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He thought, frowning a little. “I don’t think Dolly drinks coffee. But if she did, drinking mushroom coffee would help her lose a few pounds. It works for weight loss.”
“You’re probably right,” I said thoughtfully. “Throwing up always makes me lose weight.”
Raven sniffed. “Fine. I’ll keep the mushroom stuff for myself and Judy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, God! Don’t tell me you’ve replaced the office coffee with that crap too?”
“Babe, you’re so dramatic!”
I watched his profile, shaking my head. “And apparently, about to be so thin.”
We arrived at Mel’s Drive-in in Santa Monica about an hour later than we’d set off from the house after fighting traffic all the way. Although I loved living in Southern California, the weekday commute seemed to be getting worse every day. At least the noise of the busy traffic and the honking of horns as inconsiderate drivers constantly swerved into our lane, was mostly blocked out by the windows in Raven’s big Dodge Ram. It was a good thing Raven held my hand and sang slightly off-key to Stevie Wonder as he drove. It was a merry sound and never failed to relax me.
I couldn’t keep my mind on his Spotify playlist as I kept running over what Cassidy had shared on the phone. Though I felt sorry for the investigator, whom I’d never met, it was more worrying that his untimely death had occurred right around the time when we’d caught up to Cassanova, Bishop, and Mendez. Dave Reynolds, had been the victim of a homicide, but what really bothered me was the timing of the whole thing.
Raven pulled into the busy parking lot and found a slot at the back, beeping his key fob as I walked around to his side of the truck to take his hand. He smiled at me, falling into step as we walked to the front of the restaurant, seemingly unconcerned at the public display of affection. Before meeting Raven, I never would have held hands with a man in public. Whether it had something to do with my Marine Corps training, where I didn’t dare hold hands with anyone, much less John, or whether it was just that I didn’t like having judgy eyes on me, I couldn’t really tell. But whatever it was, it didn’t bother me with Raven. He was just too damned important to me to care about what other people thought.
We spotted Cassidy and Mike waving at us from a booth, and nodded at the hostess as we pointed to our friends, making our way to their table. Both men stood and held out their hands. We shook and I was surprised to see the look of exhaustion on Cassidy’s face.
“How are you?” I asked as we slid into the booth and ordered coffee from the waitress.
“Me?” Cass asked. “Fine.” He scrubbed both hands over his face before looking back with tired green eyes. “Just tired. The new chief has had us on nights for the last two weeks and it’s been a bitch getting adjusted to it.” He glanced at his partner who was much older than Cassidy and smiled before elbowing him. “The old guy likes it.”
I chuckled. “You like working nights? Why?” Raven asked, dragging his gaze to the waitress and smiling at her as she set our coffee down.
“Action,” Mike replied with a smile on his lips.
Before I could ask why, I realized I’d been ignoring the waitress who was hovering close. I looked up at her and smiled.
“Are we all ready to order?” she asked brightly.
“In a minute?” I asked the others. At their nods, she walked away. I opened my menu, browsing the mouthwatering selections. Breakfast had always been one of my favorite meals and I looked longingly at the Nutella French toast before glancing at Raven.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said with a small growl.
I snorted. “What?”
“I know you’re looking at the Nutella French toast.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because you’re dribbling saliva down your chin. Now, stow it, Miguel, and pick something healthy.”
Cassidy choked on his coffee and we both looked across the table at him. He cleared his throat, grinning. “Jesus, it’s like listening to Jarrett and Thayne.”
I laughed. He was right. I turned to Raven who was holding up his menu and pointing at something on it. Leaning in, I squinted my eyes at him. “Steel cut oatmeal?” I asked, knowing I sounded horrified. I shook my head. “Uh uh. I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s delicious,” Raven reassured me. “But if you want, you can have the organic granola and low-fat Greek yogurt.”
I felt myself gag. “Again?” I whined.
“It’s full of fiber.”
“Yeah? Well, my grandma called it roughage for a good reason.”
“Since when is that a bad thing?” Raven asked, a smile on his lips.
“Oh, yeah, well tell that to my toilet bowl. I swear there’s so much fiber in there, I could knit a sweater.”