Eighteen
“You didn’t need to come with me,” Sophie said.
It was the next morning, and she and Grady were parked in front of the county building. Mondays were usually a chore – but Sophie was having trouble pushing the smile from her face as this workweek kicked off. The reason why was watching her placidly from the driver’s seat of his truck.
“I’m not going to argue with you,” Grady said.
“Well, that should make winning easy,” Sophie countered.
Grady smirked. “Go get your documents.”
“You’re going to wait here, right?”
“Are you asking if I’m going to follow you in there and embarrass you?”
“Maybe,” Sophie hedged.
“No, I’m not going to follow you in there,” Grady said. “I’m going to sit right here and make sure you get in – and then out – of the building safely. Then we’re going to take whatever this new stuff is and go over it with my brothers.”
“You’re really bossy,” Sophie said, jumping out of the truck. “Part of me likes it.”
Grady rolled down the window of the truck. “What about the other part of you?”
Sophie glanced back at him. “That part of me wants to smack you silly.”
Grady smiled widely as he watched her sashay up the sidewalk and disappear into the building. She returned about fifteen minutes later – and the stack of papers she was carrying was nothing short of daunting.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said when she climbed back into the truck.
“They’re trying to bury me in paper,” Sophie said. “It’s normal.”
“What is all of that?”
“It’s the stuff I requested under the Freedom of Information Act.”
“I thought you said they had ten days,” Grady said. “Why would they give it to you early?”
“They want it to look like they’re being helpful.”
“Are they being helpful?”
“We won’t know until we look,” Sophie said, smiling brightly. “We should pick up food to take back to your brothers. This is going to take a long time, and I could use some food.”
Grady cursed under his breath. “That’s going to take forever.” He had no idea why a big pile of documents made Sophie so happy – but her smile was enough to propel him to jump into the fray without complaint. “What do you want to eat?”
“I THINK I’m going blind,” Finn said a few hours later.
The brothers had taken Sophie’s files upstairs to James’ apartment so they could spread out while sorting through them. Finn was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Grady was a few feet away, poring through an equally impressive pile of paper. James was on the couch, his long legs spread out in front of him.
Sophie was the only one not being swallowed by reams of paper. She had a system – and she knew what she was looking for. She was moving paper into separate piles on the floor in front of the television, never bothering to look up from her task.
“I think she’s a robot,” Finn said.
“She’s definitely fixated,” James agreed.
Grady enjoyed watching her work. Her face was impassive, blank, and yet he knew she was absorbing every iota of information she could glean from the documents.
After a few minutes, Sophie realized the room had fallen silent. “What did I miss?”
Grady chuckled. “Nothing. We were just marveling at your focus.”
“Sorry,” Sophie said. “There’s just a lot here.”
“Have you found anything?” James asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Sophie said. “I’ve barely gotten into it. It takes time.”
“We’ve been up here for almost six hours,” Grady said.
Sophie glanced up at the clock on the wall. She seemed surprised. “I didn’t realize how long we’d been at it.”
“Your boss doesn’t care that you didn’t come into work today?” Finn asked.
Sophie shook her head. “No. He knows I’m working on this. There’s no way I could go through a stack of paper like this at the office. We’ve been in contact via email. He told me to take my time. He knows this could be huge.”
“That sounds like a cool job,” Finn said.
“It has its moments,” Sophie said. “It can also be frustrating and fruitless.”
Grady glanced down at the stacks of paper. “I can see that.”
“I’m hungry,” Finn said. “Lunch was a long time ago.”
“Mandy is bringing dinner home,” James said. “I texted her. She should be here in a few minutes.”