Page 109 of In Safe Hands

At that, Lou growled, “Seriously? Why would he think that would help? It makes me nuts not to know stuff.”

“Me too. Even my dad is acting all protective, and that’s not like him.”

“He’s still staying with you at Chris’s?” At Daisy’s nod, Lou scrunched her nose. “Doesn’t that get in the way of you and Chris…?” Trailing off, she waved a hand.

“Talking?” Daisy guessed, widening her eyes with mock-innocence.

“No.”

“Watching movies?”

“No.”

“Cooking brownies together?”

Cocking her head to the side, Lou looked thoughtful. “I guess that could be one euphemism for it.”

Ellie wrinkled her nose. “No. No, it can’t.”

Finally breaking down with a laugh, Daisy admitted, “Yes, when Dad sits on the couch between us, glaring at Chris, it does get in the way of me and Chris”—she imitated Lou’s wave—“cooking brownies. Literally in the way. It’s just temporary, though. Dad’ll be heading out to another job site soon, and he’ll find another place in Simpson. Chris’s already bugging me to move in with him permanently.”

“Are you going to stay?” Lou asked.

“Yes.” Living with Chris was pretty much as wonderful as she’d thought it would be.

“Oh!” Ellie slapped her non-latte-holding hand on the counter, startling Daisy. “Speaking of fathers, guess who called me last night?” Positively beaming, she answered her own question before either of the other two could guess. “Dad!”

“Seriously?” Lou demanded, rushing to round the counter. “And you didn’t lead with that?” She grabbed Ellie, who lifted her coffee up out of the way just in time, and squeezed her tightly. “That’s awesome, El! I’m so happy for you!”

When Lou finally released her and returned to her spot behind the counter, Ellie bounced on her stool a few times, grinning hugely. “I know! I can’t believe I forgot to tell you until now. Poor George. I was so wired that I barely slept last night, and I kept poking him to wake him so I’d have someone to talk to about it.”

“That’s great, Ellie.” Reaching over, Daisy grabbed her hand. “You could’ve called me instead of waking the sleeping beast.” She didn’t mention that a call would’ve woken Daisy, too, since she’d been sleeping a lot more soundly recently.

Ellie laughed, a genuinely happy sound. “George was right there, so I just tortured him.”

The bells on the door jangled, and all three women turned their heads toward the sound to see Rory entering.

“Rory!” Ellie was the first to greet her. “My dad called last night! He’s in Florida for some reason that he didn’t explain very well. I mean, Florida? Really?”

A brief, but beautiful, smile flashed across Rory’s face. “Good. He’s okay, then?”

“Yep. He’s even on his meds. We had a conversation that actually made sense.”

“I’m glad.” Rory took the stool on her right, and Daisy shuffled hers back a foot so she could see everyone without having to turn her head back and forth.

“Not that I’m not wildly excited that you joined us,” Lou said to Rory, “but shouldn’t you be watching your store? The guns don’t sell themselves, you know.”

“I was at the store.” She frowned, but looked more baffled than angry. “Ian walked in and said that Derek drove by and saw Daisy walking into the coffee shop, so he texted Chief Early, who mentioned it to Soup, who called Ian.”

Lou lowered her head to the counter with a thump that made Daisy wince. “This town.”

“Ian said,” Rory continued without reacting to Lou’s comment, “he was going to watch the store so I could come here and have girl time.” She said the last two words as if they were in a foreign language she didn’t know. “Is girl time really a thing, or is Ian pretending he knows stuff he doesn’t again?”

Lou and Ellie snickered, while Daisy tried to keep a straight face. Rory looked so very bewildered.

“I’m pretty sure it is a thing,” Daisy said as seriously as she was able. “Not that I’m an expert, of course, since most of my knowledge of girl time has come from books and movies.”

“It is a thing,” Ellie confirmed.