So Sweet a Changeling: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 6)

Chapter Five: Sunny, Saturday

Sunny heard Rachel's hoot of laughter at Lauren's whispering, and guessed Lauren was saying something about the man who was apparently Rachel's first boyfriend. It was probably something suggestive, because even Sunny could see the man was ruggedly handsome with broad shoulders and a slim physique. Al was right to introduce himself right away as Rachel's husband, because Omar beat him in the looks department, and Al would have to be a saint not to feel jealous at the intrusion of a sexual rival on what he probably expected to be a fun and low key evening with family and friends. Sunny was a little jealous himself. This man had gotten to be with Rachel first, while Sunny was at the end of the line, although he probably benefited most from her experience.

His assessment of Omar, and his own jealousy, while interesting, had to take a back seat, though, to the crisis sitting across the table from him. Harpreet. And Logan. 

When had this happened? Was he away from home so much that he hadn't even noticed it developing? He racked his brain, trying to remember a time when he saw his daughter paying extra attention to the boy, who'd suddenly become a man in the year since the intrigue that had led to his kidnapping, when Rachel, Joe, Lauren and Joanie had nearly been killed amid a battle between two rival drug gangs. For the life of him, he couldn't think of one time. He'd assumed Harpreet, and Naomi, apparently (he'd seen her reaction and surmised she also had a crush on him), saw him only as the brother of Emma and a kind of older brother to themselves, since their families were so close, and that romantic feelings weren't even a factor in their relationship.

Then again, they all texted like crazy, so maybe they didn't need to use body language to convey their interest, and this hand-holding was their first ever open acknowledgement of it. If so, it couldn't have come at a worse time. Not that Sunny would have been ready for this revelation any other time, but with the funeral for Joe's dad coming up, and Rachel's first boyfriend sitting across from them, it was a lot to take in, and he didn't think he was doing a good job of it, because Tej was squeezing his knee hard under the table, and Harpreet wouldn't meet his eye.

Omar spent a polite few minutes introducing himself to the other detectives and listening to his fiancee talk shop with them as they let Joanie know everything she should expect in her first few days as a trainee detective, but Fatima only had enough time to relax, assured in her place as Omar's centre of attention, before Omar turned back to Rachel and called across the table, "So, Rachel, I don't believe I asked you what you do now."

Fatima's jaw clenched, and Sunny felt sorry for her. Not cool, dude, he thought.

Rachel blushed as everyone's attention turned her way again, which made Harpreet finally look up from the table, visibly relieved that the heat was finally off her. For now. Sunny wasn't letting her off the hook that easily. They'd talk when they got home.

"I'm a forensic accountant," Rachel said. "I work for Justiciar Security and Investigative Services, with Lauren, actually. She's an owning partner."

Omar brightened at that. "You're a private investigator?"

"Well, I'm not," Rachel clarified. "Lauren is the licensed P.I. I just audit finances while she does the field work."

"It's really not as glamorous as you might imagine," Lauren said, "just in case you were wondering."

"Well, no, it's just..." Omar suddenly shook his head and said, "Never mind. It's just interesting, Rachel, I never thought that would have been your life path."

"I never thought so either, but I'm so glad it happened this way."

Sunny wasn't surprised she didn't mention that Justiciar had created that job for her because of Lauren's influence, and that she'd needed that job because she'd been fired from her last one because her client, who'd also been her lover, had framed her for embezzlement. There was no way Rachel was going to admit to a man who broke her heart that another man had shafted her so badly, and the less said about that man, the better. He'd gotten his comeuppance, somehow, though his friends had never clarified their role in it, which he didn't want to know if he was to keep his status as an officer of the court; if he had no knowledge of a crime, he had no duty to report it to the police.