“More coffee for Spencer,” Marina noted. “Anyone else?”

Kyle and I both indicated that we were good, so Marina turned an expectant stare toward Bette, who was so engrossed with the contents of her day planner you’d think this was the first time she’d ever seen it.

“Bette?” I called

No answer.

Spencer gave it a try. “Bette?” He nudged her.

“I’m good,” she said without looking up. She made a few notes.

Marina smiled. “I take it back. Some of you don’t do anything but work. I’ll be right back.” I watched her take off for the counter before I turned to Bette.

“You know,” I said, “it’s not really ‘taking the morning off from work’ if all you do is think about work.” When she frowned at me, I added, “I’m just sayin’.”

“I like to be thorough.”

I raised my eyebrows and declined to comment.

“All right,” Spencer said. He reached over and closed Bette’s planner. “You’re going to pay attention to us if it kills you.” He tossed the little book to me. “You can hold that, for safe-keeping.”

I examined the book a little bit, paging through it. “I think we should set it on fire.”

Bette gave me the sort of look you’d expect a person to give if I’d suggested we set one of her children on fire. Actually, I sort of wonder which she’d save first if her house was on fire.

“That’s a good idea,” Kyle said, despite the murderous glare Bette shot him. “Who’s got matches or something?”

But considering Bette was the only one of us who smoked, she was also the only one with a lighter, so that idea was sort of out the window. I flipped to the ‘P’ page in her contacts and started drawing hearts around my name.

“We could use a magnifying glass,” Spencer suggested.

“Oh, that’s good; I totally carry one of those around. What about rubbing sticks together?” Kyle grinned and sat back proudly. “I learned that when I was a boy scout.”

I chuckled. “You were a boy scout?”

He pouted. “I never got past the cub scout stage, actually. Our uniforms were way cute, with those little scarf things-”