Perfect Fit (Serendipity's Finest 1)

She must have dozed off because she woke to the distant ringing of her cell phone, the sound coming from her bedroom.

She ran, hoping to catch the caller before they hung up. “Hello?”

“Cara?” Her name sounded like a whisper, but she recognized the voice.

“Daniella?” Cara gripped the small phone in her hand.

“I don’t know what to do,” the other woman said in a small voice.

“Are you hurt?”

Silence.

“Daniella? I’m not going to judge you. I just want to know if you’re okay.” Cara realized she was trembling and lowered herself onto the bed.

“I’m fine. But I need to talk to you.”

An opening, Cara thought. A small one, but it was there. Cara squeezed her eyes shut tight and prayed. “Where can I find you?”

“Umm…”

“No pressure. We’ll just talk, and afterward you can walk away if that’s what you want.”

The silence was deafening while the time that she waited for an answer stretched on. “The McDonald’s off Route 80,” Daniella said, and then Cara heard a click.

Heart pounding, Cara glanced down. She was wearing a pair of pink sweats and a T-shirt. Good enough. She wasn’t taking the time t

o change and risk Daniella leaving. She strapped on her holster and gun, pulled on her jacket, and was in the car within five minutes of the phone call.

The drive there normally took fifteen minutes, but thanks to the heavy snow and roads, which hadn’t yet been plowed, it ended up being a thirty-minute drive. Thirty long minutes in which Cara inched along in her car, with too much time to think. Her first impulse was to call Mike and tell him she’d heard from Daniella, but Cara slammed the brakes on that idea immediately.

After Vegas…no, that wasn’t right—before Vegas, when Mike had shown up on her doorstep and told her he was headed out of town, her panic at the notion of his leaving told her in no uncertain terms that she was coming to rely on him too much. To put things back in perspective, Cara had to remember that this was her life. She’d been self-reliant before Mike arrived, and she’d have to go back to going it solo once he was gone. No reason not to exercise the same behavior now.

Finally the Golden Arches came into view, and Cara pulled into the parking lot, which was already covered with an ever-thickening layer of snow. A small McDonald’s off a highway, it wasn’t a full-service family restaurant but one where truckers and travelers stopped for a quick meal or cup of coffee. Tonight, the dimly lit parking lot was fairly empty.

Cara entered through the front door and was surprised to see Daniella behind the counter. No one waited in line to order, and Cara stepped up to greet her. “Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi.” Daniella smiled. It didn’t reach her eyes.

Cara wondered if she’d ever see her truly happy and prayed with everything in her that she would. “You got a job!”

“As soon as I went back, Bob said since I ran away once, I have to earn my keep. But he keeps a close eye on me,” Daniella admitted, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

Cara winced, but she’d promised not to judge. “At least it gets you out of the house.”

Daniella nodded. Her eyes filled with tears, and she bit down on her lower lip, obviously to keep from crying.

All Cara wanted to do was bundle the woman up and bring her home, but she knew that acting emotionally wasn’t an answer. She couldn’t bring home everyone she helped at Havensbridge, no matter how badly she wanted to.

“Can I get a cup of coffee?” Cara asked, hoping to give Daniella something else to concentrate on.

“Sure. My manager is in the back. She’s really a sweet woman, and she said I could take my break when you got here. I’ll just tell her to come out and cover for me.”

Cara nodded.

A few minutes later, Cara and Daniella were seated across from each other in a small booth.

A middle-aged woman walked over, carrying two cups of coffee. “On the house. Take all the time you need,” she said.