A Daughter's Trust

“A few years.”

“So he knows Kaitlin?” Joe’s ten-year-old daughter.

“They’ve met a time or two.”

“Was he here just to see you?”

“So he says.” The dry tone revealed more than the coldness in Joe’s eyes. “He’s been in town a couple of months.”

“Did he stay with you?”

“No.”

“Why do you think he came?”

“Money?”

“Yours?”

“I’m not aware of anyone else he knows who’d let him sponge off of them.”

“How much did he ask for?”

“None.”

“You gave it to him before he asked so he’d get out of town, right?” It was what this new, emotionally closed Joe Fraser would do. Joe Fraser, commercial real estate broker, loner.

“I’m not giving the man one red cent.”

“And he left without it?”

“No.”

Frowning, Sue tried to decipher that one. Did that mean Adam had found a way to get the money without asking? That someone else had given it to him, after all?

Or that he hadn’t left?

Her mom and dad parked their rental sedan across the street. Jenny stumbled as she got out of the car, and Luke hurried around to help her, steadying her with an arm firmly around her back. His gaze met Sue’s. He whispered something to his wife and they both smiled over. Waved.

Sue waved back and Joe turned to see who was there. She had to go in. They knew she was out here. They’d come looking for her. She swallowed.

“Is your dad still in town?” she asked Joe, instead. Their conversations were generally short-lived, over the phone and strictly about business. Specifically, the books she kept for him.

Joe replied with a brief nod.

“Has he said how long he’s staying?”

“For good. Are you going in there or not?”

A fresh wave of panic washed through her. “You’re coming, aren’t you? Just to meet my folks?”

He hesitated and Sue was afraid he was going to refuse. Then he opened the car door.

“WHO WAS THE HOTTIE?” Belle asked. “Someone new you forgot to tell me about?”

Joe had met Sue’s parents, a polite, uneventful moment considering all of the effort she’d taken in high school to keep them away from each other. And then, making sure they could take Sue home before heading back to their hotel in the city, he’d excused himself.

Sue gave her cousin as much of a grin as she could muster and shook her head. “That was just Joe.”