Page 61 of You Can Make Me

“Thank you, I’m…on the mend. Thanks for having us.”

Walter shook his hand, and when Cooper’s wide-eyed gaze darted around the place, Walter looked at me with a pleased expression.

“Come on in. Dee Dee’s in the kitchen finishing up dinner. It’s right through that doorway.”

Cooper smiled nervously at me as he walked through the foyer and the arched entry into the kitchen. Walter pulled me in for a bro hug and a stern pounding on my back.

He spoke close to my ear. “How are you, man? How’s Coop?”

His concerned tone gutted me. It had been six months since I’d seen him briefly at the hospital when he came by to check on Cooper. Now? He looked great. The stress lines around his eyes were gone, and his adorable smile was genuine. It didn’t look forced, like it had for so many years.

I’d spent a lot of the time we’d been friends worried about him, worried he was one step away from a break, like his father, but the way he’d handled the shit with Dane, I needn’t have been so concerned. He was stronger than I ever gave him credit for.

“Getting better, thanks. But Junior, I’m so damned sorry?—”

He pushed me away. “Don’t even. Gene kept me apprised. I get it. You saw how I was with Dane. Cooper needed you. I’m glad he had you.”

The burning in my sinuses took my breath away.“Fuck. Junior, I’m really sorry.”

“Forget it. But hey, I have a request. I know it’s a shitty time?—”

“Anything. What do you need?”

Walter blew out a breath and planted his hands on his hips.“We had a little something up here. A weird run-in with a guy walking by. Probably nothing, but I gotta get back to Bakersfield. Dax is handling a lot on his own, since I’m on the task force and Gene is killing himself trying to manage the whole damn squad.”

“The kid apologize?”

“Yeah, he’s been trying to get back in our good graces. We talk…it’s not the same, but I can’t stay mad at him forever. I’m just more careful, you know?”

“That’s big of you, actually. I don’t think I could be so forgiving.”

He snorted. “Gene, neither. He still calls him ‘that twat.’”

“Ochoa’s always been creative with the insults.”

He cleared his throat. “I really do hate to ask, but I gotta work extra since the task force found that body.”

“You think it’s really him?”

“I wish, but no—and I don’t want to leave Dane alone.”

“Don’t blame you. I’ll do whatever you need. What happened that’s got you spooked?”

Walter exhaled again. I knew he didn’t want to tell me. That was his MO. He could be a real quiet guy, focused on work and family, rarely asked for anything. He was always there for his team. Sharp as a tack.

So when he actually met Dane, the man he’d spent twenty years searching for, and became uncharacteristically impulsive, I gave him a lot of leeway. He finally took what he wanted and had been ready to throw away his career over this guy, so Gene and I intervened. Thank God we saved Dane—Dee Dee to everyone else—so that Walter could come to terms with his father’s troubled past and they could have a future.

“Something tripped the alarm at Dane’s mom’s house, across the street this morning. And later on, a guy showed up with one of those bullshit stories about solar panel installation, and her assistant Barbara got a weird vibe.”

“And you’re thinking it was one of Evans’ acolytes?”

“I can’tnotthink that, not until we know he’s dead for sure.”

“Fair enough. You want us to take him to our place?”

Walt grinned. “Our place, huh? Gene said things were pretty heavy.”

“Fuck off, not you too. I figured you’d have my back.”