Free July Thunder by Rachel Lee Page B

of us says is to be taken into evidence.”
    She laughed again. The microwave pinged, and she pulled out a clear plastic pouch containing bacon. “This stuff is actually pretty good.”
    â€œI know. I depend on the microwave. Without it, I’d either starve to death or go broke from eating out all the time.”
    She lifted an eyebrow at him, still smiling. “One of those, huh?”
    â€œOne of whats?”
    â€œTestosterone-based life-form.”
    He had an urge to laugh, but instead he played along. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    â€œOh, you know. Those poor unfortunate creatures who are incapable from birth of cooking or cleaning.”
    â€œAh. You mean I suffer what some folks call testosterone poisoning.”
    She shrugged, still looking impish. “Same thing, I guess.”
    â€œHmm. Well, I’ll have you know my house is pretty clean.”
    â€œNo underwear on the bathroom floor? No giant dust bunnies under the bed?”
    â€œWell, I can’t say for sure what’s under the bed….” He trailed off and enjoyed watching her laugh again. Damn, it had been so long since he’d shared anything approaching humor. Who cared if they were punchy from lack of sleep? It felt good.
    Using only the microwave and coffeepot, she put quite a meal in front of him: bacon, sausage biscuits, orange juice and coffee, and plenty of it. And once he started eating, he realized he was famished.
    She spoke as he bit into his second biscuit. “It must have been hard work, building the firebreak.”
    He shrugged. “It wouldn’t have been quite so hard if I hadn’t been spending too much time on my can in a patrol car recently.”
    One of those enticing smiles flickered across her face. “I could say the same. It’s funny, when I moved up here I had all these ideas about cross-country skiing, hiking in the summertime. Instead I always seem to be too busy.”
    â€œThat’s life. There’s always something that needs doing.” But then he remembered Beth. “My late wife had a different philosophy.”
    â€œWhat was that?”
    â€œThat the responsibilities won’t go away if you ignore them for a few days. They’ll always be there. In fact, she used to say that if you let them, responsibilities will expand to take all your time.”
    â€œHow did that work out?”
    â€œNot too bad, usually. Yeah, the bills had to be paid on time whether you felt like it or not, but other things… Well, she used to get up on her day off, and the house would be a mess because we’d been too busy, and the yard would need mowing, or whatever, and she’d say, ‘Let’s go fishing, Sam. It’s a beautiful day.’” He almost smiled, remembering.
    â€œAnd I’d say, ‘But, Beth, I’m supposed to work on the yard,’ or whatever it was. Once it was patching the roof because we had a small leak.” Mary’s green eyes were smiling gently at him, he noticed.
    â€œWhat did she say?” she asked.
    â€œShe’d say, ‘Sam, that yard will still need mowing tomorrow.’ Or ‘Sam, that roof will still be fixable this afternoon.’ And off we’d go.”
    â€œSounds like a great philosophy.”
    â€œIt was.” To a point. Sometimes it drove him batty. Things needed doing when they needed doing. Like the roof. They went fishing, had a big early-afternoon thunderstorm, and he’d wound up having to patch the bedroom ceiling as well as the roof. But it would have felt disloyal to say that to Mary, so he kept it to himself.
    â€œStill,” Mary said, almost as if she were reading his mind, “I guess you’d need to watch your balance.”
    â€œSure. And I’ll be the first to admit that procrastination drives me crazy.” He shrugged. “I’m one of those people who just wants to get it done. So I guess I’ve lost my