Page 7 of Full Contact

He nodded, then reached over to straighten the stack of napkins between us.

“Does Niko know you do that?”

“He puts things crooked to see how long I can leave them.”

“How long?”

“He says he hasn’t needed to time it yet.”

I laughed. Rafe smiled and left the napkins alone.

“How’s living together?”

“Good. He brought his coffee maker over last week.”

“Sounds serious,” I said.

“He stopped saying mine was fine.”

“Was yours fine?”

“It made coffee.”

“That’s a low standard.”

“That’s what he said.”

Niko came down from the porch and rested a hand on the back of Rafe’s chair.

“Ready?”

“In a minute.” Rafe turned back to me. “Can I catch you at the gym this week? I want to make sure I’m doing the drill right.”

“Thursday. Ten.”

“I’ll be there.”

He stood and carried both our empty plates inside. Niko watched him go.

“Glad the two of you have good coffee,” I said.

I ate dessert and laughed hard enough at Varga to encourage him, which was usually a mistake.

At ten I carried my plate inside and found Rook to say thank you. He put leftover brisket in a container while I tried to tell him I didn’t need any.

“Lunch,” he said, handing it over.

“I can feed myself.”

“Not this.”

I took it.

Varga followed me to the front door. “You changed the subject earlier,” he said.

“There were several. You’ll have to narrow it down.”

“Mark.”