Coming from her, this was high praise.

“I can’t remember the last time I went up north,” I said somewhat distantly. “Dad used to take me, but I haven’t been in ages.”

“You’re missing out. The North Shore is ridiculously gorgeous. So. Duluth. Are we going?”

She waited for me to answer like a puppy wagging its tail.

“Okay. But I’m driving.”

She clapped her hands excitedly. “Yay!”

I smiled. I realized that doing what she wanted gave me a little high. She was some kind of mood booster for me—even when all we were doing was picking up trash in a hoarded house.

I liked her.

And that gave me a little high too.

CHAPTER 10

HOW TO FIND WHAT

YOU’RE MISSING USING THIS

ONE WEIRD TRICK!

ADRIAN

I walked into my office after a court visit on Monday morning feeling like my two-day weekend had been a six-month vacation from life. Despite the amount of actual shit I now dealt with on an hourly basis, I was smiling.

I’d spent the whole weekend hanging out with Vanessa. We hadn’t gotten home from Duluth until almost midnight last night.

We’d bundled up the baby and walked through the Christmas lights at Bentleyville, an outdoor village completely decked out for the holiday. Got hot chocolate, had dinner at the place on Lake Superior—and Vanessa was right. It was the best Italian food in Minnesota.

I’d had a good time. A great time. I couldn’t remember when I’d ever enjoyed a date so much—not that it had been a date. It wasn’t, of course. But I couldn’t help acknowledging that I hadn’t had that much fun with someone in ages.

Vanessa made me laugh. She made me forget. About everything other than what we were doing in that moment. It felt like a rest for my soul. I’d been living under the constant pressure of work and Mom and Richard and now this breakup with Rachel, and suddenly I was distracted and having fun and all those stressors got shut off. Now they were duller somehow. They mattered less. And I wondered if this is what Vanessa meant about always having something to look forward to. Only, the thing I seemed to be looking forward to was her.

Not in any inappropriate way. I just wanted to see what she’d do next. It was like I’d found some cool new restaurant and the menu was never the same and I wanted to keep going back to see what they were serving.

Becky stood at the door of my office waiting for me like she did every morning, holding my coffee and wearing that searching look on her face that she gave me these days, trying to discern my mood.

“Did you, like, go tanning or something?” she said, handing me my cappuccino. “You look brighter.”

I walked around my desk, sat, and unbuckled my briefcase to pull out the Keller file. “I didn’t,” I said, ignoring her narrowed eyes. “What’s on my schedule for the day?”

“You have a consultation at ten, lunch with Marcus at eleven fifteen to go over the Keller case, and the rest of your day is free.” She looked around. “Um, where’s the dog? You do remember you have one, right?”

“With all the shitting it does? How could I forget.” I logged on to my desktop.

“You just left him at home? He can’t be in the apartment all day by himself, he’ll be lonely.”

“He’s got the demon he’s possessed with to keep him company.”

She scowled at me.

I tried not to let her see my smile. “He’s with a friend. I’m keeping him until he gets adopted.” I didn’t look up to see the triumphant grin I knew she was giving me.

Vanessa liked Harry. She’d asked to dog-sit him while I was at work and I’d happily agreed.

I signed in to my email. “I need you to call Sonja Duggar to see if she’s available. I might have a full-time job for her. And don’t put anything on my schedule after lunch. I’m leaving early again. I’ll finish listening to the Buller tapes from home.”

Becky didn’t speak to give me her opinion on this like she usually would. A silent Becky was cause for concern, and I was forced to look up to make sure she hadn’t died where she stood.

She stared at me, slack jawed. “You’re going home early? Again?”

My cell phone pinged, and I pulled it out. It was a video from Vanessa. Harry in a diaper, growling at a chair leg. I laughed.

When she’d had my phone the other day, she’d changed my lock screen to the selfie of us. I didn’t notice it until a few hours later.

I hadn’t changed it back.

She was wearing that stupid cereal necklace in it and I had on that Maryland crab shirt and a glow stick bracelet. Her arm was peppered with stickers. The baby was smiling and the dog had his tongue out. It was this colorful, fun slap of happy right in the middle of my black, serious phone—and it made me smile every time I looked at it.

“What is going on?” Becky demanded. “Are you on drugs?”

I squinted up at her. “No, I am not on drugs.” I looked back at my computer. “I just had a good weekend.”

“Is it a girl?” She gasped into her hands. “Oh my God, if it’s a girl, it’s serious. Your horoscope today said your soul mate is in your midst!”

I scoffed. We had the same sign, and the idiot Becky was dating was definitely not anyone’s soul mate, let alone hers.

I waited a moment before replying, just to torture her.

Becky was practically gyrating.

“She’s a neighbor,” I said. “Her name is Vanessa, and we’re just friends.”

She squealed, obviously ignoring the just-friends part. “Oh my God! Okay, tell me everything. What does she do? Is she pretty?” Then she stopped bouncing and went serious. “You’re not acting all gloomy and Interview with the Vampire around her, right?”

I gave her a look as my cell phone rang. It was my PI returning my message.

“She’s a YouTuber. She’s beautiful. And again, we’re just friends,” I said, swiping the Answer Call button and putting the phone to my ear. “This is Adrian.”

“Tom Hillbrand here. Got your message.”

I swiveled my chair to give Becky my back. “Thanks for returning my call so quickly. The ring was stolen on Friday. A police report was filed with the Eagan police department by a Vanessa Price. Can you get access to that?”