“I’d like to. What does she do?”
“Let it go. If it gets serious, I’ll tell you more.”
She gave a little sigh of displeasure. “I’m just curious.”
“All right,” Luke muttered. “Fine. She owns her own business.”
Her gasp sounded suspiciously happy.
“Now,” he said quietly. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re suddenly so curious about my personal life?”
“There’s nothing sudden about it.” Her voice turned high at the end of the sentence.
He let his head fall back to the top of the chair. “Spill it, Mom.”
“Spill what?”
“When’s Eve getting married?”
Utter silence met his question. He couldn’t even hear her breathe. That was all the answer he needed. “What do you mean?” she finally whispered.
“She shows up to visit. She looks better than ever. You tell her I’m seeing someone just to be sure she knows I’m not still stuck on her. You’re suddenly invested in my personal life. She’s remarrying, right?”
“She brought your ring back,” his mom said on a rush. “She said you wouldn’t take it when you moved out, but she couldn’t keep it any longer because… She met someone. They’re moving in together and…making plans.”
Luke let all the air ease out of his lungs as his chest tightened. “I see.” He waited for the hot pain. For the betrayal. For the violent hurt she’d once caused him. The sense of failure. But the worst that he felt was a sort of irritated curiosity. Had she fallen for someone like Luke despite
her best intentions? Or had she found someone who could truly make her happy? To his surprise, he hoped it was the latter.
“I’m okay,” he said to his mom, though he was speaking the words to himself, as well. “It’s fine. You don’t have to worry.”
She drew a shaky breath. “I loved her. Maybe it wasn’t right to still love her after the divorce, but I did. But I hated what she did to you. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“I know,” he said, but he wasn’t sure he had. Regardless, it was over now.
“I’m glad it’s behind you, Luke. It’s been a long time.”
It had been. They’d been divorced longer now than they’d been together. What a strange thought. No wonder the wounds had healed. “All right. Just so you don’t worry… Yes, I’m still seeing Tessa, but we’re taking things slow. It’s complicated.”
“Taking things slow, huh? That’s sounds pretty serious.”
He laughed as he said goodbye. It was serious. And scary as shit. But if it turned out bad, he was ready for that. If it turned out great… Well, maybe he was ready for that, too.
Turning back to Google, he typed in “Graham Kendall” and tried to work through the thousands of hits. When he got to the fifteenth description of the same aeronautics event, he gave up and tried an image search. There were plenty of pictures of planes and airports, but there was a third type of image that stood out. Graham in Las Vegas. Graham surrounded by neon lights and scantily clad women. Graham gambling.
Maybe it meant nothing. The guy was seemingly wealthy and only thirty-four years old. Vegas was a natural watering hole for a man like him. But it could just as easily become quicksand.
Ben called back a few minutes later. “I don’t know,” he said.
“You don’t know what?”
“Something is rubbing me wrong about this one. His file is pretty thin, but there’s a note in here. Something about an interview, but there’s no record of an interview.”
Bingo. “What did they want to talk to him about?”
“No idea.”
“I’m getting weird hits on the national database, too. You know the case files I was asking about yesterday? The ones with the holes in them?”