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“Oh, baby, of course you were,” my mother said, giving me a hug. “You did have a tough day. Do you want me to come with you to talk to the police?”
And have her spend the trip gushing about Zach and how we should get back together? No thanks. Not when I still felt so tangled up over him. Knowing that he had a good reason for not responding to those messages didn’t magically erase the pain and loneliness I’d gone through. And it didn’t touch on the reason why we’d broken up in the first place. “No, I can do it,” I insisted.
Half an hour later at the police station, I wondered if I was making any sense. I’d laid out the unusual occurrences of the past month: the bad reviews, the delivery problems, and the armed robbery. Detective Novak, who faced me, seemed unimpressed.
“Every business goes through ups and downs,” he said. “This might all turn out to be a coincidence.”
“It seems like it might be more than a coincidence to me,” I argued.
“The perpetrator yesterday has a long record all over the state, everything from purse snatching to drug use. I’ll admit that armed robbery was something new for him, but you never know when these guys are going to escalate their crimes.”
“What about what he said, that this wasn’t what he’d signed up for?”
“He probably had a simple idea in his head for how the robbery would go. Walk in, wave the gun around, grab some jewelry, and run. Anything outside of that he might have seen as violating his plan. I’ll note it in the report, but I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that it means anything.”
Detective Novak hadn’t referred to me as little lady, but that was the sort of treatment I felt I was getting. He didn’t take me seriously. But I wasn’t going to just let it drop. If someone was trying to malign my business, that was deadly serious to me. And if they were willing to hire someone to come in and wave a gun around, then who knew what they might do next? I wanted this situation resolved before anyone else got hurt.
“I think it does mean something,” I said, determination filling me. “I’ll start my own investigation if I need to.”
That got the detective’s attention. “I have to ask you not to do that.” Novak waved his hands as if warding off the idea. “On the off chance you’re right, you could be walking into a dangerous situation.”
I thought about telling him that if he’d do his job, then I wouldn’t have to do it for him—but I got the sense that that wouldn’t help my case. Still, I made no promises. I thanked him for his time and headed to pick up Austin at Nina’s house on my way home. I’d called my pediatrician earlier and had an appointment the following day just to be sure Austin was fine after what he’d gone through.
He sure seemed fine, chatting away in his own lingo as I picked him up and took him home. After giving him a quick snack, I put him down for an afternoon nap and went to the alcove in my kitchen where I sometimes worked from home. I’d just checked in with my mom and Charlotte at the store when I heard a knock on the front door. I dashed to answer it, not wanting the noise to wake Austin. Without looking to see who it was, I whipped open the door.
“Hi.” Zach stood on the front porch with an adorable stuffed dog in his hand. “Is it okay if I visit Austin?”
“He’s napping…but you can come in and wait for him to get up,” I offered. I could have sent Zach away with the ready and true excuse that our son was asleep, but the truth was, I didn’t want to. And the fact that he’d thought to bring Austin a gift warmed my heart.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.” He stepped inside, filling the space as he always had. He was tall and fit, lean and handsome in jeans and a black T-shirt. Underneath, I knew, he was ripped with muscle. How I’d enjoyed running my hands over him. My fingers tingled with the remembered sensation. I should have sent him away, I realized too late. The temptation to pick up where we’d left off hit me. We’d been good together during the good times, but it had been far from perfect. His job got in the way. I didn’t know how other wives and girlfriends of the SEALs handled it when their men were gone for months with no word from them, never knowing if they were dead or alive. I couldn’t take the worry.
I’d waited out two deployments during our engagement, but when he was about to embark on the third, I’d given him an ultimatum. It was me or the mission. He couldn’t have both, because I could no longer live with the anxiety and fear. When he’d chosen the mission, it had broken my faith in him, in love. And then I realized I was pregnant. During the months when I’d tried to contact him and received only silence in return, I’d felt anger and betrayal, but I’d transferred my love for him to the baby we’d created.
It had been enough…until he walked back into my life.
“Actually,” he said, “I’m kind of glad Austin’s sleeping. I was hoping the two of us could talk.”
Oh boy. I wanted to say no, to say that the timing was bad and that I was too tired and anxious to be able to handle anything else just now…but Zach had that cautiously hopeful look in his blue eyes that I remembered all too well. As wonderful as the Admiral had been, by the time he took the Vale brothers in, Zach was already fifteen—and he’d basically resigned himself to the idea that good things were never going to happen to him. Even after things had turned around, he still got this look sometimes when he asked for things, as if he wasn’t sure he was really allowed to want things for himself.
I’d never been able to say no to that look.
“Okay,” I said, taking a seat on the couch. “Let’s talk.”
6
CAROLYN
“Iwas talking with my cousin Chance yesterday—” Zach began.
“Your cousin?” I interrupted, confused. “You don’t have a cousin.”
“Oh right, you wouldn’t know,” he said, giving me a sheepish smile. “I kind of do now. The McCallisters. Turns out, their dad and the Admiral were estranged half-brothers. When the guys found out after their dad died, they decided we’re cousins now.”
“Chance McCallister is your cousin?” I said, still trying to process that. “He and Mandy got their engagement and wedding rings from All That Sparkles.”
“Yeah, I know. They love them. Said you were great about finding them rings that wouldn’t get in their way when they worked on cars.”
“Well, that’s my job,” I replied with a shrug. “A wedding ring is for life—wouldn’t make much sense to have one that doesn’t fit with your life.”
