the box of morning buns toward him. He was so out of it she didn’t think he saw them. Then, his eyes lit up.
“Hell yeah.”
He devoured the bun faster than Shea had ever seen anything devoured, then seemed self-conscious as he noticed her watching. He took a large swallow and said, “Sorry. I’m just really hungry.”
She put her hands up in the universal sign of surrender before pointing to herself.
“I’m not judging. That’s me, at the bakery, every single morning.”
She pushed the box toward him and threw him an impish smile.
Dev lowered his voice and shook his head in awe before half-whispering, “You ought to taste the blueberry scones. Seriously—they’re like crack.”
14
The Unsolicited Advice
Dev
Dev didn’t realize he’d fallen asleep until he found himself looking up at the ceiling, the fluorescent lights and rather uninteresting paneled gypsum board coming into focus. It was far less pleasant than waking up beneath downy comforters, snug in bed beneath the sloped-roof wooden rafters of home.
The cramped office held a sofa Dev could tell had been used for sleeping a time or two. He’d just come in to access the books. It didn’t matter that he’d pulled two all-nighters in three days given the trouble at the mills. He still had to process payroll if Big Spoon employees wanted checks.
After he’d logged into the accounting software and gotten it going, he must have migrated to the couch and fallen asleep, which he really hadn’t meant to do. The paperwork he had to do in relation to the investigation seemed endless. He’d planned to do it at The Freshery and relieve Betty early. That week alone, he’d asked her to double her hours at the store.
“How’d she do?” Dev asked, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm as he made his way out of the office, down the hallway and into the kitchen. He’d run his fingers through his hair in a vain, mirrorless attack against bed head, in case Shea was still outside. A glance at his watch a minute earlier had told him he’d slept clean through the dinner rush, so he didn’t expect her to be. He didn’t think too hard about the compulsion to organize himself for her.
“She was brilliant,” Delilah said plainly, sparing Dev a brief glance as she Saran Wrapped something or other. It was late if she was the only one left cleaning up. The waiters ladled soups and plated desserts and tidied