“I get it.” Jules really did understand, Grace knew. Although they hadn’t exchanged too many details, Grace was certain their situations were similar. “It might not be the best time to look for jobs in Monroe, though.”
Grace made a face. “Yeah, I figured that. At least it’ll give me something to do besides watch daytime TV.”
“I’d offer to ask Megan if you could waitress, but with the diner blowing up and all…”
Head cocked, Grace studied her.
“What?” Jules asked.
Turning back to the French toast, Grace explained. “If you’d told me a week and a half ago that I’d be living with five other people in a small Colorado town, casually talking about a diner exploding, I’d have said you were crazy. My life has gone a bit sideways.”
Although Jules laughed, she squeezed her eyes closed as if she were in pain. “Tell me about it.”
The kids thundered into the kitchen, and the conversation turned to washing hands and setting the table and putting out the food.
“Oh!” Jules exclaimed, drawing everyone’s attention. “Sam, didn’t the cleaner at the kennel move back to Kansas?”
He eyed her with his usual wary expression before finally answering. “Y-yeah.”
Jules turned to beam at Grace. “That might be a job possibility for you.”
With everyone staring at her, Grace tried to hide her horror at the idea, but she wasn’t sure how well she succeeded. She knew her options were limited in such a small town, especially with her new, sadly skimpy resume, but cleaning? And not only cleaning, but cleaning a dog kennel at that. She had been hoping to find something more along the lines of sales clerk or barista or…well, pretty much anything that didn’t involve poo. She realized that Jules was waiting for a response and jerked herself out of her self-pitying fog. “Sounds…promising.”
Sam looked just as doubtful as Grace, and she couldn’t blame him.
“Let’s eat!” Jules’s announcement broke the awkward silence, and everyone sat in a clatter of chair legs and teasing. Grace had just settled in her chair when she remembered the orange juice was still in the fridge and jumped up again to grab it. As she turned back around, she saw a cop in the kitchen doorway. She almost dropped the juice.
“Theo!” Jules jumped up to give him a kiss. The others called their greetings, and Grace took a moment to collect herself. It wasn’t just a cop; it was Jules’s boyfriend. He didn’t have any nefarious purpose for being there, other than to score a kiss and breakfast.
However, her still-vibrating nerves caused a surge of annoyance. “Does every cop in town just walk into this house?” she muttered beneath her breath.
Theo must have had ears like a bat, since he glanced at her sharply. “Who else was here?”
Feeling a little sheepish, she waved her hand as if shooing away her words. “Just Hugh. Don’t mind me. I’m just hangry.”
“Hugh walked in?” Apparently, he wasn’t going to let it go. “When?”
“Yesterday.” Grace poured juice into the glasses so she could avoid his piercing cop gaze. “Really, it was no big deal.”
“Was the door locked?”
“Um…yes? I mean, I’m pretty sure I locked it after the kids left for school, but he just walked in, so it couldn’t have been locked, right? Unless Hugh has a key?” She really hoped he didn’t have a key. The thought of Hugh roaming around the house at will while she was doing things like showering and having bedhead and wearing sweatpants perturbed her in a way she didn’t want to examine too closely.
“He doesn’t have a key.” Theo’s tone was odd, a mixture of exasperation and… Grace would’ve said amusement, except that, from what she’d seen, Theo didn’t get amused. He exchanged a look with Jules, who started to laugh.
Confused, Grace eyed first Jules and then Theo. “Then how’d he get in?”
“He picked the lock,” Tio said in his precise way as he cut his French toast into even squares. Ty, sitting next to him, stabbed a piece from his own plate and brought the whole thing to his mouth.
“Ty! Manners,” Jules barked, although her correction lost some of its sting since she was still laughing. “You are not at the fair eating French toast on a stick. Cut it into bite-size pieces first.”
He eyed the slice still dangling from his fork thoughtfully.
“I don’t care if you can fit the whole thing in your mouth.” Jules had apparently read his mind, judging by the disappointed expression on Ty’s face. “I want the pieces to have a total area of no more than two square inches. Understood?”