Thrilled To Death by Jennifer Apodaca Page A

throat. I knew he wanted Joel to love magic like he did, but more than that, he wanted Joel to be Joel. “Either way, he’s lucky to have you.” I handed him his bowl of jambalaya. “Now go watch and make sure he doesn’t keep Bo from eating.” I grinned at him just as the front door flew open.
    Fletch limped into the house, stopping to pet Ali. “You would not believe my day!”
    I stared at him. Now he looked like Tobey Maguire after he’d been run over by a weed whacker. His brown hair sprung up here and there, his shirt was untucked, and his right pant leg was torn. “Fletch.” I moved out from the back of the table toward him. “What happened to you?”
    He stopped petting Ali and looked up at me with a slightly off-center grin. “I was looking at a dirt bike I wanted to rent. Somehow it fell and hit my leg.
    â€œOuch,” I winced. That had to hurt.
    Fletch looked around the house, then back to me. “I didn’t exactly notice how much it hurt right then ’cause I fell backward.”
    â€œOh. Did you hit anything?” I forced real concern in my voice to cover up my first thought, which was that I had finally found a bigger klutz than me.
    â€œA row of those little dirt bikes. They went down like dominoes with me on the very top.”
    I heard two male snorts and turned around.
    Gabe and Cal stood there, both with straight faces. “Stop that,” I hissed. Their innocent faces didn’t fool me.
    Gabe moved past me and stuck his hand out. “I’m Gabe, and this is my brother, Cal.”
    Fletch shook their hands. “Hi, I’m Fletch. So you are Sam’s boyfriend. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
    Grandpa called out from the table. “Fletch, come on in and get some dinner. Bo cooked.”
    I looked over my shoulder at him. “Grandpa, can you serve Fletch dinner and I’ll get some ice for his leg?” I turned and headed around the corner of the kitchen and went to the freezer. I was grateful now that Grandpa had stayed home to do his Internet sleuthing and hadn’t gone with Fletch to the motorcycle shop. No telling what trouble the two of them would have gotten into. I filled a zip-lock bag with ice, then realized that Grandpa had served Fletch and taken him outside. That left Gabe and Cal to help themselves. They stood at the table with their backs to me, arguing.
    â€œDamn it, Cal,” Gabe said in a low voice, “let me contact a couple of my buddies from the department—”
    â€œNo.” Cal threw a piece of bread on his plate, and then fixed a rock-hard glare on Gabe. “Stay out of it.” He turned and went out the sliding glass door.
    I saw Gabe’s shoulders tighten and rise. Still holding the ice, I moved up next to him. “Anything I can do?”
    He looked down at me and forced the corners of his mouth upward. “Not unless you want to hit him again.” He left too.
    I stood there alone in the house with the rich, spicy smells and a simmering anger. After setting the bag of ice down on the table, I poured myself a glass of wine and drank half of it.
    I did not like being cut out of Gabe’s life.
    I set the glass down, made a plate of food, and retrieved my glass and the ice bag. I started toward the door, then went back into the kitchen and snagged the wine bottle, managing to tuck it safely beneath my arm while juggling everything else.
    If I didn’t drink it, it would come in handy to hit the next male that kept a secret from me.
    As soon as I sat down across from Grandpa and next to Gabe, I handed Fletch the ice bag. Once I was settled, Bo lifted his wine glass. “I’d like to make a toast.”
    â€œCan we have wine so we can make the toast?” Joel asked.
    I looked past Gabe to Joel. “No.”
    â€œBummer.” Joel lifted his glass of soda.
    Bo winked at TJ and Joel, then said, “To Fletch Knight and his