Page 14

“There’s been a little excitement, but nothing I couldn’t handle.” I shifted my gaze toward Rosie, happily twirling spaghetti around her fork before slurping it off. “Nothing worth sharing at the dinner table.”

I tried to keep the harshest elements of my work away from my family. That meant no horror stories over meals. While Ted’s story had a happy-ish ending, I didn’t want to scare Rosie.

Julie opened her mouth to comment, and Kirsten placed a hand over hers. “You’ll have to tell us about it over dishes.”

I nodded, appreciating the tacit understanding.

“Rosie, how was school today?”

The change of subject worked, and Rosie chattered about the book Mr. Watkins read them during story time.

Julie waited until I was elbow-deep in dishes and Rosie had gone off to play before asking again about my day.

“So, brother of mine,spill. What happened today that had you looking so tense?”

I stared into the suds, debating how much detail to share.

“One of the other jurors collapsed at lunch, and Andi and I ended up giving him CPR until the medics could arrive.”

“Oh my gosh, is he okay?” Kirsten broke in, her soft alto full of concern.

I glanced to the fridge, where she was shuffling food to make room for leftovers. That was Kirsten, ever the soft-hearted one. The perfect foil for my no-nonsense sister.

“Yeah, we got an update at the end of the day. He’s in the hospital but doing well.”

“I’m so glad to hear that,” Kirsten murmured.

Julie clasped her hands in front of her chest theatrically. “Our hero.”

I shrugged, uncomfortable with the praise, even if she was overselling it, and she snapped my butt cheek with her towel before I could dodge away. “Don’t downplay it, Ty. You did a good thing.”

“I had help,” I added, trying not to let my admiration for Andi color my tone. Julie could sniff out my crushes in middle school at fifty paces, and I didn’t need her teasing me about Andi. Not when there was nothing I could do about it.

Her eyes narrowed, and I realized my mistake.

Smacking myself in the forehead would have left a trail of suds and bubbles, so instead I focused on cleaning the saucepan like leaving tomato stains behind would lead to my arrest for murder.

She let me work in silence for a few moments, no doubt trying to lull me into complacency.

I’d screwed up. Julie knew my tells, and I recognized hers. Her silence trick was a classic therapy tool.

I bit my lip and debated throwing out a question about Rosie’s upcoming birthday party, but Julie would see through my feeble attempt at distraction.

“You evaded my question earlier about if you met anyone interesting in jury duty. Was that your helper or your patient?” she asked.

Clearing my throat, I struggled for a nonchalant tone. “It’s a small world. Andi Torres from high school got called for my jury pool, and she stepped in to help me with CPR.”

“Andi Torres? Jimmy’s little sister? The loud-mouthed one with the curly hair? Or was that Melanie, Jake’s sister?”

“Andi’s not a loud-mouth,” I defended before I could call the words back.

Classic Julie. Her quick grin let me know I’d fallen right into her trap. She’d known exactly how to tip me into saying more than I wanted to.

“So, Andi helped you, huh?”

Caught. That’s what I got for admitting an old teammate’s sister had been called for jury duty with me. Julie remembered Andi. A little too well. They’d been further apart in school, but Andi had been hard to miss, even at fourteen. And Julie had dropped me off at Jimmy and Andi’s grandma’s enough times to recall them both.

I cleared my throat, debating if I could change the subject by focusing more on the emergency and less on Andi. “Yes, she was a big help, but of course it was the AED that saved the day.”